Fallen Dimitri

Weapon: Ninja Yari+

Assist: Shove

Special: Galeforce / Moonbow

Passive A: Flashing Blade 4 / Atk/Spd Solo

Passive B: Murderous Lion

Passive C: Odd Tempest / Def Smoke

Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Flashing Blade

• Here is a chart comparing Ninja Yari builds to Dimitri's base kit:
   
• Ninja Yari allows Dimitri to not only charge his special quickly (particularly when utilizing Flashing Blade 4, as it is part of Ninja Navarre's kit and can be inherited in one go along with Ninja Yari), but also circumvents enemy Follow-Up denial almost as well as Vengeful Lance.
• For this, Dimitri loses -2 Speed and -14 Attack as opposed to running Vengeful Lance, but gets to attack twice. Surprisingly, this seems to actually be worthwhile, due to Special acceleration which allows Dimitri to be flexible in which Special he chooses to run. As long as the -2 Speed doesn't affect Fallen Dimitri's ability to double, then Ninja Yari will be the better choice.
• Assuming Vengeful Lance Dimitri runs Flashing Blade in his Seal slot and Ninja Yari Dimitri runs Atk/Spd Solo in his Seal slot... Ninja Yari Dimitri still outdamages Vengeful Lance due to the additional +4 damage/-1 Speed difference in the Flashing Blade4+Atk/Spd Solo Seal vs Atk/Spd Solo4+Flashing Blade seal
• The only thing to take note is the Speed loss, particularly in the Galeforce build. Since Dimitri gives up an additional Speed-stacking slot to run Flashing Blade, it becomes harder for him to make those Speed checks with 47 effective Speed before the Sacred Seal.
   
• If you don't have Ninja Yari then Dimitri can run Brave Lance, but the Speed check grows even harder to beat, with a -9 Speed compared to Ninja Yari and -11 compared to Vengeful Lance. For a Brave Lance set, you'll want to keep Atk/Spd Solo 4 in his A slot and run Flashing Blade in his Seal slot with Moonbow, which allows him to activate Moonbow on the second hit vs opponents with 44 or Speed or less.
• Dimitri's Murderous Lion B slot makes Brave Lance builds very attractive due to his Firesweep effect and his debuffs, as well as his ability to use Canto to get out of the way for the subsequent Enemy Phase.

Weapon: Vengeful Lance / Slaying Lance (+SPD)

Assist: Shove

Special: Galeforce / Glimmer

Passive A: Atk/Spd Solo / Life and Death 4 / Flashing Blade 4

Passive B: Murderous Lion

Passive C: Time's Pulse / Odd Tempest

Seal: Flashing Blade / Atk/Spd Solo / Quickened Pulse

• Despite Fallen Dimitri's B slot making him perfect for a Galeforce build, his Vengeful Lance doesn't seem to want to cooperate. While it might seem ridiculous to replace his 19 mt Atk/Spd Solo lance with Slaying Lance, it's ultimately the only way that Dimitri can guarantee a Galeforce activation in two hits unless you inherit the costly Time's Pulse, which overrides his Odd Tempest and reduces the efficiency of the Canto effect in his B slot. Note that replacing Vengeful Lance with Slaying Lance (+SPD) drops his Speed by 3, so it's likely better to do this on a Dimitri with a +SPD boon.
• It's Curtains is also an option which resolves a lot of Dimitri's cooldown issues, but like Quickened Pulse, it only offers him cooldown reduction once. This can be fine in a short-term mode, but for any map that takes more than a single turn to resolve, Dimitri's efficiency decreases drastically after his first turn of Galeforce activation.
• Even with inheritance offering him -1 on his Special, Dimitri still needs Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade in his A or Seal Slot to activate while he doubles his opponent. Since doubling requires his Speed to be 5 higher than his opponent anyway, Flashing Blade synergizes with his playstyle a bit more.
• Once all that is out of the way though, Dimitri becomes a proper menace, with repeated Galeforce activations and Canto, which allows him to retreat back to safety after engaging.
   
• Note that Canto's interactions with Galeforce are a bit odd: the skill activates after the character has ended their final action for the turn (after the free Galeforce turn) and uses the character's remaining movement after the action is completed. The unit must complete an action (attacking, assist skill, terrain destruction) in order for Canto to activate. For example: Dimitri without Odd Tempest (2 tile movement) moves 2 spaces and engages an opponent and activates Galeforce. Then his turn is refreshed and he moves 1 space to Shove his ally out of the way. Then Canto activates, granting him 2 additional spaces (his 1 remaining movement + 1 extra) of movement for the turn.
• For this reason, Shove is Dimitri's best Assist slot - he can keep his Solo activations by Shoving away his allies and can further utilize Shove as a way to gain additional movement via the Galeforce+Canto combination, without putting his ally behind him, potentially in danger, with a skill like Reposition.
• Alternatively, just run his base kit with Shove, which also works, just not as efficiently as Galeforce. This allows Dimitri to run Atk/Spd Solo in his seal slot for more damage and higher Speed checks, while Canto still grants him some movement after his initial attack - it just doesn't allow him to attack again. Note that without Heavy or Flashing Blade in his seal slot, Dimitri cannot unleash Glimmer in a single round of combat due to his lack of cooldown mitigation.
• We can all thank IS for giving Dimitri Atk+3 instead of Slaying on his weapon and complicating all of Dimitri's builds as a result.