I am so mad I avoided this game for this long. After playing three houses, which I genuinely did not like at all, as I found gameplay, and map design pretty basic, and it felt like they put social sim aspects first before making an actual fun tactics game (story was actual good atleast, first one I really enjoyed since path of radiance/radiant dawn) that I pretty much disregarded anything new relating to fire emblem afterwards.

Well long story short I saw this game at a local gameshop for like $15 and figured why not. And it has without doubt become my favorite FE game in terms of gameplay (gameplay only though, this story and characters are just LOL, gives me a nice laugh in between maps at least), and I’m not even done with it yet, it’s just feels so well designed and balanced, reminiscent of fates conquest.

Anyway, with that said, I’m on my first playthrough, maddening/classic, mostly blind, and I’m heading into chaptet 19, and I just want to finalize some units skill/emblem choices. Probably be easier if I just list my army and spell out my thoughts and maybe someone can help steer me in the right direction or recommend some stuff.

I DON’T HAVE DLC, I DO HAVE THE FREE FEH PACK FROM THE ESHOP. I’VE BEEN USING WELL SINCE THE START AND HAVE CLOSE TO 8K SP BANKED, SO FEEL FREE TO RECOMMEND SOME EXPENSIVE SKILLS. ALSO FINE WITH MINOR SPOILERS ON FUTURE RECRUITS/EMBLEMS AND WHATNOT.

UNITS

ALEAR - DIVINE DRAGON/BYLETH
He’s been support the entire game, started with Alfonse S bond ring w/ his personal giving allies a massive attack boost all game until I got some rings that really took advantage of DD class.

His current skills are - CANTER / ??

Not sure what else to get on him, based on the emblems I have- Dual Support seems pretty good? But I have canter, so I don’t really put him in a position where he has to worry about taking damage. Draconic Hex with a Levin Sword incase I’m not dancing/supporting that turn for some sweet debuffs? Is there anything else that could benefit him as a mainly support unit?

KAGETSU - WARRIOR/IKE
One of my 2 physical carry units. I went Warrior as I don’t really like having more than 2 combat flyers, and I had those spots taken already. I can pretty much park him in any dangerous/troublesome area and aslong as I don’t pull like 10 enemies he’ll usually come out alive, killing most of them, but it’s been getting sketchy lately with all the chain attacks I’ve been running into on the last few maps/paralogues.

His current loadout is - REVANCHE+3 (crit engraving, 74 crit no buffs) LONGBOW+1, and TOMAHAWK+3

His current skills are - SPEED+3 / ??

I currently have 2k SP banked on him, so I have options without having to burn SP books. I was contemplating between a few skills- Vantage/++ (since we got wrath from ike), Pair Up (since chain attacks have been my bane lately), Hold Out/++ (for extra security), Adaptability (betwen Ragnell when engaged, Tomahawk for 2 Range, Revanche for 1 Range and Longbow to counter Thorons/Longbows, it feels like it has potential?) (or just go with Canter) Maybe even use some SP books and swap speed+3 for speedtaker since he has no issues going on killing sprees, if not will obviously increase the speed+ to cap when I can afford it after getting a second skill.

PANDREO - MAGE KNIGHT/SIGURD(temporary?)
One of my 2 magical carries. Great unit, great speed, great damage, great res stat. Not much else to say about him. He’s currently holding Sigurd as I didn’t know where else to put him, but it’s not bad by any means, he gets free canter, momentum for extra damage, and can still overdrive with a levin sword if needed. Will probably put one of the more magical oriented emblems on him when I get more back.

His current loadout is - Levin Sword+3 (with avoid engraving incase I need to park him somewhere to pull in a few enemies), and some backup tomes.

His current skills are - SPEED+3 / ??

So I don’t have a dedicated avoid tank. Pandreo with the engraving sits at around 100 base avoid. Not enough to reliably avoid tank but works sometimes. I was thinking maybe.. build further into it? Maybe like Sword Agility or something (no idea when I get marth back or if this is even worth it). I’ve tried using avoid tanks earlier in the game and had very mixed results with either having too much avoid where enemies ignore me, or not enough to where I take an unlucky hit and it’s over. So if not that.. maybe something to further boost damage like Sword Power? Or just go for Canter when I eventually swap Sigurd off him?

CHLOE - WYVERN KNIGHT/LYN
So I had her Lance Griffin literally all game and she was doing okay up until a few chapters ago where she just became a staff bot pretty much. I had 2 energy drops banked, and hate benching units that have been with me for a while, so I pivoted to Wyvern Knight, gave her the 2 energy drops, put Lyn emblem on her, grabbed her Lance Power+3 and had Canter from earlier, and shes an absolute monster now. Can’t do exactly what Kagetsu does, but she is an extremely strong unit now, can double everything and pretty much one round any unit, decent Astra Storm damage, zero regrets.

She uses a Fensalir+4 (which doesn’t affect her speed at all), Killer Lance+3, Javelin+3, and Levin Sword+3 incase physical isn’t cutting it vs armored units

Don’t think I’m gonna list more for her cuz she’s pretty much done, unless you guys recommend a different emblem for her and if someone else can utilize Lyn better or she can utilize a different emblem better, I would be open to suggestions.

IVY - LINDWURM/CORRIN(temporary?)
My other main magical unit/carry. I feel she could be a lot better, and she has become mostly a support unit, albeit a VERY good one. With 3 ranged tomes and draconic hex/dreadful aura locks down, she does very good ranged damage, debuffs the enemy even if she missed the attack and can lock down units from afar, and actually kind of like Corrin on her, even though I’m wasting the dragon vein utility.

My issue is I kind of messed up the skill inheritance (i think), I grabbed speed+3 AND speedtaker, and even with these she still has trouble doubling with a forged Bolganone (engraved to be lower weight, so she only loses 1 speed), and I have to feed her a lot of kills to get her going, but she does exactly what I need her to do with a Thoron and Corrin’s kit.. so I don’t really need her to kill things. I do however have 2 speedwings just collecting dust, and was thinking of giving them to her, dropping speedtaker, getting speed+3 to speed+5 and getting her canter as a secondary skill and hopefully this makes her more combat oriented. In doing so, I can swap Corrin to potentially Veyle (i was pretty positive i was going to recruit her so I looked it up) as she can use 3 range tomes AND take advantage of Dragon Veins, and give Ivy a more suitable emblem for combat. Does this seem worth it?

LOUIS/GOLDMARY - GREAT KNIGHTS/LEIF
So as with Chloe, Louis has been with me for a long time and I’ve kept him level’d up so he still contributes. He currently has 23 base Str and 32 base def. I currently have resolve on him, which when proc’d gets him to 37 def, which is enough to tank/hold down some enemies, but he gets doubled by everything. I don’t want to bench him, and want to try to make the tank thing work. I was thinking of getting Resolve+ and then grabbing Def+3 for now, which would put him at 42 defense, which is more than enough to tank quite a few troublesome enemies such as bowknights, swordmasters, wolf knights, wyverns, etc, with his biggest issue being Berserkers and ofcourse Magic. I don’t need him to be untouchable like he was early game, just good enough to hold a chokepoint or pull aggro against a few troublesome enemies for a turn or 2.

So I’m just curious for anyone that has attempted and/or used Louis as a tank all the way through lategame, what did you do exactly in terms of Skills? He currently has a Silver Greatlance with accuracy engraving so he has potential to deal massive damage. I also have 2 seraph robes, and a dracoshield that could potentially go to making him more viable.. but don’t want to waste them.

I mention Goldmary because I also made her a great knight, she has such a massive speed boost on her when compared to Louis, that I contemplated swapping them, but I hate benching long term characters. The only thing Louis has right now over her is 2 hp, 2 def, and about 4str, and she has 17 base speed to his 11 base speed, not sure how much this will help in the long run but I can see the benefit short term (plus she could catch up to him defense wise with some favoritism). So I don’t know what to do here.. and I hate the idea of benching Louis.

MERRIN - WOLF KNIGHT/LUCINA
She just does a mix of everything between- good damage to units like mages and other low def units (steel dagger+4), can do some avoid shenanigans (had a iron dagger+4 w/ micaiah engraving thats been passed between yunaka to zelkov to now merrin) but I don’t really rely on it, very long range chain attacks, as well as debuffing+chip damage on tankier enemies. However I do have 4 cavalry units, so bonded shield does come into play sometimes when I keep her with Pandreo & Louis/Goldmary.

Her current skills are - SPEED+3/DRACONIC HEX

She already has tons of speed, so not sure why I even grabbed the speed skill (and even more w/ max bond lucina), didn’t have many choices when I first got her, and this was a cheap option. Since shes mostly chip damage on stronger enemies, and can set up kills really easy for my other units (poison + draconic hex), I was contemplating dropping Speed+3 for Canter to reposition her into safety after debuffing enemies? Or does anyone have any other recommendations in terms of Emblems, Class, Skills?

ALCRYST - UNIQUE CLASS/EIRIKA
So I needed a dedicated archer, ignored Etie early game outside of a few kills, saw Alcryst had Luna and high Dex and wanted to try him out, by the time I got Fogado I felt I was too far invested into Alcryst to drop him now. When he works, he works REALLY good and can straight up one shot things sometimes that he has no business doing lol.

His current skills are - SPEED+3 / CANTER

He’s using a crit engraved Killer Bow+4, Steelbow+4, and Longbow+1. I have some extra stat boosters like an extra Energy Drop laying around, some speedwings (already gave him secret books for extra Dex, he’s at like 34 w/Eirika stat boosts) and seems like he could be a good candidate for them, as he’s still rather slow and STR can be unreliable at times if I don’t proc the personal every turn. But I’m also not sure if a better emblem could pair with him, or if I should grab some better skills, let me know.

HORTENSIA/LINDON/SEADALL
These last 3 round out my army. Just got Lindon and was using Framme as a staffbot, so I benched her and made Lindon a Griffin Knight so him and Hortensia have tons of potential as flying staff users. Seadall just dances… obviously.

They all currently have Canter taking up one skill slot. I have no idea what to put in the other slot, nor do I have any idea what future emblems could pair with them. Any help here would be great.

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Didn’t plan on turning this into this much text, my apologies lol. Hopefully this board is still active and if anyone is able to offer me some advice on rounding any of these units out I’d greatly appreciate it.

For anyone that does comment/help, thanks in advance!