Best units?

[Snowy_One]

Honestly, any mounted unit is probably a good bet, though it's probably not worth waiting around for if they join after Tanith (it just takes too long and Haar/Geoffry aren't anything you won't have in better spades by that point).

That aside Ike is, obviously, good.

Soren is a great choice and Ilyana and Rhys can be good additions as well given the right situation. Mist can be... middling... if she gets the Sonic Sword and supports she needs.

Boyd and Nephenee are good units. Mia is also pretty solid, especially if Rhys is played and doubly so if you give her wrath/adept/guard. Stefan is a unit who may seem great at first but ends up just middling near the end but lacks any special tricks. Zihark is okay with the right supports.

Any of the Laguz can be 'fine' but they all need work for endgame and Mordi needs the least.

Other than that I can't think of anyone who really stands out. Remember, though, Personal Experience Means Nothing. We're telling you the units that are USUALLY good. Nothing is stopping your Oscar from getting a bunch of 1-point level-ups or Gatrie from getting 6-7 points each level-up.

[Refa]

Tanith will always be great (more so if you give her some boosters; this is not a bad move, as she's one of the best recipients of them)!

[Shin]

If it rides something, it's probably legit. Even Makalov and Geoffrey end up pretty usable. If you're itching for a foot unit, Soren and somebody from Boyd/Stefan/Zihark do pretty well. A healer or two won't go amiss but horses are for the cool kids.

[Snowy_One]

Makalov is okay so long as you can stand his looks and personality. Geoffry comes late. If you want to put him on he's an okay addition. But not using him and filling the void with another unit is also perfectly understandable.

[Volke29]

My best units:

Rhys, Mia, Rolf, Oscar (beast, OP), Soren, Jill ... if you want to get cute, Volke, too.

Oscar and Rolf are among the strongest characters in the game. Jill is also an insane beast. But her and Rolf need some effort to make them uber strong.

Mia is due to favoritism, but she is an excellent unit (not as good as RD, where she is an evasion tank you can leave alone on front line).

Titana is good, but toward the end she is very meh. I think Mist is actually amazing in this game if you level her and an end game unit.

Anyway. Each unit mentioned is someone I would 100% have for final battle.

EDIT: If I had to rank

- Ike

- Oscar

- Rolf

- Jill

- Rys/Soren

- Mia / Tiatnaa

EDIT No. 2: Forgot about Stefan. He is God like for a large portion of the game.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Volke29

[EarthboundAddict]

I thought people forget this thread existed xD

I'm finally getting my charger back on Friday, so before than I just wanted to ask how to improve these units:

Illyana: I like her design and think she's kinda cute but heard she's inferior to Soren in every way.

Elincia: I think her design is very majestic and like what I saw of her personality but heard she's also kinda bad.

Janaff: once again really like the design and personality but I heard mixed things in terms of gameplay.

Mist: I think she's absolutely adorable but being a late joining, underleved, staff-locked unit with swords as her main offence with a base STR of 1 and STR growth of 35% kinda rubs me the wrong way. I'm particularly worried about her.

Tormad: heard he's kinda weak but good with some Bexp. I'm least worried about him.

[bottlegnomes]

One thing to remember is that even if these characters are "bad" they're still plenty usable in this game. I saw someone say Sacred Stones is easier, but while I much prefer this game to SS, I have to disagree. HM Father and Son and maybe Ghost Ship are harder than anything this game has to offer in non-JP versions. Basically, the difference between a "good" unit in this and a "bad" one is a good unit can ORKO everything they go up against no problem and a bad unit can't. Great units are just good units with high move.

For specifics:

Ilyana - Her only real issue is speed. Give her a speedwing or bexp abuse her a little (reset until you like what you see). Really though, just get her some levels and she should be fine. She probably won't be doubling quicker enemies, but the rest shouldn't be an issue. As with all mages, she won't be a tank, but after some levels, she should be able to take a few hits, at least enough to give you time to heal her; just don't go dumping her in a group of 15 melee enemies.

Elincia - Bexp and physic staves (5 uses gets her a level, so 3 turns with Reyson support). She'll never be a great combat unit because 20 strength cap, but with some bexp abuse and Amiti, she can be decent. Otherwise, she'll make a very solid healer.

Janaff - You need to choose between having him sit out some turns or sacrificing stats. It's a bummer but them's the breaks. His issue, IIRC and from looking at the stats page is damage. If you want him ORKOing, you'll need to give him an energy drop or two and bexp abuse. If not, he'll be fine as a good chipper.

Mist - Bexp is your friend. Between that and healing, she'll be fine. If you want, you can promote her early, but in a dozen PTs of using her, I've never once felt the need to. After she promotes, you can give her both arms scrolls and the sonic sword or forge her a steel sword, get her to C from fighting and then give her the arms scrolls to A. There's not exactly a lot of competition for arms scrolls since there are no worthwhile S level weapons, and most of your characters won't have too much trouble getting to A or B in their main weapon.

Tormod - As you said, bexp.

The things to remember about bexp are that it is treated exactly like a regular level, unlike in RD, and that lower level units get more real exp per point of bexp. Because of those, there's literally no reason, short of you wanting to snowball your good units into gods of destruction, to not give your under-leveled characters bexp. My policy tends to be if I want to use an under-leveled character, give them bexp until they're caught up to my party, and from then on, distribute it evenly. That goes out the window if you want to snap the game in half with Super Marcia, but in general, it's a pretty sound policy IMO, and there's not exactly a shortage of bexp in this game even in hard mode.

[BrightBow]

While Soren is probably better then Ilyana, they are not exactly leagues apart from each other. You could definitely use her. With that said, Soren is a main character and his support with Ike does put certain things he does during the story more into perspective.

Elincia does a good job as a mounted healer from the getgo. But she is really not going to get much use out of that personal sword of hers. She still has the growths of a magical unit, so she isn't going to get the strength to avoid being slowed down by that weapon any time soon, let alone the strength to actually kill anything. And she is literally only available for 3 maps, so she does simply not have the time to dig her self out of that D-Rank swords to use the Sonic Sword or whatever. Well, I suppose technically she could do it if you save 2 Weapon Scrolls and the Sonic Sword for her.

As for Mist, it's a good idea to give her BEXP early because staffs always give the same amount of EXP, no matter what. And once she promotes, she can at least use Steel Swords from the getgo, which is not only important for her damage but it also gives her more WEXP for each swing. I think she can put up a decent fight once she is able to use Steel Blades or she is given a forged Steel Sword, especially with the benefit of some BEXP abuse that ensures she gets some desperately needed strength. A small tip for that: PoR has a soft reset function that can be activated by holding Start, X and B. For some reason this wasn't carried over to the sequel.

As for Janaff, I never really used the Hawks but they seem to be barely any stronger then the beast Laguz were but they join like 8 chapters earlier, so I doubt they are all that good. However, in the case of Janaff, since he starts with a gauge of 16 he will transform immediately once the chapter starts. So you can use his full stats for a few turns before you have to use the Demi Band. But if you use it, make sure to unequip it before the end of the chapter because otherwise Janaff won't get the starting value for his gauge back because unequipping it always sets the gauge to 0, even when it is done in the base menu.

As for Tormod, yeah, he is gonna get the job done if you invest in him a little. If you are looking for a "mounted" healer, he is definitely the strongest.

Edited February 24, 2016 by BrightBow

[locard]

best paladin: Astrid or Oscar

best swordfighter - Zihark

best magic user - Soren

best healer - Elincia

best tank - Haar

best archer - Shinon

best thief - Volke

best heron - Reyson

best laguz - Ranulf

best laguz king - Tibarn

Edited February 29, 2016 by locard

[Shadow Mir]

My best units:

Rhys, Mia, Rolf, Oscar (beast, OP), Soren, Jill ... if you want to get cute, Volke, too.

Oscar and Rolf are among the strongest characters in the game. Jill is also an insane beast. But her and Rolf need some effort to make them uber strong.

Mia is due to favoritism, but she is an excellent unit (not as good as RD, where she is an evasion tank you can leave alone on front line).

Titana is good, but toward the end she is very meh. I think Mist is actually amazing in this game if you level her and an end game unit.

Anyway. Each unit mentioned is someone I would 100% have for final battle.

EDIT: If I had to rank

- Ike

- Oscar

- Rolf

- Jill

- Rys/Soren

- Mia / Tiatnaa

EDIT No. 2: Forgot about Stefan. He is God like for a large portion of the game.

The only people I'd actually agree with you on are Oscar, Mist and Jill.

best paladin: Astrid or Oscar

best swordfighter - Zihark

best magic user - Soren

best healer - Elincia

best tank - Haar

best archer - Shinon

best thief - Volke

best heron - Reyson

best laguz - Ranulf

best laguz king - Tibarn

I fail to see Elincia as the best healer because of her lack of availability; also, her flight, while a nice advantage in theory, doesn't really help her out much in practice. AND she starts at level 1.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia