Kitoari

If this was a Lunatic tier list I could see Anna going up, but the staff utility is much less needed on hard and the tier list doesn't value Rescue very much.

Seeing how say'ri did nothing on my last playthrough, Flavia is fine with me.

*shrug* Maybe my Freddies are just getting RNG screwed or something. Also RE Tharja: I remember seeing 70% hit or so on the enemies in her join chapter with Elthunder, which is actually more accurate than Nos. Tharja's tanking is pretty shaky.

Mea culpa, though I should've really just noticed Fred's stats will probably start sputtering at that point and he'd be better used in someone's pocket. Fred > Nowi either way for his contributions while she doesn't exist and for a chapter or two afterwards, but he's not going to be able to destroy CH 12 on his own.

I would definitely say Panne and Stahl > Nowi, for what it's worth. I'm not feeling Fred since I think there's a beast killer or two in that chapter (and a hammer, maybe?

Unfortunately I Avatar solo'd to get to chapter 8 so my normal strategy essentially didn't work, but you only need a solid flying unit (Wyvern Panne, Sumia with pocket Fred, possibly Cordelia if you do the paralogue now and level her) and someone who can safely go down the plains area (Sully, Frederick/Chrom Pocket Fred, Cordelia airlifting Avatar). Nowi goes right, chips the DM. She has a 25% chance of killing him outright and the DM has 50% accuracy so there's a high chance she won't even take damage, though dodging isn't necessary. She gets 12 EXP or from this. DM kill puts her at 58. Nowi continues to go left and sits on the village after downing a vuln. Killing the Axe dood and the DM after 2 rounds of combat nets her 58 - 12 = 46 (2 is 92) EXP per kill and 24 CEXP, putting her at 174 EXP gained this far. Admittedly my original number of 3 may have been a bit generous (since I drafted her in that run), but she can get at least one more kill/two chips before the chapter's done for 2.25 levels or so. Chapter 9 is mostly "kill the enemies near spawn and then fly best unit to solo 90% of the rest before reinforcements show up", so she'll get some EXP at the start and then do nothing. I figure she can cap a level here at least. Next chapter is pretty fast, but if we're not using Rescue it's an EXP goldmine. At this point Nowi should be able to ORKO things with speed tonic and Gregor support, so she can grab the bullion or wyrmslayer for Irony. I remember people arguing over how fast the tier player would do 11, but there is a speed wing if we do decide to take 5 turns and Nowi's definitely a candidate for it. For the ridiculousness Nowi is capable of by Ch12, see Interceptor's playlog.

I would say by the time Cherche joins she might not need him as much anymore with tonics, but I see no reason not to assume Gregor especially for the first few chapters you have her. brb replicating my draft CH9 Donnel takes forever to get going - Ricken CAN double some things with a +Spd like Lon'qu or Chrom (though he's very contested by lotsa people), and on promotion to DK he can get +7 Def and wall things.

I wouldn't say Nowi is S tier but you're way overstating her problems. First, the main reason that she's a little fragile in her join chapter is her low starting HP. but what is Nowi (by extension Gregor) doing in this chapter? She's going left to grab the Master Seal. Her low level means that she's getting a ton of EXP just from facing combat, and with Gregor's Concoction/Vulnerary (can't remember which) she isn't going to die unless the player tries to send her to the boss area. She's guaranteed HP on every level up (I'm pretty sure you can get at least 3 from her join chapter), and will occasionally get +2. That's a big durability increase by the end of the chapter when you consider she'll likely roll Def twice. What about the others? Ricken joins in a chapter where the enemies that threaten him (similar to axe enemies in Nowi's chapter) are FLYING, which means he has 0 hope of avoiding them. Kellam is better used as a pocket unit and will never gain EXP. Virion is an archer in a game where half the maps are gigantic open fields. Nowi also gets Gregor pretty much for free, who's instantly giving her +4 SPD and +2 DEF before his stats even come into the picture. Ricken AFAIK doesn't have any speed supports that work with him, Kellam is inferior to Stahl for Cordelia and Virion is an archer. Gregor also promotes to Bow Knight, meaning Nowi is probably going to be moving faster than your promoted foot units with an option for 8 Move on turn one. tl;dr: Nowi's initial problems are rendered irrelevant because a) she's safe in her join chapter (unlike Ricken) b) she has a +SPD +DEF support that she easily uses the best (unlike Kellam) and she isn't an archer. Also, Kellam is a knight, which means Nowi has a 2 movement lead on him at join time. All that said, Ricken is too low. At the very least he should be above DONNEL.

Gregor and Gaius (gregor and nowi together is too stronk)

Virion

Where is soul :v

to extend the sports analogy, I'm truly amazed when people actually get angry and occasionally violent over the results of their teams I see no reason to find similar behavior here acceptable.

Per the rules, Pegasi and such only have that line I'm afraid. Same for Eddie and Tiki. Giving them class sets seems like it might be workable, but it wouldn't be right to change it after everyone's started.

Well, my use of somewhat dated and whimsical terms for arguments should indicate I'm not taking this terribly seriously. I'm not sure what there is to explain there, I meant what I said. it's also just that tiering philosophy is SRS which is kind of silly in my opinion