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Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 19: Lorenz


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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:

Dimtri: 9.14

Edelgard: 9.00

Claude: 8.977

Felix: 8.625

Petra: 8.34

Ferdinand: 7.78

Sylvain: 7.66

Ingrid: 7.34

Hilda: 7.31

Bernadetta: 7.125

Linhardt: 7.11

Mercedes: 6.756

Dorothea: 6.375

Dedue: 5.8571

Annette: 5.5375

Hubert: 5.525

Caspar: 4.32

Ashe: 3.69 (nice)

 

Underscore: Black Eagles

Bold: Blue Lions

Itallics: Golden deer

Purple: Faculty

Boldunderscoreditallics: DLC


Average score for Black Eagles: 6.94

Average score for Blue lions: 6.82

Average score for Golden Deer: 8.1435

 

 

Day 19: Lorenz Mayonnaise Glouster

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Lorenz can't decide if he wants to be a fighter or a mage. The answer is probably a mage, but either way he's not very good.

Why he's a bad fighter: His stats just aren't good enough. 8+40% str (admittedly, +2 from his personal in practice) and 7+40% spd is an awful combination. Only Caspar, Dedue, and Raphael are slower, and they're all stronger (okay, Caspar is basically equal. Caspar has terrible stats too). His talent list includes only lances (with no pegasus access) and riding, and he has no unique physical combat arts. While he's salvageable as a fighter if you insist on using him as one, almost anyone can do the same job better than him (Sylvain, Ferdinand, Leonie, and Ingrid all also have lance+riding along with better stats/talents/arts). His capabilities as a magic attacker are the only actually interesting thing about him, so I'm going to compare him to other mages for the rest of this analysis.

The good: Compared to other mages, Lorenz has clearly better bulk. 28+55% HP and 6+30% def are the best of any mage (unless one counts Edelgard or Sylvain), and in the case of HP it's by a large margin (they top out at 30%, otherwise). Additionally, he has a good Reason spell list, mostly in that he picks up Ragnarok at B (it's an A rank spell for everyone else). This means Lorenz actually briefly has second the best spell damage before other units hit A (Lysithea's Dark Spikes is #1 during this time). At A he gets Agnea's Arrow, whose 16 might allows him to stay ahead of Linhardt forever, though he falls behind Mercedes at this point, with Dorothea passing him at A+, and Hubert/Marianne/Annette doing so later in the game as their growths kick in. He also has Frozen Lance; magical combat arts are always nice to have, even if Lorenz's will be towards the weak end. His riding talent helps him get to Dark Knight easily, and potentially get Move+1.

The less good: 7+40% magic is way below that of other mages. Even after his personal grants him +2, he's still 2 points behind Dorothea (and roughly Linhardt). As alluded to earlier, this means that despite his good reason list, he's often not in a great place for relative magic damage. This would be forgivable, except that magic damage is basically all he does. He has no utility at all. Physic, Warp, Rescue, Fortify, Silence, Thoron, Meteor, Rallies, weakness-hitting? Lorenz does none of that. His faith list is garbage (the default + Ward) and he starts at E for it. He has awful charm (3+35%), which further limits his utility and also blows a hole in his durability when enemy gambits are around. So if other mages bring equal/better damage AND better (often much better) utility, why use him?

The answer is because he's forced at the west side of VW Reunion at Dawn, and having a decent Lorenz helps there. But while that's a reason to use him, it's not a reason he's good. And it also means he's extremely untempting to use on any other route, especially since he leaves for four chapters on two of them. But hey, at least he's the single most valuable recruit in the game because he unlocks access to Thyrsus! (Nothing in this paragraph affects the score I'm giving him.)

Lorenz gets a 3.5/10 (Maddening). He's a lot like Annette, trading her rallies and combat art damage for better midgame reason damage and bulk, but I think that's a losing trade overall.

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The difference between Grape here and Orange over there is that Grape just wants to be king. Too bad he lacks the stats for the role.

     Skill Levels:      Boons: Lance D, Reason E+, Riding D. Obviously, Lorenz is meant to become a Dark Knight. Banes: Brawling. Why would you want to use fists on this magic man?

     Abilities:     Distinguished House is effectively +2 Damage as a personal. I have nothing else to add. Battalion Vantage at C+ is useless on him.

     Arts:     Like Annette, he only gets 1 Art, and that’s the only Art he needs. Frozen Lance at C+ is better on Lorenz than Lighting Axe is on Annette, but only barely.

     Spells:     Fire (D), Sagittae (C), Ragnarök (B), and Agnea’s Arrow (A). It’s clear Lorenz is meant to nuke things with Magic. And also, be very slow. His Faith spells are nothing grand, with Heal, Nosferatu, Recover (C), and Ward (B).

     Stats:     His highest Growth is HP at 55% and a 28 base. Skill is next at 6+45%. After that, Strength (Base 8), Magic (7), Speed (7), and Resistance (6) are at 40% Growth. His charm is utterly atrocious at 3+35%. At 6+30%, his defense is mediocre, but most character’s defenses are.

     Classes:     Beginner- Monk if you want Magic or Soldier for Repo

Intermidiate- Mage. Or if you want a shit unit, Cavalier

Advanced- Warlock. Or for Frozen Lance Memes, Paladin

Master- Dark Knight

          The Verdict

Personally, I think Lorenz is terrible. Bad bases, subpar Growths, meh spell list. At best he’ll be a Jack of all Trades, Master of None. At worst… Well it’s not pretty. His Relic is far, far superior to him, and conveniently has synergy with a certain other Golden Deer mage and any other Mage with a Crest. Lorenz varies greatly in usefulness, but on average, he’s under average, sitting at a 3/10. Still usable.

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Hey, it's the rightful leader of the Leicester Alliance. Lorenz has been the subject of many nuh uhs and yeah huhs regarding whether he's viable. Half of those yeah huhs are from me. Of course he's viable. He's Lorenz Hellman Gloucester. If you can beat Maddening at 0% growths, you can beat it with Lorenz like I have. I dunk on combat mages a lot in this game, but the reason why I'll always use Lorenz is because it's so novel to have a mage that survives on the frontline. He provides constant chip damage, linked attack bonuses, he takes full advantage of the pavise/aegis procs on Thyrsus, and he's probably the one mage that prefers recover over physic since he's always in range. Be sure to grab Ward too. It's literally free exp. The health pools in Golden Deer are especially large in late game. People scoff at his base stats, but his strength and magic are actually 2 points higher past the first map of the game you could even deploy him. His level 1 performance can be dubious. He can tempest lance immediately, but usually suffers a double in retaliation. So grabbing Fire is first priority. His three skill proficiencies are the exact three he wants, and they even gave him two ranks up on riding because he's of the prestigious Gloucester line. The crucial choice is whether you'll raise him as a horse, or as a mage. Both class lines have painful stat growths and middling combat performance outside of the easiest parts of the game.

I tend to go with mage because I just can't see this guy get hurt. With an actual strength stat, Lorenz's AS actually stays in line with every other mage in the game, with competitive damage too. Ragnarok at B is broken, straight up. Lysithea gets a slightly worse version of that at B, but she has to give up her early access to warp, so that leaves Lorenz as your first tactical nuke. Frozen Lance is another option that won't ever run out of charges, and will still be there if you make Lorenz a cav. Somebody on the dev team must have been real jealous because that starting charm stat makes no sense.

I rate Lorenz a definitive 4.0 out of 10. But don't take my advice on him being a mage. Just because he works as the worst class line in the game (besides swordmaster or whatever), doesn't mean you should. The one benefit of following the mage class line is being able to earn experience without having to take it from other units. But there are two other mages in your house that have healing spells, and neither of them are an easy bench, so you can leave them their munchies. My Lorenz only just barely avoided doubles on Maddening and I feel like that just isn't the typical experience. Just go cav. He'll have greater damage once he hits C+ lances, and provide more utility with reposition. Yeah he'll level up speed less, but speed is a dump stat when it's that low on average. You want him getting str, def, and HP. Make Ferdinand his guard adjutant, save your thyrus for Lysithea. She can't live without it. Meanwhile that sick gloucester knights batallion will improve Lorenz' numbers for the early-mid game. Then in the late game he can have fun slinging spells as a dark knight.

Edited by Glennstavos
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I rated Lorenz based on GD Maddening.

Pros:

- He is actually not that bad early game, he has a personal skill that gives him free + 2 damage, he can use Fire to chip and Tempest Lance to deal serious damage to enemies.

-  Frozen Lance at C Lance and Ragnarok at B Reason means that he does decent damage mid game.

- Quite bulky for a Magic User.

Cons:

- Awful Faith spell list means it's hard to justify giving him a slot on your team over other Magic Units.

- Falls off a cliff especially if he fails to get any good lv ups early on which is very likely due to his middling growths.

- Can't really take advantage of his Relic's Aegis/Pavise when every Mage in the game wants it.

I give Lorenz a score of 3.5/10.

Edited by Ari Chan
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Oh Lorenz, the man with such foppy haircut sense (At least post-timeskip kinda works)

Lorenz posts a glowing review of himself:

Spoiler

Lorenz is another unit with unfortunate growths. In fact, I'm going to address them separately from bases because it's important to the point. He's got good HP, but his other bases aren't all that good, with 8 Str being his highest and 7 Mag and Spd kinda leaving him split between the two. His 6 Def and Res suggests mixed tanking, but he's not so fast that he's solidly able to avoid doubling and 6 Dex doesn't seem great for someone who wants a lot of it. 5 Luk is worrisome and 3 Cha is awful (the growth at 35% is also poor, really rubbing it in). It's his other growths I need to address. He ha 4 40% growths: Str, Mag, Spd and Res. This is problematic for him and is a big part of his issues for viability. It's just enough that you could expect some of them to grow, but it's not enough to be too relied on and with this game needing pretty damm solid stats to get over certain thresholds, Lorenz is very likely to miss them compared to others. Not to mention if he goes for cavs he loses Spd growth. And of course recruiting him outside of house he's a cav. Point being his growths are just unreliable enough that he needs something big to overcome them. As for his others, 55% HP is pretty good but it feels like it sacrifices his other growths, 45% Dex is alright for reasons I'll mention but he'd like as much as he can get and he's not likely to go through classes raising the growth, 25% Luk sucks and 30% Def is alright enough, especially for mages, but not enough to rely on.

His Strengths and Weaknesses aren't all too bad. He gets strengths in Lances, Reason and Riding, all pretty solid and makes Dark Knight an easy class and would suggest trying to focus on his Mag. His one weakness in Brawl is utterly ignorable, so that's nice.

Lorenz at least has magic.Reason gives him Fire, Sagittae, Ragnarok and Agnea's Arrow, which is a solid reason list with B Ragnarok in particular being nice. Agnea's Arrow's also nice, though without Hit +20 he can have accuracy issues. His Faith isn't as good, with H + N, Recover and Ward, but with so few units having Ward it can be nice to have him use it though B rank can be too much of a stretch depending on what you have him doing.

Lorenz's personal skill Distinguished House gives him +2 damage so long as he has a battalion equipped, which is easy enough to do and helps him a bit, though 2 damage isn't as noticeable as some others. He also has minor Gloucester, which allows him to boost damage from magic by 5 10% of the time, which is honestly disappointing, making it so much lesser than Fraldarius as a crest and because you can't use magic in every class you mightn't even have access to it.

Thing is Lorenz has one really good thing going for him: Frozen Lance. For all that people can laugh at him, it is a strong combat art that works of his Mag and Dex, which can stack quite significantly and helps him keep up to some degree without having to be low HP. It's not as powerful as Vengeance, but usually he doesn't need it that strong because plenty of enemies are low Res and Paladin's very accessible for him too. He also gets Battalion Vantage, which is just disappointing because he doesn't really have an EP.

Of course, he's one of two units who can get the full benefit from Thyrsus, though those focusing on Mage Lorenz should ask what he's doing if he's repeatedly seeing EP combat whether it triggers for him or not.

How did I find him?

Spoiler

In VW I committed him down the Cav > Paladin before going DK route, which did not really help him much. Sure he hit over 30 Str, but his speed was barely better than the Hilda in that run. And that was all armour Hilda. Aside from decent Res and a good Dex for Frozen Lance, Lorenz was nothing special.

In CF, he was on the bench. That's all.

In AM, I tried again, with him ending up a little better actually. Sadly lower Dex, while his Str and Spd were a little better than in VW, but he had a Mag stat he could use, as well as better Def somehow despite going with Dark Mage and Dark Bishop as well. Certainly better in that run.

In SS, he got use pre-timeskip. And judging by it, his time as a Dark Bishop was well on his way to making his magic better than in VW, but with ~15 levels between the two I can't say much. Here he focused on his magic classes with Dark Mage/Bishop.

In my Maddening run he saw use. He was outclassed and I probably could have dropped him with no loss the moment RaD was done but I guess I committed. ending up with 26 Str and 27 Mag/Dex/Spd sounds good if he were a master knight in Genealogy, bu sadly he was a master of nothing. He didn't have much in the way of high stats aside from 58 HP really, which can be fine but he's nothing to get excited about. Getting to A+ Reason meant he didn't get the crit but got Agnea's Arrow, but getting A+ Riding sure was nice alongside his C+ Faith and B+ Authority and Lances, which did contribute to his use. He also had a fair amount of mastery with Noble > Mage (Later Soldier) > Mage/Dark Mage (later Archer) > Warlock/Dark Bishop (later Paladin) > using Dark Knight late on. Dedicating to magic could have worked out better, especially if I was better at ensuring he wasn't on a horse when levelling more.

Truly another example of a jackass of all trades and he doesn't even get good access to WL to compensate unlike Ashe. While he has his niches, Lorenz doesn't have enough for me to give him more than a 5/10. The truth is he doesn't get much of a glow up post-timeskip to recommend going through using beyond it.

Edited by Dayni
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Now we get to Lorenz. This guy claims to be the rightful next leader of the Alliance. He also went to the school of sorcery in Fhirdiad along with Annette and Mercedes. But what does he have to bring to the table for the Golden Deer house? Let's find out. This is assuming hard and no DLC.

Lorenz is a similarly jack of all trades unit and has equal growths of strength and magic of 40%. His bulk is also worth noting as well. 28 HP with a 55% growth along with a defense stat of 6 with a 30% growth along with resistance stat of 7 with a 40% growth. As a front liner he can take a magic hit rather well as he would take a physical hit as a magic user. His speed and dex could be better though. He starts with a speed stat of 7 with a 40% growth as well as a dex stat of 6 with a 45% growth. Their not bad but you wish he wasn't that average. His charm growth is 40% with probably one of the lowest charm stat in the game of 3. Having a charm stat of 3 means that he'll be vulnerable to enemy gambits. As well as he'll be likely to miss with his gambits as well. However there are some redeeming qualities for Lorenz. His personal ability Distinguished House gives him an attack boost of 2 when a battalion is equipped. This can work in conjunction with rally magic or rally strength and when he is standing next to Hilda. So with all that in mind, Lorenz can potentially deal good damage with all that support. Damage modifier abilities can be very helpful at least in the beginning.

He has a boon in Lances, Reason, and Riding. This sets him up nicely for him to be a Dark Knight down the line. The only has bane he has is brawling. Lorenz starts with a D rank in Lances and D rank in Riding. So he can jump right into Soldier off the bat. He has a E+ rank in reason so he can also become a Monk if so. The only combat art he gets though is Frozen Lance at rank C+. This can be obtain relatively quickly and he could dish out a nice amount of damage when with his magic and it targets the enemy's res. It also gets boosted pending on his dex stat as well. He also bears the crest of Gloucester which adds more damage to magic attack. Lysithea also bears that crest. Also, like Lysithea, they have a Hero's Relic that they share. The Thyrsus Staff increases their spell range by 2 and since they have that crest, they can also get Aegis and Pavise. Lorenz takes advantage of that perk at least as a well to increase his bulk while Lysithea would benefit that more for her spell range increased. 

Lorenz can go either Soldier or Monk pending on what you want. Soldier gets a small dex stat growth boost and then get Reposition and Defense +2. Monk gets a nice resistance growth and then gets Draw Back and Magic +2. If you want to preserve his speed as much as possible, you would probably want to go down the mage route where he can get Fiendish Blow. Fiendish Blow also adds more damage to his Frozen Lance combat art. His spell list consist of Fire, Sagittae, Ragnarok and Agnea's Arrow. His faith spell list consist of Recover and Ward. One thing worth noting that he learns Ragnarok at rank B. So you could potentially get one of the stronger spells in the game before the end of part 1 if you continue down the mage route. Warlock is also an option for Lorenz so he can get Bowbreaker as a way for him to be anti-sniper. If you choose to go down the Cavalier route, he will get some small but notable buffs all around his stats except that he'll take a considerable hit in his speed. The -10% growth will hinder him down the line and he's not going to be able to double. Paladin is an option for Lorenz if you want to spam Frozen Lance along with Lancefaire. But that's the best you can get out of him. Then there is Dark Knight. His really only choice as a Master class. Yes Dark Knight has 1 less move than Paladin, and he'll lose Lancefaire, but he can get Black Tomefaire. Thyrsus also helps him out there that he can move in, cast from far range then run away afterwards. He can also be a dancer if you have no hope in him as a unit.

Overall though I can't think of an more fitting score than 5/10. So what's wrong with Lorenz? For one, his stats are too balanced for him to be great at anything. He can pull off Paladin sure, but Ferdinand and Sylvain are better choices because they have a better set of Combat Arts. Lorenz can go Dark Knight but there are plenty of other capable mages that can pull it off better. Or in some cases, females can access the gremory class and function as a hybrid mage. Basically he's not as bad as you might assume he is but he is entirely outclassed but other units in the game. I would still at least level him up until the end of part 1 and if you want to have an edge in the hunting by daybreak fight, at least give him swordbreaker and maybe Cavalier/Paladin so you can play hit and run. But beyond that, he can be either an adjutant or bench warmer. If you're serious about using him, then by all means go for it.

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Poor Lorenz, his growths do him no favours. On my most recent NG+ VW Maddening run, I wanted to give him a chance. Is he really as bad as I thought he was? Even let him have Thrysus for once to see if it makes any difference. 

He's like a 6/10 unit with Thrysus for me. That is sad.
His stats are so balanced, late game everything becomes kinda questionable. I find he can't take advantage of the relic's passive Aegis/Pavise going down as mage. Thrysus doesn't offer a defensive bonus like the Aegis Shield, and his own defences are kinda "eh". They're not good or bad, but the mediocre speed on top hurts. 

As a magic unit early Ragnarok and Agnea's Arrow is kinda nice.... There's no extra range and they just don't do much else for him beyond some heavy chip damage. His Faith list is also sad. Ward isn't great (can always use Pure Waters for same effect), Recover can be ok.  Doesn't offer much for utility or healing overall. 
He gets Frozen Lance pretty early on, it's kinda nice mid game, but later on no so much. Using it with Horseslayer to give his an anti-cav option is ok. But I find that even with effectiveness damage he still can't okho. 

Overall I think about 3/10. He's one of the worst units in my books. If he was the only mage who can use Thrysus then it would give him something unique. But since Thrysus can be given to anyone for the extra range, it doesn't offer him anything over other units. 

 

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Lorenz is the most obvious Dark Knight plant in the game.  It very much seems like the IS wanted to keep the hybrid class around in this game after introducing in Fire Emblem Fates.  Unfortunately, the class wasn't spectacular in Fates and has serious issues in this game.

On Maddening, Lorenz's growths are an odd mix.  He has a tolerable strength, magic, defense, and resistance growths, and might be the only unit that can fill all of those slots.  The downside is that his base speed and speed growth are both below average, and that makes him very difficult to use for the early game.

Should you put in the effort to get Lorenz all the way to Dark Knight, he can be serviceable, but the problem is there isn't a great melee/magic hybrid class in Three Houses prior to Dark Knight at level 30.  Lorenz is forced for the majority of the game to either be a sub-part Cavalier/Paladin or a sub-par Mage/Warlock until he can finally gain access to a good hybrid class.  And that makes him an inferior option for most of the game.

Of the units that are not intended to be pure mages, Lorenz's spell list is actually OK.  He gets a bunch with high Mt spells and doesn't suffer from accuracy issues too much.  The problem that he faces, like many units in this game, is that all of his spells are generic 1-2 range attack spells.  No 3-range spells, no siege magic, no debuffs, no weakness-hitting spells.  And his Faith list is poor as well.

I've found the best that can be done with Lorenz is to stick him in the mage path for the middle levels (as he's a terrible soldier/cavalier/paladin) until he reaches Dark Knight, but I'm honestly not going to put in the effort to get him there most of the time.

The best thing about Lorenz is his Hero's Relic.  Thyrsus is easily the strongest weapon in the game, and it can only be gotten upon completing Lorenz's paralogue.  That alone will make him a mandatory recruit in pretty much any Three Houses run, and is really the only thing that saves Lorenz in terms of utility.  In a typical playthrough for me, Lorenz will get used just enough so he can be at an appropriate level for his paralogue and then get ignored for the rest of the game.

On Maddening, Lorenz gets a 4/10 purely due to the strength of Thyrsus.

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3.5/10, Lorenz is absolutely horrible (unless you’re playing normal mode but others are still much better). His growths can’t decide if they want him to be physical or magical, much to his detriment. He is very much an rng based unit, 40 in strength magic and speed? As well as in resistance and charm, his levels are just gonna he too unreliable. So what other assets may he have? Well his personal ability is Felix’s but worse... +2 damage with a battalion?? He needs like +50 damage to kill anything. He gets Frozen Lance at C+ lances which does damage based on dexterity, which might be good because his growth in it is higher than 40 unlike the majority of his growths... oh wait it’s 45. So he’ll probably be able to do SOMETHING with this one at least,  but you have to play quite a ways into the game for this, whereas other units can already be good. It is worth noting that if you make Lorenz a mage, class growths will actually take his 40 and make it a 50! Hooray! His speed will be average, but he gates high weight nuke spells like Agnea’s Arrow to make up for this so yay. He won’t be your best mate by far, but he might be able to do something even if it takes quite a bit of babying. It might be worth noting he does have a good relic, but not in his hands. Well yes in his hands but yes in everyone’s hands so give it to someone who can actually reliably be good.

Edited by Sooks1016
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Right so Lorenz is a pretty mediocre unit. He has pretty good HP growth, but everything else is mid. In Maddening he can be an okay 3rd magic user, he has the bulk to take some hits compared to your other mages. Recover is a nice healing spell to have, and he learns Ward, but I haven’t raised his Faith higher than C in any play through. 

His Frozen Lance can do pretty decent damage, but it’s hard for him to one shot most things. He gets hard hitting spells like That Ragnarok and Agnea’s Arrow; he won’t be doubling much, but he can do some nice chip. The the one major benefit from him is his paralogue. Here you get the amazing Thyrsus, and his battalion is pretty nice with its balanced boosts, not to mention that it is probably the most trivial map to clear. He has gets extra might from supporting Ferdinand, but they only get to B rank, and really he’ll be the adjutant for Ferdie. 

For classes he’s best going as either a Warlock, Dark Bishop, or both, then getting into Dark Knight. You’ll probably have S rank reason on him at this point, or even Thysus/ Caduceus Staff, so he can safely chip enemies and Canto out of there.

My Rating: 4/10

Edited by LoneStar
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3/10. Can't decide if he wants to be a fighter or a mage, so he tries to be both. And fails at it, because he falls into the trap of being too balanced. The bulky mage thing isn't too helpful either, because in general, his luck is low enough that crit rates are likely to be a concern (and in Maddening, he's probably hitting the dirt as easily as any other mage).

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Lorenz, considered on VW Maddening

The Bad

His bases are generally poor, especially his Charm (3+0.40x), with all others (besides HP) sitting at 8 or less. And his Luck is possibly worse, at 5+0.25x. A Defense of 6+0.30x is nothing to write home about, either. So he'll be vulnerable to gambits, crits, and physical damage, without doing a ton of damage in return. As for proficiencies, his only weakness is Brawling - a noble mustn't debase himself by going Grappler or War Master, after all! His personal combat art list is vanishingly short, with no physical options. His Reason list is deep, but it includes no 3+ ranged options. And his Faith list (Recover, Ward) is fairly unimpressive. Also, as a male unit, he misses out on Pegasus Knight and Falcon Knight as options. Finally, since we're considering VW, the Arrow of Indra isn't really an option for ranged damage.

The Good

Does Lorenz have any good stats? Well, his HP (28+0.55x) is solid, but the others are just middling. His Resistance (6+0.40x) is good for a physical unit, and his Strength (8+0.40x) and Magic (7+0.40x) are each... workable, let's say. So he'll be pretty good at taking magical hits, and delivering hybrid offense.

Returning to the proficiencies, Lorenz has boons in Reason, Lances, and Riding. So Mage comes naturally to him - Fiendish Blow is desirable on any magically-offensive build. But he can also do Dark Mage - Poison Strike may be better on hybrid or physical builds. Death Blow (from Brigand), Hit+20 (from Archer) and 12 Defense (from Armor Knight certification) are both achievable, even if they don't come naturally. Later on, Paladin and Warlock are excellent Advanced options, and his proficiencies naturally lead him into Dark Knight. And the Wyvern classes are technically achievable for him.

Returning to combat arts, the only personal one he gets is Frozen Lance, quite early (at C+). Combined with a higher-Mt spear, or even a Hero's Relic or Ridersbane, he can deal quite a lot of damage against low-Res foes. While going Paladin means missing out on spells, it does give him more attacking range than magical classes get. As I said, though, no Arrow of Indra means no ranged magical lance damage. As for spells, his Reason list includes some serious firepower, in Agnea's Arrow.

Regarding personal traits, his Distinguished House ability provides 2 extra damage with a batallion. So even though he's neutral in Authority, getting Lorenz a batallion should be a priority. And his Minor Crest of Gloucester gives him a 10% chance of boosting damage with spells. It also gives him Pavise and Aegis with Thyrsus, boosts his healing with the Axe of Ukonvasara, and lets him wield other Relics comfortably.

The Verdict

Lorenz has a few things going for him - a good personal, a Crest, ability to handle enemy spells, and an easy road to Dark Knight. Still, there's not much more to say - his spell list is fairly lacking, and he offers few arts on the physical side. He's middling on both sides of the offenses, and he has no "breakout" stat to make up for it. Thyrsus may be the best relic in the game, but remember, it's not locked to Lorenz (nor to Lysithea). All things considered, I'm rating Lorenz to be a 5 out of 10.

Edited by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
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Aw man, I missed Hilda's haha. She's one of my faves.

But Lorenz tho. I'm ngl, he's definitely the weakest of the Golden Deer especially with standout units like Lysithea, Leonie, and Hilda. He's disappointed me in both of my Verdant Wind playthroughs and I had no idea how to salvage him at all.

The good (More like "the okay" cause that's the best I can get with Lorenz):
Lorenz has the most balanced and even stat line out of any unit, with similar Strength and Magic at 8 and 7+40% respectively. All of his stats seem to average at about 6~7+40%, but his luck is on the lower end at 5+25%. He can take a hit better than most magic-oriented units as his HP and Defense stats are the highest for any magic oriented unit at 28+55% and 5+30%. Despite having very balanced stats, they all seem fall below average. He will do good--or more so okay--on either a physical or magical route, but will not excel at either. However, because of how balanced his stats are, he's better suited for a hybrid class more than any other unit. He's better off going down the mage route rather than Paladin (which is his supposed "canon" class) as Paladin will hurt his speed greatly. His reason spell list isn't too shabby; Ragnarok, Sagittae, and Agnea's Arrow are pretty decent hard-hitting spells. Lorenz also gets Frozen Lance very early at C+ Lances, and out of anybody, he's probably the best at using it due to his higher bulk compared to Marianne and Hubert and can actually attack close-range safely. Lorenz's biggest plus is that he's the one that unlocks Thyrsus with his paralogue, which is regarded as one of the best relics in the game. But let's be 100% honest, do you EVER give it to Lorenz??? When Lysithea is in the same house??? Regardless, Thyrsus works really well with Lorenz when going down a magic path, but it works well for any magic unit with a crest. He's overall a below-average unit at best with below average stats, but because of the balance between magical and physical in his kit, he's the "best" candidate for a hybrid path.

The bad:
Even though Lorenz does have the most balance in his stats, he will never excel in either a physical or magical class and will only be "okay" at either. Both his magic and strength are relatively average, but on the lower side meaning he won't be able to deal enough damage to ever ORKO nor does he have the speed to double. His only hopes of ORKO-ing enemies is with Fortress Knights. His charm growth is okay, but his base is a hilarious 3--so his gambit attacks will need some time to deal decent damage but at least he has his crest for +5 mt with gambits (with only a 10% proc rate). Also, his low charm base makes it fairly difficult for him to reach the threshold to become a dancer should he ever disappoint you on the battlefield. Also, as a mage, his faith list is quite disappointing--with his extra spells being Recover and Ward. Recover is a good healing spell especially if you need one on the front lines, but Ward is very, very niche should it even be used at all. He lacks any talent in either an offensive or supportive role making him very difficult to use. It'll be very difficult for him to ORKO anything and he lacks the Dex and Luck to even have a chance of a crit-kill--which is something even Ashe and Caspar can do.

My personal experience with him has been pretty bad in both my Verdant Wind playthroughs. In my second playthrough, he was actually doing so well in the early game as a mage and was OHKO-ing pretty much everything. However, he just fell off mid-game and all he could do was deal enough damage so the next person could take the kill. On top of that, his personality is shit. The only thing I found I liked about him was that he was Claude's only m/m paired ending.

Overall, I give him a 3/10. He has the most balanced stat line out of any unit, with similar bases and growths in both magic and strength. He also has better bulk compared other magic-oriented units and can take a hit better than they could. However, everything about him falls below average and will never excel in any one path. I personally found even Ashe and Caspar to be significantly more reliable than Lorenz has.

Poor guy.

Edited by Tenma
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