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How Does Heath Fare?


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If there is one character I'm kinda mixed about in FE7, it is probably Heath. With others I have a clear idea of where they belong, Harken is incredible, Marcus is a pillar upon which FE7 is built, Isadora is okay, Karla is awful, Guy and Lyn start good but end up inferior, Wil isn't worth the investment, etc.. Heath I can't quite define so easily, I want to think he is good, but by myself, I'm having a hard time seeing it.

 

On paper he is your only Wyvern Rider, Vaida showing up awfully late and unable to contribute much (where was she one chapter ago!?!), which in some FEs would make him an VIP. Melady and Cormag surround him, the former is one of the best of their game, and the latter is pretty dang good on Ephraim route; not to mention Tellius's wyvern duo of doom. Heath seems to be the worst Wyvern Rider in the series outside of Eda and Altena (insofar as I hear of these two).

 

Getting to Heath himself, he joins underleveled without bases as good as you'd hope for, Fiora came at the same level, 7, five chapters ago. Heath has poor base Speed, and his Con still leaves him subject to Javelin AS loss, HHM does give him some nice stat buffs, but I don't think it is enough. It takes time for him to start doubling, and his base Def isn't exactly tanky, even though it reaches the relatively high by FE7 standards value of 19 by 20/20. 

The next chapter is a desert, great for fliers, but lo and behold, there are a lot of magic users ready to fry this inexperienced wyvern rider. The weakest on HHM are about 15 Atk, which with a Pure Water means 6 damage to a 32 HP unit who can't ORKO them, will be faced with possibly a couple enemies each turn. He doesn't shrug off the enemy WRs either. He shouldn't be in healer range barring Physics, since he has to rush to Pent to rescue that EXP hog or help ferry around a thief/search for treasure before all the enemies are dead.

After this, he does get a chance to grow with a series of rather easy fights, but I don't think he'll be doing much with his flier status through them. The next crucial battle where flight matters is Night of Farewells, where status staffs and Sonia's Bolting hinder Heath more than the Hector Mode ballistae do the Pegs (who can use the Delphi Shield to get rid of the bow issue), and who can probably get to reliable dodgetank status with a Slim Lance. Cog of Destiny and Victory or Death like fliers, moreso the latter, but by this point, in practice will a trained Heath be any different from a trained Peg and do better here?

 

I find the Pegs at least easier to use, even Farina who comes a bit later. Although I may be biased in favor of Farina, and Florina usually gets the Lyn Mode 'Robe and 'Ring for me. I don't remember exactly, but getting a Peg to 20/Falco status in time for Living Legend might be possible on Hard, or at least very close to it (and will 17/1 be much worse off?). I can't see Heath promoting for quite a while.

 

It certainly balances Heath vis a vis the Pegs that he doesn't have super amazing Def at base or any other stat, but I think they might have made him underpowered (but maybe he is actually a balanced wyvern for a change?).

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That last part about him being balanced might be his problem.

I find the best units in FE are all made to fill some kind of niche, whether it be tanking, healing, or dealing damage (bonus points if you can do any of those while also having high Movement).

If you're too balanced, you're not particularly good at dishing out strong hits or absorbing them (with either defense or evasion) and it kind of hurts you as a result.

Edited by Von Ithipathachai
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In terms of concrete physical durability, he will often be better than the Pegasi sisters when you're closing the gap in levels between them.

Personally, I find him to be a bit of a coin toss, I'll usually see his first few level ups and if he's looking like he's SPD screwed, he's hitting the bench since that's the most significant advantage  he should average over Vaida when she comes in.

His base stats for when joins are obviously lacking but he is easy to train thanks to that B weapon rank, having STR over 10 and his flying. Statistically speaking, I want to say he's bad due to his join time and bases but the enemies in this game can be so bad when it comes to SPD that only the speedier and Valkyries will have a shot at consistently doubling him but if he's not doubling and he's not that huge on anything, the guy's kinda interchangeable with any other prepromote if you take away his flight which is without a doubt his selling point.

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I think Heath has two problems which keep him from excelling.

One: HHM, the mode where he gets stat boosts, is also the mode which punishes him for low res. Normally with the HHM-boosted units I can unambiguously recommend them for that mode; with Heath I'm less sure.

Two: His niche over the pegasus knights is concrete def... but, by the time he's actually caught up to them, we're entering the stage of the game where avoid is the best means to survive (storebought reavers and second weapons on promotion are a big help), and he's not as good at it, particularly when compared to Florina.

He's still a flier which auatomatically ensures he's at least decent, and he's a reasonable choice to train despite being underlevelled, but he's not great.

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Heath is imo the best flier in the game behind Florina by a pretty big margin.  He totally blows Fiora (and Farina) out of the water offensively upon promotion thanks to his much much better strength, and the speed gap isn't even really existant thanks to his much better con (and Heath actually only has 5% less speed growth than Fiora and the same speed growth as Farina).  A 12/1 Heath has 12 AS with a Javelin, a 14/1 Fiora has 11-12 herself and 3 less attack (and this will only continue to grow since Heath's growth is significantly higher).  

His res is a lot worse, but promoted enemies, even in HHM are awfully weak.  Heath with a pure water or barrier staff isnt going to die anytime soon to them.  His physical durability is a real advantage, Fiora''s evade come mid-lategame (lets say she's 14/8 to Heath's 12/8), is 6 better than Heath's before you account for attack speed loss which Fiora definately will have.  So at the very least, he draws even or even beats her in that catergory if she uses a weapon heavier than 9 WT (Javelins, Axereavers....).  At the same level, Heath has ~10 more HP and 5 more defence,.  Against enemies with 25 attack,  Heath eats 2 more hits, against enemies with 20, he eats 5.  It's a pretty huge gap.  Offensively Fiora loses every metric possible.

The last advantage Heath has is minor, but he can rescue Hector once Hector promotes, since he has 1 more aid than Fiora and Farina.  It's minor, but having a flier to haul around your 5 mov lord is definitely a boon.  

Fiora's advantages (an extra 3.5ish chapters, only one of is is flier friendly), and much higher res aren't really comparable to all of Heath's advantages.  Even lategame Heath will outperform Florina offensively unless you played Lyn mode.  Florina is definately still better due to a huge availability lead, but their performances after Heath's promotion are very similar and probably even in Heath's favour lategame.  
 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Heath I think really shows dividends in hector hard mode. Enemy stats are higher yes, but his base stats are higher and allow for better combat compared to Fiora/Florina early game as they get no bonuses at all. Using all three pegasi allows for a very good support pool as each have high base support level with fast charge and good growth amounts which +1 level per sister allows for +1 attack stat which is rather useful. It means two sisters get +5 attack while the other one gets +4.. Even with just two of them you get +3 attack. The overall strength values of all the sisters is good enough and with the support level they are quite sufficient combatwise in normal mode. Plus, the speed advantage is quite nice over Heath until he catches up combat wise. Otherwise, all of them do their duty for ferrying around people and flying just fine. 

However, by the time you get to HHM enemy stats are higher and at least Heath can scale with it with speed, def, str, and hp allowing him to close the speed gap they might have had on him. Plus, their combat even with the supports is failing unless they are overleveled or equipped with something like a killer lance to KO wyvern riders. You get enough time to catch him up in stats and he actually comes at quite a good time to be a very good recipient of the Afa drops even if they are not really necessary. Join chapter and the desert chapter will keep him just low level enough as they are not the greatest in combat quite yet you can reap the benefits of the 5% growth over time to let him get higher str,  spd, def, skl, and hp to further increase his combat ability and survival. The extra def/hp is very nice for USA/Australia release of the game for the x2 bow damage as he can tank even some beefier snipers/archers with the extra bulk he gets over the pegasus knights.

@General Horace: The lack of resistance can actually be rather useful. With a high HP pool and enough resistance he can lure in purge/bolting tome users with more finality than some other units. The staff evasion is certainly a pain though, but knowing he can be a higher priority target can make it easier to bait AI and plan around.

Edited by Vorena
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