Seven months ago, I barely missed completing this map. I can't entirely rule out that it was doable at the time, but not with the tools I had available to me on the last run. After a week of careful calculations, discussing with other true soloers, and trying some of the most unconventional strategies I could think of, I settled on the following conclusion: To clear this map with Hubert, he either needed a weapon better than Conch Bouquet* that allowed him to be adjacent to allies without conflict, or just 2 additional speed somewhere in his build, which would allow him to use Raudrvulture to pick off some of the faster enemies before the map became too crowded and Hubert would have to stand next to fillers, creating a situation where the run would become invalid.
Edelgard's map had aged much better than most solo maps of her era because of the precise positioning needed to bait onto your solo unit. The culprit is the map itself, the walls that line almost half the map. If the enemy AI ever finds itself in a situation where has a target that it can attack, and there are no alternative actions available for it, it must attack. So there must be room for any enemy who can attack the fillers to also be able to attack Hubert to even have a chance at completing the map. With enemies coming from all sides, this limits the available move space to only a handful of tiles until the late stages of the map. Not only that, but once again Hubert's status as a red unit, while favourable against the boss, is quite weak against the allies Edelgard brought to defend herself, particularly the Blue Mage and the Blue Cavalier. Again due to the map layout and movement constraints, it's quite difficult to land debuffs on them to protect Hubert from their wrath - there are closer units to soak a menace, smokes and threatens don't reach, and chills wouldn't even land.
I had to give up then, I was simply taking too much damage.
That was seven months ago though. I'm sorry to report that the difficulty that was once there has largely disappeared to powercreep. Half of Hubert's build has been swapped out for more optimal skills, and the previous hurdles are easily cleared. Guaranteed follow-up counters the green mage and manakete, who were the concerning speed checks before, while also allowing Hubert to spec further into defensive skills to more cleanly tank the blue threats, and no longer does Hubert need to fear missing kills, sending the thief hurdling across the map to its favourite Wings of Mercy target at inopportune moments. It's still not a trivial map by any means for the unprepared, but I had a week of practice time and seven months preparation for this, and it didn't really stand a chance against me.
For a bit of extra dramatic flair I decided to try to use a skill I've never used in solos before, Dragon Fang, to try and clear the map with the specific condition of 1) tanking Edelgard's bonfire, and 2) killing her with a special. Absolutely not necessary, but I'm quite pleased with the results.
The only Three Houses** map still standing is F!Byleth, and she's my main target for the end of February. Wish me luck, I think I'll need it with two fatal smokes and a Chill Def/Res on the map.
* I believe Luminous Grace+ may have made this run possible at the time but Scion Julia was not and has never been interested in donating her tome to my cause
** Three HOUSES. Not Hopes. By my best calculations Arval's combination of Res, follow-up control and guard aura makes that map just shy of impossible until new tools are available. I think I could damage him with specifically Blazing Flame with enough Atk and Res debuffs if I could keep him perfectly still outside his 3 column guard aura and prevent him from ever getting healed or killing any of his allies. Shez is disgusting in a different way, in that there are three enemies that can OHKO or ORKO Hubert from three sides of the map, with little ability to retaliate. I do believe Shez is solvable, but shoot-dang if I know how to do it yet.
#fireemblemheroes #hubertvonvestra #truesolo