Best thing to look at when choosing units

[jdb1984]

I'm being more picky with my units going forward, and training a smaller number of units as well.  But I need to know what to look for.

I'm thinking speed (double hit), Skill (make sure those attacks hit), strength/magic (for the power), and defense.  In that order.

I will change it up for certain units (healers, for example, only need a magic stat, unless they can promote into an offensive class), but that's my general criteria.  I'm using the average stats of a character, taken from this site.  Weapons are looked at as well, but only in games that utilize the weapon triangle.

Thoughts?

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Well, stats aren't everything. An archer with high stats is still, at best, going to nab you a single kill on player phase and do nothing else on enemy phase. A flier can reach areas other units can't, even carry other units with them if there's rescue in the game. I'd also be careful of looking too hard at average stats. Yes it is a great comparison tool for units that join at around the same time, but it leads people to think stat growths are everything and overlook the incredible units the game gives you who already have great stats and classes at no investment. 

[X-Naut]

What am I looking for on my team, do I have the space, and do I want to train this unit. On subsequent playthroughs I'll consider using other units.

[Shadow Mir]

Honestly, I'd say good base stats. Sure, having good growths is nice and all, but I say it pales to having good bases. Just look at Donnel from Awakening - he has amazing growths, but you have to actively go out of your way to leverage them because his bases suck.

[MilodicMellodi]

I tend to always try to go for balanced teams, but the best units for my playstyle tend to have a high Speed cap, as well as a high Skill and/or Defense cap. Speed is the most important stat to me because it can be used to double (or quad with Brave weapons) as well as prevent doubling, while a high Skill makes Active skills easier to activate. Defense is also important because my playstyle tends to drag on with battles of attrition, and having a high Def makes facing armies much easier to deal with.

For Healers, high Magic and Resistance stats are always important to make the most of the class' abilities. Pretty much the same with Tome users, though I tend to not care so much about their defenses as much as their Speed and Skill; a fast Sorcerer with plenty of magic cleans house fairly easily, especially against units with low Res like Armored classes seem to have.

Typically, I could care less about any units' Strength, Magic (aside from magic users), and Luck as long as they're at least average. My playstyle of attrition tends to focus more on wearing the enemy down, no matter how long it takes. However, I do see low Luck as a turnoff, which is one of the reasons I despise using Axe-only classes so much.

[Fennel]

On 6/19/2019 at 8:17 AM, jdb1984 said:

I'm being more picky with my units going forward, and training a smaller number of units as well.  But I need to know what to look for.

If you’re being really picky and want to create an elite squad that can tackle anything FE games throw at you, this is what I suggest from my experiences:

1. Make sure every unit has enough Luck to at least deny Thunder Mages critical chances.  Depending on the game, that’s usually 5-7 Luck early chapters, then it grows to like 10-13ish. Game loves to kill units over 1-2% crit chance... it happens way more often than the actual percentage suggest.  Use the Thunder Mages as a guide to keep up with Luck.
2. Choose a fighter.  Every FE games provides one or two foot axes that become awesome later on.  I’ve been trying to explain this over at Least Favorite Class thread, but I just gave up on them... too much bias, I guess.  Anyways, if given option choose the fighter that excels in Health, Strength and Speed.  This will be your meat shield early on, use it to draw out enemies into your formation.  Might be tempted to use the lord or the knight for this job, but I suggest the fighter so you keep training it.  Once it gets weapon levels up and starts gaining defense, this unit often becomes reliable to handle an entire half of map.
3. Choose that healer with high Res and Luck.  Fighter will need heals to keep up meat shielding until defense grows.  High Res healers are also used to make enemies wear out very long range magic like Bolting.  Make this healer heal very often even if units just have little damage.  You want to level healer this way and bring weapon level up so you can use higher level Staffs to Restore Sleeps, and cast Silence.  Endgame winning strategies often require use of high level staves.  I highly suggest picking two healers... the game maps often asks for two sides attacked simultaneously, and threaten to Silence/Sleep that one healer... then the other may Restore it.  It depends whether or not the game provides you with another character with high level Staff, maybe you can use it on those levels. If you’ve kept up leveling your mage and it can now use staffs maybe there’s no need.
4. Mage with high Magic and Speed.  This often will be your Knight and Boss killer.  Once it can use staff it may fill in role of second heal, don’t deny training its Staff unless you decided to use another Staff user.
5. At least two cavalry.  No surprise the game traditionally provides them early.  Boss fights often require indirect attacks and then unit be carried to safety by cavalry.  I suggest one with high speed and another with high defense.  Both should have decent Strength.  When it comes to cavalry, I highly suggest prioritizing Bow Knights as long as they get a melee option at some point.  If given option train bows into cavalry. High mobility, indirect attack and move again works wonders in many situations.
6. An archer... but don’t invest too much on it, just use when necessary until you have enough Bow Knights.  There’s always a map that overwhelms you with fliers.  If you’re team has plenty Bow Knights this is encounter will be super easy.
7. At least one flier, preferably a Pegasus high speed and Res.  It’s job is to kill that mage shooting long range bolts if wasting its shots on a high Res healer is not an option.  These often fly over shortcuts to kill thieves, or maybe mobilize a powerful unit into a position to cause massive damage to the enemy formation.
8. Always the dancer/singer.  Moving a unit again is very useful.  Endgame strategies often call for this.
9. Don’t ignore leveling the lord really good.  I’ve found that games often punish you if you’re lord is not very strong.  And of course it will kill the last boss.
10. EXCEPTION 1:  So you got your team and are thinking of only using them... well, I think the game devs didn’t want us to do this and switch units depending on the scenario.  There’s always at least one desert level when you’ll need to bring more mages and fliers than usual.
11. EXCEPTION 2:  A bridge or maybe high artillery level where you’ll need bring more cavalry than usual.
12. EXCEPTION 3:  A indoor level filled with lock doors and chests need bring those thieves.  YOU CAN TELL THESE ARE COMING cause the game just happens to provide you with the necessary units not long ago.

Niches:

• Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for this.... Myrmidons and Swordmasters.  *takes cover*. OK IM SORRY... go ahead and use them if you love them!... am just saying, the Lord is often the best at filling this role.
• Archers and Snipers... yeees.. they are VERY cool... but Bow Knights.
• Knights... maybe... the Fighter can fulfill that role... maybe am wrong...
• Wyverns... eh... fliers with defense... that may not be able to handle that mage with Bolting/Meteor... maybe an advocate of Wyverns can help me out.  They can be effective walls... unless bows.  I dunno...   

 

And there you have it!  The A-Team according to Rioma with an “i”.  What do you think?

Edit:  Alternatively, when choosing units, relax about optimizing so much.  Go with characters that you like personality wise.  That might actually be MOST IMPORTANT.  Even if they have big flaws, that’ll force one to play around them.  You can have a really good time with not the “perfect” team, but characters you love.

Edit 2:  ...and when the game potentially kills them, you’ll genuinely feel that sweet, sweet pain and grief I’m pretty sure game devs wanted us to experience over the loss of loved ones in a cruel and often unfair battlefield.  War is NOT fun.... but it’s just a game so maybe you can reset... or swallow the pain and press on... up to you.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Rioma

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Rioma said:

If you’re being really picky and want to create an elite squad that can tackle anything FE games throw at you, this is what I suggest from my experiences:

1. Make sure every unit has enough Luck to at least deny Thunder Mages critical chances.  Depending on the game, that’s usually 5-7 Luck early chapters, then it grows to like 10-13ish. Game loves to kill units over 1-2% crit chance... it happens way more often than the actual percentage suggest.  Use the Thunder Mages as a guide to keep up with Luck.
2. Choose a fighter.  Every FE games provides one or two foot axes that become awesome later on.  I’ve been trying to explain this over at Least Favorite Class thread, but I just gave up on them... too much bias, I guess.  Anyways, if given option choose the fighter that excels in Health, Strength and Speed.  This will be your meat shield early on, use it to draw out enemies into your formation.  Might be tempted to use the lord or the knight for this job, but I suggest the fighter so you keep training it.  Once it gets weapon levels up and starts gaining defense, this unit often becomes reliable to handle an entire half of map.
3. Choose that healer with high Res and Luck.  Fighter will need heals to keep up meat shielding until defense grows.  High Res healers are also used to make enemies wear out very long range magic like Bolting.  Make this healer heal very often even if units just have little damage.  You want to level healer this way and bring weapon level up so you can use higher level Staffs to Restore Sleeps, and cast Silence.  Endgame winning strategies often require use of high level staves.  I highly suggest picking two healers... the game maps often asks for two sides attacked simultaneously, and threaten to Silence/Sleep that one healer... then the other may Restore it.  It depends whether or not the game provides you with another character with high level Staff, maybe you can use it on those levels. If you’ve kept up leveling your mage and it can now use staffs maybe there’s no need.
4. Mage with high Magic and Speed.  This often will be your Knight and Boss killer.  Once it can use staff it may fill in role of second heal, don’t deny training its Staff unless you decided to use another Staff user.
5. At least two cavalry.  No surprise the game traditionally provides them early.  Boss fights often require indirect attacks and then unit be carried to safety by cavalry.  I suggest one with high speed and another with high defense.  Both should have decent Strength.  When it comes to cavalry, I highly suggest prioritizing Bow Knights as long as they get a melee option at some point.  If given option train bows into cavalry. High mobility, indirect attack and move again works wonders in many situations.
6. An archer... but don’t invest too much on it, just use when necessary until you have enough Bow Knights.  There’s always a map that overwhelms you with fliers.  If you’re team has plenty Bow Knights this is encounter will be super easy.
7. At least one flier, preferably a Pegasus high speed and Res.  It’s job is to kill that mage shooting long range bolts if wasting its shots on a high Res healer is not an option.  These often fly over shortcuts to kill thieves, or maybe mobilize a powerful unit into a position to cause massive damage to the enemy formation.
8. Always the dancer/singer.  Moving a unit again is very useful.  Endgame strategies often call for this.
9. Don’t ignore leveling the lord really good.  I’ve found that games often punish you if you’re lord is not very strong.  And of course it will kill the last boss.
10. EXCEPTION 1:  So you got your team and are thinking of only using them... well, I think the game devs didn’t want us to do this and switch units depending on the scenario.  There’s always at least one desert level when you’ll need to bring more mages and fliers than usual.
11. EXCEPTION 2:  A bridge or maybe high artillery level where you’ll need bring more cavalry than usual.
12. EXCEPTION 3:  A indoor level filled with lock doors and chests need bring those thieves.  YOU CAN TELL THESE ARE COMING cause the game just happens to provide you with the necessary units not long ago.

Niches:

• Oh boy am I gonna get flamed for this.... Myrmidons and Swordmasters.  *takes cover*. OK IM SORRY... go ahead and use them if you love them!... am just saying, the Lord is often the best at filling this role.
• Archers and Snipers... yeees.. they are VERY cool... but Bow Knights.
• Knights... maybe... the Fighter can fulfill that role... maybe am wrong...
• Wyverns... eh... fliers with defense... that may not be able to handle that mage with Bolting/Meteor... maybe an advocate of Wyverns can help me out.  They can be effective walls... unless bows.  I dunno...   

 

And there you have it!  The A-Team according to Rioma with an “i”.  What do you think?

What game do you have in mind? Because what might work for one game might not necessarily work for another. And I don't see why you keep recommending foot axes when the general consensus says they aren't good - I find it very hard to justify, say, using Bartre on a team when Sain can also hit hard without having Bartre's glaring weaknesses.