Jump to content

Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 8: Petra


Benice
 Share

Recommended Posts

Rules

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard or Maddening Mode. Also, they should be based on when the unit is first available. (When rating a unit, please specify whether you are rating assuming Hard or Maddening.)

Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted (unless they fall into the general parameters of the average rating, but reasoning is still strongly encouraged on those even if you just wanna quote people) — incredibly low scores or high scores without proper justification will not be counted. Don't put in some random text thinking it'd count as justification. Put in at least a little thought and give REAL reasoning.

- Numbers for votes, please - not something like "Marcus/10", etc. Proper Justification will be determined by me and whoever decides to help.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is okay, but no more.

- Votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Makes it easy to calculate, please and thank you~!

-The rating you give to a unit assumes a good build for said unit-nothing among the lines of, "Dedue is 2/10 because he's a bad mage."

-The ranking assumes no grinding of any form, no DLC and minor, (one or two stat boosters per month) use of the Greenhouse.

- Make votes easily visible, please! "[Explanation text]: So, overall, I think X unit is a 7.5/10, with a +1 bias included for being hawt/cute/funny/etc.."

- Every ranking phase ends approximately at 20:00 PST. Do the math for your timezone, please!

-We will ask you to not use the "Not X unit" reason. Because it will be used a lot. I.E, do not say "Linhardt bad because not Lysithea."

-The Black Eagles may be assessed based on their performances in either Silver Snow or Crimson Flower, other than when not applicable.

 

Scores:

Edelgard: 9.00

Hubert: 5.525

Ferdinand: 7.78

Linhardt: 7.11

Caspar: 4.32

Bernadetta: 7.125

Dorothea: 6.375

Average score for Black Eagles: 6.75

 

Day 8: Petra

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra is pretty solid speedy unit. She has strengths in Bow, Axe and Flying so she can get into a lot of the meta stuff real easy. Like Hit+20 from Archer, Death Blow from Brigand, and has an easy time getting the requisites for Wyvern Rider/Lord. Other solid class options can be Sniper and Assassin. However her main issue is her relatively low strength growth, but Death Blow can help patch that out. Other miscellaneous problems are her personal ability being relatively useless most of the time, and she doesn't have the best personal combat arts.

Speaking of combat arts she has Waning Shot, which is useful for 3 range chip and can low the enemies strength, so in early game this lets your units take hits a little better. Wild Abandon and Diamond Axe have a Hit penalty, so unless you're using them with a Hammer to nuke an armor they probably aren't going to hit Maddening enemies. Then there are Finesse Blade and Bane of Monsters, which aren't going to be nukes coming from her. I guess her whole design is to finish of weakened enemies not really to be a one round monster.

Because of her high speed she can be a decent dodge tank, especially as an Assassin with her personal battalion that gives +20 Avoid. As an enemy phase sweeper she can do some Battalion Wrath shenanigans. She can get way with being a dodge tank without needing Vantage in most situations and getting Killer Axe/Wo Dao crits on enemies, but on Maddening her low strength can be an issue.

My Rating: 7/10. +0.1 for "You will be slapped down!" so 7.1/10.  After further thought I'll give her an 8.1, she's definitely one of my favorite units.

Edited by LoneStar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra is one of the few units where I feel the need to differentiate between her performance on hard and her performance on maddening. This is because one of her big assets is her fantastic speed: 10+60 is outright the best speed in the game (with the possible exception of Yuri's 9+65 which will eventually outstrip her but a. he's DLC, b. early game is more important than late game, and c. he doesn't have access to darting blow). In hard, that's generally going to be enough that she will double everything, and she hits hard enough that doubling will usually lead to a kill. In maddening, high speed is still nice to have, and is definitely helpful against some enemies, but it's nowhere near the same power level.

Outside of her speed, Petra is still a good unit. Her skill affinities are great, with strengths in sword, axe, bow and flying, and no relevant weaknesses at all. (She does have irrelevant weakness in faith and reason, but she has no reason to want to train either of them in the first place.) These give her very easy access to wyvern lord, assassin and sniper, and she also won't have any trouble getting into falcon knight or bow knight. This makes it incredibly easy to fit her into any army composition, since she can adapt easily based on what you need.

Her strength of 9+40 is nothing to write home about, but it's far from awful, and is definitely going to be good enough in situations where she's doubling. Her personal can sometimes come in useful, especially against monsters, but more often than not reads "you are more likely to score useless crits at times when you don't need them".

Her combat arts are generally pretty weak. Finesse Blade can be pretty nice, and Waning Shot can come in handy occasionally, but her axe arts of Diamond Axe and Wild Abandon are particularly awful. Having two combat arts that fill the same niche is bad, and having that niche be a bad one (trading accuracy for extra damage) is even worse. Fortunately for Petra, with her speed she's often better off just doing a regular attack, since she can do more damage by doubling than she can with an art. At least, that's the case on hard; on maddening, the poor selection of arts hurts her more.

I consider her a fantastic unit on hard (8/10) and a decent unit on maddening (6/10), so I will take an average of those two to give her an overall rating of 7/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra, huh? This is the first 'Rate the Unit' I have commented on, but here we go! (Also, brace for a wall of Text). DISCLAIMER: this is just from my point of view, while rating her in a vacuum.

   Skill Levels:     D+ and a Boon in Swords means she can get into Mercenary at base, which is something. E+ and a Boon in Axes and Bows means easy access to Death blow, Wrath, Accuracy +20, etc. In all honesty, I don’t think +20 Hits is that great, but hey, that’s just my opinion and has no impact here. D and a Boon in Flying, however, is very good, as with just a bit of Lance training get her to Darting Blow and latter - possibly – Wyvern Lord.

   Abilities:     Hunter’s Boon only has 1 use if you ask me: Monsters with 100+ HP, which is of variable use depending upon the route and difficulty. Battalion Wrath opens the door for Vantage+100% Crit setups, but Petra isn’t the only character to do this, nor is she the best at it. The 2 viable builds for her (in my humble opinion) is the afore mentioned Vantage + Crit setup or a Dodge-Tank build.

   Arts:     Waning Shot is of fair usefulness against some Bosses and Beasts. If you do try to use Wild Abandon or Diamond Axe, then I daresay Hit +20 is quite useful, but aside from that, her Axe arts are underwhelming at best. As for Sword Arts, Bane of Monsters is of questionable use while Finesse Blade can maybe do a lot of Damage, as Petra’s Dexterity is 7 Base +50% Growth.

   Stats:     9+40% Strength is passable, 7+50% Dexterity is solid, 10+60% Speed is only surpassed by Yuri, but unless you bought the DLC, he’s not a consideration. 7+45% Luck is decent, but Luck isn’t what I’d call good in the best of situations.

Her other stats, however… 25+45% Hp is mediocre for a Front-line unit, 3+25% Mag is not worth considering, 5+30% Defense and 2+15% Resistance means if she does get hit, it WILL hurt. 6+35% Charm depends on the difficulty: Hard is irrelevant as enemies (Aside from actual Characters) are a joke when using Gambits, while in Maddening she’ll be target practice.

   Classes:     Beginner Classes- Soldier/Fighter for Reposition/Shove, or Myrmidon for the +2 Speed (It’s good in the Early Game!)

Intermediate classes- Brigand for Death Blow, +30% Hp, and +10% Strength, Pegasus Knight for Darting Blow and +10 Speed, or Archer for +20 Hit

Advanced- Assassin for the 6 Move and sprinting through Terrain, +20 Dexterity, and Speed, Warrior for Wrath and +15% Strength, Swordmaster for +10% Strength and +20% Speed, or Wyvern Rider for being a Flier and +10% Strength

Master- Either Wyvern Lord (Preferred) or Flacon Knight

All in All, Petra is good for either going down the Sword Line ending at Assassin (Or Falcon if you feel like getting her E rank Lance to B+), the Axe Line ending at Wyvern Lord, or - I recommend against this - the Bow Line ending at Bow Knight (Or Sniper for Hunter’s Volley and not having to get her Lance to C and Riding to A).

 

                The Verdict

Petra is very Versatile, almost too much so. How good she is depends upon her build. Personally, I would have her in either Assassin or Wyvern Lord, using either Sword or Axe Prowess Lv5, Alert Stance+, Vantage, Wrath, and Battalion Wrath. In such a scenario, I’d give her a 8/10. She crits stuff to death – or failing that – dodges the retaliation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7.5/10. Amazing dodgetank and Wyvern Lord thanks to her boons and growths. Can also be an amazing Falco but imagine not going Wyvern~. Great offensive growths, easy access to darting blow and death blow. She's just great overall. Can't go wrong with Petra. 

Edited by Gordin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8.5 / 10 on Hard

The good:

  • Good base Spd at 10 and Okay base Str at 9: good early game offense and defence potential.
  • Exceptional Spd growth at 60%: good dodge tank potential, as well as easy double on Hard, especially after mastering Darting Blow.
  • Proficiencies in Sword, Axe, Bow and Flying (D at base): easier access to useful abilities such as Death Blow, Hit+20, Darting Blow and Alert Stance+, respective high Crit weapons, as well as strong classes like Wyvern and Sniper.
  • Battalion Wrath at C Authority: synergises well with dodge tank build.

The mixed:

  • Situationally useful personal Combat Arts: Waning Shot to debuff Str and Bane of Monsters to break monster barriers are both nice but situational; Finesse Blade is fine, but not very useful as long as she can double; both Wild Abandon and Diamond Axe trade Hit for damage, which requires stacking Hit and is more difficult to do if going Wyvern with flying battalions’ generally limited Hit bonus.
  • Okay Str growth at 40%: not ideal for a physical-oriented unit, but can easily be mitigated on Hard by double attacking or stacking Crit.

The not-so-good:

  • No crest: penalty when using relics, although generally she doesn’t rely on relics that much either.
  • Hunter's Boon: very difficult to plan around as a personal ability. The extra damage from Crit at that point is generally not that meaningful, except for maybe a few monster bosses.
Edited by DriftingWaterBottle
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's time for what is one of the youngest characters in the game. How she's 15, I still find bizarre.

Petra apparently isn't good with numbers either:

Spoiler

If anyone can be said to have a decent shot at fighting on the front lines in Maddening, it's Petra. 9 Str and 10 Spd is great for not getting doubled, .7 Dex and Luk are alright to help that, meanwhile she has 25 HP and 5 Def, so she doesn't want to be tanking multiple fights. Her magic stats are just bad too. As for her growths, 45% HP and 30% Def aren't stellar for her frontline duty, but why tank when you can dodge, as she has 60% Spd and the means of raising avoid further. Her Dex is pretty good at 50%, with Luk and Str not too far behind at 45 and 40% repsectively. Her Res is trash and her magic's like Caspar, with her charm not being a huge amount either PEMVW, but I've never seen her be all that reliable on her Str growth,

Her strengths and weaknesses tell you everything. Sword, Axe, Bow and Flying strengths are all good (decent for sword), allowing her easier access to the best classes in the game, picking up skills that can boost her combat as well with these. Lance can feel frustrating to raise, but it's not impossible. Meanwhile, her weaknesses in magic are quite clear too: for Petra, there's no such thing as magic.

Magically speaking, She's like Caspar. Wind and Sagittae are a pretty sparse list for reason and for Faith she has H + N and Restore, not much better than Caspar if even that.

Her personal skill, Hunter's Boon, gives her more crit when the foe has less than 50% HP. On paper it's weak. Here's the thing, it can be useful in a number of ways, beyond saving durability. She got a bunch of stuff to use to raise her crit and combined with high crit weaponry she can be a reliable finisher of bulky foes. Monsters also have massive amounts of HP and she can help tear down the bigger beasts with HP close to 200 in a bar. She's also crestless, moving on.

She does have a fair number of Combat Arts, with Bane of Monsters (Alright, but better for her to crit the lower half of their health) and Finesse Blade (She does have pretty good Dex, so it is workable) in Swords, Wild Abandon and Diamond Axe (Both of which sucked, but Wild Abandon can be fixed better and sync up better with her builds) for Axe and Waning Shot (The only one of these I find useful is Break Shot) for Bows. She also gets Battalion Wrath, which is definitely nice and something you can use to build a massive crit build on her.

Also, imo her Paralogue sucks not only because of the bait and switch, but because it gives you next to nothing for the trouble. I still remember being unable to stop someone getting nuked by Hubert.......

How did I find using her?

Spoiler

In CF, she was fast. Stupid fast, hitting 43 and was by far the quickest unit I had. She was low on Str with 22, but she was fast, accurate and could fly. I didn't bother with WL, this is just FK Petra here and it did the job. (Keep in mind this is the route where she ends up at level 36)

With SS, She got Assassin on the way, partly so she could have a class post Part 1 that wasn't weak to arrows, partly because I ignored her axes again. This Petra was slightly screwed or CF Petra was blessed because her Spd wasn't much better, though she did have more Str. But yeah, Petra was a solid fighter throughout this playthrough as well.

As for Maddening, she, Caspar and Ferdinand formed the late game squad as all three joined in Chapter 12 and wouldn't come into their own until Part II. Petra has been by far the most solid of the three, . She's probably the most Spd screwed, but definitely the strongest, while also having by far the best skill options. This time I actually used her axes and the results were something else, mastering Brigand and Pegasus Rider first, looping back to Fighter for Shove, eventually mastering Warrior, Mercenary, Archer and FK (Trying to master WL for endgame), the Knowledge gem has been held by her a lot sure but I kinda had to to maximise her bases, partly because it turns out either she's the most realistic Petra or the most screwed for growths and partly because this is maddening and that's the choice I made.

Petra's actually one of the most solid BE units imo. I'd say if anyone under Edelgard is worth using regardless it's her. I'm rating her 7.5/10, rounding up from 7 due to her being a surprisingly clutch unit who has good combat even if she's not critting.

Edited by Dayni
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra is easily one of my favorite characters to use in the game.  She has been a powerhouse in basically every playthrough I've had, including dominating on Maddening.  On, Maddening she is typically more useful than the lords of each house by the endgame if she's built properly.  And the bonus is, Petra is trivially easy to build as a unit.  Her boons are tailor made for the strategy of Fighter->Brigand->Wyvern Rider->Wyvern Lord.  If you want to supercharge Petra in the midgame, you can pick up Darting Blow as well.

Petra starts with the highest base speed in the game, typically making her one of the first units in your party that won't be receiving follow-up attacks when you play on Maddening, making her exceptionally useful in the early game.  If you pick you Darting Blow, she will outspeed nearly every enemy through the midgame.  And by the end of the game, due to her absurd speed growth, she will be so fast that she won't even need to spend an ability spot on Darting Blow anymore to get follow up attacks on the majority of enemies.

Petra has weaknesses, but most of them aren't particularly relevant.  Her magic ability is crap, but that's not necessary given how great a melee fighter she is.  Her resistance is abysmal, but there are not enough mage enemies in the game that would require Petra to regularly fight them (and even if there were, there's a good chance Petra would be able to one shot them).  Her defense is on the low side, but she can also serve very effectively as a dodgetank given how amazing her speed is.  Her personal ability and Combat Arts aren't anything special, but she doesn't need anything special when she can dominate the battlefield with basic attacks from an Iron Axe.

Petra's easily one of the strongest units in the game. 9.5/10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra, I feel is in a really comfortable spot as one of the better units in Three Houses. Though she does have her draw backs there is a lot to consider when it comes to her. So let's get to it.

Petra starts off with 9 strength and 10 speed. Her speed is most notable because it is high enough to not be doubled off the bat. Her speed growth not counting DLC's Yuri is among the highest in the game. A whooping 60% growth is more than convincing that she will be useful. 50% dex and 40% strength are also good traits for her to way. Her boons in swords, axes, bows and flying gives her a nice amount of options she can consider when training her from the start or recruiting her in other houses. Wrath Strike is a fine combat art to start with but she can also benefit nicely when getting her Smash and Curved Shot. Having Curved in particular for Petra is a pretty big deal as along with Bernie, she can also effectively chip away from 3 panels away.

Petra having access to Smash can grant her killing power that she lacks since her strength growth, while good not always going to go your way. Her bane in faith and reason are a non factor so we can go ahead and ignore them. This opens up a number of physical roles she can fill like Ferdinand could. Her personal ability Hunter's Boon increasing the critical hit chance by 20 when a foe is under 50% HP sometimes can be useful if Petra is strength screwed somehow in addition if you give her a killer's weapon or Wo Dao. Though it might be required for seal defense and/or seal speed support for Petra to make up for her somewhat low attack power. But this doesn't make her useless as a front line attacker, she just needs some back up for her to secure kills.

She can go either Myrmidon for better speed to ensure that she won't be doubled at least through out part out or fighter to improve her damage output. Speed +2 can also be a nice ability to have paired with Pegasus Knight's Darting Blow AS +6 boost, for essentially a nice AS +8 when initiating combat. On the flip side, Strength +2 along with Brigand's Death Blow +6 Strength buff gives her an effective Strength +8 when initiating combat is a surefire way for Petra to inflicting good damage in addition to having hunter's boon. You can even combine both Death Blow and Darting Blow by going to Brigand then Pegasus Knight. It can't be overstated how great fliers are in Three Houses.

Yes flying battalions will limit her a bit, though at C Rank Authority, Battalion Wrath along with Alert Stance + will make Petra an awesome dodge tank because of her high speed growth and Hunter's boon assuming a foe is under half health will give Petra devastating kill power. Even if Hunter's Boon is a non factor she will no doubt fulfill her role as a Wyvern Lord or Falcon Knight, which are considered two of her best choices. Again it can't be overstated that Fliers are amazing. Wyvern Lord won't increase her speed as much and her Res will still be an issue but it will grant her a high HP,  a good strength and defense growth and Axefaire. Along with Avoid +10 and canto, they are just the cherries on top of a delicious cake that you can't say no too. Her Axe combat arts though of Wild Abandon and Diamond Axe while interesting will give her accuracy issues which could play to her detriment if her hit rate is not the best.

Accuracy ring will at least take some pressure off of you for you to land a hit though. Falcon Knight grants her avoid + 10 and canto too. Along with higher speed, an improved res and strength growth as well. Not to mention that she would get a dex modifier unlike Wyvern Lord which makes her more likely to land a hit. Lancefaire would only improve her Tempest Lance combat art and it times Knightkneeler can be okay. Accuracy ring again makes her hit rate even better. But regardless if choose either one or the other, her advance class would definitely need to be Wyvern Rider. An easy bridging class to either FK or WL.

Her other options can be Assassin which is her canon class. Assassin may pale in comparison to her flier options. But in terms of equipping battalions, she can get a number of stat boosts including critical hit that will allow her to better secure kills. Bane of Monsters is occasionally useful, especially since her charm stat and stat growth are not the best. Starting at a charm stat of 6 with a 35% growth are not a attractive quality for a battalion user. But she does not have a bane in authority so Battalion Wrath can still be learned within a fair amount of time. She If you're going Assassin, you could either go Thief for even better dex + speed growths, or Mercenary for a slightly better strength growth in addition to Vantage. Vantage along with Battalion Wrath will grant Petra some survivability that she does lack because of her low defense and res growth. Finesse Blade doing more damage based on her dex would benefit more from the Assassin's dex growth rate. 

Assassin in particular allowing her to move through bushes and thickets with no problem can not only be great, but you can also take advantage of the extra avoid they offer unlike fliers. Though Fliers can still use Alert Stance any where on the map so Alert Stance still beats this trait. Assassinate and Lethality are too inconsistent to be useful. Lethality's success rate is Dex/4 (or 25% of user's dex). To give you a quick example, let's say your Dex stat is 40. A 10% chance to instantly kill an enemy or at least deplete a monster's health bar that isn't immune to Lethality can be a nice surprise but abilities like Dragonskin laughs at Lethality so it becomes a wasted ability slot that could have been replaced with something else.

Waning Shot from her Bow combat art lowering the enemy's strength by 5 is another good combat art for her. Petra's bow boons are also note worthy as getting Hit +20 in addition to Death Blow along with Sniper's Hunter Volley being a double attack, and of course assuming Hunter's Boon becomes a factor gives her a really high crit chance when paired with a forged Killer's Bow. Even if she doesn't score a crit, Death Blow still grants her big damage and jacking up her strength growth from 40 - 45 are noticeable as well. Her speed growth will still be high and her dex growth will be better than before too. Warrior and Swordmaster are also options for her but she's not bulky enough as a Warrior, though one can argue that she'll activate Wrath faster when she takes one hit in addition to Vantage. Though Wrath feels insignificant compared to Battalion Wrath since you only need Authority rank C which you can get relatively early.

Swordmaster while it's nice to increase her strength growth, both of them having 5 move is not great. At least with Sniper she can shoot from far away. Plus Astra is butchered in this game so not quite worth mastering. Striking 5 times with a -10 hit for 9 points of weapon durability does not justify mastering the class no matter what the devs might have been thinking. But you can pull a cute gimmick with her being a Vantage + Battalion Wrath + a battalion with high crit and forged Wo Dao to do potentially insane damage on enemy phase. And on player phase you could go for astra if you don't mind wasting it's durability only to keep constantly repairing with black-sand steel.

Overall, I'd say Petra is a 8/10. She is a very good unit that will no doubt do which ever physical class you want her to be. Assassin is a fine choice for her if you want to give her a better battalion, but being able to access Falcon Knight and Wyvern Lord really easily is where she shines. She is one of the best units that isn't Edelgard to be your go to Flier. Plus if you have 3 female fliers, you can do Triangle Attack. Just something worth mentioning.

Edited by Barren
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra is really good. Everything about her seems calculated to make her excel as an offensive physical fighter. Wyvern Lord is the best class in the game and you'll be hard-pressed to find many better at it than Petra, outside the lords.

The good: 9+40% str and 10+60% spd. The str is only average (though 9 is a nice base, a single str level from a bonus AS point), but the speed is screaming, and the combination is something no other unit can claim (Ingrid is weaker, Leonie is slower). With her easy access to both Death Blow and Darting Blow (something that isn't available to Felix, for instance), she can dish out high damage and double things that are very difficult to double on Maddening, like fliers and heroes. And virtually nothing in the game tears through monsters better than Petra with a brave weapon.

The talent list also rules. +flying and +axes eases her route through the strongest general class line in the game (pegasus/brigand into wyvern), either freeing her up to train authority rapidly, train an alternate weapon like bows (yet ANOTHER strength of hers), or free up tutoring time for the rest of the team. With her strength in flying and super-high speed she's an outstanding choice for an Alert Stance dodgetank (and she's even strong in swords if you want to get those evade numbers as high as possible with sword prowess)... notably, she can expect to get Alert Stance+ before any other unit in the game, along with Ingrid.

The less good: she doesn't have many weaknesses, but if you want to find them, you can look at her right-side stats. Her raw bulk is on the low end for a frontliner (a bit worse than Caspar's, though without the spd problem), and her charm is below average which puts a hole in her dodgetank game (her competition for this role, Ferdinand and Ingrid, are better off here), though it's good enough to be salvageable.

Petra gets an 8/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10/10, Petra is really good. She has the highest non dlc speed growth in the game, and easy access to wyvern lord, which is one of the best classes in the game. Even on maddening she can doubly consistently with her speed growth and base and that is incredibly important (and good). On top of being really speedy, she is a crit god with her personal and a killing edge (or wao dao if you make her a sword master (it might be exclusive, not sure)) or really a crit god with just her personal. Her high speed and dexterity paired with her decent strength will make her a great frontline combatant, and I say that despite her having squishy defensive stats because with a sword in her hand (and maybe sword avoid + 10) she can be a fantastic dodge tank. Overall, in my experience and opinion, she really is one of the best units in the game. I can’t really think of anything wrong with her, maybe that she can’t put out good magic damage or take magic hits (if they hit) but she really doesn’t need to so... 10/10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra

The bad:

With banes in Reason and Faith, short spell lists on either side, and a magic stat of (3+0.25x), magic builds are basically not an option for Petra. Her Resistance fares even worse, at (2+0.15x), so she won't take many magical hits. A lack of a Crest also means that she'll take damage when using Hero's Relics - on SS, only Thunderbrand and Freikugel come to mind. And while she gets quite a few specifics combat arts, she doesn't get any of the "standout" ones (like Windsweep or Point-Blank Volley).

The good:

She fast. Petra the Hedgehog has a speed stat of (10+0.60x), making her one of the quickest units in the game. As such, she can double most enemy types, and is a good candidate for dodgetanking. Her Strength (9+0.40x), Dex (7+0.50x), and Luck (7+0.45x) are all quite solid as well. Her proficiencies (Sword, Axe, Bow, Flight) make classes like Assassin, Wyvern Rider, and Sniper easily accessible to her - but options like Bow Knight, Falcoknight, and even Fortress Knight are very doable as well. They also give her easy access to Brigand, Archer, and Pegasus Knight, for three of the best mastery skills. Her personal skill helps her secure the kill against weakened foes. And while most of her combat arts are lackluster, Waning Shot functions like a stronger (but less accurate) debuffing Curved Shot.

The verdict:

Petra has little-to-no magical potential, and her lack of a Crest is somewhat of a limit on her abilities. Beyond that, however, the sky's the limit for her on the physical side. She's fast, accurate, and has a good damage output. Plus, she has an easy route to the best Intermediate mastery skills, and to the best physical lategame classes. Petra is a very solid unit throughout the game, and I'm comfortable rating her a 9 out of 10. I would be liking her greatly!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh look, a good unit. Pretty much the only knock I have against her is that she has zero combat arts worth mention (I have tried Finesse Blade, it's worthless, trust me), and I wish she started with Tempest Lance or even Smash over Wrath Strike. Petra's early game is better than the average physical fighter since she can naturally avoid doubles from the thieves with a sword in her hand. And after a few level ups it shouldn't matter what she's holding. Even her gimmick trash personal skill sees some use at a point in the game where it takes 3-4 units to kill one guy. She still won't carry you through the onslaught (nobody can), but it's nice to have somebody besides Edelgard and Byleth that your House can depend on immediately. Her skill proficiencies are excellent, and she's got very high starting ranks compared to other students. A D+ in swords is totally unnecesary, but she's not far behind in lances or axes, and having a free D in flying helps since that's a tougher skill to train than weapon skills. Especially early on. Petra has an easier time becoming a flier than anybody else in her class. And honestly her lack of enticing combat arts lets you push for luxury skills like Hit +20, Alert Stance or Axefaire in peace. Her speed tier is also high enough that Darting Blow can actually result in more doubles. Just don't expect her to double sword users throughout the game.

Most units in three houses have a high fluctuation in their usefulness, but Petra's fairly even start to finish. Being a 6 or 7 at level 1, an easy 10 in the latter half of pre-time skip, and being a solid 8 for the rest of the game. I rate her an 8.0. She's low maintenance and the only thing keeping her from being competitive on your team is just RNG. Fliers are the best class with how they can weave in and out of danger and impassable terrain and reposition units that need a small rescue. And a lot of pre-time skip paralogues become way easier when you have a pegasus knight or two to get some objectives. My Petra with a brave axe couldn't compete with my delete buttons (gauntlets, snipers) in damage and accuracy, but canto puts you in a whole other class of utility and possibilities. I'm surprised at reading she has a 50% dex growth because mine had less than 20 by the end of the game and her general hit rate was no higher than~80. Not having a crest may seem like a drawback, but honestly axe relics really only shine on units that don't double and thus Smash to get over their poor accuracy. But since she can double, a generic training axe should compete with those weapons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This might be a bit bias as petra is one of my favorite units, I rate her 8.75.

Pros:

Amazing bases. 9 str and 10 spd! 1 more str means she can use training sword without being weighed down.(not that important, but would like to mention it)

Avg str growth at 40%, but good spd growth 60%. Going to be your fastest unit and.

Amazing proficiency. Good in axes, bows, flying. 

Comes with base D flying. Dont have to train her in flying for pegasus(heck you might not even have to train it at all for wyvern).

Female. Can get the darting+death blow combo

Make great wyvern/falcon knight/sniper. Dodge tank builds work well for her especially with battalion wrath

Amazing early game due to her bases and the fact she doesn't get double by every single enemy.

Con(all of them are pretty minor):

Kind of squishy. Gets hit hard from magic attacks(res 2 base growth 15%)

Combat arts are not the best.

No crest

Bad personal

Have to train for lance to get tempest lance

 

There really is no glaring weakness of Petra, its rather that her strengths are not broken like some top tier units like Edelgard's galeforce CA and Dimitri's battalion wrath+vantage

Edited by leesangstar10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

My Petra with a brave axe couldn't compete with my delete buttons (gauntlets, snipers) in damage and accuracy, but canto puts you in a whole other class of utility and possibilities.

I honestly think Petra is stronger with an Iron Axe+ than a Brave Axe, and I think that might be why you're less impressed with her than I am.  Petra is designed to be a speed demon, and using a weapon as heavy as a Brave weapon is a mistake.  Most of the time Petra is able to naturally double enemies with an Iron Axe+, but only get one attack (with the automatic follow-up) with a Brave Axe given that the Brave Axe is 7 Weight heavier than Iron Axe+ as well as 20 hit% less accurate.  On maddening, I would happily trade the extra 3 damage of the Brave Axe for the 20% accuracy and 7 speed of an Iron Axe+.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SumG said:

I honestly think Petra is stronger with an Iron Axe+ than a Brave Axe, and I think that might be why you're less impressed with her than I am.  Petra is designed to be a speed demon, and using a weapon as heavy as a Brave weapon is a mistake.  Most of the time Petra is able to naturally double enemies with an Iron Axe+, but only get one attack (with the automatic follow-up) with a Brave Axe given that the Brave Axe is 7 Weight heavier than Iron Axe+ as well as 20 hit% less accurate.  On maddening, I would happily trade the extra 3 damage of the Brave Axe for the 20% accuracy and 7 speed of an Iron Axe+.

Yeah well I had the inventory space for both. You choose what's more appropriate to the enemy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that Petra is also an 8 out of 10.  Being one of the hardest units to be doubled is a nice trait to have.  She also has pretty good bulk wise not prefect but good enough so she is not an easy kill no matter what.  She is pretty good as any physical as a unit. One of the better archers who doesn't start as an archer for an example. Also probably the female unit who probably makes the most use out of the war monk to use gauntlets other than Edelgard and  Byleth.  One is a lord and the other is the main character and are both in the top units of game.  Still sad that there are gender exclusive classes and it took dlc for there to be  class outside of fighter to specialize in gauntlets for females.

Edited by vikingsfan92
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, lenticular said:

Petra is one of the few units where I feel the need to differentiate between her performance on hard and her performance on maddening. This is because one of her big assets is her fantastic speed: 10+60 is outright the best speed in the game (with the possible exception of Yuri's 9+65 which will eventually outstrip her but a. he's DLC, b. early game is more important than late game, and c. he doesn't have access to darting blow). In hard, that's generally going to be enough that she will double everything, and she hits hard enough that doubling will usually lead to a kill. In maddening, high speed is still nice to have, and is definitely helpful against some enemies, but it's nowhere near the same power level.

 

Interesting. That's actually the opposite of how I feel, if anything. My experience is that on Hard, a number of units, like Hilda (with Darting Blow) and Felix can get fast enough to double most things, allowing them to surpass Petra on offence since they have more strength. On Maddening, though? Forget it. Petra having 6-10 more points of speed than them long-term is suddenly a big deal, and often means she'll be able to double enemies like grapplers/warmasters, pegasi/wyverns, and heroes that other "pretty fast" units won't be able to. I'm sure the specifics vary with exactly what your level is at each point of the game, how much speed investment you do (Spd+2, Weight-3, Speedring, Speedwings, gardening), but there should always be a decent chunk of enemies she gets that most others don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Petra is one of the few units in Black Eagles that actually stay consistently good throughout the whole game, as even Edelgard has a pretty rough start with her accuracy. With her insane speed and reasonable strength, she's regarded as one of the top units in the game (and definitely one of my favorites, combat-wise and personality/story-wise). Her comparable units would be Ingrid and Leonie, the other speedy girls of the game.

The good, there's a lot to say here:
Petra's biggest selling point is her speed, with a base of 10 and a growth rate of 60%--the highest in the game only behind Yuri, who's DLC. She's the only one that can double or resist getting doubled in the early game against other high-speed enemies. And with her 60% growth, she'll be able to maintain this speed throughout the whole game. She will be one of your most reliable dodge tanks and is notably very difficult to hit. Her strength with a base of 9 and growth of 40% is pretty decent as well. The growth is good, not great, but it's respectable. Her boons are also worth a mention, with boons in Axes, Bows, AND Flying--three of arguably the top best skills to be proficient. This puts her on a very smooth route to Wyvern classes, further capitalizing on her speedy killing power (it's even one of her canon classes technically). It even gives her the easiest time out of anybody to achieve Death Blow, Darting Blow, and Hit+20 all at once. Lastly, I don't understand why nobody ever mentions a unit's crit rate? Petra's crit rate is insane, and you can even rely on a crit-kill with her. With 50% dex and 45% luck, this puts her at a 95% crit rate growth. However, she does fall behind Ignatz, Ashe, Claude, and Shamir, but all of these characters including Petra can crit pretty reliably. Honestly, Falcon Knight Petra with a Killer Bow+ or Wo Dao+ is a map deleter. On my CF run, I had my Byleth as a Falcon Knight as well and Petra would outshine me. Overall, Petra's just good. She's great. Her many strengths outweigh her few weaknesses.

Now, the bad:
Petra biggest weakness is her low charm growth, which breaks through her biggest strength as a dodge tank. She'll be pretty prone to gambits and probably won't hit hard with them either, but this isn't too much of a dealbreaker. If you want, you can just spam tea parties with her to boost her charm LOL. Also, despite being a killing crit machine, her 40% growth in strength and 30% growth in defense may lead her into an RNG trap. 9+40% strength is good, but it can potentially fall off later in the game. And if an enemy manages to land a hit on Petra, she can take severe amounts of damage. I honestly had to feed her a few strength boosters mid-game to relieve her strength, and Ingrid actually one-shot my Falcon Knight Petra with Alert Stance+ activated so I had to Divine Pulse her back to life. Lastly, I feel like her personal is pretty mediocre if not completely useless. If an enemy is at 50% health or lower, you're most likely going to kill them anyway even without a crit.

Overall, with a +1 bias, I give her a 9/10. Petra is a speed demon-crit machine-dodge tank that stays consistent throughout the game and has easy access to the best classes in the game. However, she may be prone to low strength and defense, and her low charm makes her prone to being hit with gambits. She is a top tier unit with very few weaknesses.

(My bias comes with the fact that I like Petra and I just have an affinity for speed-based, high-crit characters HAHA)

Edited by Tenma
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7/10

To get it out of the way, I'm not a massive fan of the super speedy unit archetype- I seem to get screwed over almost every time I try to use them. Case in point my current Petra, who ceased doing damage and wasn't all that fast either, so is currently warming the bench with Edie, Caspar and the 'Bert

Regardless, I can acknowledge the actual merits of these units and accept that I've just been RNG screwed on multiple occasions. So I guess I'll get into it.

Petra is fast. 10 + 60% (I like this format of stating stats, this is a good idea) is basically the best in the game, and she has access to Darting Blow too (moment of silence for Yuri). It's not like its even hard to get for her either, her proficiency in flying makes it easy to achieve, you just have to train her lances. 9 + 40% strength is OK, IMO. It's certainly not bad, but 40% is about the level where I feel a growth would be considered shaky, which is the main reason I'm not a massive fan of the general speedster archetype. The base, however, is good, and it means she can contribute from the get go (even if Wrath Strike is kinda meh compared to the other arts). Her main flaws statwise are low-ish bulk, though even then her HP is respectable, at 25 + 45%.

Her proficiencies are really nice, leading into about as many (physical) classes as you could want for her. She performs well as a Wyvern Lord, Assassin, Bow Knight, Falcon Knight, and so on. Reason and Faith banes, on the other hand, do so little to hinder her that they're barely worth mentioning.

Her combat arts are probably the main let-down. Waning Shot is decent, Bane of Monsters can be situationally useful, and her axe arts, Diamond Axe and Wild Abandon are fun to use, but the accuracy penalty forces you to play around it pretty hard- and both of them have hefty accuracy penalties. As for Finesse Blade, I'm not really a fan of the "increase damage by 30% of X" arts. They CAN give some great damage, but the 30% modifier really, really hurts at times and makes it a massive pain to get it to do enough damage. Overall, there isn't anything that stands out here.

Which is part of the problem. Petra has great stats (*glares in the direction of the bench*) and can get into some great classes to take advantage of that. But when a unit has stats and not a lot else, Maddening enemies can really put them out of work at times.

Still, judging by everybody else's ratings, she still does pretty good even then. Taking into account my subjective feelings of her (you were the chosen one! you were supposed to double the enemies, not get doubled by them! bring balance to the Black Eagles, not leave Bernadetta as my only reliable unit!), I think a 7/10 is fair.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Interesting. That's actually the opposite of how I feel, if anything. My experience is that on Hard, a number of units, like Hilda (with Darting Blow) and Felix can get fast enough to double most things, allowing them to surpass Petra on offence since they have more strength. On Maddening, though? Forget it. Petra having 6-10 more points of speed than them long-term is suddenly a big deal, and often means she'll be able to double enemies like grapplers/warmasters, pegasi/wyverns, and heroes that other "pretty fast" units won't be able to. I'm sure the specifics vary with exactly what your level is at each point of the game, how much speed investment you do (Spd+2, Weight-3, Speedring, Speedwings, gardening), but there should always be a decent chunk of enemies she gets that most others don't.

There's definitely always going to be a ton of that sort of variance with anything like this. I don't know how this compares to everyone else here, but I've played through Three Houses five times, and I know that that's not nearly enough to be able to make comprehensive and authoratitive statements about unit performance. I certainly have a pretty decent idea of what I'm talking about at this point, but it's just not possible to try out every possible build on every possible character on every possible route and every possible difficulty level, etc.

Even if you don't include things like different builds and how much you invest in speed, there's also just flat out RNG to consider. With a sample size as low as five, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one character who got RNG-screwed or -blessed every time I tried to use them, which has probably left me with the wrong impression of someone. It's possible to recognise that to some extent just by looking at numbers, but that's often not a substitute for experience, since looking at stats can make you miss important break points, etc.

So, it's entirely possible that I just built my maddening Petra wrong and should have invested more heavily in speed. Or it's possible that I just got bad RNG with her and didn't notice. Neither of those things would surprise me. But, honestly, that's a lot of the interest in threads like these. It's a nice place to look for things I might want to revisit or try doing differently next time I play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, lenticular said:

There's definitely always going to be a ton of that sort of variance with anything like this. I don't know how this compares to everyone else here, but I've played through Three Houses five times, and I know that that's not nearly enough to be able to make comprehensive and authoratitive statements about unit performance. I certainly have a pretty decent idea of what I'm talking about at this point, but it's just not possible to try out every possible build on every possible character on every possible route and every possible difficulty level, etc.

Even if you don't include things like different builds and how much you invest in speed, there's also just flat out RNG to consider. With a sample size as low as five, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one character who got RNG-screwed or -blessed every time I tried to use them, which has probably left me with the wrong impression of someone. It's possible to recognise that to some extent just by looking at numbers, but that's often not a substitute for experience, since looking at stats can make you miss important break points, etc.

So, it's entirely possible that I just built my maddening Petra wrong and should have invested more heavily in speed. Or it's possible that I just got bad RNG with her and didn't notice. Neither of those things would surprise me. But, honestly, that's a lot of the interest in threads like these. It's a nice place to look for things I might want to revisit or try doing differently next time I play.

Yea RNG usually plays a factor into how well a character does. But honestly this is why stat boosters exist. Heck for Petra, if you work on her heavy armor up to E+ or D while getting axes at rank C, you could certify her as a armored knight and boost her defense up to 12. Giving her a needed patch to her frail defense 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Barren And if you go all the way to C for Weight-3, she (or anyone else who trains axes) can also certify for Fortress Knight for 17 base def at Level 20 (a number which only Dedue will exceed naturally at that level, and not by much!). Though it takes either savescumming or a decent chunk of money to do it at C, where the odds will only be 40-45% or so. Regardless, it's definitely a nice perk to building both those skills.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10/10 on both hard and maddening. Petra is easily my favorite unit of all and I used her in my four maddening run always MVP, even strength screwed. The thing I want to note is I use Petra as IronAxe-MiniBow-death/darting blow PP pre-timeskip, and a sword crit-tank wyvern post timeskip. I always gave her dancer for Sword Avo+20, and IMO she’s better than even Dimitri’s BVBW, as dodge+BW doesn’t need constant retribution and doesn’t fear monsters or ballistas.She can reach AS+ by Ch10, and reach A authority quickly via hundreds round of combat (that naturally happens in dodgetanking). Her charm issue can be easily patched by dancer charm+5 and battalions above B rank. With A support adjutant, even sword breaker falcons gets single digit hit on her, like 5% or something. With Hit+20 and Cochol Wyvern she has no problem hitting lancers. She just tears through everything.

My setup post-timeskip is Sword Prowess, Sword Avo, AS+, BW, and Hit+20. All easy to reach given her boons and dodgetank role. In a clutch she could still potentially kill softer bosses like Claude on PP via a Sword Dance/Bane of Monster/Grounder crit.

It really doesn’t matter she does 13 damage per hit, as doubling and 100%criting is x6 damage. IMO she is decisively different from all common dodge tanks like Ferdie or Ingrid, or even Leonie to be the only one getting BWrath. The big difference between crit-tank and pure dodgetank is that the former gets far more exp so they have higher levels. A side effect is your healer’s level would be very low as you don’t need healing a lot.

Edited by RaIsMyPet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...