FE7 character ratings

[Florete]

There is also the part where dondon gave 16/4 for Sain and Kent.

[dondon151]

Yes...it's not like Lowen equals them at combat. That is the only thing that should separate them. I gave him an 8, while Kent got an 8.5, and Sain an 8.8.

Lowen is available earlier.

By the way, why are we promoting our Cavaliers or a few other units early? Some of the, especially the Paladins, get crappy promotion gains. Unless the +1 Spd actually makes a difference in their performance, or because of the +1 Mov.

Move, axes, +2 HP, +2 def.

[Geriba]

My speciality is not in efficiency runs, so this is a most enlightening read. To be clear, however, we're granting units the utility they provide for "forced participation," right? I remember this being a big controversy a few months ago in the Ranked Topic, so I'd like to get this clarified.

[dondon151]

My speciality is not in efficiency runs, so this is a most enlightening read. To be clear, however, we're granting units the utility they provide for "forced participation," right? I remember this being a big controversy a few months ago in the Ranked Topic, so I'd like to get this clarified.

Yes. For example, I specifically made a note about Wil's forced participation in chapter 16 and how he's useful there.

[Narga_Rocks]

Yes. For example, I specifically made a note about Wil's forced participation in chapter 16 and how he's useful there.

It really does help that those pegs have javelins and he's just at the edge of their range. So annoying if they didn't.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Narga_Rocks

[Mekkah]

If they didn't you could at least counterattack them with Kent and Sain without hurting their accuracy too much. Not like the Heavy Spear is a huge boon.

[dondon151]

Because I want to put Raven and Lucius in the same post, and because this one is particularly long, Florina gets a post to herself.

Florina

Advantages

Flying: I could probably go on for pages and pages about flying utility, but I'll just keep it short. Flying ignores terrain and allows Florina to safely skip over large portions of many maps, as Florina can't generally be attacked from untraversable tiles except by, in most cases, enemy fliers, long range tomes, and ballistae. Since Florina can rescue almost any other unit, she doesn't even have to rely on her own parameters to make use of her flying utility. Rescuing in conjunction with flying allows Florina to shave a considerable number of turns off many maps, and it also gives her an advantage in completing certain tasks not related to the main chapter objective.

A slightly more detailed breakdown of flying utility as it pertains to this game:

- Chapter 16: Florina, with Lowen's assistance, can drop Marcus across the cliff on turn 1.

- Chapter 17x: Florina skirts Fargus's trigger zone and can talk to him on turn 4. If she rescues someone on turn 1 and drops him on turn 3, a player can also obtain the Short Bow and one of the Sleep or Lancereaver.

- Chapter 19x: Florina and Fiora can cut across the mountains while rescuing Hector. An effective strategy is dropping Erk, Lucius, or Canas on a mountain on turn 2 and having them easily ORKO the Javelin knights near Aion on enemy phase - Kishuna does not appear until turn 3.

- Chapter 21: Florina and Fiora can more easily visit the Elysian Whip village and the Pure Water vendor.

- Chapter 23: Fliers can carry combat units and thieves over desert terrain.

- Chapter 24A: Fliers can visit the Earth Seal village in 2 turns.

- Chapter 25: Fliers can seize the east gate and visit the Elysian Whip village within 3 turns (2 if Ninian dances).

- Chapter 26: Fliers can easily visit the Hammerne village. They are also needed with any reliable armory visiting strategy.

- Chapter 27: Fliers and Rath have the most movement on the map when snowing, but Rath takes movement penalties from forests.

- Chapter 28x: Fliers traverse the water and are necessary for any sort of efficient clear on this map.

- Chapter 29: Fliers can easily avoid activating reinforcement trigger zones.

- Chapter 32: Fliers, in conjunction with staff users, are necessary for any sort of efficient clear on this map.

Lastly, Florina is still mounted, and can exercise that fact to her advantage in circumstances where flying in itself isn't particularly useful.

Resistance: Many players ignore res or underestimate its importance due to the scarcity of magic enemies, and although that is true, having high res comes with noticeable advantages. Combat-wise, Florina's 14/6 average of 32.8 HP, 12.3 res, when boosted with a Pure Water, renders her virtually untouchable by unpromoted magic enemies in chapter 29 (who have anywhere from 10-21 atk) and relatively unphased by the 25 atk Purge bishop and 30 atk Bolting sage that start on the map. It also reduces the staff accuracy of the four Sleep and Berserk valkyries on the map to under 10. Reduced susceptibility to status staves and long range magic are significant advantages that Florina can leverage over competitors like Heath or Vaida in lategame maps, since it is particularly annoying when a flier falls asleep when carrying another unit with no staff user in sight.

Lyn mode: Florina's 3/0 bases render her virtually unusable in combat, but one can reasonably get her to 7/0 by the end of Lyn mode, which gives her enough spd to consistently double enemies with a Slim Lance (12.3 average) and slightly more str (7.4 average vs. 6 base) to do more damage per round of combat. Florina is also an excellent candidate for both Lyn mode stat boosters, as the Energy Ring supplements her rather poor starting offense and the Angelic Robe improves her mediocre durability. Both stat boosters significantly increase her potential as a flier, as improving Florina's offense means that she's less reliant on the individual that she's carrying and improving Florina's defense means that she has more leeway to take a hit. Both can also indirectly increase her rate of EXP gain, which is important in bringing her to maximum potential.

Availability: Florina is the first flying player unit and claims sole flier utility for chapters 16 and 17x. She also has more maps in which she can gain EXP to buffer her combat parameters. Flying utility is special in the sense that it doesn't experience diminishing marginal returns to the same degree that most other forms of utility do - this means that even if Florina has competition in the form of later joining fliers, she can never truly be made obsolete.

15 aid: Promoted Florina can carry promoted Hector, which is essential in chapter 32. Prior to promotion, Florina's 16 aid can rescue every non-Merlinus character in the game, an ability that enables use of 16 con units such as Oswin, Dorcas, and Hawkeye.

Disadvantages

Offense: Florina's 5 base str and 40% str growth is reminiscent of Eliwood-level str, but she at least has lances and superior AS to mitigate that. Even so, Florina has a plethora of earlygame offensive problems that stem from having either poor atk or insufficient AS due to her 4 unpromoted con. An example of this problem can be illustrated against an 18 HP, 3 def, 5 AS Iron Lance PK in chapter 16. 7/0 Florina has on average 11.4 atk, 12.3 AS with Slim Lance and 14.4 atk, 8.3 AS with Iron Lance. Florina doubles but misses the 2HKO with Slim Lance, and 2HKOs but does not double with the Iron Lance. As enemy AS generally hovers around the 6-8 mark for a large portion of the game, Florina will have to continue to make these tradeoffs until she's around 14/0 at worst, where 16 spd yields 12 AS with Iron Lance and 11 AS with Killer Lance (faster enemies such as mercenaries still necessitate Slim Lance, though). Later in the game, there's no hope of Florina making the 28 atk necessary to cleanly 2HKO 32 HP, 12 def WKs, but poor offense can be aided by killer weapons that give Florina, at 14/2, a 60.3% chance (66.4% with S rank bonus) to ORKO any enemy that she normally doubles and at least 4HKOs.

Physical durability: Outstanding physical durability is a trait that any player would like a flier to have (see FE6 Miledy or FE10 Haar). Sadly, Florina's 20.6 HP, 4.9 def at 7/0 means that any enemy with at least 16 atk can 2HKO her. While there are no units in chapter 16 with 16 atk (mercenaries are cut to 15 atk after WTD), they begin appearing as soon as chapter 17 - fighters, pirates, and knights are common enemy types that tend to exceed 16 atk regardless of weapon, and PKs and cavaliers with Steel Lances also approach 2HKO territory. 60% HP and 15% def growths are not sufficient to improve Florina's physical durability at any desirable rate - at 14/0 in chapter 23, 22 atk Steel Lance WKs 2HKO 24.8 HP, 5.95 def - but Florina's +5 HP, +2 def on promotion help significantly in bringing most enemies from a 2HKO to a 3HKO.

Bow weakness: Usually, flying utility is important enough such that the rest of the team should accomodate Florina whenever possible. For example, in chapter 28x, two archers and a sniper occupy the island nearest to the player's starting position, but Florina's bow weakness is rendered a non-issue because the most efficient way to clear that map is to KO those enemies on turn 1. That's not to say that Florina's bow weakness is entirely negligible - it is a challenging obstacle that, if present, always needs to be surmounted, and occasionally poses a great hindrance to Florina's use in more standard combat heavy maps. As an example, while it's not a bad choice to deploy Florina in chapter 17, her combat opportunites are limited with about half of the starting enemies on the map being bow users. 2x effective damage in this game renders most bow attacks nonfatal (a Steel Bow archer in chapter 17 has 24-25 effective atk against 8/0 Florina's 21.2 HP, 5.05 def), but Florina has to watch out for, in particular, lategame Silver Bow snipers (41 effective atk) and Iron Ballistae (26 effective MT from 15 range). There is only one Delphi Shield in the game for five fliers, and Florina is likely the worst candidate for it due to having the worst combat potential.

5 con: Florina's high aid is a mixed blessing, because as has been brought up previously, wielding most lances will drop her AS to non-doubling levels for a portion of the game. (I know, this bullet should be more appropriately titled "4 con," but since I use promoted con and aid values, I titled this bullet "5 con" for the sake of consistency.)

Summary

Despite all of her shortcomings, flying utility in combination with early availability is enough to make Florina a fixture on all efficient playthroughs. Florina's lack of proficiency at combat, particularly early on, tends to lead her into disuse, but I strongly suggest against neglecting her combat parameters, particularly since extra levels correspond to a better ability to weather obstacles that might challenge Florina when performing a task.

Score: 9.0

Edited December 11, 2010 by dondon151

[Narga_Rocks]

Lyn mode: Florina's 3/0 bases render her virtually unusable in combat, but one can reasonably get her to 7/0 by the end of Lyn mode, which gives her enough spd to consistently double enemies with a Slim Lance (12.3 average) and slightly more str (7.4 average vs. 6 base) to do more damage per round of combat. Florina is also an excellent candidate for both Lyn mode stat boosters, as the Energy Ring supplements her rather poor starting offense and the Angelic Robe improves her mediocre durability. Both stat boosters significantly increase her potential as a flier, as improving Florina's offense means that she's less reliant on the individual that she's carrying and improving Florina's defense means that she has more leeway to take a hit. Both can also indirectly increase her rate of EXP gain, which is important in bringing her to maximum potential.

I thought you were the one that had such a low turncount in chapter 10 of Lyn mode that it was impossible to give the energy ring to anyone but Kent or Sain.

Physical durability: Outstanding physical durability is a trait that any player would like a flier to have (see FE6 Miledy or FE10 Haar). Sadly, Florina's 20.6 HP, 4.9 def at 7/0 means that any enemy with at least 16 atk can 2HKO her. While there are no units in chapter 16 with 16 atk (mercenaries are cut to 15 atk after WTD), they begin appearing as soon as chapter 17 - fighters, pirates, and knights are common enemy types that tend to exceed 16 atk regardless of weapon, and PKs and cavaliers with Steel Lances also approach 2HKO territory. 60% HP and 15% def growths are not sufficient to improve Florina's physical durability at any desirable rate - at 14/0 in chapter 23, 22 atk Steel Lance WKs 2HKO 24.8 HP, 5.95 def - but Florina's +5 HP, +2 def on promotion help significantly in bringing most enemies from a 2HKO to a 3HKO.

Isn't this part of why she gets the Lyn mode robe? Or are you trying to make the ratings (except the part specifically labeled Lyn mode) as if Lyn mode wasn't played?

The robe makes all these 2HKOs become 3HKOs, and turns that into 4HKOs after promotion.

[Mekkah]

It sounds pretty difficult to make Florina both functional in combat while still using her ferrying whenever necessary. I guess she has more room in her agenda for that than someone like Vanessa or Thany, though.

[dondon151]

I thought you were the one that had such a low turncount in chapter 10 of Lyn mode that it was impossible to give the energy ring to anyone but Kent or Sain.

I think I still managed to get the Energy Ring to Florina on the last turn of chapter 10. Maybe I took an extra turn? Not sure.

Isn't this part of why she gets the Lyn mode robe? Or are you trying to make the ratings (except the part specifically labeled Lyn mode) as if Lyn mode wasn't played?

The robe makes all these 2HKOs become 3HKOs, and turns that into 4HKOs after promotion.

I don't want to automatically assume that Florina gets the Robe, partially because my actual experiences don't include Lyn mode and partially because I want to make the analyses as objective as possible. Playstyle considerations are mentioned in the summary.

It sounds pretty difficult to make Florina both functional in combat while still using her ferrying whenever necessary. I guess she has more room in her agenda for that than someone like Vanessa or Thany, though.

It helps that her base level is functionally 7/0 instead of 1/0, and her offensive growths are slightly better than Thany's or Vanessa's. It's not very difficult to make Florina functional in combat when all you have to do by lategame is just 4HKO enemies and double them.

[Narga_Rocks]

I think I still managed to get the Energy Ring to Florina on the last turn of chapter 10. Maybe I took an extra turn? Not sure.

Maybe it was one of the others, then. I think the problem was that only Florina could reach the village in x turns due to flight and then she could fly close enough for Sain or Kent to reach her and take + use the ring (but no other unit could reach her, either, at that point).

[Florete]

I don't want to automatically assume that Florina gets the Robe, partially because my actual experiences don't include Lyn mode and partially because I want to make the analyses as objective as possible. Playstyle considerations are mentioned in the summary.

But since you specifically pointed her out as the likely best candidate, shouldn't you note how it helps her alongside how she is without it?

[dondon151]

That's kind of difficult with a resource like the Angelic Robe, because there's numerous permutations on getting hit, then healing (via Heal or Vulnerary), then surviving some other combination of attack, and whatnot. It helps her avoid 2HKOs from 19 atk + 19 atk or even 19 atk + 16 atk, as an example of short term benefit, but I can't think of a future circumstance that doesn't sound extremely contrived.

[Florete]

You could always just add something like "this is her durability without the LM Robe, but remember that with it her concrete durability will not be as big of an issue."

[dondon151]

Raven

Advantages

Offense: Raven's offensive prowess is not to be understated. With 10 str, 15 spd at base, Raven is already doubling most mercenaries in chapter 18 (who have 10-12 AS) for 18/28 HP damage with Iron Sword, and with 55% str, 45% spd growths, there will be few enemies throughout the game that Raven won't be able to double. Raven, when he joins, is one of the few player units at that point in the game who have the ability to consistently ORKO multiple enemy types - chapter 17's 25 HP, 4 def pirates are no match for Raven's base 19 atk with a Steel Sword after WTA, chapter 19's 28 HP, 7 def cavaliers are also 2HKO'd by 7/0 Raven's 23.1 effective atk with Longsword (even 21.1 atk after WTD is a 2HKO), and so on. Later in the game, against tougher enemy types such as WKs, Raven has the spd buffer required to trade AS for atk; a 12/5 Raven in chapter 26 has just enough atk on average (28.05 atk) with Steel Axe after WTA to 2HKO chapter 26's 32 HP, 12 def WKs, and more than enough spd (21.95) to offset the -6 AS loss from Steel Axe - Raven still doubles 9-10 AS Iron Lance WKs. I should also point out that at 12/9, Raven's 23.75 spd average makes him one of the few units in the game who have the potential to naturally double 18-20 AS valkyries in chapter 29 - unfortunately, he is required to not be weighed down by his weapon, which removes the possibility of doubling from 2 range (Hand Axe is -3 AS).

Disadvantages

Sword lock: Raven is locked to swords until he promotes. While this is not a huge problem for a few chapters after Raven joins, should the player want to leverage Raven's offensive potential to its fullest extent, Raven needs to be promoted to be able to counter at 2 range and have a full enemy phase. Additionally, WTA from axes improves Raven's durability and offense against lance wielding enemy types such as the ubiquitous knights, WKs, and cavaliers.

Base level: A mixed curse for Raven. He has excellent bases for a 5/0 unit, and a low base level means that he levels up quickly so as to take greater advantage of his growths. The problem is that Raven is still a full five levels away from promotion, and while it would be nice to have a promoted Raven in chapter 20 who can double and ORKO all of the 9-11 AS enemy nomads, it's pretty much impossible to get him to 10/0 by that point. A symptom of this problem is that until Raven promotes, he doesn't actually help the team very much, as EXP is a higher priority for him - for example, he can clean up pirates in chapter 17x, reinforcements in chapter 19, and PKs in chapter 19x for easy EXP but no or very little immediate benefit to the player. Another symptom is that Raven might have to make tradeoffs between short- and long-term performance. 10/1 Raven in chapter 21 has Hand Axes to remove enemies on enemy phase, but 14/1 Raven in chapter 23x has enough atk on average (14.95) to cleanly double and 2HKO 32 HP, 8 def sages with Iron Blade.

Promotion: Hero Crest issues have already been mentioned, but Raven is by far the best recipient of the sole easily obtainable Hero Crest prior to chapter 27.

Summary

Raven's excellent offense sets him apart from other infantry units, and makes him more than usable in an efficient playthrough despite not having any other desirable traits, like a mount. The fast paced nature of efficient play, combined with Raven's base class, still creates some significant early problems that a typical player would not normally encounter, and the ubiquity of excellent mounted units lategame kind of makes Raven obsolete, but he is still a unit required for an efficient playthrough.

Score: 7.5

Lucius

Advantages

Magic: Magic offers Lucius accurate 1-2 range on all weaponry except Purge, which is a blessing when one considers Lucius's durability issues. Although light is notably worse than anima, having 1-2 less MT and 2 more WT for equivalent level tomes, it still takes advantage of the def-res gap, which is anywhere from 3 in chapter 17x pirates to 11 in chapter 26 WKs. Lucius is also the only plausible user of Purge before Athos, which can have situational utility (e.g. attacking an archer in chapter 28x on turn 1).

Offense: Lucius's decent 7 mag, 10 spd bases at 3/0 are supplemented by 60% mag and 40% spd growths. That means that Lucius only needs to be 8/0 to reach the 12 spd benchmark needed to double most enemy types by chapter 20, which is achievable without much effort. At 10/0, Lucius also reaches 15.2 atk on average with Lightning, which is sufficient to 2HKO all 28 HP, 1 res cavaliers in chapter 20. Lucius's high mag growth somewhat offsets the limited availability of light tomes (the first obtainable Shine comes in chapter 21), as by chapter 26, even a 12/1 Lucius has enough atk with Lightning (18.4 on average) to 2HKO all 32 HP, 2 res WKs in chapter 26.

Promotion gains: Lucius is the only unit in the game to gain C staves upon promotion. This makes him, along with Serra and Priscilla, the only earlygame units who have a chance at reaching A staves by endgame. Even so, Lucius still requires 28 turns of Barrier spam to go from C to A staves - should the player decide not to go through with this investment, Lucius can still use C level staves such as Restore, Barrier, and Hammerne in a pinch, and with limited investment (13 uses of Barrier) can use status staves, Physic, and Rescue, all of which he is more effective at due to having higher mag in comparison to Serra and Priscilla.

Lyn mode: Lucius can reasonably come out of Lyn mode at around 6/0, an improvement that enables him to double sooner and reach promotion sooner as well.

Disadvantages

Physical durability: Lucius has what are inarguably the worst physically defensive parameters in the game, with 18 HP, 1 def bases and only 55% HP, 10% def growths. There is really no incentive to invest resources into improving Lucius's physical defensive parameters, as even an extremely unlikely 20/4 Lucius with 31 HP, 6 def on average in chapter 26 would still be 2HKO'd by 23 atk Steel Lance WKs. One should focus primarily on making sure Lucius doesn't get OHKO'd, which is easy enough with +3 HP, +3 def promotion bonuses. As for the consequences of such abysmal physical durability, Lucius is eternally limited to one potential counter per enemy phase against physical enemies, in comparison to competitors like Erk and Canas, who can usually counter two physical enemies per enemy phase with no risk of death.

Base level: Even coming out of Lyn mode, Lucius's 6/0 estimate is about the same as Raven's base level of 5/0, only that Lucius has more difficulty leveling up due to greater restrictions with enemy phase combat. It is easy enough, however, for him to KO enemies without too much assistance, but he will still struggle to reach 10/0 for promotion before the player obtains the chapter 20 Guiding Ring.

Promotion: Guiding Ring competition issues have been highlighted already. If the player wants to raise Lucius's staff level to A by endgame, he is pretty much required to take the chapter 20 Guiding Ring. If the player just needs him as an extra C rank staff user, he can wait until the chapter 27 Guiding Ring or the chapter 28 Earth Seal for promotion. C staves gives Lucius an edge on the competition, as Priscilla and Serra don't mind staying unpromoted and Erk and Canas only gain better offensive and defensive parameters.

Recruitment cost: Both Gergeshwan and I have determined that recruiting Lucius with Raven is only possible on turn 9 of chapter 17, while it is possible to finish the chapter on turn 8.

Summary

Lucius kind of occupies the middle ground between offense and staves, as Erk and Canas are more flexible at attacking and Serra and Priscilla have higher staff ranks. This is part of what makes Lucius so unique, though, as he can be an acceptable unit in both roles. The issue is that there's generally very little incentive to deploy Lucius, as his offensive contributions are relatively minimal and his staff contributions are really only important in endgame, but the benefits of using Lucius in the long run outweigh the costs in the short run.

Score: 6.5

[dondon151]

Canas

Advantages

Magic: Dark magic offers Canas pretty much the same advantages that light and anima offer Lucius and Erk, respectively. Canas also gets access to Luna and Nosferatu, which are minor advantages at best - Nosferatu weighs down Canas too much to be useful in most circumstances, and although Luna allows Canas to do more damage to promoted magic units with high res, his mag is insufficient to secure a 2HKO. For example, 9/0 Pent, with 29.9 atk on average with Elfire after WTA, does roughly 10 x2 HP damage to a 34 HP, 20 res bishop in chapter 29, compared to a modest 11/6 Canas's 13.05 atk with Luna after WTD on the same bishop for roughly 13 x2 HP damage, but Canas needs to be 20/7 or equivalent for a clean 2HKO with Luna, which is out of reach on an efficient playthrough. Luna is also often hyped as a good boss killing tool, but Canas's damage just isn't high enough, and for every boss out there, there are easier, faster ways to kill them.

Disadvantages

Offense: While Lucius and Erk have little trouble reaching doubling AS, Canas is reliant on his promotion bonuses, gaining +4 AS upon consumption of a Guiding Ring. Lucius and Erk only need to be 8/0 and 11/0, respectively, to reach the magic 12 AS needed to double most enemy types from chapter 20 and on, but Canas needs to be 11/1. After promotion, Canas does well enough - his 11/4 atk with Flux (19.7) is only slightly less than 15/1 Erk's atk with Elfire (21.6), but is more than enough to 2HKO common enemy types like the oft-cited 32 HP, 2 res WKs in chapter 26.

Physical durability: Canas's physical durability is on about the same level as that of Erk. His base 21 HP, 5 def falls just short of surviving most combinations of attacks in chapter 19, being 2HKO'd by 15 atk + 16 atk (Iron Lance cavaliers have 15 atk; Steel Bow nomads have 16 atk). 70% HP and 25% def growths, which are slightly better than Erk's physical durability growths, are sufficient to create a small real durability lead by midgame - while 15/1 Erk is cleanly 2HKO'd on average by 23 atk WKs in chapter 26, 11/4 Canas's 29.2 HP, 8.5 def gives him a chance at surviving two attacks from the same 23 atk WKs.

Promotion: Canas has the most to gain from promotion, as it transforms him from offensive ineptitude into ORKOing most enemy types in the game. That said, Canas doesn't gain anything aside from offense upon promotion, which puts hit at a disadvantage compared to Lucius.

Summary

As far as offensive performance goes, Canas doesn't disappoint given that he gets an early promotion. However, he doesn't really have any significant advantages over his competitors, Erk and Lucius, and joins the team at a point in the game where the team has been saturated with potentially good units. With no opportunity for earlygame contributions like Erk, no C staves upon promotion like Lucius, and no significant offensive leads over physical units like Raven, there's not a whole lot to gain from using Canas in an efficient playthrough.

Score: 4.0

Dart

Advantages

Offense: Dart has undisputably the highest offensive growths in the game, with 65% str and 60% spd, but these growths are stifled by some rather mediocre bases, particularly the 8 base spd at 8/0. For that reason, Dart's offense is pretty average until he can reach the 12 AS landmark, which occurs right upon promotion. At 14/4 or equivalent, Dart has 18.85 str on average, just enough to 2HKO 32 HP, 12 def WKs with an Iron Axe. As Killer Axes become available in that map, Dart will have no problem 2HKOing common enemy types and less bulkier promoted enemies such as snipers (a chapter 28x sniper has 41 HP, 9 def; 2HKO'd by 14/5 Dart's 30.5 average atk with a Killer Axe).

Water and peak walk: Both of these capabilities are situational advantages for Dart, but extremely useful when applicable. Water walk is only really useful in chapter 28x, allowing Dart to help clear out enemies while fliers are busy transporting other units. Peak walk can be used to grab a +2 def, +40 avo terrain bonus when needed against tough enemies, such as the two heroes in chapter 29 - with a Swordreaver, 14/6 Dart trivializes them, reducing their hit down to under 15 displayed.

Critical bonus: Dart gets a +15 crit bonus upon promotion. Though he doesn't need it to ORKO enemies that he already 2HKOs, it does provide the possibility of OHKOing enemies that Dart can't double or 2HKO. Against the same chapter 29 heroes mentioned above, who have 43 HP, 15 def, 14/6 Dart has 33.15 atk and about 30 crit on average with S axes and a Swordreaver for a clean OHKO with a critical hit.

Disadvantages

Promotion: Dart's promotion comes at, quite literally, a great cost, as his promotion item, the Ocean Seal, can be sold for an easy 25000 G. The implication of this is that promoting Dart necessarily prevents one of the recruitment of Farina, skipping the chapter 19x Silver Card, purchasing of chapter 22 staves, or purchasing of chapter 26 killer weapons.

Accuracy: With a modest 8 skl base and a 20% skl growth that is the lowest in the game, combined with being locked to axes, Dart is one of the few characters in this game who has chronic accuracy issues. At 14/5 with S axes, Dart only has 88 hit with a Hand Axe before enemy avoid. Against a chapter 28x archer, Dart only has 74 displayed hit (86.74 true), or a 24.8% chance to miss one of two attacks for an ORKO. The resulting lack of consistency hurts Dart's reliability when he is necessary for efficient strategies, as an untimely miss can result in consequences that range anywhere from a lost turn to a restart.

Summary

Despite having some highly desirable traits, Dart is better off unused in an efficient playthrough. The cost of the Ocean Seal is too much to justify Dart's use, and he is outclassed by Hawkeye, who provides the same utility that Dart does without any of the cost.

Score: 3.5

Edited December 24, 2010 by dondon151

[Loki Laufeyson]

Promotion: Dart's promotion comes at, quite literally, a great cost, as his promotion item, the Ocean Seal, can be sold for an easy 25000 G. The implication of this is that promoting Dart necessarily prevents one of the recruitment of Farina, skipping the chapter 19x Silver Card, purchasing of chapter 22 staves, or purchasing of chapter 26 killer weapons.

But like, theres an Ocean Seal in Living Legend. Like RIGHT next to your starting point. You dont even have to waste turns finding it really. Just put Legault or Matthew just right of where you start and BAM free Ocean Seal.

[Florete]

Promotion: Dart's promotion comes at, quite literally, a great cost, as his promotion item, the Ocean Seal, can be sold for an easy 25000 G.

But like, theres an Ocean Seal in Living Legend. Like RIGHT next to your starting point. You dont even have to waste turns finding it really. Just put Legault or Matthew just right of where you start and BAM free Ocean Seal.

can be sold for an easy 25000 G.

He's not suggesting we buy an Ocean Seal.

[Radiant Dragon]

But like, theres an Ocean Seal in Living Legend. Like RIGHT next to your starting point. You dont even have to waste turns finding it really. Just put Legault or Matthew just right of where you start and BAM free Ocean Seal.

The point is that if we use it to promote Dart, we can't sell it to buy Killer Weapons, Physics, Farina etc., which is why it comes with a cost. It's MUCH more valuable than any other promotion item other than the Fell Contract (which sells for the same price).

EDIT: Damn it, Ninja'd.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Radiant Dragon

[Mekkah]

Base level: A mixed curse for Raven.

heh

[Anouleth]

Promotion: Dart's promotion comes at, quite literally, a great cost, as his promotion item, the Ocean Seal, can be sold for an easy 25000 G. The implication of this is that promoting Dart necessarily prevents one of the recruitment of Farina, skipping the chapter 19x Silver Card, purchasing of chapter 22 staves, or purchasing of chapter 26 killer weapons.

Is money really that scarce on an efficient playthrough?

Accuracy: With a modest 8 skl base and a 20% skl growth that is the lowest in the game, combined with being locked to axes, Dart is one of the few characters in this game who has chronic accuracy issues. At 14/5 with S axes, Dart only has 88 hit with a Hand Axe before enemy avoid. Against a chapter 28x archer, Dart only has 74 displayed hit (86.74 true), or a 24.8% chance to miss one of two attacks for an ORKO. The resulting lack of consistency hurts Dart's reliability when he is necessary for efficient strategies, as an untimely miss can result in consequences that range anywhere from a lost turn to a restart.

Consider that the same Dart would have 25 crit on that Archer. So actually, his chance to ORKO is more like 85%, since even if he misses one of his attacks, the other can still potentially crit, removing the need to hit twice.

It also increases his chance to crit against stronger enemies with Killers, making him in some ways more reliable than other units.

[Gergeshwan]

Is money really that scarce on an efficient playthrough?

It's not scarce, but you do have to budget it without the Silver Card. Without the Ocean Seal, you only really have gems and junk stat boosters for both the secret shop and killers. It's definitely a lot more flexible with an extra 25k, at least in terms of spamming killers whenever you feel like it.

[dondon151]

Is money really that scarce on an efficient playthrough?

I did budget out all of my expenditures in the tier list topic. Cash isn't scarce; it's more like Physics and Barriers cost an arm and a leg. Farina also costs an extremity, and you'd want to be able to buy enough killers in chapter 26 to last the rest of the game (maps after chapter 31x don't really even count because they're either so short or you're using braves over killers).

Consider that the same Dart would have 25 crit on that Archer. So actually, his chance to ORKO is more like 85%, since even if he misses one of his attacks, the other can still potentially crit, removing the need to hit twice.

Some random, not even particularly accurate dude like 11/5 Heath has 102 hit with S lances and Javelin. 88 disp hit against that same archer, or 97.24 true, so 94.6% chance to hit both attacks. 5.4% chance of missing. That's a third of Dart's chance of missing, even after factoring in his 25 crit (and this is ignoring Heath's 12 crit). Let's say Dart only has to fight 3 enemies like that in the entire chapter. 38.6% chance of missing an ORKO. Heath has a 15.3% chance of missing an ORKO. Dart is more than 2 and a half times more likely than Heath to be a weak link in the strategy.

It also increases his chance to crit against stronger enemies with Killers, making him in some ways more reliable than other units.

That's completely irrelevant. 15 crit has already been covered in a different section.

[Loki Laufeyson]

The point is that if we use it to promote Dart, we can't sell it to buy Killer Weapons, Physics, Farina etc., which is why it comes with a cost. It's MUCH more valuable than any other promotion item other than the Fell Contract (which sells for the same price).

EDIT: Damn it, Ninja'd.

Well, if youre strapped for cash (since efficient runs mean no arena spam) then using Dart isnt a good idea.

, Dart is better off unused in an efficient playthrough.

:D So like, personally, i would give Dart a lower ranking. Because other than perhaps helping wipe some peggies out in Uhai's chapter and getting Gietz, he would be nothing more than a bench warmer. 4 is a bit generous.

[dondon151]

Fiora

Advantages

Flying: Refer to Florina. Fiora isn't around for chapters 16 or 17x, but gets the rest of the maps to her credit. Flier utility experiences little diminishing marginal returns, so despite being in a niche already occupied by Florina, Fiora is still ideal for efficient completions in shared maps, in particular chapters 19x, 21, 23, 25, 27, 28x, 29, and 32.

Resistance: Fiora's 7 base res is about the same as 10/0 Florina's 7.15 res, but Fiora has a lower base level (thus faster rate of EXP gain) and a higher res growth (50% vs. 35%), which makes her even better for shrugging off magic attacks. A 12/6 Fiora in chapter 29 has on average 33 HP, 14 res, almost 2 more res than 14/6 Florina. With a +7 Pure Water or Barrier boost, Fiora only takes 13 HP total damage from a 25 atk Purge and a 30 atk Bolting, and reduces the staff accuracy of 15 mag, 11 skl valkyries to 0 at a distance of 6 tiles or greater.

Disadvantages

Offense: This is slightly more of a problem for Fiora than it is for Florina, for two reasons. One is that Fiora has 8 str, 13 spd at base, which is already trailing 10/0 Florina's 8.6 str, 13.95 spd on average. Fiora's 1 extra con offsets the spd disadvantage, but her 35% str growth is lower than Florina's 40% str growth, which essentially means that Fiora can only perform as well as Florina and will have all of the same offensive problems - before chapter 23 or so, Fiora will have to make tradeoffs between atk and AS, and is reliant on Killer Lance criticals later in the game to ORKO tougher enemy types like WKs. The other reason is that while Florina has the potential to consume the Lyn mode Energy Ring for +4 HP damage for most rounds of combat, Fiora has no such opportunity.

Physical durability: Fiora's 21 HP, 6 def bases are slightly superior to Florina's 22.4 HP, 5.35 def 10/0 averages, and 70% HP, 20% def growths compared to 60% HP, 15% def growths means that Fiora maintains a physical durability lead on Florina. Unfortunately, it's not sufficient for Fiora to naturally establish a durability lead against some important enemy types, as like Florina, 12/0 Fiora with 24.5 HP, 7 def on average is still 2HKO'd by chapter 23's 22 atk Steel Lance WKs. Fiora also doesn't have access to the Lyn mode Angelic Robe to turn that into a 3HKO like Florina can, and relies on +5 HP, +2 def from promotion for that.

Base level: This isn't a particularly huge problem, because it's not very difficult to get Fiora to 10/0 for promotion by chapter 23, but it does require that the player use Fiora in combat to gain EXP.

Recruitment cost: Chapter 19 can be cleared in 4 turns. Fiora appears at the beginning of turn 3 and must be recruited with Florina, so Florina is restricted from wandering away from the starting location on this map. She could have been useful, too, given the rivers and the heavily forested terrain.

Summary

Mostly due to an availability disadvantage and level disadvantage resulting from Lyn mode, Fiora is at least slightly overshadowed by Florina in most respects, but anything that Florina can do, Fiora can generally do as well. Regardless, Fiora is a must-use unit in a maximum efficiency playthrough.

Score: 8.0

Legault

Advantages

Thief: A detailed analysis of thief utility, including Legault's possible contributions, is given in Matthew's section.

Base stats: Legault's base stats are decent, with a passable 8 str and good 17 spd allowing him to double almost every enemy type in the game. Legault's 8 con, combined with a generous spd buffer, allows him to exchange AS for atk and ORKO weaker enemy types like magic units - for example, Legault has 16 atk at base with a Steel Sword, enough to 2HKO 25 HP, 2 def monks in chapter 21. Base 29 HP, 8 def also allows unarmed Legault to just barely survive 2 attacks from 22 atk Steel Lance WKs in chapter 23, giving him enough durability to run around and pick up treasure. Matthew needs to be 15/0 on average to match Legault's offense and 19/0 on average to match Legault's physical durability, which makes Legault a clearly superior choice for thief deployment after chapter 20.

Disadvantages

Promotion: The Fell Contract is obtained in chapter 28x, which is absurdly late, and promotion doesn't solve any of Legault's combat problems. With only 11 str at 20/1, Legault can't even 2HKO 38 HP, 8 def snipers in chapter 31 with a Silver Sword, and the lack of a both a WEXP bonus on promotion and a crit bonus means that Legault is worse at KOing with critical hits than almost any other character. As there's little use for the Fell Contract's 25000 G selling price at that point in the game (other than buying silvers in chapter 29), there's not a whole lot of issue with promoting Legault, but the benefits are virtually nonexistent.

Substitution: The availability of Chest Keys after chapter 22 hurts Legault much more than Matthew, because it leaves Legault with fewer opportunities to exercise his thief utility without universal competition. There's still chapter 23 and the odd smattering of fog of war maps where Legault's utility cannot be replaced by non-thief units, but regardless, the availability of Chest Keys really hurts Legault's value.

Summary

Legault is, in short, a more durable, more offensively capable replacement for Matthew, and outclasses him in every way upon joining the team. His advantages, however, are relatively minor, as durability is generally unneeded to perform thief utility (although it does help in chapters 22 and 23). Due to the chapter 22 secret shop, Legault has limited use, but he is important for his extended fog of war sight, and for obtaining certain items necessary for efficient play.

Score: 5.5

Edited December 14, 2010 by dondon151