Current Events > Playing Fire Emblem 3 Houses for the 1st time. Any tips? Part 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Compsognathus posted...

watch him Kill every last one of them

He'll see them in the eternal flames.

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I might be going off on the deep end here but I have a question. How good would Felix be in Maddening if you end up classing him into Hero or Swordmaster but put a lot of focus on his avoid? Ill try to explain it.

Apparently, Felix is one of the few characters that is fast enough to consistently double based on my research. Physical Avoid seems to be calculated in 3hs mainly based on Attack Speed and Weight of weapons/weapon avoid, shields, etc. There are other things to consider as well but those things tend to benefit the player in most situations when it comes to avoid. Magic avoid is mostly (Speed+luck)/2 but there is more that goes into that too. Felix also seems to have a decent Luck base with decent growths in it. So combing that with his high speed should let him avoid magic reliably as well.

So Felix should already be pretty good at avoiding based on his speed and luck. If I mainly use swords with him then that also helps some because swords should be easier to avoid attacks with. Sword prowess gives him avoid as it gets higher and higher. Level 5 is +20 avoid. I could also have him win the dance competition which gives him the +20 Avoid with swords equipped. That plus, sword prowess can give him a max of +40 avoid at base.

After +40, he can add more avoid based on his speed. Being a Hero, I could have him use Axebreaker and/or Lancebreaker for +20 a avoid. This wont be as reliable and its doubtful you can or even want to use both but it is there. That might even be overkill. Maybe you want Weight -3 which can increase speed which increases avoid. You could also equip Battalion Vantage since this will let Felix attack first which might not have him chance the avoid in some scenarios. Plus, he will get an attack boost of +5 if his battalion is annihilated because of his Lone Wolf trait.

I feel like I could make it work with some fine tuning and testing but who knows. It could all just be terrible. This is just me theory crafting in my head. Im trying to think of ways to make other units as useful as possible since I wont be able to bring infinite flyers.

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Compsognathus posted...

On the plus side BL Maddening means you get to really appreciate the Enemy Phase God that is Dimitri. Battalion Wrath + Battalion Vantage + Killer Weapon + Retribution means that you can basically Warp Dimitri into the middle of anything but a group of Monsters and watch him Kill every last one of them with impunity. Difficulty be damned.

Holy shit. I always wanted to try a build like that


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I've always felt Felix is better as a brawler than a swordser. His crest synergizes extremely well with the natural double hit of brawling. Though I've also known people who class him as the dancer solely for the sword Avo+20 skill Dancers get and forego using a dancer all together.

Note: Not an expert opinion

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Felix works best as a Grappler or Warmaster. If you are lucky with speed and he is doubling than WM is great. If not Grappler with FIF will take care of that.

For enemy phase you on BL you have Dimitri. A recruited Petra also works well and in fact I recommend her as your flyer as opposed to in-house Ingrid who's best use is backpacking Felix or Sylvain for +3 attack.

But seriously it is hard to overstate how devastating Dimitri is so I'll just show pictures.
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/SThhLMk
Typically the only damage Dimitri suffers in a situation like that is from leveling up.

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Alright. Im starting maddening today. Wish me luck lol. Im planning on recruiting and actually using Lysethia, Manuela, Linhardt and Catherine. Maybe Shamir as well. Lysethia, Manuela and Linhardt for Warp, Catherine for her relic. Im not sure if Ill actually use her or not. Maybe early game since she is a Jegan I guess? I dont know how good she gets. Shamir because she is also a Jegan and I probably can get Hunters Volley very quickly with her vs other units.

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Catherine is the queen of early game Maddening. Her base stats especially if your recruit her ASAP are absolutely bonkers. (Seriously, look at that https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Catherine/Stats#Chapter_4) Her relic is amazing. She falls off a little bit later just because she has weird weapon proficiencies. Swords kinda suck, Brawling is mostly useless for women. Her best class is probably Falcon Knight, where she can still operate as a pseudo Petra.

Shamir is the best Sniper in the game and completely invalidates Ashe's entire existence. She gets the earliest Hunter's Volley and requires almost no resources to be good as she naturally comes with a high Bow rank which is really all she needs. You might want the D in axes to cheese for Brigand and Death Blow, but otherwise she is just reliable and low-effort.

I'd probably advise against Manuela for a first time Maddening run. She is just too weird of a unit. She can warp but her warp is kinda meh. If you already have Lindhart and Lysithea that is plenty of warpage.

As an aside, 3H doesn't really have Jeigans. There are early game promoted units like Catherine and Shamir, but they get experience at the same rate as other units of the same level and their growths are comparable to unpromoted units.

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Compsognathus posted...

Catherine is the queen of early game Maddening. Her base stats especially if your recruit her ASAP are absolutely bonkers. (Seriously, look at that https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Catherine/Stats#Chapter_4) Her relic is amazing. She falls off a little bit later just because she has weird weapon proficiencies. Swords kinda suck, Brawling is mostly useless for women. Her best class is probably Falcon Knight, where she can still operate as a pseudo Petra.

Shamir is the best Sniper in the game and completely invalidates Ashe's entire existence. She gets the earliest Hunter's Volley and requires almost no resources to be good as she naturally comes with a high Bow rank which is really all she needs. You might want the D in axes to cheese for Brigand and Death Blow, but otherwise she is just reliable and low-effort.

I'd probably advise against Manuela for a first time Maddening run. She is just too weird of a unit. She can warp but her warp is kinda meh. If you already have Lindhart and Lysithea that is plenty of warpage.

As an aside, 3H doesn't really have Jeigans. There are early game promoted units like Catherine and Shamir, but they get experience at the same rate as other units of the same level and their growths are comparable to unpromoted units.

Holy shit those base stats are NUTS. She gets experience the same rate too?! I might use her all the way through! With an 18 base speed and a 75% speed growth, she can probably consistently double the entire game. Plus, her relic is a brave type weapon. Im shocked she actually drops off to become meh.

Good call on Manuela. 3 Warp users probably isnt necessary. 2 Warps, Stride and Rescue should be enough. I was able to kill Edelgard in 1 round on chapter 20 with a combination of Stride, Rescue and Warp.

I feel that Catherine and Shamir will be invaluable early on

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Catherine's issue is that all she really has is bases and growths and while those are important, she needs a lot of resources to make her more optimal. Sword classes as a whole are just kinda meh, but if she wants to fly she needs to start from scratch on flying and Lances, and she has a boon in neither. If you want Death Blow on her, she needs to start from scratch on Axes to get Brigand.

Eventually her raw statistical advantage will stop being as inherently useful especially as other units with more developed skills, CAs and classes start to come online. Don't get me wrong her falling off is less her becoming bad, but just less useful. You can absolutely use her the whole game. You can even keep her sword focused as a relative low-resource unit (though I'd probably switch to Assassin for the better movement). She'll just not dominate anymore.

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Compsognathus posted...

Catherine's issue is that all she really has is bases and growths and while those are important, she needs a lot of resources to make her more optimal. Sword classes as a whole are just kinda meh, but if she wants to fly she needs to start from scratch on flying and Lances, and she has a boon in neither. If you want Death Blow on her, she needs to start from scratch on Axes to get Brigand.

Eventually her raw statistical advantage will stop being as inherently useful especially as other units with more developed skills, CAs and classes start to come online. Don't get me wrong her falling off is less her becoming bad, but just less useful. You can absolutely use her the whole game. You can even keep her sword focused as a relative low-resource unit (though I'd probably switch to Assassin for the better movement). She'll just not dominate anymore.

That works perfectly fine with me. If I can get great value out of her until late game then she did her job and some. Sounds like a sensational unit. Hell, she is sensational by just making early maddening much easier as you mentioned.

Im assuming that early Maddening will be the hardest by far outside an outlier map or two. That is usually how it goes for these crazy difficulties

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DepreceV2 posted...

That works perfectly fine with me. If I can get great value out of her until late game then she did her job and some. Sounds like a sensational unit. Hell, she is sensational by just making early maddening much easier as you mentioned.

Im assuming that early Maddening will be the hardest by far outside an outlier map or two. That is usually how it goes for these crazy difficulties

Pretty much. Early Maddening you have the least available options for attacking, defending, etc. As you level it gets easier. Then HBD happens. Which is where it peaks from a difficulty perspective.

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God. The first real chapter is the Mock Battle? Ugh. This wont be easy.

EDIT: God. These stats are stupid. The faculty are weaker than the students.

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Make judicious use of Dedue and his personal ability, work clockwise through the map and spam Tempest Lance.

In fact early Maddening as a whole is all about spamming Tempest Lance.

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Oh and make sure as many of your deployed units as possible have a bow on them. That way they all have the option to Chip without risk of counter attack.

The main goal of combat in Maddening is don't get hit. Which means either safely attacking from a range or killing a unit so they can't counter attack. Even Dedue with his personal doesn't want to take too many attacks without healing in between.

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I was definitely going to abuse Dedude. 8 base defense plus another 4 for no action seems insane early on. The fact that he can still get into trouble scares me. I cant play the map right now since I just got done with my lunch break but Im ready to try it out for sure

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Oh and don't forget about Rally-queen Annette.

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Don't forget that some maps are mock battles and losing units there aren't permanent.

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Compsognathus posted...

Oh and don't forget about Rally-queen Annette.

Why not edit your op?

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spikethedevil posted...

Why not edit your op?

Sometimes I just forget to. Others, like the post you noted, is because Deprece already posted after my post. I wanted to make sure he actually saw what I posted and editing a post that he has already read might not make that happen.

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I was debating who to field and I forgot Annette comes with Rally Strength off rip. Good call

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Yeah even if you don't use Annette long term (she is a solid Magic Wyvern Lord) her rallies are amazing for early game. +4 is a big deal.

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Finished that chapter. It took me a few restarts. Any mistake was pretty much a character death. Was fun though. It was taking real tactics. Im assuming the next chapter will be easier. Im not going against the students and I THINK I unlock Divine Pulse? Divine Pulse is incredibly important on Maddening it seems. I would have breezed through that chapter if I had it

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DepreceV2 posted...

Finished that chapter. It took me a few restarts. Any mistake was pretty much a character death. Was fun though. It was taking real tactics. Im assuming the next chapter will be easier. Im not going against the students and I THINK I unlock Divine Pulse? Divine Pulse is incredibly important on Maddening it seems. I would have breezed through that chapter if I had it

Next chapter is really rough. You get to learn the joy of Pass thieves.

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Gheb posted...

Next chapter is really rough. You get to learn the joy of Pass thieves.

Pass? That annoying ability? Lovely

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DepreceV2 posted...

Pass? That annoying ability? Lovely

Gambits are your friend for halting their rush.

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What is the best class for Dimitri? I was going to go Wyvern but with limited flying Battalions, Im thinking of making use of budding in riding and go Cavalier -> Paladin. MAYBE Bow Knight? I do need to get Vantage though too.

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DepreceV2 posted...

What is the best class for Dimitri? I was going to go Wyvern but with limited flying Battalions, Im thinking of making use of budding in riding and go Cavalier -> Paladin. MAYBE Bow Knight? I do need to get Vantage though too.

Paladin is just fine for Dimitri. It is very low investment so you can focus on getting his Authority to A as soon as possible which key so you can set up Battalion Wrath and Battalion Vantage. Paladin gives him 8 Move and Lancefaire so he is happy.

But honestly his class barely matters. Once he hit A Authority this is how the average Dimitri strategy goes:

1) Dimitri equips a Battalion with 1/3 or less health, ideally one that gives Crit.
2) On turn 1 a unit uses the Retribution Gambit on Dimitri
3) Your Warper Warps Dimitri to an enemy congested area.
4) Dimitri uses his 8 move from there to get himself in the perfect position to have the maximum number of enemies attack him.
5) End turn
6) Watch literally everything die against him as Battalion Vantage guarantees he goes first and Battalion Wrath + Kill Lance + the Crit from his Battalion gives him like 100 crit on everything. And Retribution means that Vantage will proc even on ranged attacks.

The only stop I would recommend is to get D+ in Bows so you can Master Archer and get Hit+20. Even Death Blow isn't super necessary given he'll do most of his work on Enemy Phase (though still not bad as his enemy phase doesn't come online until A Authority.)

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So how important is that Hit+20 for other characters? Will Deathblow be more important than Hit+20 for most characters?

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Well. That chapter is indeed hard. I gave up on my first attempt and felt like I was checkmated early on. Ill have to change my strategy.

Pass is one thing but add in the fact that the archers have 3 range and can double everyone with a high hit rate is just so annoying. Also. Byleths Gambit accuracy is so low early on at 40% without a link attack so stopping the passing thieves feels up to chance as well

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DepreceV2 posted...

So how important is that Hit+20 for other characters? Will Deathblow be more important than Hit+20 for most characters?

Depends on the unit. As you can see Hit Rates are really shaky in Maddening, particularly in Early game where you have less options to fix Hit Rates. Later you'll have Battalions that give Hit, more developed Link attacks and overall leveling to help your Hit out but in the earlier game, Hit +20 is an easy fix.

Any unit where hitting the enemy is key to survival wants Hit +20. Dimitri's entire build collapses if he is missing and thus allowing enemies to hit him. He really wants Hit +20.

Archer's also want it because accuracy drops the farther a target is away.

After that it is a bit more unit by unit. Got a unit with shit Dex. Then Hit+20 is great.

It never hurts. And having it certainly makes some parts of the game easier but only a few units need it.

As an aside, it also works on Gambits.

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Yea I will give many characters that ability for sure. Ashe does pathetic damage as well. It seems that Bow might is really bad which I didnt notice before. I think Im going to have to hard bait the enemy and jump them. Have Dedude tank the archer and jump enemies with combat arts and gambits

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DepreceV2 posted...

Yea I will give many characters that ability for sure. Ashe does pathetic damage as well. It seems that Bow might is really bad which I didnt notice before. I think Im going to have to hard bait the enemy and jump them. Have Dedude tank the archer and jump enemies with combat arts and gambits

Ashe is the worst non-Anna character in the game. Full stop. Terrible bases, bad growths, generally weak kit. By all means let him chip units as necessary but he is not worth raising. Especially in Maddening where experience is reduced.

Similarly Ingrid is pretty bad in Blue Lions because of her really bad bases. She can and will grow out of it to be a decent unit, but you can also just recruit Petra who does the thing but better and a fraction of the effort. Same with Catherine. That said, Ingrid is a great adjutant for Felix or Sylvain. At A support she gives either +3 attack and her base ranks make it easy for her to fly so she can keep backpacking Sylvain when he takes to the sky.

Bows are still great in Maddening and I would almost recommend all physical units carry them at least in early game. The ability for any unit to provide ranged chip is really great. Curved shot is one of the most important early CAs.

Also be very mindful of tanking Archers with Dedue. They all carry poison strike so they can do additional damage to him.


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Beat the second map. What a slog. Once I got the feel for the map it wasnt difficult. Just time consuming. I didnt even use any pulses until the boss because, why not? I see Ill need to buy many more vulnerarys ASAP until I get a healer with more than 5 heal spells.

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Yeah it is rough for Magic users for the first 5 levels. Half spells hurts.

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What is up with this Shifty Merchant that appears after Chapter 2 in the monastery? He has appeared in every route, stays for several chapters, doesn't sell anything, then disappear. I don't get it. Is he trying to lead me to some DLC like that one Monk I mentioned a while ago?

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DepreceV2 posted...

What is up with this Shifty Merchant that appears after Chapter 2 in the monastery? He has appeared in every route, stays for several chapters, doesn't sell anything, then disappear. I don't get it. Is he trying to lead me to some DLC like that one Monk I mentioned a while ago?

The one near your dorm room? He is part of the DLC. He gives you access to the Abyss.

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Gheb posted...

The one near your dorm room? He is part of the DLC. He gives you access to the Abyss.

Yea that one. So that makes sense then. I always wondered about that. Once I beat this game on Maddening, I plan on playing the Church route with DLC.

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Actually, I do have a question. I think I might have made a mistake but I haven't saved yet. I just unlocked Battalions. I went ahead and bought and assigned everyone to a Battalion as soon as possible. However, I'm currently out of gold with no Vulnerarys. Is that a mistake? Should I only buy a few Battalions and buy more vulnerarys instead? Will I get enough gold throughout the month to grab more? I don't have merchants unlocked yet so I can't sell fish, vegetables, etc yet either if I wanted to. I just saw Stride and that White Magic Battalions and wanted to buy those instantly and went on a tear buying all that I needed.

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You should probably be fine. Especially if you have White Magic. Do not put a Battalion on Felix yet though. His ability is a godsend in early game. Eventually the advantages of a Battalion will more than offset his ability, but not yet. So if you bought one for him, I'd probably reload to save that money. Likewise if there are any units you don't necessarily plan on using long term (Ashe, Ingrid) then they can probably live without a Battalion because their authority ranks are meaningless.

Anyone you plan on using who isn't Felix wants a Battalion ASAP, but especially Dimitri and Annette. Dimitri's entire purpose revolves around hitting A in Authority, Annette picks up Rally Speed at C+ and in early-mid game having a unit get +4 to Speed and Strength can be very useful.

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Gheb posted...

You should probably be fine. Especially if you have White Magic. Do not put a Battalion on Felix yet though. His ability is a godsend in early game. Eventually the advantages of a Battalion will more than offset his ability, but not yet. So if you bought one for him, I'd probably reload to save that money. Likewise if there are any units you don't necessarily plan on using long term (Ashe, Ingrid) then they can probably live without a Battalion because their authority ranks are meaningless.

Anyone you plan on using who isn't Felix wants a Battalion ASAP, but especially Dimitri and Annette. Dimitri's entire purpose revolves around hitting A in Authority, Annette picks up Rally Speed at C+ and in early-mid game having a unit get +4 to Speed and Strength can be very useful.

OK. Good to know. Thanks. I will reload. I actually put a Battalion on Felix for the last battle and didnt even think about his person skill. That was a clear mistake on my part.

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Yeah, once you have a maxed out Jeralt's mercenary it can mostly substitute for Felix's ability without needing to overly invest in developing Felix's Authority rank since it is a very solid Battalion for E-rank. Even then, it is probably better on other units for a bit until they can pick from better Battalions, freeing up the competition for Jeralt's Mercenaries.

One thing to note is that BL have access to Kingdom Archers a D Rank Battalion with entirely mediocre stats. However it does have the Retribution Gambit which is otherwise locked on the A Ranked Battalions on other routes. This is a great Gambit at any time but invaluable for Enemy Phase units and basically required for Kill Every Last One of Them Dimitri.

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Mberer posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhIw2-5QUOE

3-13 Archer is still the king of unnamed allied units.

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Gheb posted...

3-13 Archer is still the king of unnamed allied units.

What about that Sword Master that one rounded Edelgard?

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OK. I really dont like Dedude as a character currently. He seemed alright but that C support conversation with Felix kinda pissed me off. He is no better than any random tool. To have no will of your own and to be aware of but stick to it. Just no.

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Dedue's character is basically tied into the backstory of everyone in the Blue Lions House (well, most of them) and it will greatly expand over time. He's one of the best characters in the game. You will not speak ill of Supreme Chef Deddie-pie.

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DeadBankerDream posted...

Dedue's character is basically tied into the backstory of everyone in the Blue Lions House (well, most of them) and it will greatly expand over time. He's one of the best characters in the game. You will not speak ill of Supreme Chef Deddie-pie.

I really hope it does because that support conversation left a worse taste in my mouth compared to any other in this game so far.

Also, the Blue Lions are filled with troubled/crazy people

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Just wait until you see Ingrid and Dedue's C Support.

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Compsognathus posted...

Just wait until you see Ingrid and Dedue's C Support.

Yea... I just saw that.... I dont like Ingrid either...

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A lot of characters in Blue Lions have... wrong viewpoints on life. But their development does a great job laying out why they came to have those wrong views and it makes for, probably the strongest characters in all the Houses.

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