Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Character Guide - Dawn Brigade and Crimean Royal Knights! NOT A Tier List

[@marcusmajarra]

It's interesting that the Dawn Brigade has so many high effort units. It's very telling of the difficulty of Part 1 of Radiant Dawn

[@ziegfeld4131]

Part 1 is easy part 3 is where they struggle

[@Zackerton]

Well there Is more good temporary but still is very interesting that those temporary arent very avaible (Ilyana Is a exeption)

[@marcusmajarra]

@@Zackerton That's pretty much the standard for everything in Radiant Dawn, except Part 3 with the Greil Mercenaries, and Part 4. The rest is pretty front-loaded from the get-go. To a point, so too is Part 4 with the laguz royals.

[@HarryTheGecko]

I feel like there should be a 'tier' between Good with investment and High effort, for Micaiah, Edward and Aran, because they're definitely easier to use than Leonardo, Meg and Fiona.

[@devanthompson482]

Micaiah gets oneshotted by most enemies, she's defintely high effort, but you could also argue putting her in the healing utility section too.

[@jaan5983]

Well, for Micaiah after part 1 that tier is heal.

[@Renigade68]

@@devanthompson482 Outside of healing Micaihah is good cuz Thani is good for the most part, one shots basically everything it's effective against, including many Part 1 bosses, and even when it's not effective the only light tome it's weaker then is SS so you can use her as a heal bot and and Thani when needed without caring about her weapon rank, it has enough uses that you shouldn't ever run out.

[@noreng9333]

Edward is harder to use than Leonardo. Both are 2HKOed, but Edward also gets a 50% chance to kill the enemy that attacks him thanks to Wrath.

[@TheAlguien]

Leo can do things in part 3 with 0% growths, that's something.

[@vanguard2960]

yeah I agree with this guide. My typical somewhat optimal HM playthrough of this game is normally using every unit above high effort like you described and then training Eddie or Aran to have one more unit who can be a little helpful in 3-12 and especially 3-13

[@marcgomez8391]

Very good list, I agree with basically everything. I've played this game to death and trained almost everyone, so I know the struggle of the "high investment" tier. Micaiah I'd definitely place on "Heal" tier permanently though. Sacrifice sufices in Part 1 and grinds you some extra EXP (she dies in one shot anyway) and some levels will help her staff bot capabilities in Partd 3 and 4.

[@rhythmribbon6282]

Still remember my first run where I dumped literally all of my exp into Jill. She has transfers and everything and I just had her solo the swamp map. Good times, 10/10 would recommend.

[@pizzadeliveryarcheops7756]

She uh, isn't available in that map

[@Rmuda]

@@pizzadeliveryarcheops7756 Probably means 3-6, not 1-8

[@pizzadeliveryarcheops7756]

well I assumed he meant part 1 in a video about part 1

[@rhythmribbon6282]

@@pizzadeliveryarcheops7756 yea meant part 3 lol. Tbh she should be available in the part 1 map tho

[@sig757]

unpopular radiant dawn strat. You don't need to give paragon to the Dawn brigade in part 3. Its better with the Greil Mercenaries.

[@nohrvillagegirl4120]

Okay how is Naeluchi not in "I'm old" tier?

[@jknkjnkjnkj8967]

Im old

[@Azari_D]

My Micaiah was always really sick, but I prob fed her a bunch of kills on accident. She was my favorite unit on my playthroughs. I always liked Getting her and Edward strong. My fav unit for the entire game is def Nephanee though.

[@vishuprathikanti9352]

lol I love how laura has a whole tier just for healing. But yeah, she's def not good investment, but also not (super) high effort. She's healing.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

It was really cursed to make healing only give 10 exp in this game

[@Spiresbeyond]

I brought Leonardo to the tower on hard mode, AMA

[@Ashen_Chavalier]

You can bring anyone to the tower, bonus XP will make any unit serviceable

[@navadax4541]

When did you first discover you were a masochist

[@Kanbei11]

Now imagine how good his bow would be on a good unit lol

[@Spiresbeyond]

@@navadax4541 I brought the entire dawn brigade. Let’s just say I’m passionate about Paragon

[@lunaproc4913]

Which of the Dawn Brigade made you want to tear your hair out?

[@wJermell0]

Even in hard mode I'd say Michiah and Edward can go into okay (investment). Edward takes a lot of effort to make good but you start seeing more returns sooner than with units like Aran or Meg. Michiah benefits from her automatic A support with Sothe and plenty of opportunities to get her xp with her force deployments and sacrifice healing. She'll never be GOOD but if she gets to the point where every enemy isn't one rounding her she's okay.

[@domicraft6341]

Everything Edward can do, can be done by Zihark. If you train Edward, he will be slightly better pherhaps, but a more tanky unit like Nolan is better to train for part 3 than another fragile myrmidone.

[@gameboyn64]

I think there needs two more categories. Ok (no investment) for micaiah. She can thani which is a base 24mt 100hit magic attack against armors and cavs. She is also significantly more reliable to hit even at base than units like illyana. Ok (investment) for edward and aran. The likes of Leonardo, meg, and fiona just take so much more effort that it doesn't really seem fair to be in the same category.

[@lofnforseti8447]

Agreed, Miccy does not require heavy lifting to be good, she might not double nor take a hit, but her effective Thani and even non-effective hits are still worth mentioning while being out of harms way. There are fair amount of armored and cavs, and her chip damage is quite noteworthy for Part 1's low to mid HP units. Her Part 3 utility is still very much warranted, close-range heals, physic and torch alongside Laura, 2 healers is quite nice in the ostensibly defense maps of the Part 3 Dawn Brigade maps. It's not hard to get a level 15-20 Miccy by 1-E, since she also makes her own EXP when the opportunity arises with sacrifice. Constant 10 EXP no matter what level. I agree Laura should have her own tier, since her healing utility is imperative no matter investments you have put in her, being able to physic stave an alone Jill in 3-13 is quite nice and trading the physic staff with Miccy and the torch. An underleveled Laura is still much better than a level 19 Myrmidon Edward in Part 3. However, I think Meg is easier trained than Fiona, since not only she joins earlier and has maps to her name, she does join when you just got BEXP access, and dumping the BEXP will yield her about 2 levels/2 speed level ups and if you ever choose to do so, give her an Energy Drop from 1-3 and forges. And it's very easy to bottleneck in the laguz map for Meg to kill a unit and with the 2 level ups, she won't get doubled. It's not easier than Edward, but you can make an argument that she is at least on par with Aran, having speed on a unit is always nice, and she is fairly low level, just think of her as a shitty cap Myrmidon, but a workable one if one has ways. Leo's special utility is his access to Lughnasadh/Crossbows with beast foe, like Nolan, not being counterattacked whilst doing massive damage is certainly welcome in Part 3 DB maps. But certainly, outside of any maps like that, his growths are a bit yikes, who thought of making him a traditional JRPG archer.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

While I agree that an Okay investment tier would better denote the gap between Meg and Fiona and the rest of the cast, the nature of Hard mode in Radiant Dawn really does make training the likes of Edward and Aran significantly more challenging and very punishing if they don't get good level ups (Edward has to level Strength and Speed multiple times in a row to consistently double and deal meaningful damage.)

[@MythrilZenith]

I've usually had good luck with Edward but I'll admit even on his best days he can have survivability issues. If he isn't at least approaching swordmaster by chapter 8 then he usually has issues killing the more bulky enemies in the prison and swamp, and even as a swordmaster he can get bodied by tigers in act 3. If you put max investment into him he can turn out the strongest of the swordmasters for the tower, but then again the dawn brigade's growth potential was never their issue. The issue is the DB only has enough exp to raise like two of their units to be actually powerful (unless you Jerod abuse) and any units they don't favor immediately fall into the trash. I once chose to power up Meg and Aran, and they turned out surprisingly good, but Jill, Nolan and everyone else were gimped to the point of near-inviability.

[@FiboSai]

Edward can already struggle in chapter 2 if he doesn't level up well in the prologue and chapter 1. He doesn't double many enemies after the prologue at base, so he really needs strength and speed from his first 2 levels to even be usable. I've had him miss his first two speed level ups in the past, which made him a huge liability in chapters 2 and 3.

[@TheGravemistake]

Jerod abuse?

[@Gale-wy8of]

I would honestly have put aran in like "ok investment". Even in hard, where is bulk tends to be a bit mediocre, I still can find at least a use or a niche for him. He has a good weapon type and it's nice to have another unit that doesn't die in one hit (like most of the other high effort units). If you manage to get enough bonus exp, I would say he is the better candidate for giving it to him, since he will without doubt max at least either strenght or defence and that works very well with the bonus exp boom of "guaranteed 3 stat up". Overall, maybe not as nice as Nolan, but pretty good nevertheless. In my opinion at least. Still a good video tho! Good job Mekkah :3

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

Aran is fine, but Edward is at least as good. So he would have to be in the same tier.

[@Besh091]

This occurs to me every time I think about the dragonlords in RD, and I may be remembering incorrectly, but I really appreciated that their weaknesses match dragon laguz (mostly in terms of Thunder magic) instead of hawks/ravens/pegasi like they did in PoR. I think the wyrmslayer weakness exists in both games, but I'm also not remembering very many enemies with a wyrmslayer in PoR.

[@spacedoyster7686]

One of these things would be interesting for Three Houses, and difficult, I'd imagine.

[@Mekkkah]

yeah so for 3H basically everyone but Jeritza needs some investment, haha

[@fritzvontrapp8269]

It could be interesting for an Out of House recruitment guide. You could also rate characters by how much more investment they require than other characters, like how OoH NG Ferdinand has more difficult recruitment requirements and IH Caspar needs more levels to get his stats to catch up

[@TheValiantBob]

@@Mekkkah Perhaps you could do it based on a "No Student Recruits" run? Like rating each unit and how they perform in their own house and what niche they fill for that house? That's my preferred way to play it at least, as it helps make units stand out a tiny bit more even in a game where you can just wyvern lord everyone lol

[@brakthalas]

With how often you use Golden Sun music, I think you just need to play it on stream at this point, unless you have already and I missed it.

[@ligray2436]

Part 1: 4:36 - Sothe 6:28 - Volug 9:03 - Nolan 10:31 - Jill 11:41 - Zihark 14:30 - Ilyana 15:06 - Tauroneo 15:56 - Tormod, Muarim 16:57 - Vika 17:25 - Nailah 17:48 - Rafiel 18:34 - Laura 19:43 - Micaiah 20:53 - Edward & Leonardo (21:56) 23:23 - Aran 24:55 - Meg & Fiona (25:27) Part 2: 27:18 - Haar 27:57 - Elincia 28:51 - Leanne 29:28 - Nephenee 31:00 - Good Temporary section (Nealuchi, Marcia, etc.) 32:03 - Brom 32:28 - Mordecai 32:53 - Lucia 33:13 - Lethe 33:28 - Geoffrey's band 34:36 - Calill 35:42 - Astrid 36:16 - Heather

[@issamkw]

Thanks chief 🙏

[@BassForever]

I'd suggest all 3 good investment characters be invested. Nolan and zihark support each other for that earth x earth avoid boost, and Jill has flyer utility and is strong.

[@tim0boy891]

VIDEO IDEA: Mekkah's top 20 favourite GBA Crit Animations of all time.

[@PikangsFutaba]

Radiant Dawn... all characters have their uses but there are some that totally sucks without bonus EXP, but the ones that you can consistently use are overall good, in the case of Dawn Brigade... while Edward is good with Wrath at some situations, I rather give the skill to Michaiah as on Hard Mode I deliveraly leave her at pixel magic HP (because nearly everything 1 shot or 1 turn KO her) that way I can potentialy cheese out some enemies whenever I have to attack with her, this is a personal thing I do in my hard mode runs.

[@BlazingRaptor]

I’m a huge zihark naysayer. I don’t think being the 3-4th best crutch in part one is a big deal, heck I don’t really think he does more than say, eddie does for like the first three chapters in the game. In part 3 he feels absolutely awful. The laguz are accurate and deadly, and he doesn’t even have a beastkiller like sothe to contribute much. His struggles continue in 3-11 and 3-13. Any investment you do in part one does not solve this issue, and worse you are taking that away from jill. In part 4 training him up is pointless unless you like him. Trueblades do have a nice niche in tower, but they’re all more or less the same in performance, and bringing more than one is extremely questionable. The effort you spend to train him up for tower is more or less similar to lucia’s at this point, who is also not very good.

[@EmporerEmblem]

Zihark definitely belongs in the "good no-investment" category since he's pretty much defined by his bases, as even with investment Zihark tends to fall behind compared to other options. He is still extremely good in part 1, solid in part 3, and ok in the first chunk of part 4 relying almost entirely on just his bases, earth affinity avoid bonuses from support, and using good weapons like killing edges and the brave sword

[@Mekkkah]

The way I see it, the investment for Zihark starts in part 3, and the pay off is in part 4. I guess in that sense, in the context of this tier list, he's a short term unit. But like I said, I didn't want to put him with a bunch of people that leave, and I definitely would not undeploy him in part 3.

[@EmporerEmblem]

@@Mekkkah Yeah, I never undeploy him either, he still has use even up to part 4, where he usually assists in 1-2 kills on 4P and/or 4-3. I do fully agree with what you said about him in the video. It's just unfortunate that giving him his own solo spot, like Laura, would look weird given the small unit pool,

[@troykv96]

Micaiah is a solid unit, has gimmicks, but she clearly not someone you can clearly rely because the game is cruel with mages unless they' appear overleveled (like this video shows with Ilyana and Tormod).

[@Kanbei11]

Isn't Jill forbidden from the swamp map?

[@troykv96]

@@Kanbei11 I don't know why this is relevant to me, but yes, Jill is forbidden in the swamp map, the unit you need to use to save the villager is actually Vika.

[@Kanbei11]

@@troykv96 Sorry, I replied to the wrong comment.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

Vika can't rescue the villagers because her Con is too low

[@troykv96]

@@thereaIitsybitsyspider You don't literally use the Rescue command in them, but she is the only one that can actually fight the arriving Wyvern Knights before is too late.

[@signorpando]

Is early promoting a viable choice in part 1? I promoted Nolan in my current playthrough at level 15 and in part 3 he’s still a good unit. I still don’t know his endgame potential, but it was a really nice buff in part 1 and 3-6.

[@milesdavis607]

Yes and no. It's a good immediate buff but chaps 3-11 and 3-12 you will suffer a bit for early promotion. If you plan to use them for part 4/endgame? Absolutely not (harder difficulties) as for beorc units you need every stat gain you can get. There is less experience but I imagine if you're going into these harder difficulties you're pre-planning your roster and so you're giving your chosen units more attention.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

Unless you cap some stuff, otherwise no. My edward caps his speed like level 17 or 18... ooof

[@mia_c_21573]

Is this Golden Sun music? It's familiar, but I can't quite place it. I'd also say that I find Nolan a hair overrated in Hard. He can't really double, and after the first few chapters he isn't *that* durable. By the time he could benefit form investment, you have better people to invest in.

[@Mekkkah]

There isn't many EXP hungry alternatives to Nolan. Besides Jill, who else would you train? All the people in High Effort seem worse. Don't get me wrong, I know what you mean. Nolan isn't exactly impressive, but he's better off than most of his unpromoted peers.

[@mia_c_21573]

​@@Mekkkah I agree with you that Jill is the best bet. I wish Nolan had a little more accuracy (70-80% displayed hit against a lot of enemies isn't terrible, but could be better) and potentially a little more base DEF. I just wish there was more of a selling point to using him instead of Jill.

[@ziegfeld4131]

You are missing that Nolam has the best affinity in the game he can get a free support with zihark or volug and really cant die

[@sielklavar]

@@ziegfeld4131 this exactly, I regularly support him with Zihark and they just wall off sections in act 3 for me.

[@matiastorres2553]

aran is pretty strong and is good with investmen, his high def is pretty necesary in micaiah army, just forge him a lance with hit and if u give him dicipline u can use silver lances pretty fast and hit very hard. In part 3 cats laguz deals 0 dmg to him, u need to lvl up some spd to evade being double by tigers and u ok (obviusly give him earth support, nolan is ur better choice)

[@mordio3793]

How do you think the Dawn Brigade part of guide would change if it was for an Iron Man? I am planning to start one soon, and I am especially worried about 1-9 and 3-6. Specifically, would Aran be a better investment than Nolan in this setting? How does Aran hold up against the tigers in 3-6? Since I will already be training 2-3 other units (Jill, Micaiah, and probably Zihark), I probably will want to avoid training both Nolan and Aran, if either of them. I say I will be training (and BEXPing, and giving the Angelic Robe to) Micaiah, even though those resources would be better spent on other units in a normal playthrough, because I am that afraid of 1-9. As a result, I am worried about spreading resources and EXP too thin. I am currently in the middle of a PoR Iron Man, and assuming Jill and Zihark survive, I am trying to make sure they get their transfer bonuses to help out.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

Aran is a good investment, his defence growth is just super good. He solos entire cav on the platoon in chapter 6-2 (Yeah even when enemy has canto XD). But only do that if you put investment on Aran by the time you recruited him.

[@mordio3793]

@@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263 Yeah, I ended up going with Vantage Beastfoe Tarvos Nolan instead for 3-6 and it worked fine with an A support to give him that extra avoid.

[@jenxy1078]

So I beat Path of Radiance today, and after going on vacation bc y'know, summer, I plan on playing Radiant Dawn for the first time on hard mode. Based on your advice, I'm going to be training Jill and Edward in the Dawn Brigade. The former because, well, Good Investment Flier + 14:th best unit of all time, and the latter because he'll be the only person that I will be investing into in the earlygame due to Jill not being available right away, which will hopefully lead to early promotions ect, making him pretty good at combat, I would presume. I could also just bombrush part one with the use of Sothe and get a bunch of bonus experience to give to Jill and maybe someone else, but what do you think, Mekkah and the Comment Section?

[@Mekkkah]

Seems fine! I think you'd technically still be better off with Zihark or anyone else over Eddie, even after earlygame investment...but if you like him a lot and/or he turns out really well, nothing wrong there. I don't think Jill is the 14th best unit in the series anymore but I still think she's a great investment project for most players.

[@jenxy1078]

@@Mekkkah I didn't see your comment until now, so I'm here to report the results and give my thanks. So I started playing a week ago, and I'm currently on 2-2 (I've beat part one, is what I'm trying to say). I did end up training Edward, and he did get quite rng blessed. +2 strength, +2 speed and +1 defense above average most of the time, give and take a point, and that allowed him to quite frequently one-round with a max might Iron Sword forge, though he still got two shot most of the time. When Zihark joined, he was still quite a bit better than Edward, which had me a little worried, but I still committed to training Edward as well as the freshly recruited Jill and Zihark. I managed to promote Edward at the end of 1-7, and in 1-8, he could survive a whoppping TWO hits! He also didn't miss out on one-rounding thresholds due to the Brave Sword and occasional funny wrath moments. After snowballing a littlebit, he actually exceeded Zihark in strength. Zihark still has better bulk and a higher level, which still made him slightly better. Also Jill leveled strength and speed a littlebit, got promoted and she's great with 9 move, flight, axes and lances. So the recap about my Edward is that even after feeding him kill after kill in the earlygame, getting blessed in important stats, making use of good equipment, he's still worse than Zihark (Technically a pitfall) and not any better than "pretty good". By the way, I didn't "like" Edward, I just legitimately thought that he would become a really good unit if I gave a lot of kills in the earlygame to him, which I guess he kind of did, be without such luck he shouldn't have, and considering I hadn't even downloaded the game yet and practically knew nothing of it, I think I know who to blame. Either way, I'm enjoying the game a lot so far, and I'm grateful that you were able to give me this advice, so thank you, have a good day and keep up the good work man, I'm a big fan

[@Xertaron.]

I just finished RD and i gotta say, the difference between unit viability in this game is absolutely wild. Everyone in the Dawn Brigade felt like the worst option for part 4 and endgame. I tried to make Fiona viable by spending like 30 turns in 1-E and trying to hit priests there (since everything else one rounded her). 53% hit and getting doubled by priests was really funny. 3 insanely good level ups later she was still getting bodied by everyone on the map. It wasn't untill she was near Silver Knight when she started to be good. I found her Imbue being very usefull in part 4, but that was a long haul for a small sip of water. Ilyana would propably be way better with transfer bonuses. Everytime i tried to attack something in part 1 she was 1 or 2 speed away from doubling and near one rounding. Even though i managed to promote her before the end of part 1, she was still very underleveled in part 3, which makes me question why she and Jill start in t1 class when even Rolf of all freaking people is in t2. Still, she's barely viable on normal so i imagine on hard it's out of the question.

[@CosmicToad5000]

Not sure if I’ll ever try RD HM because the stupid BEXP thing where it’s halved in both quantity & effectiveness really restricts the “you can invest in anyone” mentality I really like in RD where while the cast is very unbalanced (which I think is a good thing in FE) you can still salvage just about anyone if you’re hellbent on using them through things like BEXP and the skill system. Also the no enemy ranges thing is just silly and a headache on Maps with lots of varied terrain.

[@henryreturns1397]

Haar as "no brainer" , Haar is so busted on RD that he should go beyond "no brainer"

[@mudjumper]

Thank you for not spoiling

[@bigbigchungusbigchungusbig1117]

While I understand how you can think Edward is a bad unit, I feel that the fact that he comes with wrath warrants him at least to be on par with Nolan, as wrath resolve and vantage is still a decent combo. Sure, training him sucks, but there is definitely a greater amount of payoff than with Aran or Miciaiah

[@Mekkkah]

The thing with Wrath/Resolve/Vantage is that it's always going to be chance based. Edward is not going to have 100% crit by part 3, so he's always going to have to rely on dodging to survive. And to use Wrath/Resolve, you have to be on low health, every hit is going to be a kill. He has a similar problem to Zihark. Vantage/Beastfoe on Nolan or even Aran is a much more reliable way to tackle that map. That's why I think there's a significant difference between him and Nolan. Also note that High Effort doesn't necessarily mean the payoff is bad. But like you acknowledge, training him sucks. On average he starts missing double/ORKO tresholds really quickly in part 1 HM, and there are enemies that can oneshot him.

[@ziegfeld4131]

Aran is 100% better than Edward are you high tanky units are insane innthis game and his tank stats are great

[@charleouel9012]

Not too bad tho I would say Ilianna is good invesment overall she got pretty much perfect avibility overall. And I don't know if I would rake Aran, Edward the same as Meg and Leonardo. (like they aren't the best out there but still they kinda work overall and doesn't get one hit OK by literally everything.) Perso I would say Ilianna go up and Aran/Edward go up too. Tho I would probably high effort in 2 insteed and put Ilianna, Edward and Aran all in it AKA in the High effort but won't get destroy for 50 % of the game. (Ilianna got Shade to protect her, Aran got HP and DEF to take hit and Edward got HP DEF and SPD pretty nicely) Any way just my personal opinion I just think thoes 3 are in the same type of characters (I guess Ilianna could be in high effort tho I would argue that because of Shade it not that hard... Tho Blossom Is REALLY good on her like she probably one of the top 3 character to put it on since most of her growth are around 50% where Blossom is at it best.) SORRY FOR THE BAD ENGLISH

[@lofnforseti8447]

There's a very big problem regarding Ilyana compared to the Dawn Brigade, her benchmarks are way higher than her colleagues in the Dawn Brigades. Her bases are low for her base level and her growths does not help this case at all. She has 13 base speed with 30% growth rate on that. It could have been manageable if she stayed with the Dawn Brigade since Laguz are very easy to kill and gain exp out of, but Ilyana joins the Greil Mercenaries, where she is competed with very fast and tanky units as allies and foes. Ilyana could have been legit better as a unit if she had stayed with the Dawn Brigade. Shade does nothing for her, I doubt anyone in their right mind would just put her against a swordmasters range and hope shade works, that does not sound a reliable strategy. And Blossom takes too much time, it doesn't really help her, notoriety for Blossom stems from the fact it takes too long to level and her growths aren't good at all, the better her growths are, the better Blossom works, not because it's 50%, if anything, that's why it's so bad on her. And this is from someone who has trained everyone in Hard Mode on sub-optimal runs.

[@charleouel9012]

@@lofnforseti8447 Well Shade is kinda op really like it work about 99% of the time if there someone else in range to attaque (I guess it depend how much damage they take may be if it 0 they won't go for them?) For blossom the best is indeed 50% growth (since it there that it activate alot and also work alot) Exemple: 90% growth: 0.1 x 0.9 = .09 AKA 9% effectiveness. Vs 50% growth: 0.5 x 0.5 = 25% effectiveness So the best stats to have for blossom is 50% And sure it reduce her lvl up but I would argue you can give her bonus XP (It isn't reduce by the skill any way) and just lvl up in battle to have the effect hapend. Any way I think it work pretty well I did it on the hardest difficulty and it work great. Early game she a good poke unite since shade protect her form damage and so she can be more agressive than more range unite. And later in the game she become good because of blossom.

[@lofnforseti8447]

@@charleouel9012 Again, the more you are trying to explain Ilyana's training itinerary, the more you are saying she is a high effort unit. Yes you can train her, yes it is doable, but she's not good investments in a game where mages is quite shunned, and all of your argument is just babysitting her to the max. I've trained Ilyana multiple times, and she is by no means a good unit. However, if you are thinking that they should at least be an Okay (Investment), which Mekkah should really have done, then sure, I can at least agree with that somewhat. The parameters of shade is so vague that 99% is definitely not the case. Provoke activates more, maybe Shade does too, but it's rarely a viable tactic to employ. There are many anecdotes that have said that someone with shade died even if there's someone in range, it's just a tactic that is frowned upon, almost a similar case is Sothe using his Guard skill for Micaiah, it's just not something people think of doing. Many has said it procs more if your unit cannot counterattack, but Ilyana is a unit who CAN counterattack most units. And if you are saying that blossoming her then applying 99 exp in the preparations, that is still massive amount of investing that could have gone to a better unit and by then, you are already struggling on using her and what you get out of it is a below-average Thunder Mage with shitty caps, even if she has 50% growths in other stats (and damn 90% is a leap, and I would never put Blossom on someone who has 70% growth anyway, I get that it's hypothetical though), her speed is quite abysmal and by the point she capped skill and mag to BEXP her Speed up, it's far too late in the game and you've poured so much investments and she did not contribute a whole lot during her weaker phases, except last hitting units that has been weakened by others. She is a DOABLE unit, not a GOOD unit as Mekkah has said. She has the most availability, but this does not mean good investment, all it means that Ilyana has a longer opportunity to train, which does not equalize to good investments.

[@charleouel9012]

@@lofnforseti8447 Well I never saw someone trying to attaque Ilianna in RD so I think it likely because she got high Crit rates and Shade makeing her a super onlikely target onless every other option already token. (exemple if you got an other alie but they got 4 enemie on each side of them they may go for Iliana since it the only target they got. Also Shade make her kinda good for enemie phase since ppl will target the unite is good for the enemie phase. But no joke I played whit her quite alot and I never seen anyone go for a hit on her if they had other option. And for blossom on her it really pretty good: make her growth bassicly this: 75% HP, 75% STR, 75%MG, 85% SKILL, 50% SPD, 65% Luck, 50% DEF, 75% RES. You could give it to someone else but who? someone who already got good stats (doesn't really worth it) May be Jill since her stats are kinda crapy and could use some help to do something usefull. Well I agreed Jill could make it worth. Any way I just think it a "good investisment" kinda like how Jill suck whitout puting work into her but can be great if you put the work into it. I would say Ilianna is bassicly one of the best Mage in the game (I know they aren't good in this game but still they can be really usefull vs laguz) + late game she got bassicly the best Lightning magic to nuke the Dragons. Any way I wouldn't say she "Good temp" (I could see "high investisment" tho I would say all the unite that are unpromoted are in that since ALL of them such early and need alot of XP to be usefull Jill being one of those. Like no joke Jill is hard to train (she got literally bassicly the same stats as Ilianna whit more bulk I guess But Ilianna hit whit Magic so her damage is useally higher for the most parth Until Jill double and it take quite a long time before she does may be mid part 3?) Any way The only one low effort are Sothe, Volug, Tauroneo, Zihark, Tormod and Muarim Jill is like all the other a high investisment unite And after that it subjective on what you prf haveing for high investisment. Just think the list overall is weirdly made There like 9 unite that are pretty much no brainer if you want good unite for right now, than there is 5 okish unite that can beforme great whit work (Ilianna, Jill, Edward, Aran, Nolan), 4 bad unite that can become pretty good if you invest (Micaiah, Leonardo, Meg, Fiona) Just my personal opinion I just think Ilianna is in a better spot than Leonardo or Meg.

[@lofnforseti8447]

​@@charleouel9012 Jesus, my 3 paragraphs got accidentally deleted, so this is me paraphrasing and condensing it cause I have no time. I've played Radiant Dawn 45 times and I've used Ilyana 5 times in that and brought her to the tower, and I will never think of putting her in the eyes of a swordmaster and hope shade will proc, there are many ways to circumvent using shade as her quote on quote "skill advantage". The thing with Jill is that her tier 1 promotion bonus is much better than anyone else and she will double by 1-6-1, her joining time. She doubles the armored knights and the weighed down steel lance Pegasus Knights, and her speed growth (65%) is really good and her 15 base speed, so she will reach the 16-17 speed benchmark of doubling since cavaliers have pretty shit stats in 1-6-2 with their 10-11 base speed and most other infantry units have 12 base speed except Myrmidons with their 15 base speed. Promoting her by the end of 1-6-2 is worth it and giving her the paragon. The problem with her is her 11 (13 with energy drop) strength will weigh her down with the steel axe. The easy and common fix? Just give her a forged iron axe, it's not that hard. She gains 2 strength and defense on promotion while everyone else gets 1. Those growths on Ilyana doesn't matter when you are investing so much BEXP every time in preparations and she only does that to level up once and do chip damage. She does not contribute anymore than that. Again, ad nauseam now, she's doable, just not good investments. And for the best mages in the game, it goes like this; Micaiah (if you consider her a mage)>Soren>Calill>Ilyana>Bastian>Oliver>Pelleas. That is not a good place to compete. Jill uses investment so much efficiently than any other units in the Dawn Brigade, she is considered the 2nd best unit in the game, only 2nd to Haar. And soloing Part 3 maps with her is so much easier than investing and diversifying in the Dawn Brigade. I usually just play around base Zihark, base Volug, and base Tauroneo, she's that good.

[@green_unit9359]

Oh thank you mekkah! I’ve been playing some more radiant Dawn lately, and this is really neat to watch

[@atmosdwagon4656]

I got super-spoiled in my initial playthrough of Radiant Dawn because I had a super speed-blessed Micaiah and STR blessed Sothe, which gave me the completely wrong impression about either of them. Of course, then the game pulls what I assume is some sort of cruel prank on me with Sothe by story locking his third promotion and then utterly cripple his STR cap so he's completely useless even when he gets it. Seriously IntSys; if you wanted Sothe to be involved at endgame to the point where you put that sort of effort into him just...why? Why are you like this?

[@bigtimetimmyjim6486]

Although I am biased (look at my name >_>), I think Danved is probably better than Nephenee from a "progression/just want to beat the game" standpoint. He caps speed lower than Neph, but his base speed is really high, he has more HP, and he is one of the best users of Imbue in the entire game thanks to his decent magic stat and decent defenses; he is practically unkillable. Neph has a slightly higher ceiling, but I have used Danved well in maniac mode before without really pouring a ton into him. I guess what I am trying to say is that Neph is not really even worth investing in all that much.

[@leoneldiaz78]

At 23:49 when Mekkah says "...he won't be as fast as.." I think I can hear the unit death sound from the GBA games. Perhaps he is trying to use subliminal messaging to emphasize his point?

[@tmonster1852]

I know this is based but I wouldn’t say Edward is too high effort, sure he does need investments, but he just needs 2 good level ups and he can get going, unlike Aran he get double enemies quite quickly.

[@SharurFoF]

Investing in Marcia > investing in Nephenee

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

I agre, but Nephenee gets most of the 2-1 exp and can recieve a bexp dump before 2-E, so she's easier to invest into.

[@Salron_]

Imo Jill should've gotten her own tier between no brainer and good investment and no brainer as she is the best use of 90% of the resources the DB gets and trivializes later DB maps with enough effort put into her on top of continuing to be a great unit all the way to endgame.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

My jill didn't get enough defence same for my nolan... but Im still at part 1 and my Aran solos the whole cav on chapter 6... My Edward somehow got more strength and eventually have more defence than Nolan lmao, RNG goddess is so weird.

[@caiobastos6162]

man, I laughed a lot when I saw the heal tier!

[@DamnUsernameAvailabi]

Aran lives and dies by his speed growth luck. If you get lucky he is a literal god. If not...well...yeah....

[@steve2242]

Yay! Radiant Dawn!

[@sig757]

My feedback is you did not mention bringing Zihark over to the Greil Merc side as a transfer Master Crown strat as a second time playthrough. Also my critique with Marcia is that transfer Marcia is viable with transfers and some good exp and also good with part 2 stat boosters such as energy drop. Also in the temporary section Calill is the best Rexflame user in the game especially with being able to double Auras with white pool if you want to try out another good unit for second playthrough or higher.

[@Mekkkah]

I've never done a DB->GM transfer. I guess if you're just not using Zihark you could do that, it might be easier than stealing the crown from a DB unit using Heather. But not by a whole lot. I like having as many units as possible for 3-13 to block ledges. I did completely overlook transfers, thankfully they're more important for the GMs so I can keep em in mind there. I don't think Calill is a good investment even keeping in mind Rexflame for endgame but I'll definitely mention it in the part 4 video.

[@lofnforseti8447]

It is much easier to just steal it from Zihark, or if he is above Heather's Speed, you can savior ferry Heather with Haar to the aisle that has Nolan and Aran on it and steal it from them. Jill is there, but nothing like a wrymslayer can't do anything about it. It's solid EXP to anyone who kills her anyway. I love using Calill, but she's not that good just because she's arguably the best mage late game. It does take a bit to get her up there, even though she has decent speed growth, it is doable, just not "worth" more than the others.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

Recruiting away Jill or Zihark is one of the most sadistic things you can do to the Dawn Brigade. Makes 3-13 way more difficult.

[@johntopping2728]

I think I'd disagree with separating Brom and nephenee, 1 point of movement really doesn't matter when half the time the map restricts how far you are going and the other half of the time units with canto outshine both of them.

[@Mekkkah]

A point of movement accumulates over turns, and it also gets worse in maps with lots of terrain. I also pointed out that Neph's big selling point over Brom and other units is her high speed. Brom doesn't double anything.

[@johntopping2728]

Nephenee is definitely the better unit but I wouldnt categorize Brom as not worth the effort long term investment if nephenee is. They provide similar quality contributions throughout part 2&3 and imo both turn out in the same league as endgame units, although nephenees 34 speed cap makes her way better at dealing with certain units in the tower.

[@Mekkkah]

@@johntopping2728 Go ahead and try taking them both to a map like 3-4, which is pretty movement heavy without being completely dominated by mounts (due to ledges). And try killing enemies with both. I guarantee you'll find a significant offensive advantage for Nephenee. I can buy Brom being better for their joining chapter and that's about it.

[@johntopping2728]

@@Mekkkah But Brom is better on 3-5 because he can beat it without doing anything (: Counting steps on 3-4, right hand side and leading the pack, nephenee gets to the 4th ledge one turn earlier, after that their only difference is in combat and both will likely be two rounding anything they go up against. Nepehenee might be able to one round mages if she has high enough attack and may do much worse against the final row of generals. Bonus EXP is on turn 10 so id say nephenee is probably 20% better on this map.

[@mattinsula7143]

I'd put Zihark in no brainer. He doesn't even require investment, he just comes good

[@ziegfeld4131]

He gets destroyed in part 3 though hes just a worse sothe after part 1

[@RushStudios101]

His strength is very poor after part 1. By the time he rejoins the Greil Mercs he just doesn't cut it compared to them.

[@lofnforseti8447]

@@ziegfeld4131 An A-support with Volug or Nolan (I prefer the wolf-man) mitigates that problem, especially if he is on a reed tile. A-support is very doable by 3-6, he will have 55 avoid on the reed tile, he can dodge quite reliably. And I'm the type of person who actually says he is quite fragile for tiger laguz, and I agree, but he is certainly better than Sothe than you might think, he can even double cat laguz and access to brave sword + beastfoe. Slap him a paragon in 3-12, he'll likely be just be quarter behind promoting to 20.

[@charleouel9012]

Heather is a pretty sick dodge tank overall tho I won't lie her 2 best stats are good for dodgeing stuff (SPD/Luck. bot impact Avoid if I recal well.)

[@ziegfeld4131]

You can feed every kill to sothe and get at least 6 to 7 levels on him on hardmode with not bxp and in part 3 he will prob have better tanky stats than jill

[@MagikarpPower]

when u understand that you're only gonna be training a few units (for me nolan, jill, zihark) Part 1 gets exceptionally easier. you can have the redacted character, nailah and volug pick up a lot of kills to pave the way without losing exp on those that matter. ive beaten part one and jill and nolan are both promoted level 2, I used a master seal for nolan at lvl 17 for 1-E but the game gives you plenty of those

[@absoul112]

At first I was thinking, "What's he talking about? Who's missing?" Then it dawned on me who it was.

[@shiro5157]

what is the music from

[@Femaiden]

gotta love the cruel joke they played on us, making the most fragile character in the history of the series, with the lowest hp ever. . and then giving her a special command to give up her hp to heal someone else. . . like, it's this major pllot point that she's somehow special because she can heal others without a staff, but her hp is so low and then you need a healer behind her to heal her afterwards. .which is great for grinding xp, but otherwise it's just healing with extra steps

[@holowisewolf1688]

Sacrifice heals status ailments too, there's a few cases where that comes in handy.

[@redguistar]

Pair up zihark and nolan and that'll make them both dodge everything and never die

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

26:26 word!

[@Valdeande3]

How ti fix zihark's durability, suppot him with nolan

[@amrithas182]

Hey mekkah have you played golden Sun?

[@clownworld3382]

I think he did, he said something about that in his Q&A

[@andyvanmuilekom7390]

Put beastfoe on volug in the swamp level and let him tank in human form for easy exp

[@FIFAmusicMAN]

3:45 spreading exp is maybe a...pitfall

[@Stormwinds0]

Nolan's good, but he almost always gets strength-screwed when I use him.

[@Zackerton]

Nolan moment, a Axé user Is short of damage

[@rita1525]

Nolan only has a 35% strength growth

[@lofnforseti8447]

At the very least, you can still supplement this momentarily by giving him a bowgun/crossbow with beast foe by 3-6 and 3-13 to catch up.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

@@rita1525 I got defence-screwed Nolan but he somehow got res... not sure whether to happy about that lmao

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

@@rita1525 No, he has 45.

[@RDA000]

Id say Jill is a no brainer and Aran is a good investment

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

Disagree. Jill does not become a no brainer until after you've dumped a ton of stat boosters and exp into her. At base, she is very underwhelming. Jill is the poster child for a good investment unit.

[@ryanc5572]

I love how Astrid and Heather are in the trash tiers.

[@godoftwinkies574]

Sadly this list doesn't take in attention that a few of these unit are Endgame Mandatory.

[@Mekkkah]

Because it's a guide for part 1, not part 4.

[@godoftwinkies574]

@@Mekkkah i understand. But Miki needs to be topped by the end of Act 1 in my opinion.

[@rpgaddict314]

Make Zihark stand next to his support or visa versa when they have nothing better to do. I got him to an A or B support by chapter 3 without playing slowly.

[@Besh091]

Also, my vote for next game definitely goes to Genealogy!

[@stevenmcqueen7433]

It annoys me that everytime I try to use jill she just feels so fucking bad lol. Like I'm.never able to make her work.

[@navadax4541]

That's strange. She's usually very good.

[@stevenmcqueen7433]

@@navadax4541 yeah, I've seen enough mekkah vids to know she should be decent but idk. She always falls behind and once that happens it's over for her.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

You really have to dump all of your resources into her to get her going. In a more vanilla FE game, she could even feel like a high effort unit because of how many stat boosters and levels it takes to put her in the same class as Haar.

[@sig757]

Transfer Jill is the most busted version of Jill especially if she capped hp, str, spd and def because it allows her to double almost every enemy in part 1 with base 17 speed instead of 15.

[@ziegfeld4131]

She needs transfers to be truly busted plus all the stat boosters then use bxp after you early cap stats she can normally cap strength,speed and defense with good transfers and the booster

[@choboichowder4379]

WHY ISN'T ARAN IN NO BRAINER TIER!?!?!??!!!

[@navadax4541]

If you're not joking, it's because he's not that good

[@fums63]

FE4 next pls

[@h0m3st4r]

Calling it now. All the Greil Mercenaries except Mist and Rolf are going to be No Brainers.

[@troykv96]

Boyd actually has a potentially weak start if he doesn't have PoR bonuses, specially in hard mode.

[@lofnforseti8447]

Yes, of course, Rhys is a no brainer.

[@h0m3st4r]

@@lofnforseti8447 What's wrong with having more than one healer in the party?

[@lofnforseti8447]

@@h0m3st4r Nothing, but a no brainer? No, and this is someone who trained Rhys to double as early as 3-11. So, might as well consider making a heal category for Mist and Rhys. Mist is somewhat nice for her 1 movement, it can really matter, though not to extol, I do prefer Mist over Rhys.

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

Many of them are Good (No Investment). The exceptions would be Soren who is a mage in a Tellius game, Rhys who is like Laura but with better competition (staves regen the wielder's HP, so you don't need two), and Oscar/Boyd who require investment to be good.

[@kingbears6188]

I like use meg on hard mode cause she got is gain easily speed and resistance which make her really nice but she will have a bit less armor and hp than others armored unit. Yes, it's hard to play her but she can be really usefull cause in my runs edward and leonardo got too much bad ups... xD

[@Edgeperor]

It doesn’t really matter if Edward and Leonardo get bad level ups, since they will rarely be good anyways unless they get 5 full level ups in a row or something

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

20:04 ... actually no, Micaiah is a very strong anti-mage mage in my run. She's not gonna die to everything, but definitely do give her seraph robe by the time you got one so you won't accidentally got her kill if you misplaced her. Enemy mages do like 1 or 0 mages to micaiah... lol So I will say Micaiah is very easy to train especially when you can abuse sacrifice and let her deal with the mages

[@kentknightofcaelin4537]

You're probably playing normal mode.

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

@@kentknightofcaelin4537 No, Im playing on hard mode. You should try to use her against mages in part 1. Problem with her is on part 3, where the exp are scarce af. And it will be hard to train her without boss abusing. Since enemy mages also have high res, you can get quite a lot of exp from her facing mages.

[@Aether776]

My RD game must be bugged or something, i NEVER had a good Jill

[@youtubedeletedmyaccountlma2263]

I just started iron man, my jill only got like 2 defence growth so far at level 18... Sigh

[@ziegfeld4131]

Are you using transfers? With transfers noramlly you can get hp,strength,speed and defense plus give her all 3 stat boosters the DB get she will double and ORKO everything

[@aroB777]

This is the easiest FE ever! Very Entertaining but very disappointing for a challenge.

[@edwardtellius5556]

This is some of the worst takes I have ever seen. Edward and Aran in high effort? Suggest you go play the game properly.

[@Mekkkah]

okay Edward Tellius will do

[@edwardtellius5556]

@@Mekkkah just because you have a baised opinion of the Dawn Brigade, part 1 too tough for you?

[@dawnellecarr1137]

@edward tellius mmmmmm yes I love training up someone that will get 2 shoted and the other gets doubled if I get unlucky and two rounded who can’t do much damage at base mmmm yes

[@edwardtellius5556]

The whole point of an FE game is strategy and keeping units alive, obvious you've never played an FE game on hard. And he only gets 2 shot for the first couple of chapters if you play properly, literally close to no effort to make him good.

[@Mekkkah]

@@edwardtellius5556 Just to humor you: 1-5 Fighters have 26. A level 15 Edward (REALLY overleveled - 11 levels in 5 maps, most of which are short) has around 28 hp/9 def, still getting two shot there. And in HM there's no weapon triangle to hide behind. Or a more realistic scenario: 20 atk archers. Edward needs to be like level 12 just to survive more than one shot from those. He's also only doubling those with 16 AS or above. He hits that at around level 11 on average, which is a pretty high level for him, and I estimate there's like a ~30-40% chance he has 15 AS or less.