FE: Awakening Hard Mode Tier List

[Jediabiwan]

Thanks, just checking to make sure. I was correcting this guy earlier who was talking about how good swords were and just wanted to make sure I didn't forget about a ton of axe using enemies or something.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Thanks, just checking to make sure. I was correcting this guy earlier who was talking about how good swords were and just wanted to make sure I didn't forget about a ton of axe using enemies or something.

Well, to be fair, there are a lot of axe enemies early on, but it's not really enough to make up for swords' other shortcomings.

[CATS]

ahaha okay so inui and CATS or whatever peon solidsense is (honestly it's so hard to tell you guys apart) waltz into a topic and turn up their boomboxes, sportin' their bellbottoms and cordless phones

good shit dudes. good vibrations.

Totally bro! you called i'm here! The party has arrived!

.... Wait I'm not late am I?

[Seven Deadly Sins]

Your first easy Speedwing is in Chapter 16. The one is Chapter 11 is on a reinforcement unit that you're unlikely to fight (if I remember correctly... I never got it), and the next one doesn't show up until a child paralogue. This is maybe a red flag for him.

I just wanted to say that a 5 turn of Chapter 11 allows you to get the speedwing. It's 2 turns over the minimum of 3, but you get a Speedwing, an early Armorslayer, and some tasty bonus EXP since the Speedwing carrier is a Hero. I wouldn't say you're unlikely to fight it, you just have to stick around slightly longer in order to do so.

[Junkhead]

Is Panne assumed to go Wyern Rider as soon as given the chance? I can definitely see her up there if that's the case.

[General Horace]

It's been of much debate, because if she gets the first second seal, she rocks socks with it (as a wyvern rider, yes) but she's not always entitled to it, so its kind of a grey area.

[Junkhead]

Who else would be entitled to it?

[Reiska]

Chrom (to Cavalier) or Avatar (various options, Dark Mage sticks out to me though) come to mind immediately.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Also there was that argument that Sully is a better WL than Panne

knight sumia wins thought

[Junkhead]

Chrom (to Cavalier) or Avatar (various options, Dark Mage sticks out to me though) come to mind immediately.

Wasn't it a more optimal choice to have Chrom go Great Lord and then Paladin/GK because of the special skills he benefits from as a Great Lord? Besides, his Mov is easily remedied by the fact Sully and Sumia are his most viable choices, so he'll never really have Mov issues as long as he sticks with them (and he very well shall).

As for The Avatar...why would Dark Mage out of the other reclasses stick out more? Which also comes to the question- Why is Tharja relatively high on the list?

Also there was that argument that Sully is a better WL than Panne

knight sumia wins thought

I don't think giving it to Sully over Panne is a better choice. Sully already benefits from a mount, great growths and decent bases, so making her a WL will only really just grant her flight...meanwhile, Panne can become an extremely potential killing machine, and that's granting you another fantastic unit rather than giving a small upgrade to an already great unit [sully].

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

DM reclass is notable because of Nosferatu for Dark Mage, which is both a 1-2 and MU started with D Tome to wield Chapter 13+ buyable Nosferatu

because IS think that Enemy Phase Healing + High Stats from Pair Up + High Defense(DM has 4 base, Mage has 2) is funny.

In general, L10 Reclass give a faster stats progression than Promotion, at least from what i have seen. Also Chrom as a Great lord need to reach level 5 for Aether, which is pretty slow

Edited April 20, 2013 by JSND

[Junkhead]

So I just discovered Female Dark Mages can actually go Dark Knight. Damn...that's just ridiculous. Now I want to use Tharja. :E

Also, I assume Anna is that high because she's a thief that can heal, right?

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Dark Knight can't use Dark Magic though.....

[PKL]

Stop hyping Nosferatu...

Also, SDS, the minimum TC for Chapter 11 is 2 not 3.

On Wyvern Sully vs Wyvern Panne:

Sully is very average in my experience. Discipline helps her get good axes real quick though and shes overall a nice Deliverer into quick burner.

Panne though, is a unit that rams speed and once she gets access to Quick Burn, its not uncommon to see her face trivial hitrates from the stuff that could threaten her later on like rexcalibur or bows Depending on her support and rallies, Ive had her face almost 10% rexcalibur in Chapter 23 thanks to Quick Burn and Lon'qu S. She's not just a good deliverer like sully, shes downright ridiculous.

It doesnt help that she gets Helswath to ORKO even Generals and 4HKO Validar.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Peekayell

[Junkhead]

I supported her with Frederick because it gives her great Str/Def boost.

[Redwall]

Avoid and Def are numbers with increasing returns; in Panne's case, since her Avo is so high, in general giving her someone like Lon'qu increases the number of enemy attack attempts (this includes misses) she can survive moreso than giving her someone like Frederick will.

[Dark Sage]

I think the best argument that can be made is that other units either don't care that much about it (like say Sully) or have to make tradeoffs. For example, Lon'qu giving up Armorslayer and his sword rank when he reclasses to Wyvern and losing his +Spd pair up bonus. In the case of Panne, there's no tradeoff for her to be made, it's all positive, so she's generally a prime candidate for the first seal.

This doesn't mean that her taking a seal doesn't have a cost because there are units who do really like the seal too such as Vaike, Donnel, and Gaius and you only have so many of them early on.

[Florete]

Panne does have an immediate Spd loss from losing the Beaststone and will no longer give Spd support.

[Sasori]

This might be a stupid question, but should't Libra be a tad higher? At least above Tharja and perhaps even above Anna.

When Libra joins he has staff utility and reasonable combat stats, not only that, but he makes a joke out of every enemy magic user for a long while. He can also greatly help in the early valm chapters, since he can use hammers to deal with those high defense knights.

Anna has higher speed, but I believe hammers are a lot easier to get then armourslayers so Libra has easier hammer access and his niche as a mage killer.

Edit: Oops never mind I completely forgot about Anna's thief utility for a few seconds

Edited April 24, 2013 by Sasori

[Junkhead]

This might be a stupid question, but should't Libra be a tad higher? At least above Tharja and perhaps even above Anna.

When Libra joins he has staff utility and reasonable combat stats, not only that, but he makes a joke out of every enemy magic user for a long while. He can also greatly help in the early valm chapters, since he can use hammers to deal with those high defense knights.

Anna has higher speed, but I believe hammers are a lot easier to get then armourslayers so Libra has easier hammer access and his niche as a mage killer.

Edit: Oops never mind I completely forgot about Anna's thief utility for a few seconds

You know, at some point I wanted to ask for this. But then I thought to myself "Should he really be above the people who are above him?". Think of it:

- Tharja: I can see him going above her, actually, now that I think of it. He starts out promoted, with appropriate combat stats, passable durability. Defenitely a great Magekiller (not that matters too much, but stilll...). Good Axe/Staff ranks. What does Tharja have in her favor? Nosferatu tanking, good growths and the factor that she's already ready to promote?

- Lucina: He arrives earlier than her, and that should already garantee some more action. Just a bit more. Then again, I'm not exactly sure what Lucy's capable of, being able to take a Seal and automatically go Cavalier for a /possible/ overall better performance.

tl;dr: I think it's feasible to get him to the bottom of A tier, and 90% sure he can go above Tharja...at least.

I'd like to propose rising Sumia up on the tier list. She can be very helpful, even as a simple support-bot.

I'd put her above Anna (who arrives significantly later than her), Lonqu (which gives out +Spd, but he doesn't fly and isn't very good at combat, anyway).

Sumia arrives relatively early, and while she isn't very good at combat, and does have rather shaky durability, I think she serves best as a support-bot at first, getting awesome people like Frederick, Chrom and The Avatar great boosts that gets them to doubling range- And in exchange, she gets those Str/Def boosts she so desires from these guys (especially from Frederick). She can even give slowpokes like Kellam better uses earlygame by ferrying them around, and even abuse of the Str/Def they give her, and thereby nab her some kills she so desires.

Later on, she just trivializes things with Galeforce.

[Shadow Mir]

You know, at some point I wanted to ask for this. But then I thought to myself "Should he really be above the people who are above him?". Think of it:

- Tharja: I can see him going above her, actually, now that I think of it. He starts out promoted, with appropriate combat stats, passable durability. Defenitely a great Magekiller (not that matters too much, but stilll...). Good Axe/Staff ranks. What does Tharja have in her favor? Nosferatu tanking, good growths and the factor that she's already ready to promote?

- Lucina: He arrives earlier than her, and that should already garantee some more action. Just a bit more. Then again, I'm not exactly sure what Lucy's capable of, being able to take a Seal and automatically go Cavalier for a /possible/ overall better performance.

tl;dr: I think it's feasible to get him to the bottom of A tier, and 90% sure he can go above Tharja...at least.

I'd like to propose rising Sumia up on the tier list. She can be very helpful, even as a simple support-bot.

I'd put her above Anna (who arrives significantly later than her), Lonqu (which gives out +Spd, but he doesn't fly and isn't very good at combat, anyway).

Sumia arrives relatively early, and while she isn't very good at combat, and does have rather shaky durability, I think she serves best as a support-bot at first, getting awesome people like Frederick, Chrom and The Avatar great boosts that gets them to doubling range- And in exchange, she gets those Str/Def boosts she so desires from these guys (especially from Frederick). She can even give slowpokes like Kellam better uses earlygame by ferrying them around, and even abuse of the Str/Def they give her, and thereby nab her some kills she so desires.

Later on, she just trivializes things with Galeforce.

I don't know exactly what to say to the bulk of this argument, but I'd say Galeforce's relevance to this is pretty questionable - I highly doubt she'd get to level 15 Dark Flier in any reasonable length of time.

[Junkhead]

Hmm, you're right. That's why I pointed it out by the very end. It's just something somewhat worth throwing out there.

Besides, I forgot that this isn't absolute best turncounts (LTC), so that being the reason, I may just go with her current position. : /

[Florete]

@Libra, nah, he's good where he is. Him vs Tharja is basically only him maybe having barely better combat right away but Tharja quickly surpassing him and staying good when he drops off (he stops doubling before long) a bit and being invincible with Nosferatu. There's no way he beats Anna. All he has on her is, like, staff rank. Even for armored enemies Anna is basically the only unit you want to put Levin Swords on.

[Junkhead]

What about Sumia.

TELL ME SHE CAN RISE DAMMIT

[Florete]

I still think Cordelia needs to be above Sumia.

EDITING: Anna above them does seem a little odd considering her later join and complete lack of support partners until after Yen'fay is defeated - and then it needs to build. If it were up to me Stahl would go down to the next tier since he always seems to have Speed too crappy to be of much use, and I'm not quite sure what makes Lon'qu so good nor do I have much experience with him, so no comment there.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Red Fox of Fire