In my first playthrough, she seemed way to overpowered (somewhere around lvl 12 sentinel), and I focused on some other character. When I made it to the end game chapters, she was around lvl 17 going into the last level, where someone less then 20/20/20 is almost useless. The amount of defense that many of the enemies have at the end game makes a maxed out character a necessity (and Nephenee's slight lack of strength made this even worse).

Ohhhh, I understand now.

Okey dokey. I'll do my best to max her out.. I'm definitely bringing Haar along, too, he is also a freaking monster.

Well Haar has such amazing stats that he would be useful at less than maxed.  I've also seen enough convincing arguments to convince me that Haar is probably the best character in the game (and I would tend to agree).

For a real FYI though, do not shy on leveling Ike, as having him under leveled is probably the most game breaking mistake you could make, and I would hate to see someone get to the third last level and have to restart.

Haha, I'd never leave Ike underleveled. He's waaaaay too valuable.

if you are still on 3-5, my suggestion is kill everyone, and take out the boss at the very last second

However, I'm having a hard time remember which one it really is, but that would be my strategy anyways. If you are still there, I'll go look at the level to remind myself which one it is.

ok, I just looked at maps and I remember that one now. What I typically do is have a small team (including Ike) leave the base on the eastern stairs and make their way down to the boss. They have to kill the boss on the end of turn 10 so I can get max experience all around.

The rest of the units defend the upper level. So you need 3 strong defenders and a handful of ranged units up there. Also, 1 healer, and a heron to give your healer multiple turns, or other units if need be. I stuck my armor on the west stairs, and Mia on the eastern stairs.

If this next assault doesn't work out, then I'll do that.

I want to send Soren because he has a support with Ike but he's so damn squishy.

Well Ike is a tricky one, mainly because he's story promoted, not level promoted.  So it could be easy to have him stuck at 20/20 while your happily pushing Haar, Nephenee, Titania, Boyd, Shinon past 20/20/5-7.

All right screw you, bad guys!

I'm leaving Nephenee, Gatrie, and Oscar behind to defend the stairs. Shinon, Soren, Boyd, Rolf, and Brom will be defending gaps. Rhys will be doing this when it looks like people might be coming up.

Ike, Haar, and Titania are going to go have a party.

uhh, you may want to add 1-2 more to your exploration party

edit: on second thought, you are sending 3 beats, so you may be ok.