Quick, preliminary character analysis:
Darros: 34 HP, 13 Strength, 5 Skill, 9 Speed. He’s your hardest-hitting unit and incredibly bulky, but the buff to his Speed is kinda small. He’s at least not at risk of being doubled (and can survive some things that do double him), and doesn’t die in his join chapter anymore! If you can somehow get him up to Hero, he should be just fine.
Castor: 30 HP, 8 Strength, 7 Skill, 10 Speed. Might be the best bow unit in the game. He’s still not fast enough to double, but the fact that he has actually decent growths and a decent start means that he should at least get going before long. Horseman’s promo gains are small, but they’re still there; really, if you can get him up to A Bows, he should be your only real option for a Parthia-user.
Navarre: 31 HP, 8 Strength, 13 Skill, 15 Speed. Navarre finally lives up to his legend as an abnormally fast and strong unit, and is a great candidate for Hyman-slaying. C Swords and nothing else still sucks for him, but he can do work reclassed into a cavalier because his bases are just that good. He should also be really dang helpful in Chapter 9, or whenever you really need someone with C Swords.
Matthis: 32 HP, 10 Strength, 5 Skill, 9 Speed. A massive jump in quality; he goes from a base cavalier to an abnormally strong one, being slightly stronger and faster than Hardin. He still only has D Lances and bleh growths, but he can fight effectively against anything that doesn’t double him, and he might actually be able to put his decent defensive growths to good work.
Wendell: 28 HP, 10 Magic, 6 Skill, 16 Speed. Holy crap Wendell is busted. He one-rounds every single enemy in his join chapter, boss included, with just regular ol’ Blizzard. He’s definitely carrying the soul of his FE1 self. He’s not as absurdly tanky as some of his fellows, but he’s still a lot sturdier than a Sage has any right to be. He can even make Levin Sword shenanigans work. Probably the best unit overall.
Rickard: 25 HP, 7 Strength, 6 Skill, 16 Speed. Good as a “default thief”, but not much more. E Swords and 3 Defense still really sucks, though he can chip and double stuff more effectively, or avoid the occasional long-range bullshit.
Roger: 35 HP, 11 Strength, 7 Skill, 8 Speed. Roger’s now something of a speed demon, hitting 14 Speed in Hunter and Pirate, while also hitting fairly hard. His main problem is that he’s got a bad base class and therefore bad weapon rank when reclassed, but a double-attack with 11 Strength, even coming off an iron weapon, is going to hurt. He should be a lot better after promoting, when he can work with steel weapons. He reminds me of FE12 Draug.
Maria: 23 HP, 5 Magic, 6 Skill, 7 Speed. Maria’s probably changed the least out of any character to get boosted, mostly because her bases were so terrible that it’s like bailing out the Titanic. What she really wants is a staff rank boost, but this hack doesn’t give that, so oh well. Seriously, it’s kinda sad that two of her boosted stats are below base Lena.
Minerva: 38 HP, 13 Strength, 7 Skill, 18 Speed. Minerva has always been one of the game’s best prepromotes, and she’s only gotten better since then. She’s borderline one-rounding a lot of join-chapter enemies with nothing but a steel axe, and she’s so tanky that a lot of enemies are struggling to 3RKO her. Should be your best combat unit until the other Whitewings are promoted.
Jake: 34 HP, 12 Strength, 5 Skill, 7 Speed. Really, the thing that changes most about Jake is just that Xane is definitely going to be turning into him from now on. Another five points of chip damage can make the difference, but you’ll use him pretty much the same as you always do. Which isn’t a bad thing, because it’s hard to improve on a unit as silly as Jake.
Horace: 45 HP, 19 Strength, 16 Skill, 11 Speed. Horace really wishes he had better weapon ranks to work with, but his stats are actually pretty darn good, with 15 Speed and 17 Strength in Horseman. He might make a good Arms Scroll candidate, since using one on him in Berserker should get him D Axes (with C on the way) in Hero.
Astram: 38 HP, 12 Strength, 17 Skill, 17 Speed. Astram is still rather underwhelming for his reputation, in large part due to his weapon ranks being kind of misplaced, but he’s a lot more solid than before, and can easily do filler-prepromote duties. Decent Mercurius or Wyrmslayer-user, but he’s pretty much a Minerva who can’t fly or use Hauteclaire.
Palla: 36 HP, 11 Strength, 9 Skill, 19 Speed. Like her boss, Palla is alarmingly busted; these stats on a level 8 unpromoted unit are downright frightful. She’s literally four points off from Dracoknight’s Speed cap. Should be one of the strongest units in the army post-promotion. She’s actually stronger than her FE12 self, and that’s saying something.
Catria: 34 HP, 10 Strength, 8 Skill, 19 Speed. As ever, Catria is Palla with slightly worse bases and level and notably better growths. Still a great unit to have around, still doubles almost everything, should still be near-divine upon promoting.
Xane: Why do Freelancers have enemy class growths?
Etzel: 38 HP, 15 Magic, 18 Skill, 13 Speed. Etzel trades things off from Wendell; his class, Speed, and availability are all a lot worse, but he’s very bulky and his Magic is downright silly. He’s a good mage to have on hand if you hit gaidens, though his inability to double anything faster than a General is going to be irritating for him.
Est: 37 HP, 10 Strength, 8 Skill, 20 Speed. Joining right at the point when enemy stats start to hike up for endgame, Est reaps substantial rewards. With a 13 personal base, she is the fastest reclassable unit in the entire game, and she shares the remarkable bulk and hard-hitting nature of her sisters. The usual headache of raising her is almost completely gone, though her low base level means that it might take some time to get her up to promotion.
Tiki: 38 HP, 13 Strength, 2 Magic, 18 Skill, 20 Speed. Tiki reaps the benefits even harder than Est, due to manakete stat growths being incredibly high. She actually joins with her Speed capped. Add in divinestone bonuses and you have an alarmingly powerful unit at base; the only enemy left that can one-round her is Medeus himself, and even he’s not guaranteed to manage it. She’s still pretty sluggish on-foot, though.
Lorenz: 52 HP, 17 Strength, 9 Skill, 10 Speed. He may be the tankiest unit in the game, but poor Lorenz also joins near the end, and most of his stats are worse than Horace’s. He’s not abysmal in Warrior or Horseman, especially since he has an actual bow rank to work with, but he still needs an Arms Scroll for Parthia and chances are pretty good that Castor blows him out of the water at this point.
Ymir: 59 HP, 25 Strength, 17 Skill, 17 Speed. Ymir is… surprisingly really good. His HP is downright colossal, his Speed and Strength have both gotten major hikes, and his weapon ranks are a lot more workable than some other units. Even in Warrior, nothing short of a Thief or Manakete is going to double him, and he’s so tanky that he’s not going to die to much. His only problem is that he shows up when you’re probably warpskipping everything.