Leonardo: Not Like The Other Archers

Important Context: • Regarding the Lughnasa...
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Leonardo is a fascinating unit. He has horrible bases, badly distributed growths, a useless skill, an awful weapon rank, and arguably the worst class in the game. Yet, despite all these disadvantages, Leonardo has a lot of unique tools at his disposal that come from the unique mechanics of Radiant Dawn. In this video, I explore them and teach you how to best utilize Leonardo!
Music Used
Fire Emblem Awakening--Champion
Octopath Traveler--The Flatlands
Spiderman 2--Funiculi, Funicula
Advance Wars 2 Black Hole Rising--Jess's Theme
Pokemon Black--Opelucid City Gym
Moonlighter--Village of Rynoka

[@noahpelletier6616]

9:08 this part is actually wrong. Decimals round up in Radiant Dawn. Leo C support gives +1 Attack and Defense which is extremely helpful in the early game, and his A support is +2 to both. In a multi game ironman (where Jill died in PoR to a misclick), I A supported him with Zihark for the +2 damage, which let Zihark hit some one round thresholds in 3-6.

[@kirkofhazard5359]

My poor boy Edward catching strays for no reason.

[@_Hamler]

I know he's absolute trash due to Zihark but that 60% strength growth makes me love him so much

[@kirkofhazard5359]

@@_Hamler With how much normal and bonus exp available those first 6 chapters, its not even that difficult for the reverse to be true. Though usually its more of a "holy shit, two cakes" situation.

[@medalkingslime4844]

The fact that Leonardo would not exist in a modern fire emblem is the entire problem. Give me more bad units with interesting and *nearly* useless niches. This makes me want to use Leonardo for the first time since I was in High School.

[@michaelvisosky743]

On the one hand, as an Edward Enjoyer, I very much have a unit to train early on instead of Leonardo. On the other hand, Leonardo does come with that free Dracosheild - which might be the most impactful Dracosheild in the entire series, when you think about it.

[@sigmaklim2532]

I can’t explain how much I wanted this to secretly be an entry to SRPG Sapphics. Jokes aside I’m really interested in seeing this one since I love Leo.

[@set.theory]

Here's my 5 cents for yet another interesting though ultimately inconsequential tidbit about Leonardo: as his personal bow gives him +5 Speed and the Marksman cap is 34, he can actually double the auras in endgame without the need for White Pool support, if you can somehow get him all the way there! Probably not as difficult as it sounds, given a little favoritism and how Bonus EXP works. This came up in my last run of Radiant Dawn and it was a fun novelty, if nothing else. Granted, I don't think that actually does anything for him. The Double Bow has +6 might over his personal, other archers are much more likely to reach their offensive caps and it's not like positioning 1~3 range marksmen to hit stationary enemies whilst making use of pool skills was ever difficult to begin with. In most realistic scenarios, he will not outdamage your other options... but he is still so fun. EDIT: I forgot the Double Bow gives +3 Strength, giving it a lead of effectively 9 damage per hit... yeah Leo's cooked 💀

[@ViciousSal]

I'll give you another tidbit, if it wasn't in the video; Leo and Rolf can ORKO an Aura whilst Shinon cannot. Rolf needs a triangle attack and blood tides, Leo can do it with A support (he's the only archer who has an ATK boosting affinity himself), blood tides and a brave bow.

[@set.theory]

​@@ViciousSalWait, that triangle attack tech is sick, I'd never thought of that!!! Do Tellius TAs require all three units to attack and land their hits? I *have* to try it on my next run!

[@IschmarVI]

plus, as he uses Lughnasadh instead of Double Bow, you can also bring a second marksman. Thats also nice. Unfortunately, it also means that you have to grind leo up to 3rd tier which is ... let's say, it's a lot of work.

[@CommerceHollifield666WWFSMD]

Always love to see Leonardo propaganda, one of those units that really exemplifies the weird shit that makes me love Radiant Dawn

[@dumpsterfire9345]

my takeaway from this is that Leonardo is the unit ever. great video

[@topazlight1586]

Leonardo being the most uninteresting interesting unit is some interesting number paradox shit

[@RisingSunReviews]

Your conclusion at the end is interesting. From a game design perspective, there is a lot to unpack here. It's like they tried to make him powerful through non-traditional means, which is refreshing. But even then, he's outclassed by pretty much everything else. It's a shame because I really like the Dawn Brigade units and they have some of my favorite maps. But there's no practical way for those early units to keep up.

[@DaniDoyle]

Yeah it's sad that the units will class him are good in uninteresting ways, basically invalidating the interesting things he brings to the table

[@Zyaire286]

Leonardo do be having one of Diaen’s sacred treasures (which is a bow) working for him so off course he’s not like other archers….. Unless you playing JP version where the dev didn’t give him the bow OvO

[@kingdyste5289]

The big takeaway from this for me is that Crossbows were a fun idea and should be explored again in a future game, since they give bow users an interesting option and make it so that enemies could have them as a way to deter fliers from dominating maps if positioned well. Just... maybe make them so they actually work on Wyvern Riders next time, please?

[@GKoopa]

I love this not-even-trying-to-read-it pronounciation of Lughnasadh lmao There's not even a D in it until the very end, where did Ludaslaga come from!!

[@MagikarpPower]

jagen is indeed an est

[@synashilp]

My first thoughts on Leonardo were that he was made to be an odd mage-killer archer of some sort. After playing the game some more, my thoughts settled on him being a decent benchwarmer.

[@jemolk8945]

I like using boss abuse on Jarrod to get the entire Dawn Brigade to tier 2 in part 1 endgame, myself. Jarrod is enough of an asshole to deserve it. It's not even close to efficient, but it's very satisfying to me treating the main villain of part 1 as an EXP piñata. So the difficulty of getting Leo to sniper isn't really as much of a factor for me. Sadly, he still doesn't do much in part 3, and I don't think I've ever let him off the bench in part 4. It's not even like he's equivalent to the rest of the Dawn Brigade once trained. Meg is harder to train, but even a trained Meg massively outclasses Leo. Just disappointing.

[@matthewcab67]

Radiant Dawn really is that game with the “Units of all time” kinda like the Archanea games, Thracia, and Binding Blade

[@IschmarVI]

fun fact, Lugnasadh itself is strong enough to OHKO every pegasus in 3-12 even before factoring in leo's stats. Now, at baselevel his hitrate may be a bit shaky though -although a quick meg support can fix that-

[@iagoagogo]

I'm glad that there's finally a grounded video that appreciates Leonardo's upsides without gassing him up like crazy. I've seen a few different vids now of people talking up this blonde mfer and then having him never actually perform.

[@Silverstar114]

"maybe try him out" I can't be the only one that wanted to use all of the dawn brigade just cause those low level ding ding dings are too good to pass up

[@DaniDoyle]

Do do la la do! Ding ding ding ding ding ding.

[@DarkSoulsSauron]

Leonardo is an archer i've sometimes shown favoritism to. I did a run where i was determined to bring every member of the dawn brigade to endgame and i was surprised at how good he was. I actually decided to make Lughnasadh his holy weapon instead of the double bow because i found that it helped him reach a speed tier that Marksmen couldn't reach otherwise with their middling speed cap. I'll admit i did do some RNG abuse and BEXP abuse to get his speed up to near the cap, but i didn't need to do nearly as much as that 35% spd growth suggested. It was a fun project and i was surprised at the level of performance i got out of Leo, but do keep your expectations low.

[@DarkSoulsSauron]

one of the units that i also got surpringly good use out of was Fiona. she did need some boss abuse in 1-E but the dawn brigade is desperate for a unit with decent bulk in part 3 where Nolan's high HP but low DEF and Arans low bases and mid halberdier caps mean the onslaught of laguze makes the Dawn Brigade desperate for a unit who can survive extended rounds of combat. Fiona's base imbue and a little favoritsm got me a LOT of milage, but she's def not worth the investment outside of gimmick runs.

[@DelanHaar6]

Slight correction, it's transformed laguz that can only move 1 tile at a time through the water. Untransformed laguz can move 2 tiles, as demonstrated at 5:30.

[@DaniDoyle]

Oh, nice catch, thanks!

[@Blitz.Beetle]

The best thing I can say about Leonardo after watching this is, he's certainly a unit in a Fire Emblem game

[@17Master]

Joke’s on you. A 20m Dani ramble is exactly what I wanted to listen to while on the road.

[@jierdareisa4313]

I love ALL Dani Doyle videos!!!! ❤

[@LiroRaeriyo]

14:35 you mention volugs need for strike, but you can simply have volug and meg support each other and have volug fight while rescuing meg, this shackles volugs speed enough that he doesnt double anything enabling him to attack but not kill everything, and the support raises his hit/evade to counter the speed/skill penalties. thats right, the actual optimal use of meg is as a training weight for volug.

[@DaniDoyle]

Woah, new meta meg???

[@corhydrae3238]

Joke's on you. You actually think you need to convince me to/can stop me from using bad earlygame archers? I'm into that shit.

[@DaniDoyle]

Based

[@neongrey333]

neat. seems like he might be fun to give a go next time I pick up the game!

[@khi92]

Leonardo is the true potential man and a lot of the dawn brigades units are investments like Edward carried the dawn brigade part 3 i think a fix to the scrub brigade is to give them more maps

[@nstar674]

My one RD playthrough had an incredibly blessed Leonardo, and he Killed Ashera twice when I was trying to weaken her. He was one of my best units.

[@cobaltobject1855]

One thing about Leonardo that always stood out to me is that because his skill and res are likely to cap after just a few levels, meaning that bonus xp is likely to give him a bunch of free strength and speed level ups. Granted I know this doesn't actually matter because good players just give all bonus xp to Jill or we whoever, but it makes me feel smart to exploit the sysyem for additional number go up

[@woodrowhearting2757]

I really like this video, ty for making it

[@just-mees]

This video is like if a politician made a unit analysis video

[@halcyon_echo42]

I almost always supported him with Edward for that +3 attack +2 defense & some accuracy in their A Support. Leo benefits more as an archer, while Edward can still get to Wrath range and deal more damage per crit & overall

[@pontototo]

I recently finished my first Radiant Dawn playthrough, and Leonardo got the most kills, even more than Ike and Haar, who I used a lot. To be fair, for Haar, I tried to avoid feeding him kills because I wanted to try and train funnier units (he ended up almost soloing half the desert map anyways, lol) Leo's high ranking actually confused me, because outside of some Act 1 chapters I don't remember especially feeding Leonardo kills. I took him to the tower only because he and Rolf had similar stats and levels in the end, so I decided to bring Leonardo for the funnies. So according to the unit records... somehow my best unit??

[@Luigiofthegods]

Society if Leonardo replaced Wolt in FE6 and skilled all over FE6 enemies 🏙

[@kryticalhits7385]

if you plopped him straight into FE6 with no adjustments to bases or growths he might actually be kinda cracked lol, he would have the best player phase combat for the first 4 chapters besides marcus and dieck, and rutger once you recruit him

[@Luigiofthegods]

@@kryticalhits7385 I'm saying this because I DID play a hack that did that, and he was by far the best early-game player phaser

[@AeriusGameplay]

This is a great video; Lughnasadh is pronounced Loo-nah-sa btw

[@666Kaca]

I "used" him on my last hard run. Got him to 10/1 by 3-13, at that point jill and zihark could 1round everything so i tried a new strat. Send leonardo to top left with beastfoe, he can hold the chokepoint there while 1rounding enemies

[@IschmarVI]

I mean, leonardo can play "discount 3-13 archer" at the right ballista so that that NPC dude doesn't waste so many shots. Unfortunately, Leonardo is less accurate than that NPC dude so that's annoyong. -seriously, why do I start to believe that supporting him with meg for the extra hit might actually be a "good" idea, lol-

[@plushyloverowo6730]

Leonardo makes me so sad He has a neat lategame class, gets an excellent prf weapon and brave weapon in part 3 He could've been genuinely okay if he didn't have the leonardo growths

[@IschmarVI]

low level tier 1 archers have historically never performed well in fire emblem games. It is just too hard to level up a unit from scratch that doesn't have a good presence in enemy phase.

[@YamiSora]

While I do think this was a good video and I liked a lot of the points you made, I cannot and will not accept any Edward slander. He was my mvp in my first run of this game back in college. I just started a new run again after all these years so maybe I’ll give Leonardo a try. But I will not be benching my boy Edward.

[@nathanjohnson2382]

Marksman Leo was a process and not worth it but I’ve done it

[@BARadiantDawn]

So, I actuallyvhad godly Leonardo for the first time, I'm playing on hard and took him to the tower. It's kinda wild, first time in over 100 playthroughs, and with most on normal mode too lol yet the first time he's godly is hard mode lol

[@PumpkinFox]

Can't use Leonardo sorry, too busy having Fiona and Meg solo part 3.

[@DaniDoyle]

SMH you're clearly a toxic elitist who only uses good units like Meg and Fiona

[@PumpkinFox]

@@DaniDoyle Honestly Meg is such a weird unit because she's not as bad as everyone says, but she's still pretty awful. Always fun to use though.

[@neopets666]

Omg same tho - it takes all my strength to not favor Meg and Fiona 4 the meme

[@IschmarVI]

@@PumpkinFoxthat 2nd tier speed cap hurts her soooo much

[@PumpkinFox]

@@IschmarVII think you mean benefits! That juicy cap means amazing BEXP levels!

[@osirisblade8145]

Hell yeah, I love Leo. I use him every chance I get

[@Hebleh]

Finally someone talking about my boy

[@timetaker7816]

it kinda makes me uncomfortable to think of our lord and savior aran in the same category as edward

[@rooklordofmagic]

This video is the most value leonardo has ever provided

[@gangstersamurott2511]

he got the most kills in my iron man tho, wasn't even on purpose he sniped my Rhys from getting the number 1 spot. That sure was a run

[@swinelias]

Fun fact, Leonardo has the same name as my younger brother lol.

[@5Points]

0:09 unsubbed

[@Estfireemblem]

Leonardo is my favorite ninja turtle

[@Mr.Jim248]

Wish I could play RD.

[@DaniDoyle]

Me when 200 dollar Wii game

[@LunarBoo]

Is finding an Ocean Seal an option?

[@Mr.Jim248]

@@LunarBoo Maybe

[@Mr.Jim248]

@@DaniDoyle To quote Ash Ketchum: "Reality can bum you out."

[@GlibberyGlibberyGock]

EDWARD

[@NolenJacobson]

Leonardo is kind of robbed of a niche by the balancing decision to give melee units, especially first tier ones, much lower Res caps in RD.

[@DaniDoyle]

I don't think resistance would help him tbh

[@NolenJacobson]

@@DaniDoyleI think it would make him more worth considering in endgame. If the caps were like 20/23/28 a 20/15/1 Leonardo would be about 7 res up on a 20/1 Shinon which would amount to him surviving one extra hit from the endgame spirits. It admittedly isn't much and is counterproductive with how BEXP works in RD but its better than having no advantage at all like he does now.

[@OrkBraedan]

I wont lie you kinda became the "fire emblem KZbinr i respect but dont agree with" but you made fun of edward enough in this video to win me back over

[@birchy6674]

10/10 Logic. HOWEVER. Where is your proof? It's not in the footage! 7/10 not enough Leonardo.

[@DaniDoyle]

Didn't you see all the footage of Leonardo with the crossbow? It was clearly labeled as Leonardo, not Nolan

[@birchy6674]

@@DaniDoyle :D

[@jacobkakyoin6882]

Radiant Dawn really may have the funniest bad units in all of FE

[@kylekinganimations7008]

I think you posted this video a little early, April fools isn’t for another two weeks

[@vaughnrudy8084]

Edward and leonardo are pretty okay tbh. Arran sucks balls lol

[@DaniDoyle]

I'm also part of the aran hate squad. Glad to see a fellow hater 💜 never let his strength and defense growth lie to you

[@vaughnrudy8084]

Crazy how he just Cannot do what his role is supposed to be@@DaniDoyle

[@IschmarVI]

reminder that, assuming same level, Aran is slower than Micaiah. Let that sink in.

[@vaughnrudy8084]

@@IschmarVI hey lay off the micaiah bexp rigging mag/spd/res levels goes hard

[@user-pp5qg6ip5x]

I think sihion is beter is like and 1ke that cna pormot erlier and dos efective dameg on fiers and has the terid back that his paeinr wepron is 2 range and has a bounos that when pormouded he can ataka at 3 ranga if you don't belibe me shinon has the smae speed as mia ho has 28 fi you asow think that shinon has a pronbm with one to renag the sniper crit bonues canid of meks up of the fdiefnece in athak i aneie durein the time where ike gets he rngenle he has vert 21 to to rnag but shinos is beter when he has tha dobel bow

[@user-pp5qg6ip5x]

i inbewt in machi and get the best combat unit in thwe geme duo to beieng alb e to doble with nosfertu the dengoan and be imotarl with fler or i don't thirnt any one and i kill evethig with soht

[@RobinLeft]

This is incomprehensible, what on earth are you trying to say?

[@user-pp5qg6ip5x]

@@RobinLeft I tink tha michia with nosfertu is songer than any onter combat unit beocs she has fler can hele up and can oneorn the danrgones with nou skils in engem 3 she is the songest unit .And shinon is beter than ike for some reosn like he his the sma but cna promot erlier and has 3 range

[@user-pp5qg6ip5x]

Shinon is beter than ike they have arond the same base stat toutal and shinos has 1-3 rnag with the dobel bow i think thet lonardo is underde becose people comper him to shinon The best unit in the game excludin har i konw tah his main meto of atkin is at 2 rang but you cod just use balistas as when you use hand axes or javelins and du to his hier cit rat he will do some more dameg

[@user-pp5qg6ip5x]

@@RobinLeftshinon>(everi other carter raian dawn) shinon>leonardo dosn't prove that he is a bad unit .This is unit qulait buy the wey

[@vigbjornblaskeeg5813]

srsly remove silent hs. its lug-nasad

[@Zwangsdemokrat]

Must say I'm not the biggest fan of making fun of oppressed minority languages.

[@DaniDoyle]

What do you mean? (Genuine question)

[@Zwangsdemokrat]

@@DaniDoyle Lughnasadh is named after the Irish holiday and the Gaels have a sort of burdened history with English-speaking people ridiculing their language as unpronounceable. Might be a sore point for some.

[@DaniDoyle]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWLPqaeQrpp5p9E That's my bad. I'm genuinely sorry.