Rate the unit day 20: Nowi

[Constable Reggie]

Fuck this loser and his gimmicky bullshit 0/10

Real score: 5.5/10 - 1 = 4.5/10 for mov+1, good speed, sword rank, and nice pairup bonuses. Fighter reclass is a good option, but it blows until you get to d axes, and his def is still hurting. Offense is nice, but it's sort of not as important as durability in this game.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Constable Reggie

[General Horace]

his bases are bad and he sucks in valm just like another weak swordfighter i know

at least he gives movement in pairups until you promote him (unless you go loltrickster)

i forget what i gave lon'qu but hopefully the 4.5/10 is close to what i gave him

[Batter the Beast]

Gaius's speed is quite silly, he has a 15 speed base with a 70% growth as a thief, so he will double just about everything. His HP base is actually not that bad and his str and HP growths are pretty darn good as well. However, he has the same shortcomings as another swordlocked footie: Lon'qu; he has low durability (though not as low due to that HP base) and low bases. He does have thief utility and eventually gets mov +1 to somewhat mitigate the drawback of being a foot unit. Pairing up with Sully can help with his low defense and boost his already good offense, so he has an option in that regard.

Gaius can promote into Trickster to get Lucky Seven and Acrobat, though he can't use staves well due to low magic, or he can promote to Assasin to get better offensive stats, though the skills are lackluster. Gaius can reclass to Myrm, which doesn't do anything for him except maybe Vantage, though it allows him to promote to Swordmaster to get Swordfaire. Reclassing to Fighter gives him some better offense in the form of higher str and axe usage, though he will have E axes for a while, and it gives him more HP, though it doesn't help his low def/res that much. Fighter also gives access to Sol, so Gaius can use his good offense to make him more durable.

6/10, great offense and fighter Gaius is quite silly, but he starts so darn weak and is somewhat frail

[Melonhead]

Gaius apparently doesn't get much bulk from all that candy.

With a ridiculous 15 base speed, Gaius is going to be doubling a ton of stuff, so that isn't an issue. However, he starts off pretty weak, and his HP and defense are next to nothing. I've never really used him that much, though I do like his character.

4/10+.5 bias for 4.5/10

[Galenforcer]

6/10.

Gaius is like an inferior Lon'qu. He isn't that impressive without the higher sword rank, and is pretty fragile at base. Gaius does have Locktouch, but thieving isn't that good in Awakening as in the previous games. His class set is alright, I suppose, and he gets Sol and Lucky Seven to help his low durability.

[Florete]

Maribelle because I missed her: mounted healer, a bit annoying to raise in HM, only decent on promotion, and everything else that comes with staves. 5/10

Gaius: Locktouching is outdone by Anna and combat is outdone by any character with existing durability. His best use is Pair Up bonuses for Spd and +1 Move. There are better choices for anything else. His offense can be good, though. 4/10

[Ema Skye]

Gaius is pretty pro support for units with borderline speed, such as Cherche and Tharja. +Speed and +Move is wonderful. +Spe/+Str as an Assassin is also pretty good, and +Spe/+Move/+Mag is... acceptable, though i doubt he'll ever get more than 10 magic by endgame.

...as a frontliner he leaves a lot to be desired. His magic sucks so he needs to reclass if he wants 1-2 range. Giving Sol to his kids, as well as lucky seven is nice as well.

5/10 No bias

[eclipse]

Hey, it's another sword unit with horrid durability! Unlike Lon'qu, Gaius gives movement, and will almost always end up with more HP (Lon'qu wins in defenses). If you're willing to have him class-jump all over the place, he can turn into quite the unit (Vantage/Sol/Swordfaire/Lucky 7/Movement + 1 comes to mind). His support pool is better than Anna's will ever be, and he can pass some pretty good things down to his daughter. He's also adorable.

6.5/10 (+1 bias included because he amuses me greatly)

[Loki Laufeyson]

Gaius, everyone's favorite sweet tooth.

Pros:

Yay locktouch!

Yay base speed is cray!

Yay class set is ok.

Yay support pool.

Cons:
Boo squishy as fuck all.

Boo not that great strength.

Gaius aint bad, but he aint amazing right out of the box. He requires a bit of handholding and partnering to get going. That and hes not amazeface in his base class. Locktouch is cool and because im not a huge fan of Anna, gameplay wise, Gaius is the guy i fall back on for lock picking. Dude is super squishy even after a reclass to Swordie. Hes all about speed. But he has the upshot of being able to go Hero so thats neat. He can support with every first gen lady except the Avatar-Only Girls. So thats nice. I havent had him go Hero yet so im not sure how his strength goes there, but usually hes not as hard a hitter as other guys like Lon'qu. Astra helps that a bit, or tonics, or a strength partner. Overall hes ok. Not amazeballs but decent enough. Plus hes hilarious.

6/10

[Randa]

Day 18 panne.

I will come back and do this when I'm not falling asleep.

[Raven]

subhuman scum She's all right I suppose. No range sucks, though. Outclassed by the dragons, makes a better support unit more than anything.

60%.

[Inference]

Try reclassing her, bro. She's actually one of the best units in the game.

My rating: Panne is a monster. She joins with natural doubling ability and can make quick work of most enemies as a Taguel with Freddy or Kellam supporting. But nobody cares about Taguel Panne. Turn her into a Wyvern Rider early on and her offense explodes. Her already ridiculous Taguel growths inflate to where 4+ stat levelups become all but common, and she flies around delivering death with a Bronze Axe for a good chunk of the game. Not that leveling up her axe rank will take that long, mind you, but because you'll rarely find an enemy challenging her to use anything better.

Panne does have a couple of small strikes against her record, though: let's face it, Taguels suck. She's going to want the earliest Seal possible, which takes a couple of chapters and a four-level grind to even get to. After that, you have to be wary of those annoying Archers, and later on, Warriors. Man, Warriors with Silver Bows are annoying.

9/10

Edited June 5, 2013 by Inference

[ZemZem]

Holy shit, Panne is...wow, holy shit.

She joins at turn 2 of Chapter 6, and her combat at that point is pretty rad. She nearly 1RKO's a lot of foes in the chapter (most likely does 1RKO with the right Pair Ups and/or STR tonics), and she only needs 4 easy levels to get to level 10. The first non-renown second seal is obtained in Chapter 8, and Panne makes very good use of it if you reclass her to wyvern rider and not lolthief.

At that point, she gets really insane.

Her growths as wyvern rider:

HP: 105%

STR: 75%

MAG: 15%

SKILL: 65%

SPD: 70%

LUCK: 40%

DEF: 50%

RES: 20%

So aside from Donnel, she has the best growths out of anyone in the party (she had good growths as a Taguel, too, mind you). But unlike Donnel, she actually has a great time using those growths and doesn't have bad bases starting off. It doesn't matter if she starts with bronze axes, because she'll 1RKO most enemies with ease (She'll have something like 18 STR at 10/1 wyvern rider, and not to mention she'll get the STR+2 skill after reclassing. Her SPD might be a bit low at first, like around 13-14 AS, but Pair Ups and tonics mend that problem. Gaius or Lon'qu are probably the best options.), and she levels crazy fast because of it. Once she gets to D axes, she's rocking. The only things she'll have to worry about are mages (especially ones with wind magic) and bows (she'll shrug them off eventually), but once she really gets going, nothing will stand in her way. I don't know whether to rate her better than Sully, but I'd say she's superior because unlike Sully, Panne WANTS that second seal, and she'll have flight and amazing combat.

Taguel pride FTW. 9.5/10

Edited June 5, 2013 by Zeem

[Chiki]

Good pair up bonuses, but she needs an early Second Seal to be really useful, which is in competition. 3.5/10

[ZemZem]

Good pair up bonuses, but she needs an early Second Seal to be really useful, which is in competition. 3.5/10

Who exactly is she competing with? If anything, she should be the first to get it.

[Da Bear]

Good pair up bonuses, but she needs an early Second Seal to be really useful, which is in competition. 3.5/10

This is very true. People who just assume Panne should get the second seal because she's Panne aren't thinking things through... That said even as a Taguel she can become a great speed-bot. 4/10

Also ZM: Vaike, Miriel, Gaius, Gregor, Sully, Avatar, (I think I'm missing a few) can all put a second seal to great use.

Edited June 5, 2013 by bearclaw13

[Jedi]

Holy shit, Panne is...wow, holy shit.

She joins at turn 2 of Chapter 6, and her combat at that point is pretty rad. She nearly 1RKO's a lot of foes in the chapter (most likely does 1RKO with the right Pair Ups and/or STR tonics), and she only needs 4 easy levels to get to level 10. The first non-renown second seal is obtained in Chapter 8, and Panne makes very good use of it if you reclass her to wyvern rider and not lolthief.

At that point, she gets really insane.

Her growths as wyvern rider:

HP: 105%

STR: 75%

MAG: 15%

SKILL: 65%

SPD: 70%

LUCK: 40%

DEF: 50%

RES: 20%

So aside from Donnel, she has the best growths out of anyone in the party (she had good growths as a Taguel, too, mind you). But unlike Donnel, she actually has a great time using those growths and doesn't have bad bases starting off. It doesn't matter if she starts with bronze axes, because she'll 1RKO most enemies with ease (She'll have something like 18 STR at 10/1 wyvern rider, and not to mention she'll get the STR+2 skill after reclassing. Her SPD might be a bit low at first, like around 13-14 AS, but Pair Ups and tonics mend that problem. Gaius or Lon'qu are probably the best options.), and she levels crazy fast because of it. Once she gets to D axes, she's rocking. The only things she'll have to worry about are mages (especially ones with wind magic) and bows (she'll shrug them off eventually), but once she really gets going, nothing will stand in her way. I don't know whether to rate her better than Sully, but I'd say she's superior because unlike Sully, Panne WANTS that second seal, and she'll have flight and amazing combat.

Taguel pride FTW. 9.5/10

Using this as my vote to balance out the last couple votes.

[ZemZem]

Good man, Jedi.

Also ZM: Vaike, Miriel, Gaius, Gregor, Sully, Avatar, (I think I'm missing a few) can all put a second seal to great use.

Panne puts it to better use way more than all of those characters except Avatar and maybe Sully, who doesn't really need it anyway.

[Titamon]

Also ZM: Vaike, Miriel, Gaius, Gregor, Sully, Avatar, (I think I'm missing a few) can all put a second seal to great use.

Why would you use that many characters who need second seals all at once?

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

It always baffles me when I remembered that Panne joined in the exact same chapter as Gaius and she is almost the same character as him when it comes to performance. Decent Pair Up bot, with amazing Reclass capability, except while Gaius is forced into 6 Mov FIghter, Panne is capable of becoming a kickass Wyvern Rider

At level 6, it took 4 levels being locked into a decent combat with an amazing Pair Up bonus before you reclass her into Wyvern Rider for a hax stats gain. If done relatively early, she can catch up and wield hammer comes Valm Arc. After that its a nice ride through the whole game with her ridiculous growth rate.

Basically, as a Pair Up fodder, she gives solid stats, as a combat unit, she needs Second Seals to really get anywhere, but she uses it really well. The only problem with Panne is, IMO when she can't reclass quick enough and miss out on the Flier Bias that comes around that timespan. Some issue with Archers from one of the harder chapters and maybe thats it.

Speaking of Promotion, she can promote to Griffon Rider and acquire Deliverer, so should she falls off in her combat capability, she still carried a solid utility role to play with. Or simply go into Wyvern Lord and become a dominant dodge machine.

A solid unit who is a middle line between needing a resource and use it extremely well, or not using a resource and does fine regardless

8/10

[Da Bear]

Panne puts it to better use way more than all of those characters except Avatar and maybe Sully, who doesn't really need it anyway.

If I have limited second seals and people other than Panne who need them Panne isn't getting one because she doesn't need it anywhere near as much imo.

Why would you use that many characters who need second seals all at once?

Why not?

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

silly pedoclaw using his speedo seals on Nowi

[ZemZem]

If I have limited second seals and people other than Panne who need them Panne isn't getting one because she doesn't need it anywhere near as much imo.

Why not?

Even though she'll have flight and better combat? How can units like Gaius contribute more than Panne with a second seal.

[Raven]

Just give a score you think justifies your opinion and it will balance itself out in the end. I don't particularly care if my score was on the low end of the general consensus here.

[Da Bear]

silly pedoclaw using his speedo seals on Nowi

lol that would be stupid. I'll keep my Knight!Sumia thankyouverymuch.