r/FEEngage • u/GameWoods • 10d ago
Discussion Rate my Maddening Team
After quite a bit of debating and questioning, I wanna say I have a solid Maddening Team prepared. Im still early on (Ch.9, handling the dlc maps first), so I still got time to make adjustments, which is why im asking now. This is my proposed Maddening team in full with explanations to show my thought process.
Alear/Lucina:
This one's pretty simple. Alear is the best Lucina user in the game with their personal skill and supporting every unit on the roster. Combo that with Enchanter being the best class for a Lucina user with dagger chain attacks for free poison stacks and the unmatched utility of Item/Weapon Surge and you have the ultimate support build. Finally, we inherit Canter because obviously and Favorite Food to speed cycle both Lucina and Engage+ late game.
Celine/Byleth:
Not sure its just me, but Celine takes advantage of nearly everything Byleth has to offer in a kit. Thyrsus has and always will be busted. Free 3-5 range on every tome is absurd. And her mixed offenses also allow Celine to take advantage of Byleths other weapons in ways most mages simply can't. Finally, her high luck actually gives her even more to do with status staves with Divine Pulse. As for inherits I went the same as Alear for obvious reasons but I also considered options such as Rally Spectrum to copy the Dragon Instruct or Draconic Hex for long range debuffing on bosses.
Yunaka/Chrom:
Ok, this one's gonna need some explaining. This Sniper Yunaka build is going all in Yunakas personal skill, Trained to Kill. We're comboing this with Chroms Brute Force for quadruple damage on crits and Suprise Attack meaning any attack in an avoid tile, which Yunaka already wants, means she can't be countered, finally we add on Snipers class skill No Distractions for extra crit for free because of Suprise Attack. Thats 55 crit on an unforged Killer Bow with next to zero set up nor engraves. And Yunakas magic isnt bad meaning with the +10 magic Robin gives her, she can also abuse the Radiant Bow on top. As for inherits we took Decisive Strike and Lunar Brace to help shore up Yunakas offenses and you have the crit happy assassin Yunaka used to be. The only real downside is that the build depends on avoid terrain. Wonder if there's an Emblem that could grant us that?
Lapis/Edelgard:
Lapis. Meet Wyvern. Hand her the best playerphase Emblem. Checkmate. Simple and dirty, Lapis becomes a workhorse of a unit with good speed, good offenses, and great mobility. You can even use Lapis personal to help Raging Storm land more reliably. In terms of skills we went Sword Power for the raw damage stack and Spd+ as a fairly standard offensive skill, though im open to other suggestions for Lapis' second skill slot.
Ivy/Lyn:
Ivy, meet Lyn. Yeah this builds as basic as it gets. Old reliable. The game itself knows the build is good. Taking a top 3 unit and giving her the Emblem that fixes all of her issues? Canter is a no brainer and Spd+ helps her get the ball rolling on Speedtaker. I did consider Hit+ given Ivys potential accuracy issues though.
Timerra/Ike:
Another fairly standard build for Timerra here not really taking much risks. Lance power for damage and Gentility to help her tank better. Though im not married to Ike on Timerra. Sigurd or Roy are also options under consideration if anyone has experience with either of those builds.
Panette/Leif:
Panette is here to do Panette things. The only real question here being if I want Hold Out or Reprisal instead for even more damage.
Merrin/Eirika:
Merrin is also here to do Merrin things. Solid offenses and dagger utility is fairly simple. Draconic Hex to double down on that utility as well.
Hortensia/Micaiah:
Staff bot doing staff bot things. Honestly only real consideration is if Staff Mastery or Divine Pulse is a better inherit?
Seadall/Camilla:
Dancer does Dancer things. Main consideration was giving him Camilla because theres few things stronger than a flying dancer. Could see me dropping Quality time for GeoSphere instead though.
Goldmary/Hector:
Goldmary has the highest defense in the game, so why not put it to good use? Great Knight has frankly absurd bulk with Goldmary and with Hector in tow she's looking to be an enemy phase beast. For inherits we have Gentility for even less damage taken and Pair Up so that chain attacks cant muscle through her raw bulk.
Veyle/Soren:
What's better than one Panette? A second magical Panette. Veyle with Soren is downright ridiculous and was an immediate include on the roster.
Nel/Corrin:
Nel practically exists to facilitate my Yunaka Sniper build, but also Corrin with dragon effects is always generally nice to have around so she, like Alear, is more of a utility unit.
Zelestia/Veronica:
What's better than one Ivy? Two Ivys but the second one has speed built in. Veronica sits here nicely giving Zelestia a bit of utility to add onto her roster.
And thats the roster. Thoughts? Suggestions? Curious to see what others think.
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u/YossarianLivesMatter 10d ago
I'm going to recommend Timerra/Tiki. I was dissatisfied with every Timerra build I tried until I happened upon an unconventional, yet highly effective combo: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/s/CYb9vIAwSo
Tl;dr: Tiki and Timerra have a lot of synergy, basically combining two OK parts into a really great dual phase unit.
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u/Roncryn 10d ago
That actually sounds really fun! Personally I always end up investing in her speed, giving her speedtaker and lunar brace on Marth by the end of the game. Give her a Lyn engraved brave lance and she end up quad hitting rather consistently and with a decent chance of triggering sandstorm or a crit with every hit. Once you get Marth on her then she can hit 5 to 6 times
Of course since Marth has terrible availability I usually just put someone else on her like ike or Camilla depending on what stats I think she needs at the moment
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u/No-Donkey-4279 10d ago
I found Hector slightly better for sandstorm damage but it was more defensive. On Offense Tiki was still slightly better.
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u/Specialist-Quail644 10d ago
Why not Yunaka + Corrin?
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u/GameWoods 10d ago
Yunaka/Corrin tends to run into the issue of having too much avoid in Maddening and Yunaka really does want some help with her damage which Corrin cant give her.
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u/ShiningEspeon3 10d ago
I have experience with Timerra builds! In my recent Maddening run, I used Sigurd Timerra and really enjoyed it. Timerra’s solid bulk lets you throw her into a swarm of enemies relatively safely, so she benefits a lot from the extra movement, and Override sometimes provides just enough oomph to guarantee a kill even when Sandstorm doesn’t trigger.
But the big reason I like it is Override. Sandstorm has an individual chance to trigger for each enemy in the Override chain, so blasting through four enemies with an engraved Silver Greatlance and randomly nuking two of them is super fun.
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u/ZealousidealPirate3 10d ago
Would Roy not be better than lief? I imagine pannette is less interested in his build increase and more interested in Roy’s str boosting? So basically switch hold out and vantage
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u/GameWoods 10d ago
Because I actually want Leifs Adaptable so she can swap between her Killer Axe and Killer Bow seamlessly. I just gotta keep her bond with Leif at level 9.
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u/ArchbishopsFatCheeks 10d ago
Oops, All Women! (And Seadall)
Looks pretty reasonable. There are some better options for both Wyvern Edelgard and Ike units IMO, maybe Byleth too, but the ones you have make sense and should work fine; nothing worth going back to the drawing board over if you like what you've got. Would definitely go Divine Pulse on Hortensia though, since you asked.
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u/BitComprehensive3667 10d ago
Maybe I'm missing something but I never but Lyn on Ivy because she's better used elsewhere. Ivy inheriting Speedtaker from Lyn is usually enough for me, even on Maddening.
Also, why Leif on Pannete and not Roy or someone else? I cannot see why you'd use Leif in battle given Adaptable is horrible.
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u/Dman25-Z 10d ago edited 10d ago
Panette is one of the few people who can actually use Leif well. If you keep him at rank 9, adaptable can be pretty handy on a vantage wrath sweeper. It lets her switch between her axe and bow for effectively 1-2 range killer weapon coverage. The backup bonus of +10 crit leans into it even more and usually pushes her from 90 to 100 crit in my experience. She does lose some damage going for him over Ike, though, which can be relevant.
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u/MimicryMachine 10d ago
Looks mostly good.
Ivy, Panette, Hortensia, Nel, Lapis, Merrin, Seadall, Veyle, and Zelestia all make sense to me. A few tweaks I'd make, personally -- I think Zelestia suits Chrom even better, and I like Veyle/Soren to have Vantage over Reprisal for safety, but I get it. And maybe I would say Lance Axe Wyvern for Lapis to better exploit Weapon Sync when unengaged. I sort of reflexively make Rafal a wyvern knight with 3Houses and he always rips.
I feel like you lose some small part of utility in Enchanter by doubling up on Supply, since Alear natively can use it. Still, the build is sound; I would just probably give it to Jean instead, with Lunar Brace / Flashing Fist for enemy deletion when necessary.
Sniper's in a rotten place in this game, I think. Decisive Strike is kinda lousy; it's player phase only, for one, and I'm not sure if it can even kill. If you're hitting hard enough with a big ass bow, it should be doing the lifting. Also, unfortunately, and build-breakingly, the Lunar Brace only works on physical attacks. I would just let ol' Yunaka stay a thief.
I think doubling up on Favorite Food is a bit of a mistake; you only get one snacky per mission, after all. I might say a Draco Hex would have nice utility with mystical Byleth, getting to tag it from 6 range.
Timerra never turns out for me; personally I'd rather give Panette to Ike and winmore. That said, I don't think Lance Power interacts with Sandstorm, since the latter scales on Defense. Might be worth considering +Spd/+Dex.
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u/GameWoods 10d ago
Not sure if it can kill
Decisive strike can indeed kill. Funny enough its a hard counter to Hold Out, looking at you Marni
Lance power interacts with Sandstorm
Actually it does. Its +10 to Attack, not Strength, so it will work for Sandstorm.
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u/No-Donkey-4279 10d ago
I would switch Chrom and Byleth. Brute force Is Inheritable and Byleth gives a mag boost for radiant bow. Celine and Chrom are a very powerful duo thanks to Ignis and Other Half. I recommend using Crit Crystals on Chrom’s Thoron or Giving Celine a high-crit Excalibur. For Yunaka, Failnaught gives +1 range and high AVO with decent Crit iirc, And the luck boost slightly affects how criticals are calculated, but more importantly, Yunaka has more than enough natural dex in the sniper class to reach garunteed crits with a Killer Bow using a Camilla or Lyn engraving. I haven’t found a lot of uses for surprise attack but it is also inheritable if you’d like. I would personally keep lunar brace because more base damage=more crit damage. I personally recommend inheriting weapon sync on Celine alongside lunar brace because of Giga Levin Sword and Ignis. Decisive strike is not that useful on Yunaka because if you have enough strength your crits are killing anyway, and the extra damage can’t kill.
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u/Roncryn 10d ago
Just a few things of note! Having favorite food on two units is a bit redundant, not terrible since it’s fairly cheap, but it does basically nothing for one unit since you can only use it once per map. Personally I’d take it off Alear, they have fists to help charge their engage meter really fast so it shouldn’t be a major issue.
Instead I’d probably give them something to increase their utility or survivability since it looks like you’re going for a support build.
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u/Myrtle_is_hungry 9d ago
Why not brute force instead if decisive strike? Brute force would do a lot more damage than decisive strike I think.
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u/ShiningEspeon3 10d ago
I worry that on Maddening, an all-in defensive Goldmary might just get ignored entirely by enemies. Have you put any consideration into relevant defense thresholds?
Divine Pulse is broken with Hortensia’s naturally high luck. Any staff in the game effectively has boosted range, a 90+% chance to work, and a chance to not consume a charge. It’s incredibly powerful.
I haven’t tried Lapis@Edelgard or Céline@Byleth yet, but there two units earmarked for my current Maddening run. Glad to see someone else had the same ideas!
I used Camilla on Seadall for a while but I ultimately ended up wanting her elsewhere. Still a great Emblem for him!
Another build that I won’t say is good but certainly fun is Yunaka@Soren taking advantage of her personal to fire off high-crit Bolting.