LogFAQs > #950800754

Maddening's difficulty largely draws from enemy quality and to a much lesser degree enemy quantity.

Enemies have notably higher stats, particularly speed, and improved skills. Generally speaking you will not consistently double enemies throughout the entire game without the use of combat arts, and some of the speedier enemies (like Assassins) will double your units throughout the entire game. It makes enemy management way more important. Things like Gambits, which you can basically go through Hard Mode having never used on anything but monsters, way more important. A well placed gambit can lock several enemies in place, buying your team some breathing room, when they would otherwise be massacred. This in turn make charm and authority much more important stats, more charm = better gambit accuracy. More authority = better battalions.

Since very few of your units will be able to ORKO any enemy, team work is a lot more important. Being able to safely chip enemies with bows and magic until they get into safe kill range is very important. Rallies are also very valuable, particularly in the early game in allowing units to get kills they otherwise couldn't or avoid getting killed themselves. Enemy avoid is way higher too, to the point where most physical units want to master the archer class just to get Hit+20. Ignatz, a completely unremarkable unit in the lower difficulties becomes a strong early game champ in Maddening because his Rallying abilities and innate Hit+20.

Finally, combat arts and weapon utilization are much more important. In Hard Mode it is totally possible to beat the game with just Iron+ weapons without ever really using Combat Arts. This won't happen in Maddening, you'll use your Relics a lot. Silver+ will eventually be your go to weapon for most encounters and you'll use the hell out of Combat Arts. The -5 durability you get off of using Temptest Lance is always worth it if it lets you net a kill you otherwise wouldn't get.

"Brave" Combat Arts are particularly valuable and are generally the only way to regularly secure ORKOs. Swift Strikes turns, Sylvain, Ferdinand and Seteth into your player phase offensive powerhouses. Point Blank Volley for Leonie and Cyril basically functions the same way. Hunters Volley and Fierce Iron Fist, which are locked to the Sniper and Grappler classes are so important that units prefer to stay in those classes over promoting to Bow Knight and War Master. Vengeance is another notable combat art that Dedue and Bernie can learn. It isn't a Brave art, but when done appropriately does allow for those two characters to consistently ORKO units through careful HP management.

You'll notice I'm emphasizing early game quite a bit, that's because like most FE difficulties, they are hardest in the beginning of the game before you can really develop your units. Eventually, you'll get the skills you need to get the combat arts you want and the difficulty drops off a lot, particularly after Hunting By Daybreak. But Part 1 is pretty damn hard.

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S*** I have to stop doing that," Gheb said, as he lay back down and died again. - Forgotten Love
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