ITT DA Ranks The Characters

[Smiley Jim]

Largo

Base Stats

LVL   	MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
20/07   52  21  04  21  20  12  10  03

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
80  70  05  45  45  30  25  20

Largo, the extremely manly husband of Calill, and the only Berserker of this game. He wrestles tigers and doesn't afraid of anything.

The first thing to note is that absurdly high HP he has. Base 52HP is soundly beating every PC in the game except Nasir, Giffca, Naesala, Tibarn, and Ena(the last of which he ties). In fact, it beats almost every PC in every game before FE10(only guys that surpass it are Hannibal, Galzus, and HM Garret).

Offensively, Largo is about as good as Boyd. He has 37 atk with his silver axe(comparable to 20/12 Boyd's attack with a steel axe), and his 20AS lets him double everything on his joining map except laguz enemies, swordmasters, and the boss(unfortunately, he is borderline on many things in C26). Not bad in all honesty. And it keeps going up with 70Str/45Spd growths. He could use a lot of help with his durability, though. While 52HP is good(and 80% growth just to overkill it), 10Def/3Res is not(with 25Def/20Res growths, it gets little better)which means he is still getting 3-4HKO'd by many things(it actually takes a lot to 2HKO him, like 36 atk), and he sure as hell hates mages. This basically makes him a glass cannon, which isn't exactly a good thing(and I give a good deal of weight to durability.)

Too bad he can't support Calill(he still gets a bonus), but he supports units that either give him half atk/full hit or half def/full avo(sucks that he's wind.) Largo might be able to squeeze two B's with Mia and Muraim, if that means anything. As for the skillz, he makes good use of the Vantage/Wrath combo(not that he's entitled to those two skills, since Vantage and Wrath have so much competition, I don't even know where to start.)

Good offense combined with meh durability won't give him a good rating.

4.0/10

Support suggestion: B Mia/B Muraim. It's not like he can get full atk/def anyway.

Band suggestion: Anything for spd or def.

[Anouleth]

Offensively, Largo is about as good as Boyd. He has 37 atk with his silver axe(comparable to 20/12 Boyd's attack with a steel axe)

Why do we care about Boyd's attack with a steel axe when Boyd will be using silvers? In addition, Boyd will probably have better speed due to probably taking the first Speedwing and probably taking a speed band for the entire game.

[Smiley Jim]

Why do we care about Boyd's attack with a steel axe when Boyd will be using silvers? In addition, Boyd will probably have better speed due to probably taking the first Speedwing and probably taking a speed band for the entire game.

You know right that I was only making a comparison between a base Largo w/ Silver and a 20/12 Boyd w/ Steel. I'm smart enough to know that Boyd(and everybody else)would be using silver weapons. Doesn't change the fact that Largo's atk w/ silver=20/12 Boyd's atk w/ steel. Also, without that wing, 20/12 Boyd has 20 AS. I can see the speed band in play though.

As for the Gat thing, I'm assuming he's at Lv14-15(which is 1.5 levels a chapter, which I feel isn't mass favoritism). He's maybe getting a level and a half at most in Ch13(2 if he kills some crows), ditto with chapter 14. Chapter 15 he's not going since it's desert. Also BEXP exists. So yeah, he's promoting either late C16 or early 17-1.

[Radiant Dragon]

I can't see Gatrie getting 5 or 6 levels in his early chapters in Hard Mode... Not unless you give him like, every boss kill or something.

[Anouleth]

Yeah, Gatrie is really overlevelled, and you really want to be giving kills to other units over him. Plus, his crappy speed means that he won't double a lot of enemies, which hinders his exp gain before he leaves.

[Dark Sage]

In practice, I only got Gatrie promoted by Chapter 21 or so, and only with favoritism and some exp resources.

Don't get me wrong, Gatrie is great early on, like a second Titania in a sense. He's just not that good when he rejoins.

[Snowy_One]

Gatrie simply isn't worth it in the long run anyways. Low movement and even with the KW, he is not fast enough to double anything reliably. IIRC, Shinon is actually better than him in the later chapters as he can actually double. He may not be that great and bows suck in tier-standards due to no-countering, but he DOES double.

[Excellen Browning]

And he most likely doubles for not-so-great damage. You could always give gat/brom the boots. It helps them tremendously in regards to usefulness, since mov is really the only thing standing in the way of them being frontline material. And of course supports become more viable for them with that sexy added move.

You'd be surprised how well a KW+A zihark Brom dodges. He faces hitrates along the lines of 40-50%(displayed)

Edited December 7, 2010 by KieranAllmighty

[Anouleth]

Well, it's funny that against the very fastest enemies, Brom and Gatrie don't even need to double because their strength is just that good. For example, 20/15 Brom with a Silver Lance forge has 45ATK. That OHKOes Swordmasters in Chapter 27, especially if he has a support for +1mt. Gatrie is even better for this because his strength is even more crazy high. Like, with capped strength, he can OHKO Ravens with a Laguz Lance.

And a level 15 Shinon has like, 22 speed. Brom can reach that too with enough KW use. Gatrie, probably not. But they have like 10 more strength. They're strong enough just to rely on Brave Lance. Gatrie has like 39-40 mt with the Brave Lance to Shinon's 36mt with a silver forge.

[Smiley Jim]

Elincia

Base Stats

LVL   	MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
20/01   27  09  12  16  18  15  11  15

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
60  30  80  45  40  60  25  35

Elincia would've been good if she either joined earlier, or had higher stats + sword rank. Unfortunately, as it stands, her combat's WORSE than Lucia/Bastian's, and is a complete joke compared to Geoffrey's.

It doesn't take a NASA scientist to figure out that Elincia's combat is a bigger joke than Superman 64(and yes, Superman 64 was THAT bad). 9 strength at this point in the game is beyond terrible; even with her prf sword, Amiti, she still only has 18 atk. In fact, her sword weighs 12, so she loses 3AS from it at base. Speaking of her AS, 18AS by itself fails to double anything that isn't a slug, and that's not counting the fact she loses 3AS from Amiti at base, so she fails to double(quad)anything that isn't a general(who take 0 dmg from her), and is at major risk of getting doubled herself(lol15AS). As for her durability, it's a joke. Even counting the def bonus that Amiti gives, she's barely more durable than base Brom(who should be like ~20/13 by now, with better, you know, STATS). It takes only 28 atk to 2HKO her, and a good chunk of the enemies in her joining map have or exceed that, and don't expect her to dodge either(lol45avo w/ Amiti). And don't think her growths are going to get her out of her hole. lol30Str, lol40Spd, lol60HP/25Def.

She does have some points for healer and flier utility, which isn't saying a whole lot since she joins AFTER the last chapter with significant obstacles that fliers give the middle finger to. Chapter 26 is a big open field, and C27/Endgame don't have much in the way of obstacles(other than walls in C27 and ledges in Endgame). While she is unique in that she's the first flying healer since FE4's FalconKnights, she has a pitiful 12 mag at base, which only heals 22DMG with Heal/Physic and 32 with Mend(though she does have an 80% mag growth, tied with Micaiah for highest Mag in the series). To give out an idea, she's basically a carbon copy of Mist except without supports or the extra 17 chapters of availability. She would've made an OK user of the sonic sword, but IS said 'fuck you' and gave her a D in swords.

What would you need to do to make her useable? Let's just say a lot. Something for offense, something for durability, and something else for offense, because her offense is just that bad. Basically, she would need either all your energy drops and 7-9 levels of BEXP OR two arms scrolls just to use the damn sonic sword. Even after all that crap just to make her useable, she's still below average, if not downright bad compared to the rest of your army. And to be honest, you should forget about her supports or skills. She joins way too late to even get any supports, let alone benefit from them. It doesn't help that she's lolHeaven.

List of first tier units that have a higher strength base than Elincia(* means tied):

-Gatrie(12)

-Kevin(11)

-Brom(10)

-Zihark(10)

-Jill(11)

-Makalov(9)*

And we all know all these guys are awesome and worth fielding.

Another fun fact: Bastian has a higher str base than her. Yeeea...we are livin' on the edge, SF. And she's only BARELY better than him.

Inb4gettingashittyrating.

2.5/10

Support suggestion: LOLWUT?(Ike wants Soren and Oscar, and Geoffrey could always use her I guess)

Band suggestion: Something for str, something for spd, and something for def. Mag, too.

Edited December 9, 2010 by DA125

[Excellen Browning]

Elincia is very much like Mist in how you use her. Neither can take a hit nor do decent damage. Using Elincia means you just don't have to go through the trouble of getting Mist to promote, though I admit that is quite easy if you just make Mist your main healer for most of the game. In my opinion, Elincia is the best endgame filler. She's useful enough with her healing and then canto'ing out of danger and doesn't try to be a frontliner like the other lategame joiners. I'll take some consistent use over finishing off left overs here and there.

You haven't punished Mist very harshly for having sad offense and ass defense. Yes, Mist joins way earlier and has use as a supportbot, too. But I think a 5.5 point gap between them is a little too much. 3.0 seems more reasonable for Elincia to me.

[Dark Sage]

To be fair, Elincia's combat isn't her draw at all. She does have points for being a mounted healer and for auto A in staves. Meaning she can immediately use stuff like Fortify, Sleep, etc. It's not that great, but it's an advantage she has over, say, the hawks, and with some BEXP, she can be a passable filler healer for endgame.

Plus she has flying+Rescue to end chapters quicker, so it's another advantage she has over low tier units.

[Smiley Jim]

I've raised her to 2.5 for now. Yes, she does have flying + healing, but it doesn't change the fact that her combat is a greater joke than the Detroit Lions. Also, her lame magic means that she only has 15 effective range with long-range staves, which is OK, but Rice and Soren surpass 15 range with as little as 20 magic(and Soren sure as hell isn't going to have 20 magic by 20/14(more like 26-27), which is an acceptable level for an 8-10 man team), and Mist is going to have 19 effective range by 20/10. Granted her staff range improves with an 80% magic growth, but I have better units to use my BEXP on.

Also, Mist's combat and durability are easier to fix than Elincia's, thanks to her support options giving either atk or def(except lolRolf), as well as the fact that, assuming a Chapter 19 promotion, she has 7 extra chapters to get her sword rank up to at least a B(to actually use the sonic sword).

Also, Mist gets bonus points for accompanying Ike in the Burger King fight. Elincia doesn't get to do that.

P.S: At least Elincia redeemed herself in Goddess of Dawn(Go 15 might Amiti/65str/70spd). Too bad Lucia and Bastian didn't and Geoffrey must be trained under a short timeframe.

P.P.S: I'm actually going to have a lot of fun bashing Ena. Think Elincia's bad? Well Ena is a miserable piece of fuck.

Edited December 9, 2010 by DA125

[Parrhesia]

Rice

It's pronounced 'Reece'.

The name's Welsh.

[Excellen Browning]

I've raised her to 2.5 for now. Yes, she does have flying + healing, but it doesn't change the fact that her combat is a greater joke than the Detroit Lions. Also, her lame magic means that she only has 15 effective range with long-range staves, which is OK, but Rice and Soren surpass 15 range with as little as 20 magic(and Soren sure as hell isn't going to have 20 magic by 20/14(more like 26-27), which is an acceptable level for an 8-10 man team), and Mist is going to have 19 effective range by 20/10. Granted her staff range improves with an 80% magic growth, but I have better units to use my BEXP on.

Also, Mist's combat and durability are easier to fix than Elincia's, thanks to her support options giving either atk or def(except lolRolf), as well as the fact that, assuming a Chapter 19 promotion, she has 7 extra chapters to get her sword rank up to at least a B(to actually use the sonic sword).

Also, Mist gets bonus points for accompanying Ike in the Burger King fight. Elincia doesn't get to do that.

I recently did a playthrough favouring Mist to at least some extent. She had a chapter 17 promotion, got a steel sword forge immediately after and I used her offensively whenever I thought the risk was low enough, and didn't get her to B sword.

She does next to nothing damage with non-forged weapons due to her pathetic Str and still below average damage with maxed Mt steel forge. I'm not even sure if she consistently doubles or not. Yes, she is potentially the best sonic sword user available to you, the problem is getting her to use the damn thing. If you don't want to spend 1-2 arms scrolls on her, of course. Which IMO is not worth it since there's always other people who can make good use of those, and the sonic sword. Manith anyone?

Edited December 9, 2010 by KieranAllmighty

[Dark Sage]

Who even wants Arms Scrolls besides Mist or Elincia?

Edited December 9, 2010 by Red Magister

[Radiant Dragon]

Who even wants Arms Scrolls besides Mist or Elincia?

Nephenee would like one since she starts at E Lances, as well as anyone who has E-whatever that isn't Axes or staves when they promote (such as Marcia, Kieran, Boyd etc.).

[Junkhead]

Lucia and Karla are very similar. They both join late with god awful bases, and are on the ass end of the tier list for their respective games.

Not to mention, they are both well-develo- *SHOT*

+Def band is possibly the worst idea for Lucia, because her durability is so poor that there's nothing in it for her. You might as well give her +str or even +spd (because that 23 AS is slightly lackluster I think...).

Oh, I don't know...wasn't 23 AS only failing to double some myrmidons, SMs and later-apearring Cats, Tigers and Dragons?

[Loki Laufeyson]

It's pronounced 'Reece'.

The name's Welsh.

That.

P.P.S: I'm actually going to have a lot of fun bashing Ena. Think Elincia's bad? Well Ena is a miserable piece of fuck.

HAAHHAH! Seriously. Ena's Boon does help though but Nasir has it too. But if you have Ena, dumping the Demi band on her and using her as a wall is an idea. However, using the wall technique, you have to dump BEXP into her. D:

Edited December 10, 2010 by Florina

[Junkhead]

The problem with Ena is that she comes even after Elincia. And she isn't of any help. Why would we want a tank that deals crappy damage and gets constantly doubled, even in EM? Elincia's staff-uses make her worthy. Not to mention we are going by the chapters so fast we don't need a wall to slow us down.

[Smiley Jim]

Ena

Base Stats

LVL   	MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
00/10   52  20  09  17  15  14  23  21

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
145 35  05  50  60  40  40  30

Ena is your punishment for not defeating the Burger King. And boy of boy do I have a fair deal to say.

Firstly, Ena joins at Lv10, which is about 5-7 levels under. Granted, you can use BEXP to make up for the difference, but at this stage, you want to be using your BEXP on your almost 20/20 champions, not a Lv10 dragon. As for her stats, they aren't really that good for this stage in the game. Her durability is the halfway decent thing about her. Assuming full transform boosts, 52HP/27Def takes 10 or less dmg per round from everything on her starting map, except the dragons(16-21) and the laguzslayer swordmaster(20), which is pretty good, especially considering her 145HP/40Def growths. Her biggest problem by far is her offense, which for a dragon(and a unit that joins this late), is piss-ass awful. 19AS fails to double anything except generals and some magic users, and easily gets doubled by swordmasters. Granted, she does have a 60% speed growth, but at this point, it is way too fucking late to make any difference whatsoever. And you'd expect her to hit hard, right? But no; Ena only has 35 atk at base level, which is underwhelming compared to the rest of your army, as pretty much everybody is using silvers/silver forges now(and Ike has 44atk with lolRagnell), and with only 35% growth, it's not going to improve much. If you give her the demi band to keep her transformed, her offense is starting to look bleak. lol33atk, lol17AS. And as I've said with Gatrie and Tauroneo, 6 move just fucking sucks.

While she cannot support other units to save her offense, she can employ certain skills to help her out. She's one of those units that can make good use of Resolve, since it turns her failure 35atk/19AS into a more serviceable 47atk/28AS. And this is at base level BTW. Unfortunately, she's not entitled to that skill, as there are units with better atk/AS(READ: Boyd, Zihark)who make better use of Resolve. Wrath is the same deal, in that it is very contested for. However, if you had to run from the BK because your Ike got screwed over(or if you are playing a girls-only run and couldn't put a single drop of CEXP into him except for the prologue), you really don't have much of a damn choice but to burn your Resolve and Wrath skills on her, as you aren't getting past Ashnard's first form otherwise.

Basically, try to win the BK fight and get Nasir instead. There is no excuse for having 35atk/19AS at this point of the game.

1.5/10

Band suggestion: Something with str/spd, if you are even willing to train this piece of shit.

Edited December 10, 2010 by DA125

[Narga_Rocks]

Nephenee would like one since she starts at E Lances, as well as anyone who has E-whatever that isn't Axes or staves when they promote (such as Marcia, Kieran, Boyd etc.).

A mono-lance user? Seriously?

Now, maybe those others, though one wonders how worth it their secondary weapon is.

Oh, and I frequently get Mist up to A rank swords by around chapter 25 or 26 without ever giving her an arms scroll. Or was that S? Either way, even on my fixed run playthrough (so that I couldn't reset abuse in the base for str/skl/def) she still had a good sword rank (though perhaps it didn't rise as quickly as when she has a str "blessing" of 4+).

I don't really know what you guys are doing wrong unless you are playing at dondon-levels of speed. Assuming all of you are like most players and simply hover around the max bexp marks, I don't know why you can't get her to go up faster.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Narga_Rocks

[Smiley Jim]

A mono-lance user? Seriously?

I did point out in Neph's review that she won't need an arms scroll. Ein Lanford pointed it out to me.

Now, maybe those others, though one wonders how worth it their secondary weapon is.

For the most part, swords and bows are inferior choices due to the lack of power and the fact that swords are locked to 1 range and bows are locked to 2 range, but they can be useful in certain circumstances(Marcia doesn't exactly want to lose 10 avoid vs axes/bows are useful against wyverns, though it's more efficient to use magic against them.). Even so, it's not like FE5 where weapon rank takes literally forever to go up, so no need for an arms scroll in those cases(As a real-life example, I was able to get Gatrie's sword rank from D to B over the course of Chapter 17(right after climbing it out of E during C14 and 15), by simply spamming iron blades. PEMN, but still.)

Oh, and I frequently get Mist up to A rank swords by around chapter 25 or 26 without ever giving her an arms scroll. Or was that S? Either way, even on my fixed run playthrough (so that I couldn't reset abuse in the base for str/skl/def) she still had a good sword rank (though perhaps it didn't rise as quickly as when she has a str "blessing" of 4+).

Same here, but I used one of my scrolls once Mist hit C swords(I remember her hitting it by C24-C25), just so that she could use the sonic sword for C26(I wanted to save the other scroll for Soren's Thunder rank in order for him to wield Rexbolt.) Note that this was during my first Hard Mode playthrough.

I don't really know what you guys are doing wrong unless you are playing at dondon-levels of speed. Assuming all of you are like most players and simply hover around the max bexp marks, I don't know why you can't get her to go up faster.

I explicitly said in the beginning text that, as a casual player, I'm assuming the player will simply try to keep within the max BEXP limits or close enough to it that it won't make that much of a difference. Again, getting Neph's lance rank up isn't all that big a deal, especially in a game where the max BEXP limits are lenient. This isn't FE5 where it takes 50 hits to raise one's weapon level.

Here's the disclaimer:

This character guide is based on Casual efficiency, and does allow room for unit suggestions while maintaining a decently low turncount. I'm not like DD151 and have this urge to get the lowest possible turncount.

Edited December 10, 2010 by DA125

[Radiant Dragon]

A mono-lance user? Seriously?

Now, maybe those others, though one wonders how worth it their secondary weapon is.

Actually, I was thinking about Easy/Normal Mode, where you can forge Steel when Nephenee joins, so that's why I mentioned that. I forgot you can't forge Steel in Hard Mode until C14

I just don't like having to use Iron weapons in this game, and enemies getting -1 def and -15 acc can often allow your units more enemy phase exposure. (Also, giving Boyd/Kieran another option against sword users helps their accuracy, but a max hit forge is probably accurate enough).

[Shadow Mir]

And he most likely doubles for not-so-great damage. You could always give gat/brom the boots. It helps them tremendously in regards to usefulness, since mov is really the only thing standing in the way of them being frontline material. And of course supports become more viable for them with that sexy added move.

You'd be surprised how well a KW+A zihark Brom dodges. He faces hitrates along the lines of 40-50%(displayed)

Well, 2 extra move is a boon to just about anyone...

I recently did a playthrough favouring Mist to at least some extent. She had a chapter 17 promotion, got a steel sword forge immediately after and I used her offensively whenever I thought the risk was low enough, and didn't get her to B sword.

She does next to nothing damage with non-forged weapons due to her pathetic Str and still below average damage with maxed Mt steel forge. I'm not even sure if she consistently doubles or not. Yes, she is potentially the best sonic sword user available to you, the problem is getting her to use the damn thing. If you don't want to spend 1-2 arms scrolls on her, of course. Which IMO is not worth it since there's always other people who can make good use of those, and the sonic sword. Manith anyone?

Other than the fact that I could count the number of units who make good use of the arms scrolls on one hand.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Malik Maxwell