Questions regarding a Berwick Saga Tier List

[Draly]

I just finished my first (completely blind) playthrough of Berwick Saga and decided to look at a tier list to know what the community thinks about the different characters. The first (and, to be fair, only) one I found was made on reddit and left me a bit confused... I hope some of you can enlighten me.

First off, why is Sherlock considered the best unit in the game ? I used him, I thought he was pretty good, but him being the best seems strange to me. The same goes for Dean, what makes him so good ? I know I am being a bit unfair with him as I only used him in the first map but he left me fairly unimpressed...

I never managed to promote Elbert but I can see him being in High. My question is how much is Provoke part of his utility ?

I assume Arthur is in High because of his good bases and his mount... or is it (also) because of his skills ? I found Flurry to be pretty anecdotal, while Desperation and Hurry were nice but not amazing, but maybe I'm wrong.

I agree with Volo being in top just by virtue of Deathmatch, but then I don't understand why Leon would be 2 tiers lower. While I agree he is worst at combat, I never thought the difference was that important and having a mount is a real boon. Am I missing something ?

Finally, I want to ask about Izerna. It feels a bit nitpicky as Upper Mid is still a good tier but it seems a little low to me. I feel Berwick's gameplay heavily rewards taking the initiative and waiting for the ennemy to engage your units is usually counterproductive. Having a healer then seems particularly important as you don't want your combat units to waste their turns drinking vulneraries instead of attacking...

 

For reference here is the tier list I'm talking about:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/7w5fs0/a_berwick_saga_tier_list/

 

Thank you for reading.

[KevinskyHaaz]

I can't really speak on Sherlock because I didn't use him. Dean, however... well I think you just need to see late-game Dean for yourself. He doesn't make the last few maps 'easy' per say, but he is quite a powerhouse. He's one of the few units who can actually fight Chaos if you don't train Faye. 

When concerning Elbert, provoke is very situational but incredibly useful when such a situation arises. Any time a unit is on the verge of death or you want a boss to make the first move towards you, provoke is there to save the day.

Arthur is just all around a very consistent and reliable unit. He definitely falls off a bit lategame because his skills aren't too special, and his stats end up being pretty similar to others. However, like you said, his great bases make him a really reliable guy for the early and mid game.

I also benched Leon, so I can't speak too much on him either. I'm guessing it is just because they end up pretty radically different in terms of combat (like you pointed out). Volo can one round just about anything you throw him into, and he will also dodge for days. Also also also, it takes Leon a very long time to get Leon to that level while Volo is a show-stopper from the second you first meet him (shame that his character is so dreadfully boring). 

Lastly, I also didn't use Izerna, so I can't say much there. My only guess is that healing is something that has a low bar... in other words, if you are capable of healing then you're good. After that everything depends on what else your character can do. This list has Owen placed higher than Izerna and I think it is simply because of how many other things Owen is capable of besides just healing.

ALSO I'm really glad you enjoyed the game 😄 I absolutely loved it and it is super nice to see others that also had a good time

Edited June 18, 2020 by KevinskyHaaz

[dark_knight17]

Sherlock is considered high because of his multishot and his ability to act again after his turn. This lets him attack up to 6 times if both skills are charged. Plus he attacks at range and is one a horse so mobility and safety to attack are valued. I never used Sherlock but I've him discussed elsewhere.

Dean is one of the few units who can enemy phase in the game due to not be interrupted when attacked. His retaliation is very accurate and damaging. Plus he's fast and has desperation to guarantee doubles. He's one of the few good axe users in the game because his mobility is still rather high.

Elbert's provoke is great in assisting him with tanking as well as keeping your frail units safe. He was one of the only units I would use to bait enemy groups, and provoke was useful to keep dangerous targets focused on him. I used Provoke a lot early on and then less as the game progressed. He's great at provoking ballistas because he has dodge arrows and can still survive a hit if it does land.

Arthur has a big strength growth so he hits hard. Plus he has shields so desperation damage is mitigated somewhat. His injure skill is the best method to cause injury to units before you get Blizzard or Bolt Knife. He grows really well and has a mount too so that helps with time sensitive objectives.

Leon has trouble hitting without Adel nearby. And he doesn't dodge as easily so Deathmatch is more risky. Volo is higher tiered because he can take out some dangerous and tanky opponents that no one else could with Deathmatch. Leon has mobility but it's not as unique as Volo's ability to duel high risk targets.

Yeah I always bring a healer along (Sapphira more than Izerna tbh) because I needed to heal Elbert and my weaker units (Faye and Ruby) when they did get hit. I don't think are high tier because they're not usually contributing to objectives (maybe healing green units to assist in escape maps).

Edited June 19, 2020 by dark_knight17

[Draly]

Thanks for these answers !

Ok, so I think I globally got the good idea regarding Elbert and Arthur, and maybe I favored Leon a bit much. But there are a few things I still don't understand...

8 hours ago, dark_knight17 said:

Sherlock is considered high because of his multishot and his ability to act again after his turn. This lets him attack up to 6 times if both skills are charged. Plus he attacks at range and is one a horse so mobility and safety to attack are valued. I never used Sherlock but I've him discussed elsewhere.

6 times ? Triple-shot is 3 and One-Two is 1 more, where does the other attacks come from ?

8 hours ago, dark_knight17 said:

His injure skill is the best method to cause injury to units before you get Blizzard or Bolt Knife.

It still seems a bit unreliable to me... so I guess the pay off has to be really good. Is there some items you absolutely want to get that you can only obtain through capturing ?

14 hours ago, KevinskyHaaz said:

Dean, however... well I think you just need to see late-game Dean for yourself. He doesn't make the last few maps 'easy' per say, but he is quite a powerhouse. He's one of the few units who can actually fight Chaos if you don't train Faye.

I didn't train either, I killed Chaos using Lynette's skill to give 100% crit to Garm!Reese while he was provoked by Elbert... and it was a pain. I can see why you would want other good candidates to take him down.

14 hours ago, KevinskyHaaz said:

This list has Owen placed higher than Izerna and I think it is simply because of how many other things Owen is capable of besides just healing.

Yeah, I have not even met Owen so if he's better I can see why Izerna would go down a tier. I felt having a healer was important rarely felt the need for a second one.

14 hours ago, KevinskyHaaz said:

ALSO I'm really glad you enjoyed the game 😄 I absolutely loved it and it is super nice to see others that also had a good time

Haha, yeah, it was great ! I think I would have liked a few quality of life improvements and the ending felt a bit rushed but I also think I like it better than TRS and a bunch of FEs.

[dark_knight17]

On 6/19/2020 at 9:33 PM, Draly said:

6 times ? Triple-shot is 3 and One-Two is 1 more, where does the other attacks come from?
 

Umm, not sure actually. I've only read another person's review of the trained unit. Perhaps they meant hits from brave weapons? Because there's no way multi-shot would charge soon after being used.

On 6/19/2020 at 9:33 PM, Draly said:

It still seems a bit unreliable to me... so I guess the pay off has to be really good. Is there some items you absolutely want to get that you can only obtain through capturing ?

Don't get me wrong, it's still unreliable but it has a better injury rate than any other means at that point (using a knife or harpoon). 1/3rd chance to injure is not too bad, all things considered.

There are tons of things you can only get by capturing. Many of Lenzheimer's requests are done by capturing and you can get some really nice items (like brave items, special arrows, shields and bracelets) by capturing only. Getting the bolt knife as early as possible requires you to capture the theif that has it (and it's so good at its job I used a repairstone on it twice).

Edited October 1, 2020 by dark_knight17
Spelling error

[Ultimage]

Sherlock is an interesting unit. His starting inventory doesn't exactly make him look great since his Iron Bow only has 1 might. What you want to do with him is use him a bit in chapter 1, then bench him for chapters 2 and 3. That allows him to get some "bench exp" just like in Gaiden or SoV. Killing one enemy in chapter 4 should then get him to level 4 (since he starts at 3) and now he will be able to use the Long Bow for 4 more damage compared to the Iron Bow. After chapter 6-Main you can forge him the Rossweisse for an extra 5 might and 20 Hit and then he starts snowballing. He can quickly increase his Bow ranks and can end up being a reliable user of the Pascannion if you didn't train Esteban. The variety of arrows in Berwick also helps him quite a lot... He can completely disable lance knights with Horseslayer Arrows and Overwatch or even kill Thor in one round of combat with Tripple Shot, a Tripple Fire Bow and Killer Arrows if you are lucky.

[tesuji2]

I am really surprised that Volo's ability to use one miracle charm for an entire deathmatch was not mentioned. It makes him unkillable for the duration of the deathmatch.