Ranjin

If we didn't have a Tactics rank then this whole conversation goes off the rails. But to your point, given the number of turns allowed to complete the game, I would generally rather have units that can earn significant experience per turn than a unit that can proceed through much of the chapter per turn. There is a balance struck between the two ranks, but the balance seems to favor Experience significantly. But, again, I recognize there are many ways to S-Rank, and so it's hard to make these judgments when different players are getting the same outcome regardless of their styles of play. I don't deny Isadora's strengths, I just weighed in because I felt there were statements of her general utility that should be looked at differently in the context of a ranked run. I named several characters that I think are worse than her, and I outlined an analytic framework for adding more units to that list.

I'm not talking about the experience rank in a vacuum, I'm discussing it in relation to the other ranks. Most of what I am saying about Isadora has to do with the fact that her advantages scale lower due to the associated rank (Tactics) being easier and her disadvantages scale higher due to the associated rank (Experience) being harder. I'm not saying the experience rank is extremely difficult. You do make an interesting point about Harken and Pent. I will give it some more thought, but as to your parting query, 1) Her lower level doesn't actually make her gain experience that much faster given that she is still promoted and faces lower level enemies from recruitment. 2) Horse utility is much more useful in an efficiency run. In a ranked run, it's great, but the Tactics rank is pretty forgiving. Staff use is slightly better in a ranked run because more units are more likely to be exposed to damage in order to earn experience, but I suppose it's still not better than a horse. 3) This mostly applies to Player Phase because she does not have great durability, so this advantage is pretty small. Also, as you say, and Harken and Pent do this better than Isadora. Thus, I am not able to put Isadora clearly above Harken and Pent based on these parameters (and I realize you were asking rhetorically). No trouble, I said what I said in good humor.

I don't disagree with this statement. In fact, I've made it clear that I don't disagree with this statement. I'm simply trying to scale her strengths and weaknesses given the specific parameters of a ranked run. This is a strange thing to say when I have made a grand total of zero comments about Isadora's speed or con, let alone called her "crazy slow." Yes, 8 move "FREE" is better than 7 move, but having the ability to earn experience is much much better than not having it in a ranked run. Again, the significance of the movement advantage scales differently when analyzed in this particular context. Put another way, I'd rather have a unit that can earn experience AND facilitate other units earning experience than have 1 extra move flexibility for rescue/drop or clearing the chapter early.

Yeah, you can do that. You should do that. But that doesn't refute what I'm saying. My point is that the constraints of a ranked run are not well suited for Isadora. It's a matter of degree; the Tactics rank is generally a minor consideration, whereas the run is strongly affected by the need to earn lots of exp to 5 star the Experience rank. Therefore, comparatively, you're going to focus on experience gain much more than turn count. Therefore, comparatively, Isadora's strengths are significantly dampened whereas her weakness are significantly enhanced. These are not absolute rank difficulty dynamics but the relative differences are still pretty large. One thing I will say is that I don't extend this logic to every prepromote. Marcus, for instance, is only slightly worse than in an unranked run, because he can save a lot of turns in chapters with low EXP/funds so that these turns can be "spent" in more lucrative chapters. I'm just talking about Isadora's situation. With that said, I recognize that my ranked play is not the gold standard. Indeed, I have completed runs with experience surpluses and I probably could have made things a little easier on myself if I used Isadora a little more. That being said, there were characterizations of Isadora's strengths outlined in this thread, which I agree with generally, that I felt needed to be reassessed in the context of a ranked run because they significantly affect Isadora's comparative performance in such a run.

Citing Mekkah, movement is the best stat period. But in a ranked run, the Tactics rank is not an issue. The Experience Rank is. There just aren't enough "pesky units" in FE7 such that Isadora's contribution is significant enough to make up for poor exp gain. Of those, there are even fewer that she can engage better than Marcus, and Marcus has the added benefit of being able to survive better. I realize saying that she is worse than Marcus is not the best argument for why she isn't great in a ranked run, but there are very few slots available to promoted units if you want to maximize Exp gain, and Isadora faces serious competition in this regard. I'd rather bring a slew of unpromoted mounts who can both rescue/drop and earn experience than bring Isadora to do this job. Ultimately, it boils down to the fact that FE7 enemies are weak. Does using Isadora make killing them way easier? Absolutely yes. But this is a ranked run, not an unranked efficiency run, and there is more to consider than just reenacting the Ride of the Rohirrim. The ability to gain experience is one of the most important things to consider.

Getting back to Isadora, she is definitely one of the worst units for a ranked run. The fact is that she cannot contribute enough in a ranked run to offset her low experience gain. She may be able to save a turn here or there, but you're going to prefer a unit who can earn at least 30 exp per turn to a unit that can maybe save you a turn in a run in which the turn count is not a significant constraint when compared to experience gain. The decision becomes even clearer on longs maps with high enemy density, of which there are several after Isadora joins. A host of mediocre unpromoted units move above Isadora due to this fact. Obviously she moves up the list for an unranked efficiency playthrough or even LTC, but in a ranked run she struggles. She's still better than some units, like Karel, Karla, Wallace, Renault, and Louise, and Farina. There are also going to be a couple unpromoted units that cannot "consistently" get "enough" kills to offset Isadora's utility, but this analysis is complicated and can be subjective; I won't go into it right now. On balance, though, I think you'll find that most of those units reach the threshold for consistent experience gain. As for the absolute worst, I'm going with Karla.

I was never concerned with being able to 5 star given that rank at that point in the game. My concern was that I didn't understand the reason for it, and I was concerned with getting blindsided by an unknown unknown, which brought me here. I've accepted that it was the result of a very small, extremely low-probability margin that was crossed through weapon uses despite the fact that I got a bonus Divine tome (2500g) in addition to the Whip. I'll grant that I might just remember my weapon uses incorrectly, I didn't track them closely. Ultimately, none of this matter because I successfully completed the run anyways.

Nope. I didn't recruit Farina either. As it is, I think that I can still 5 star funds. I'm still going to promote 2 other people eventually, for a total of 4 non-lords. I was expecting my funds rank to drop at some point and slowly come back by the end of the game. However, these particular circumstances are puzzling. Whether I'm missing key information about the game itself or selectively forgetting key information about how I play chapters, I'm concerned that I'm going to get blindsided and not be able to recover. Given that no one has an answer at this point, I will continue my playthrough. No need to stop playing Fire Emblem just because I might be losing my sanity. If anyone can figure this out, I would be very glad to hear it.

This would be the logical answer. However, given what I remember from playing the chapter, the numbers just don't add up. Other than a couple uses each of Silver Lance and Elfire, I only used lower end weapons. In addition to the Elysian Whip that I ended up using, you also get a Divine tome, worth 2500. This should offset the cost of my weapon uses for the chapter. I don't think my memory is so bad that I would be terribly wrong about all this, so I'm wondering if I missed something about the game.

This would make sense, except that I got a bonus Elysian Whip from the 0 requirement chapter. I had 5 stars before I got this bonus. So, subtracting the 10000 should bring me back to pre-Ch25H funds value, for which I had a 5 star ranking.

Obviously, human error is the simplest explanation, although i would remember an error egregious enough to affect my funds ranking so. I thought I would see if I'm missing key information before questioning my sanity. Here are a couple of my admittedly dubious theories: 1. Ch25H actually has ranking requirements of which I and others are unaware. This is highly unlikely, unless the source of the ranking tables on SF and elsewhere is a single individual's unverified work. 2. For some reason, the game is evaluating my ranks as though I've ALREADY COMPLETED the chapter when I check them in battle preps BEFORE said chapter. I would have noticed this if it was happening from the beginning, but if it started recently then I may not have noticed because of some funds and EXP surplus, the former of which has obviously run low enough to be noticed. I did play through Ch26H on a separate save and the 4 star rating remained, so either the issue didn't resolve or this is not the issue. These are some pretty weak ideas, but it's all I've got so far.

I'm in the middle of a HHM ranked run, and something strange has happened. At the beginning of Ch25H, I had a 5 star funds rank. I played through the chapter, obtaining the Elysian Whip, the Divine, and refusing to recruit Farina. After the chapter, in Ch26H battle preps, I still had a 5 star funds rank as expected. However, when I used an Elysian whip in Ch26H battle preps, I checked my rankings and found that my funds rank had fallen to 4 star. Ch25H is 0 requirement. The Elysian Whip obtained there is a bonus asset, with no corresponding increase in the funds requirement. I made no major expenditures in Ch25H (I did promote in preps, but I had 5 star funds after doing so). With the exception of 2 uses each of Silver Lance and Elfire, I used lower end weapons, the cost of which would be offset by the acquisition of the bonus Divine tome. How could my funds ranking fall if I used an item that the game does not account for?