I have played the game again on lunatic and with ironman rules this time and I even reached the final chapter but then Zeke died because of a Sage whose silence status ran out without me noticing, ending the run. (I still redid and finished this map with quick warp skipping)
This run went a lot more smooth this time and besides Zeke, I only lost 6 units which all of them were easily preventable if I had paid attention more. This time I saved a lot more staves for the last maps, got the 2 secret promotions, recruited more units and actually used those items that increase and decrease growth rates (they are awesome).
Unit opinions (both runs and spoilers)
Blair: Great mage. Her biggest pro is the access to convoy which is useful because of all the tomes that I want to use at the same time. That also makes her the best Earth Power user in my opinion.
Arin: Very useful in the earlygame and still useable later on even if you miss her secret promotion. However, her early level cap makes me want to avoid her for combat soon.
Kenneth: A mage user who is also tanky? I love it! Great for Nosferatu tanking for many parts if you give him Bodyrings. That secret promotion is mostly overkill but I’m not complaining.
Natasia: Always does a lot of damage but her defense and speed aren’t anything special.
Butch, Athena, Cassius: Good combat units.
Desmond: Ok prepromote but falls off early on.
Sam, Stefan: Annoying to train. Benched them soon
Josef: Great tank for the first half but enemies get a lot stronger and capped defense isn’t gonna cut it with his terrible speed. Still does good damage.
Peggy: Good stave user but gets outclassed easily by others who additionally have great skills too.
Rachael: Difficult to train at first which made me bench her after the first half. Her flying did have great uses tho.
Jeff: A thief. Often Arin was all I needed however.
Emile: Best stave user. A fixed +1 and later +3 to all stave ranges and higher mag cap as a sage makes him have the highest range for nearly every chapter in the game. He needs help to reach capped magic but the game gives you a lot Spirit Dust and he is a good candidate for them.
Sveltzalus: Amazing. Peak. Lovely. High speed is always useful + good skills.
Zeke: Great stats. When the game gives you Stormbow, he mostly uses it as a weapon.
Hyperius: Similar to Josef but a bit more speed.
Leila: Replaces Rachael. She can get a lot of exp during Zeke’s missions. Good combat unit.
Toddsworth: Dancer.
Avan: More mov than Peggy but still no special stave skills.
Yuyu: Mostly copies Toddsworth.
Vladmir: Starts with S-Rank in light magic which is useful for Morning Star. So I start to deploy him when I get that.
Eliza: Refresh on stave use is great.
Ptolemy: Big surprise. I didn’t expect anything but then I saw that he has a ballista and promotes to wyvern.
Sonia, Tobias, Joan: Good lategame combat units.
Jonas: I thought we would get his boss version and not a very high level one. Makes going for Lazarus even more worth it.
Olsen: Kills stuff.
Valeria: Good combat unit. Having access to all Prfs is cool too.
Elcorian: Makes warp skipping the final chapter even easier.
And a tierlist (spoilers)