Bearissoslow

they have the right idea about wanting a scaled income tax and all that, but a lot of the stories are fucking stupid. 90% of them are "my life: the story of bad decisions" while the other 10% are just stories of bad luck (i.e. medical expenses from a terminal disease).

rebecca/dart > wil/dart double fire is probably the best support any two units could have in terms of affinity

Relm's problem with magic is that she never gets enough time to learn anything worthwhile in WOB because there's a stipulation against grinding. By the time you get her, she's only going to be available for Floating Continent. Enemies there give a good amount of points, but considering that the enemies are tough and you're only bringing three people in the first place, you'll likely want someone who can do things and isn't in the process of being babied into usability. you'd be far better off going with any variation Terra/Celes/Sabin/Edgar purely because they'll be useful and you can finish off some esper skills for them while still having a base to work with. for relm, it's all uphill. as for the assassin's dagger problem, I don't see how having a weapon that can cause instant death is a bad thing. really, your best refute for that is that it's not causing instant death to everything? it's still a plus for locke, any way you cut it. as for the damage output with bosses, lolmagic. he's not doing the most magic damage, but it's really negligible considering he has some of the best availability in WOB for building skills, meaning he'll at least be able to do something helpful, whether it's casting Fira for some amount of damage or using an esper itself. this isn't even getting into the fact that if you really hate his damage output, you could just make him support with haste/cura/slow/etc., giving your main damage dealers less turns to waste buffing and supporting and more time to go offensive. Locke's not superb ultra awesome at damage output, but he's still doing a good enough amount with magic and it's not like every character needs to have amazing offensive output to be useful in the first place. Sabin should still be below Edgar. Edgar's providing a utility early on with Crossbow that Sabin can't match for a while, and Edgar is just more useful for clearing out random encounters (Crossbow/Flash + Chainsaw + Bioblaster + that confuse casting thing), and his boss damage with Drill is something Sabin never gets a chance to match either.

lolwut? When you have Assassin's Dagger, damage becomes irrelevant.

rebecca's the better one in the long run, but if you're doing hard mode, training her is a pain. Wil's gonna have a level lead on her if you use him in Lyn mode and while he might not be doubling all the time, he'll need less babying and be more efficient than Rebecca in early chapters. it doesn't really matter which you use, just format it according to your projected plan. if you're using more characters from early on in E/H mode like Bartre and Lowen, go with Wil. If not, might as well make use of the experience with Rebecca.

so I'm still playing through FFVI (just got Edgar in WOR), and I'd just add my .02 as of now: - Locke should be below Gau and nowhere lower. you're using him for a majority of WOB, giving him time to get some good skills from Espers (like Haste and Break). that and thief's knife is just nice because he ends up stealing a lot with it, and while stealing isn't terribly game changing, it does give you either shit like Tents and Hi Potions or armor that you can sell. it's far better than whatever the fuck Setzer's doing for you, considering he pretty much gets half of the time Locke does in WOB. - Shadow should be lower. i have no idea where, but I'd guess probably below Locke. nigga gets next to no time in WOB (Sabin's Scenario and the brief time before you get Strago). he's a good damage dealer when you have him, but it's sort of like the availability issues you get with FE games. if you have a good character that you barely get to utilize, what's the point of him being good? granted, maybe he becomes g0d m0d3 in WOR or some shit, but so far I'd say he barely gets any time to be worthy of anything significant. only reason I'd put him above Relm/Strago is that he's useful for Sabin's Scenario and you barely get the other two until WOR. - Never used Mog, but I'd still make the argument that Sabin should be above him for availability arguments + Sabin is just fucking good. i skimmed this thread and heard about water dance or whatever the fuck, but eh. Sabin will be dealing consistent damage to anything without having to worry about typing, and from what I read the dances aren't even guaranteed. sounds like a pain if you ask me. oh god spacing

The most important stat is clearly Resistance :|

Fixed mode in POR was a great idea... save the bullshit that comes from specific weapon types and enemy types. Just leave it to adding the decimal value and nothing more, since that's the best way to do it imo.

So what level are your teeth?

The Wyrm/Drake/Dragon fights practically necessitate a Troubadour, Protector, and decent points into Scavenge. Grinding Drake without 20 points into Scavenge (on a Medic and Alchemist respectively) was misery for me, but the second I rested for those skills, I got it on the second or third try. It's not nearly as broken in this game as it is in EO2, but it's still mega useful for these fights.

In terms of story, Ike. In terms of gameplay, Ephraim by far.