Red Fox of Fire's character review topic (Complete)

[Florete]

Take 3.

My original one got wiped and afterward I just didn't have the heart to really continue even though I tried. But I feel like doing it again, so I'm going to do my best to get all the way through this time. I'll also save them all in a Notepad file as an extra precaution.

I will be giving the characters a grade from 0-10 (That's right, starting from rock bottom) based on how they contribute to fast and efficient completion of the game in Hard Mode, kind of like a tier list. Simply note that while I will do my best to be unbiased in my ratings, I'm not perfect, even though some may think I am, and I ask that you not try to correct me on ratings unless you think there should be at least a full point difference (If you think a character that deserves at least 8 gets 7 or lower, you can speak up. If that same character gets 7.5, don't waste your time). In other words, there's a 0.5 margin of error on ratings.

Did I forget anything?

A rating of zero means you're shit, ~5 is average, and 10 means you're epic. A (T) refers to when a character gets transfer bonuses from Path of Radiance.

EDIT: I hit the link limit so some scores will have a number in parentheses. Just copy the following url snippet [&view=findpost&p=], add it to the topic url, and then add the number to find the post. Or, where applicable, click the name of the unit that pops up when you scroll over the unit you wish to see, for they are in the same post (I intend to make them all like this soon).

10.5: Ike (T)

Index of ratings:

10!: Haar, Ike, Reyson

9.5: Volug, Titania (T), Mia (T)

9.0: Sothe, Leanne, Titania, Gatrie, Mia

8.5: Nolan, Jill (T), Nailah, Elincia (T), Nephenee (T), Shinon, Janaff & Ulki

8.0: Zihark, Rafiel, Elincia, Boyd (T)

7.5: Micaiah, Laura, Jill, Black Knight, Nephenee, Mordecai, Oscar (T), Tibarn

7.0: Oscar, Ranulf, Naesala

6.5: Aran, Marcia (T), Mist (T), Rolf (T), Boyd

6.0: Tauroneo, Heather, Marcia, Mist

5.5: Brom, Rhys, Caineghis & Giffca (1149915)

5.0: Muarim, Kieran (T), Makalov (T), Tanith (T)

4.5: Tormod, Kieran, Soren (T), Tanith, Skrimir

4.0: Edward, Geoffrey, Calill, Soren, Rolf

3.5: Leonardo, Lucia, Makalov, Sigrun, Stefan (1147170), Volke (1147170), Nasir (1169400)

3.0: Ilyana, Vika, Nealuchi, Danved, Ena (1149915)

2.5: Renning (1169400), Gareth (1169400)

2.0: Lethe, Sanaki, Bastian (1147170)

1.5: Kyza (888892), Kurthnaga (1149915), Lehran (1169400)

1.0: Astrid (T), Pelleas (1147170)

0.5: Meg, Fiona, Astrid, Oliver (1147170)

0.0: Lyre (888892)

Four ratings to kick things off, and I'll try to get two more in every subsequent post.

[spoiler=Micaiah]Sothe's "sister," the Silver-Haired Maiden of the infamous Dawn Brigade, can be easily summed up in one term: Glass cannon. Hits heavy, can't take a hit in return. Normally someone like this would suck, but that isn't the case for Micaiah. In a team that often cries for good ranged attackers, Micaiah is a blessing more than a burden.

She comes at the very start of the game. She acts as the weakener of the team while Edward, and eventually others, take out the trash. This is good because otherwise her teammates would take counterattacks, and until Sothe comes that's not a good thing since even Nolan can only take a few attacks before being in danger of dying. And then she also has her unique ability Sacrifice, which allows her to attack as a second rate healer, although the negative of losing her own HP can be turned into a positive of allowing her to use Wrath to decent effect, at least better than anyone else on the team.

She gets Thani in 1-3, which is where the real power comes in. She'll start leaving a lot of enemies with single digit HP as long as you level her enough to keep her Magic stat up, and can help against a few bosses. She'll also be extremely helpful in taking out the fairly-rare-but-threatening armored units, whom most of your physical team members will have a tough time doing significant damage to. This is Micaiah in part 1.

Part 1 ends and Micaiah promotes, gaining the ability to use staves. Part 3 comes along and the Dawn Brigade is facing generic enemies stronger than a lot of the games bosses. Needless to say, a healer or two in this chapter is extremely helpful to have, as a lot of your playable units have trouble taking two hits from the more common Tigers before simply dying. She can still pack quite a punch with her Light Magic, but she'll usually be healing, and that's not a problem. This is basically her in part 3, although in 3-13 Intelligent Systems decided to be assholes and restrict her to using Physic and Purge from behind a green line.

She pretty much does the same thing for part 4 and Endgame. That is, play healbot. She can still pack a good player phase punch in most occasions, but it often isn't necessary anymore. There are probably a few clever tricks you can use her for, like Nosferatu against 4-E-3's Dragons, but at this point she's already acquired the majority of her value.

It's worth mentioning that she comes with an A support with Sothe already intact. This helps both of them for a few maps, though since her affinity, Dark, is one of only two offense boosting affinities on the team, she'll likely drop him for someone else. This is, of course, a good thing, because it means she can help someone on the team in a way most others can't and will likely end up with better bonuses in the end herself. What I'm saying is that her affinity is another point in her favor.

The only thing you really need to know about Micaiah to use her effectively is to keep her protected at all times. As long as you do, she's golde- er, silver.

7.5/10

[spoiler=Edward]Edward is one of those guys that looks good on paper but actually turns out to be rather bad. Looking at his growth spread makes you think he'll be one of the best units on the team; 85% in HP, 65% in Skill, 60% in both Strength and Speed, and even a pretty good 50% in Luck? That looks pretty awesome right there. Surely that outweighs fairly average defensive growths, right? But alas, it does not.

It takes only until his second map to start being 2 hit KO'd by a lot of enemies, and his avoid isn't nearly reliable enough to make up for it. He'll mainly be restricted to finishing up kills left over by others and taking a hit from one enemy on enemy phase occasionally, after which he very likely will need to be healed. This happens pretty much for the entirety of part 1. In fact, it's so bad even a Dracoshield will barely help him in battle at all. And then he's got innate Wrath which should be helping but ends up hurting more often because it can cause an unprecedented enemy kill, allowing another to come in and put him down for good.

And then he also falls short on the offensive end of things. Sure, he's got good growths, but his bases are lacking. He doesn't double often unless he's severely overleveled and he doesn't do very much damage per hit either. In fact, it takes him seven level-ups on average before he can even use a Steel Sword without losing Attack Speed, and even then his mediocre offense leaves a lot to be desired.

His growths are bound to lead him into good offense eventually, and they do. The ironic part is that this finally happens in part 3, where good offense combined with bad defense is more likely to kill you than save you. He'll likely have the best Endgame stats out of other Trueblades if you manage to get him up there, but the work it takes to do that is just too much.

His affinity is okay, nothing special. Defense and Hit is kind of a weird combination. He doesn't really need Hit, but some of the other team members do, so that's kind of good, and two or three extra defense isn't enough to get him out of his defensive hole for quite a while. Most people suggest pairing him with Nolan's Earth affinity to take advantage of his innately decent avoid (compared to other first tiers, that is) and to get a support growing fast, although I usually pair him with Leonardo for the offensive and slight defensive boost. Do whatever feels right based on the rest of your team when you use Edward.

4/10

[spoiler=Leonardo]Leonardo, the token early-Archer-with-bad-bases and Edward's fuck buddy best friend. Leonardo does not have much going for him. He has the ever-so-obvious lack of enemy phase action, his already mentioned bases are unappealing, and his growth spread is just bad. High Skill and Luck means he'll hit the mark on everything he shoots, but low-ish Strength and bad Speed mean he'll do little damage and never double. For someone locked to player phase attacking, this is bad.

For all of part 1 Leonardo is basically just going to be contributing chip damage. This is kind of nice at first when nobody is one rounding and only Sothe is durable, but even then it's sometimes too weak for another unit to kill the enemy without someone else attacking it first. Then stronger units show up and he begins to get in the way more than help the team. Still, he has about six chapters of at least being able to help out your weaker units without hurting efficiency.

Part 3 comes around and he can finally start being a little useful if trained. His newly acquired Lughnasadh, which it feels like no one except me can spell correctly, is a 16 MT weapon that gives a bonus +5 Speed, pretty amazing. It'll prevent him from being doubled by Cats and allow him to double Tigers. If you give him Beastfoe, this means one dead Laguz per player phase without risk of counter. Pretty nice, although he isn't the only good candidate for Beastfoe so it isn't worth too much. Still, without Beastfoe he'll have a good claim on Wrath. You just need to get him low enough and make sure he never gets attacked again so he can have 75% critical player phase attacks (Which, unfortunately, will not usually kill, but will at least do quite a lot of damage, or kill if the enemy was already weakened by someone else).

His part 4 is crap. Underleveled + bad growths + no enemy phase = screw him, and I'm sure there are some crazy fangirls who'd love to (I'm not one).

So he's mostly bad, but luckily for him, his affinity is not. Water is generally regarded as one of the best affinities, and I agree, especially in part 1 where Micaiah has the only other offense boosting affinity. Who to support him with can be a tough question since pretty much any of your combat units would like the boosts to offense and defense and there's nothing Leonardo wants specifically, but that's only his advantage.

I should also mention innate Cancel. On an Archer with low Speed. Think about that.

To recap, he's a bit helpful when he first joins, gets worse until the start of part 3 where he finally becomes something that isn't crap, then likely gets dumped for failing.

3.5/10

[spoiler=Nolan]Chuck Norris, Jesus, however you want to see this guy who is apparently the leader of the Dawn Brigade despite displaying little to no leadership in the actual game (I'm not talking about stars either) is the first character you get who can actually take more than one hit from enemies without dying, and right when you need that. He's almost necessary to complete 1-1 and is a big help in the chapters to follow.

As mentioned, he's your only tank when you get him, so he'll be the one taking enemy attacks. He also hits quite hard with his Steel Axe, 2 hit KOing everything in sight for a while, although his accuracy leaves something to be desired until his 70% Skill growth can kick in. Even when stronger units come in he's still very handy to have around because there are only so many of them and having another guy around is often necessary for efficiency.

His part 1 is not perfect, however. He's good for a while because there isn't really anyone to replace him with. Stronger units come in and although he's not exactly bad for previously stated reasons, he's no longer good either. At around 1-7 I'd say is where he's starting to look merely average, and he'll need a promotion by 1-E to be good there.

Part 3 is where he begins to truly shine. He'll likely be the second most durable unit on the team against enemies that are killing most of your team in two hits, so you can be damn sure he's helpful. What's more, his handy Tarvos is strong enough to possibly be able to kill every single enemy in one hit if equipped with Beastfoe (He can miss out on Tigers since his Strength is borderline on them). Since he just so happens to be one of your primary tanks, this is a pretty good combination to have. He retains this tanking ability in 3-12 and 3-13 as well.

Part 4 can be tough on him. He's similar to the other Dawn Brigade units in that he's coming in with bland stats for the enemies he's facing and no 3rd tier mastery skill to help him get kills. He can likely be pretty good by Endgame if you train him hard enough, but whether or not that's actually worth it is your own call since there's nothing about him that is particularly unique enough to warrant him a position over others.

His Earth affinity is a major point in his favor, though. Someone frail like Edward or Zihark practically need this support to live, but nearly anyone on the team can get a big durability boost from the avoid he gives, himself included. In fact, without this, he'd be a lot tougher to train in part 4 than he currently is and he wouldn't be as durable in part 3 as well. As it is, only his part 4 offense is really a problem and he makes himself as well as another unit much more durable.

8.5/10

Edited January 28, 2011 by Red Fox of Fire

[Narga_Rocks]

Out of curiosity, will you also be mentioning the transfer versions of characters (and rating them separately)?

[Florete]

Out of curiosity, will you also be mentioning the transfer versions of characters (and rating them separately)?

Damn it, you've just killed what I hoped would be a small surprise. Yeah, I will be.

Oh well, I still have something else up my sleeve.

[Candlejack]

Is it candy?

[Narga_Rocks]

Out of curiosity, will you also be mentioning the transfer versions of characters (and rating them separately)?

Damn it, you've just killed what I hoped would be a small surprise. Yeah, I will be.

Oh well, I still have something else up my sleeve.

Sorry. Yeah, it would have been cool when Jill shows up and you have two ratings. Again, I'm sorry.

edit: I suppose Ilyana appears first, and Tauroneo after, but Ilyana (T) probably gets the same rating and big T has a hard time capping anything in PoR. (I think it is literally impossible without stat boosters, if I recall correctly.)

Edited November 22, 2009 by Narga_Rocks

[CT075]

w00t! It's back!

At any rate, one thing that I think you should add is that Edward teams up quite nicely with Micaiah if they have backup (READ: Don't send them off together on duo missions) in the early chapters, up to about chapter 1-6-2 IIRC. Micaiah chips damage, Edward rushes in for the kill. This is especially useful in training Edward for later chapters, since his awesome growths will begin to kick in.

As for Leonardo, you didn't mention his monopoly for a Master Seal so he can Beastfoe+Crossbow on the sub-humans in Part 3. He's also one of the only reliable Hawk slayers on the map in 3-13 (The other one being a generic Sniper that starts on a ballista and ends up jumping into a pit of laguz solo) with the other ballista.

And finally, Chuck Nolan is rather good at keeping the massive influx of Partner units alive.

Just my two cents. Make of it what you will.

[Florete]

Sorry. Yeah, it would have been cool when Jill shows up and you have two ratings. Again, I'm sorry.

Don't worry about it. It's not as if it's a big deal or anything.

As for Leonardo, you didn't mention his monopoly for a Master Seal so he can Beastfoe+Crossbow on the sub-humans in Part 3.

All the tier one units effectively have a monopoly on a Master Seal since you get 4 for free and you'd be nuts to try using more than that in HM. Worst case scenario is where you want to promote Laura for +1 move and combat, Ilyana for skill capacity to send one more thing to the GM's, and you're training 3 tier one units, but for the sake of discussion I'd say the one who's fighting deserves the Seal much more than Ilyana.

[Progenitus]

lol @ 0.5 gap between Chuck BROlan and miccy sue. Apparently getting 3RKO'd and not ORKO'd is only marginally better than winning offense vs armors, and by the time miccy sue even gets staves, the durability (and offense for that matter) gap just keeps growing thanks to lolearth, better growths, etc.

You already have a problem 4 ratings in. At least for me it took until Aran where people started to complain.

[Florete]

lol @ 0.5 gap between Chuck BROlan and miccy sue. Apparently getting 3RKO'd and not ORKO'd is only marginally better than winning offense vs armors, and by the time miccy sue even gets staves, the durability (and offense for that matter) gap just keeps growing thanks to lolearth, better growths, etc.

You already have a problem 4 ratings in. At least for me it took until Aran where people started to complain.

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

[Paperblade]

Appeal to popularity is pretty awesome. Everyone thinks it's good, therefore it's good.

Edited November 22, 2009 by Paperblade

[CT075]

lol @ 0.5 gap between Chuck BROlan and miccy sue. Apparently getting 3RKO'd and not ORKO'd is only marginally better than winning offense vs armors, and by the time miccy sue even gets staves, the durability (and offense for that matter) gap just keeps growing thanks to lolearth, better growths, etc.

You already have a problem 4 ratings in. At least for me it took until Aran where people started to complain.

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

Sigged.

[Progenitus]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap (and only one person pointed out, not a group of people), you would listen to them?

Edited November 22, 2009 by Andrew W.K.

[Florete]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

[Progenitus]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

Yeah, it tells me that you're going straight to my ignore list.

[Paperblade]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

Now why would you do something like that?

[Florete]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

Yeah, it tells me that you're going straight to my ignore list.

Well, it's about freakin' time.

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

Now why would you do something like that?

You're smart, you should be able to figure it out.

By the way, Narga already posted without mentioning any "problem" with the current rating, so I'd say he's already out unless he hasn't noticed it yet or something, but he doesn't seem like the type to miss something like that.

[Paperblade]

You are the only one who has a problem so far. I can't say I'm surprised.

So let me ask you this; if someone like narga or colonel M pointed out the problem with your Nolan/Micaiah gap, you would listen to them?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is the place where I have any reason to.

If Narga or Colonel M pointed it out as a problem, I'd ask why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's current tier positions.

Good enough for you?

Now why would you do something like that?

You're smart, you should be able to figure it out.

By the way, Narga already posted without mentioning any "problem" with the current rating, so I'd say he's already out unless he hasn't noticed it yet or something, but he doesn't seem like the type to miss something like that.

I'm not going to make assumptions. Answer the question.

[Progenitus]

Let's just hope that you stop trolling me whenever I post in other topics (including you stfu in my rating topic), and hopefully we'll get along just fine.

[Florete]

I'm not going to make assumptions. Answer the question.

Fine. I'd ask them why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's tier positions since 3 people in-between is not big enough to automatically constitute a full point gap on a 0-10 scale being used by 70 characters alone. In other words, if it's fine there, why isn't it here?

[Paperblade]

I'm not going to make assumptions. Answer the question.

Fine. I'd ask them why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's tier positions since 3 people in-between is not big enough to automatically constitute a full point gap on a 0-10 scale being used by 70 characters alone. In other words, if it's fine there, why isn't it here?

Wrong question. Why is it alright to ignore one person who presents a contrary view but not another?

[Florete]

I'm not going to make assumptions. Answer the question.

Fine. I'd ask them why they seem accepting of Micaiah and Nolan's tier positions since 3 people in-between is not big enough to automatically constitute a full point gap on a 0-10 scale being used by 70 characters alone. In other words, if it's fine there, why isn't it here?

Wrong question. Why is it alright to ignore one person who presents a contrary view but not another?

So is this appeal to popularity, or are you brushing me off because it's me?

Since you really need me to spell it out for you, it's the latter. I honestly don't care what you have to say, nor is this the place where I have any reason to.

Call it immaturity if you want.

[Paperblade]

I'd call it intellectually dishonest, but that's just me.

[Florete]

I'd call it intellectually dishonest, but that's just me.

Whatever works for you.

And now, let's see if smash actually is ignoring me with the next two reviews.

Laura

Laura, who is, as far as I know, the only female Priest in the series, shows up in 1-2 as your first real healer. Her durability is non-existant as she pretty much gets killed by any enemy that's able to attack her, but she makes up for it by healing a team that generally lacks good durability, so she's still quite a big help.

You'll probably be relying on her quite a lot throughout all of part 1. Being restricted to 11 or 12 experience per turn, and sometimes not even that, sucks, but luckily for her she doesn't need levels to function. It would be nice, though, to put those 70% growths in Magic, Skill, and Speed to good use, but she just doesn't have that luxury. A base level of 1 isn't helping much either, since she doesn't have the benefit of most underleveled units that is high experience gain; if she wants to promote, she just has to heal a lot.

As bad as things are for her own stats, she's still helping the team a lot. Part 3 comes around and her team is in desperate need of healing support, so she doesn't need to be promoted and attacking here anyway, even if it would be nice. She gets even more than she bargained for in 3-13 when Micaiah is trapped and she's the only healer on the front lines.

She'll basically be a filler healer for part 4 since all of the teams now have at least one healer and there are a few other choices for healers as well. Still, she helps, and deployment slots in part 4 are plentiful enough that she won't be competing. She won't be going to Endgame, though, because even if she can reach them her caps suck and there are better choices of healers to bring.

Wind affinity is pretty bland. The small boost to avoid is not going to make anyone dodge machines and the small Hit boost doesn't do much either. She can build a support fast because she heals, so that's nice, but she'll likely end up supporting whoever it is on the team that gets left out of the main support branch. I personally like to pair her with Aran because it's fast and he tends to have Hit issues until his Skill growth can kick in, and he mostly just wants the bonuses from his own affinity, so it works out.

The first paragraph is all I really needed for this rating.

7.5/10

Sothe

Micaiah's "brother," who looks like Leon Kennedy from Resident Evil 4 (At least I think so), is the first really good character that shows up. What's funny is that this guy is like the most underrated character in the entire series because a lot of the uneducated fandom treats him as a typical Jeigan and say he sucks all the time, but he's easily a candidate for one of the top 5 characters in the game. He also has a lot of haters that know he's good but hate him anyway. I don't know why. I like him.

He comes in like the typical Jeigan; kills everything in sight and never dies. This is him in part 1. What's awesome about Sothe, though, is that his Strength is often borderline enough on the enemies that you can usually have him either kill or leave with minimal HP based simply on the weapon you choose for him to use. This is great because his team is full of noobs that want to eat kills and level up quickly, and he doesn't need much leveling himself. Also, before 1-4 hits, the team is fairly can run low on Vulnerary and Sothe can just swipe them from the enemy, kind of like indirect healing utility. He also grabs Micaiah's h4x Thani tome, Edward's first Wind Edge, and part 1's only Energy Drop, all in his joining map.

Unlike a dude like Nolan, Sothe actually remains one of your better characters throughout part 1 until 1-E where he lacks a bit, but so does everyone else, so he's still pretty good. He's a weakener, he steals things, he kills, he's the best at finding hidden items, and he's good at moving through the rough terrain in a few of the maps as well. In a part 1 tier list, he'd be top of Top.

In part 3 Sothe gets worse. Not a whole lot worse, but he's no longer a shining star. His durability has mostly been lowered to everyone else's; 2 hit KOd by the common enemies without very high avoid to compensate. Monopoly on Beastkillers, however, means his offense remains at the top at least. The only problem with that is killing too much on the enemy phase and getting himself killed, but trading and swamp movement for enemies mostly alleviate that problem. Still good, just not great.

Part 4 is what makes people say he sucks. It's here that his bland growths and even worse caps begin to show. A low Strength cap and Knives being weak by nature means he won't be able to deal much damage, and he'll also run into problems doubling enemies consistently because of a lowish Speed growth. Bad Defense means his durability is also pretty bad. He can still take a hit or two most of time, but you won't want to send him to fight much anymore. Luckily for him, though, his slot is free, so he's never hindering your progress by existing, only helping, even if it's limited to cheap potshots and Shoving. It doesn't help that Bane is the only mastery that can't kill on its own and has a sucky Skl/2% activation, but at least it can still help.

Endgame is not any better. Actually, it's mostly worse. Enemies are stronger than before but his Defense hardly is. He'll be able to kill Spirits in 4-E-4 and 5 if trained enough, and if he triggers Bane and Dragons that can be pretty helpful as well, but that's about his limit.

Support-wise, it's pretty cool that he comes with an Auto A with Micaiah, which actually does help her on offense in those early chapters, for without she would not be able to OHKO two bosses. It also helps Sothe on both offense and durability since it brings his already good avoid even higher and +2 atk can occasionally mark the kill on enemies as well. It might be dropped when Micaiah can build with someone else (I like supporting her with Volug) because a lot of people want her affinity more than Sothe, and then Sothe gets left with Laura in the realm of no one wanting to support him because his Wind affinity sucks.

I got flamed pretty hard the last time I rated him because people thought I was giving him too much credit, but I'm still convinced he's just being hated on way too much for whatever retarded reasons people have. You people know who you are. Take this as you feel.

9/10

Transfer changes:

Unfortunately for Sothe, he isn't getting any good transfer without reset abuse in Path of Radiance, and since this is supposed to be unbiased and efficiency based, I really can't assume that. It's a shame, because I've used a h4xed out Transfer Sothe and he would easily get a 10 if I could assume it. But I really can't, so he doesn't get a transfer rating.

[Paperblade]

I suppose my opinion doesn't matter much either, eh?

[Florete]

I suppose my opinion doesn't matter much either, eh?

I'd probably consider yours over his, but you don't get involved in tiers much these days anyway. At least I haven't seen you in them very often.