Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 37: Yuri

[Barren]

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 and no stat booster items

- 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

Byleth: 9.05

Edelgard: 9.00

Claude: 8.977

Felix: 8.625 

Lysithea: 8.472

Petra: 8.34

Leonie: 8.2

Jeritza: 8.2

Ferdinand: 7.78

Catherine: 7.7556

Sylvain: 7.66

Ingrid: 7.34

Hilda: 7.31

Seteth: 7.2273

Bernadetta: 7.125

Linhardt: 7.11

Marianne: 6.9769

Mercedes: 6.756

Shamir: 6.65

Dorothea: 6.375

Cyril: 6.0454

Dedue: 5.8571

Alois: 5.75

Annette: 5.5375

Hubert: 5.525

Ignatz: 4.88

Flayn: 4.583

Caspar: 4.32

Hanneman: 4.18

Lorenz: 3.8077

Raphael: 3.7273 

Ashe: 3.69 (nice)

Manuela: 3.1

Gilbert: 2.27

Anna: 1.978

 

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: 6.543

Average score for Faculty: 5.57 (rounded, it was a very very long number)

[LoneStar]

Yuri is a pretty cool unit. He has weaknesses in Axe, Riding, and Flying so he’s basically saying “Please use something that isn’t Wyvern.” Other than those hampering things, he’s pretty fast with 65% growth rate in speed. His strength is middling, but his personal skill can grant him extra damage.

He gets Windsweep which is a nice safe chipping option. His major crest has a good chance of preventing a foe from counter attacking, and on enemy phase he’s a good dodge tank. His asset in authority lets him equip strong battalions and Model Leader is nice to train unleveled battalions. You get Fetters of Dromi from his paralogue, which lets an unmounted unit get Canto, so that gives them more flexibility. 

For classes he does well in any of the Swordfaire ones. He is designed to be a Trickster, where he does cool stuff like Foul Play and use the Fetters to continue moving. Also some nice faith spells in Recover and Silence. He could work as a Sniper as he has a Budding Talent in bows, and also a Brawler. His personal skill gives him good damage output in those classes.

My Rating: 8.7/10. As the kind of lord unit for the Ashen Wolves he’s pretty good.

Edited November 16, 2020 by LoneStar

[L3xandr3]

Good intentioned Crime Lord. Very original, never been done before. To be fair to Yuri, there is more to him than that.

     Skill Levels:      Boons in Sword (D+), Reason (E+), Faith (D), Authority (D+). Talent in Bows. Banes in Lances, Axes, Riding, and Flying. The Axe Bane hurts, past that he’s passable. The Bow Talent is only good for Hit +20. Sorry, but do you really want yet another ‘skilled, speedy archer’?

     Abilities:     Honorable Spirit is badly worded. When he’s adjacent tot an enemy without any ally adjacent to him. More trouble than it’s worth, most of the time. He gets Battalion Vantage (C) and Model Leader (C+). We’ve all agree these are nearly useless, yes?

     Arts:     Windsweep (C+) and Finesse Blade (A). Windsweep at C+? I see. Early game utility, huh? His Bow Talent gives Deadeye. Ah, yes, lets use a unit who’s meant to double with a fairly weak Bow Art.

     Spells:     Yuri gets a pretty good Spell list. For Reason, he gets Wind (D), Cutting Gale (C), Sagittae (B), and Excalibur (A). For Faith, Heal and Nosferatu, Recover (C), Silence (B), and Aura (A). The Reason spells complements his high Speed, while Aura (If you get it) helps with his meh Magic.

     Stats:     25+30% HP and 6+35% Defense. Ok at the start, but he gets squishy quickly. 8+35% Resistance is only slightly better. 7+35% Magic, 8+40% Dexterity, and 8+45% Luck are Ok (none of these stats are all that important). 9+50% Charm makes him one of the strongest Gambiters. 11+40% Strength is par for the course. His speed, though… 10+65% Speed. Aside from Juritza, he is the fastest male character. To bad he doesn’t get Darting Blow.

     Classes:     Beginner- Myrmidon for Speed +2 or Mage for Magic

Intermediate- Mercinary, Thief, or Mage

Advanced- Swordmaster, Assassin, or Warlock (Trickster only has Foul Play to its name)

Master- Mortal Savant

          The Verdict

Basically a Lord. Has a strengthened support with Byleth. His Relic is one of the best, but the only thing that he has better than anyone else is Pavise/Agis. Pretty decent mixed unit, in all honesty. 8/10

   (As a side note, do we not have a name for the Damage granting supports? Like the ones Byleth+lords or Seteth+Flayn?)

[Sooks]

8/10, 65% speed is nice. That’s how I’m opening this rating. Naturally as such a fast unit, he is very squishy, 30% HP, and 35% in defense and resistance. Of course his strength also isn’t super high at 40% but it’s usable with his speed, and his 50% charm is insane with his boon in authority. Speaking of he also has boons in swords, reason, faith, and, as mentioned, authority, with a talent in bows. For banes he has axes, lances, flying, and riding, which is nice from a player perspective that making him a wyvern lord isn’t exactly encouraged like with every other unit. As far as combat arts go he has finesse blade to stop counters, and deadeye. Those are really the only notable ones. In his spell list he has wind, sagittae, cutting gale, and Excalibur, which is decent I suppose. In faith, on top of the spells everyone has, he has recover silence and aura, with recover just being a better yet less durable heal, silence being very situational and aura helping with his meh magic like three times per battle. Since he can bee recruited right after the mock battle, as can all the ashen wolves, he naturally does not suffer any drawbacks from a later joining time like the late joiners of this game. He is very fast and can do some pretty decent damage and has a boon in authority. That alone makes him good, so he gets an 8/10.

Also he has a major crest but apparently it’s activation rate is only 20%, so like most crests it is irrelevant.

[SnowFire]

I haven't used Yuri in a normal campaign yet so no rank, he's not as easy as Anna to theorycraft on and Cindered Shadows is a little different (although he's quite useful there).  That said...  he's basically Petra, trading HP for Charm and a Crest, but with a talent list that REALLY encourages an infantry sword class and discourages Yet Another Wyvern Rider.  And Assassin Petra is still fine!  Yuri's Mag stat is better than Petra but still not going to fool any real mage (see: Manuela & Anna), so I think Mortal Savant is a bit questionable here, but I suppose he can use a Levin Sword+ better while staying Assassin.  As others have already noted, Windsweep is basically the "good" sword art in a pile of meh.  While all units like good strength & speed, it's unusually important for Assassins, which have to deal with Swords' weaker raw weapon power and having to earn double attacks the hard way when not using Windsweep.

Like all Bow Talent people, Yuri can just Sniper it up like everyone else and Hunter's Volley stuff to death.  The Crest does make him good at using Fetters of Dromi (Unlike Ignatz / Ashe).  It's an investment but if you use Boots on him from Ashe/Catherine's Paralogue (or, if including DLC bonuses, Sacred Galewind Shoes), a move-boosted Fetters of Dromi Sniper is pretty terrifying, like an Infantry Bow Knight.  I'm doing a build like this on Felix, and while Yuri's strength is worse than Felix, Yuri could presumably pull it off as well.

Probably somewhere in the 7/10 range to guess, but not a "real" vote as noted.

Edited November 16, 2020 by SnowFire

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Yuri, considered on Maddening.

The Bad

In more than a few areas, Yuri finds his stats lacking. Note that these are based off his chapter 2 recruitment, as a level 3 Commoner. His HP (25 + 0.30x) is among the lowest in the game, and in conjunction with his lackluster Defense (6 + 0.30x), makes him frail on the physical side. And his Resistance, while slightly better at 8 + 0.35x, isn't enough to make him effectively sponge spells. And on the offensive side, his Magic (7 + 0.35x) is... okay I guess? Not really high enough for him to make a name for himself as a dedicated magic user.

Looking at his proficiencies, Yuri faces a bane in a few key areas. As weapons go, he's disadvantaged in Lances and Axes. The Axes hurt especially - it makes Armor Knight certification, plus Brigand for Death Blow, harder for him to achieve. He also suffers a couple movement type weaknesses, in Riding and Flight. Perhaps more than any other unit in the game, he's stuck in an infantry role - the Wyvern classes, and any Advanced/Master horseback classes, are an uphill battle for him - as are Alert Stance and Move +1.

What else? Well, there aren't a ton of other obvious points. His spell lists are fairly dense on either side, but they're not the most impressive. He doesn't get any 3+ range offensive spells, nor does he receive any "marquee" Faith support, like Warp or Physic. As for his personal ability, he gets 3 extra damage - good, right? Well, it's highly situational, only activating at melee-range, and when no allies are adjacent. So this isn't much help for a bow or magic build, and you may have to plan your positioning around it. Still, what good things does the mockingbird of the Abyss have going for him?

The Good

Returning to stats, Yuri's standout area has to be his Speed. At 10 + 0.65x, he offers one of the highest personal speed stats in the game, giving him a window to double where others do not. He also has solid Charm, at 9 + 0.50x - which makes sense, given his pseudo-Lord role in the story. His Strength (11 + 0.40x) is... again, okay. A good starting point, but not the highest growth. He suffers from a similar struggle as units like Manuela or Lorenz - not standing out on either offensive side. Finally, his Dexterity (8 + 0.40x) and Luck (8 + 0.45x) are both "good enough".

As for proficiencies, Yuri has a few welcome boon areas. His weapon of choice is the Sword (D+), so he has an easy trip into most sword classes. Notably, if you choose to recruit him later, this rank will increase, and he may come as a Myrmidon (chapter 3 - 5) or Thief (chapter 6 onward). The other area he grows in is his Authority (D+), and an Authority boon is always welcome. Because of this, I think Yuri is a fine choice to recruit later on - he doesn't suffer the "low-Authority slog" that plagues most late recruits. He also has a budding talent in Bows, so going Archer and getting Hit +20 is very much feasible. Sniper and Assassin both make sense as physical classes. But that's not all - he has boons in both Reason (E+) and Faith (D). So a magic route, with Mage mastery for Fiendish Blow, is worth consideration. He can do solid damage as a Warlock, or he can offer hybrid offense as a Trickster or Mortal Savant. Still, a shame that he misses out on Gremory.

Regarding combat arts, he doesn't have a ton of them. But he does learn a fairly good one early on, in Windsweep (C+). This is great for doing chip damage, without having to fear a counter-attack. He can also get Finesse Blade (A), bumping his damage up somewhat (contingent on how his Dexterity goes). One more thing - his budding talent unlocks Deadeye, giving him a cool long-range (albeit inaccurate) option. As for spells, again, his lists are dense. In Reason, he takes up the low-Weight Wind, the high-count Sagittae, and the flier-effective Excalibur. As for Faith, he gets Aura for damage, and interesting utility in Silence, on top of the white-bread Recover.

One more trick he has up his sleeve - the Major Crest of Aubin. This grants him a 20% chance of cancelling an enemy's counter-attack, with a weapon strike. It also gives him Pavise and Aegis when equipping the Fetters of Dromi, while letting him wield other Relics (say, Thunderbrand or Thyrsus) without any sort of penalty.

The Verdict

It's definitely tough, switching into ranking a DLC unit. Since I have to consider him with the DLC classes and tools, while everyone else was considered with these options off the table. Even with the DLC, though, he has a lot going against him. His Riding and Flight banes limit his class options - especially in conjunction with his Lance and Axe weaknesses. He has the proficiencies of a magic user, and fairly thick spell lists, but a lackluster Magic stat undermining them. He has great speed and okay charm, but his only other "standout" stat is his miserable bulk. His Authority boon is nice, but it feels like Yuri needs something extra - say, a helpful Rally, or a better Personal ability, to stand out as a good unit. As it is, he's just okay - but hey, at least you (the player) get a lot of freedom in when you choose to recruit him. All things told, I'm comfortable rating Yuri a 5 out of 10.

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yuri's an odd duck. He seems very close to being a really good unit, but isn't there.

The good: Yuri's got some good stats. 10+40% str and 9+65% spd should remind you of Petra (using his L1 stats rather than L3, for consistency); it's a really good offensive spread. 8+50% charm is just behind the lords. His talent list includes bows (granted, as a budding talent only) and authority, so he can certainly make a good Sniper, and the authority is helpful for any build. His combat art list includes Windsweep (at C+, uniquely to him), which is nice for chipping some dangerous enemies, as well as Deadeye, giving him some extra reach. And his personal skill boosts his melee damage by 3 if he's acting alone (not a super-hard condition to reach).

The weird: It feels like every advantage Yuri has is counteracted by something else. His authority boon is adversely affected by the rest of his talent list, which is a mess if you plan to make him any physical class but Sniper and Assassin. His personal skill suggests a melee build, but he's weak in two melee weapons and neutral in a third, leaving only swords, probably the worst weapon type in the game. He's a speed-based character but he can't get Darting Blow. He's strong in reason and faith but both his magic stat and his spell list are unremarkable (Silence is the only remotely notable spell), so one has to wonder why.

The less good: 24+30% HP and 5+30% def are mage durability stats, and since he has trouble certifying for Armour/Fortress Knight it's hard to clean that up. And his list of banes... woof. Possibly the worst any physical character has, it includes lances, axes, riding, and flying, so he'll need a bit of extra training to reach popular class lines like Wyvern and Bow Knight.

Overall, it's tough to know what to recommend for Yuri. The easiest build is to have him go Sniper, and he certainly has better stats than the dedicated archers, but losing 15% str (and Heavy Draw) to Felix means he isn't winning that comparison. Other builds are possible, and he certainly he can compare decently on stats to anyone, but the extra training needed to get him to Wyvern in particular is very tough. So he's short of that elite level, but decent. Yuri gets a 7/10 (Maddening).

[Barren]

It's late on my part but here goes: We'll talk about the leader of the Ashen Wolves Yuri. This cunning individual likes to wear eye shadows and looks quite a but like Leon from Echoes actually. But looks aside, what does this guy bring to the table as part of the DLC? Let's fins out. This is assuming hard mode.

While Yuri's stats look like a typical Myrmidon class like spread, one thing that stands out off the bat is his blistering speed growth. The highest ever in the game in fact. If you recruit him early in chapter 2 as a level 3 commoner, his speed stat is 10 with a high 65% growth. This makes him pretty much the fastest unit in the game. His charm is also quite good at this point. A stat of 9 with a 50% growth which pretty much means he'll be great at using gambits as well as dodging them. His luck growth isn't too shabby either at a 45% growth rate with a starting stat of 8. While these are nice traits the rest of his stats are average. His strength is 11 which isn't bad but has a 40% growth as does his dex with a stat of 8. So he's seemingly more of a physical fighter. But his 35% magic growth suggests that he can go magic as well. At least the rest of his stat growths are not beneath 30% so he's not exactly vulnerable in any given area but he's not excelling in any other area either.

His personal ability Honorable Spirit is an odd one. If he is not near an ally, grants Atk +3 when in combat with a foe one space away. I'm not sure this is poorly explained on the devs part, but to me it's implying that as long as no one is around and he's right next to an enemy he'll deal more damage.  Yuri also gets the Crest of Aubin which has a 1/5 chance of negating any enemy counterattack. It's a nice perk but don't always count on it happening. This also allows him to use the Fetters of Dromi very effectively. This relic grants him movement +1 and canto. He also gets Aegis and Pavise since he bears that crest and with his good dex stat growth, he'll trigger it often enough.

Yuri's boons consist of Swords, Reason, Faith and Authority with a budding talent in Bows. His banes consist of Lances, Axes, Riding and Flying. For a guy that has a number of nice qualities, his banes is honestly where it hurts the most because while it is possible to get Death Blow despite the Axe bane, getting him into better classes like Bow Knight or Wyvern Lord makes it difficult for him to achieve so the developers really want him to be foot locked I suppose. I guess it's there way of balancing him out, but then again, Petra who has similar stat growths can easily access Wyvern Lord and she's one of your fastest units around that isn't DLC. Still, his relic patches up essentially two of banes so I guess we wouldn't have the to worry about.

Yuri's sword combat arts consist of WIndsweep at C+ and Finesse Blade at rank A. Getting Windsweep this early in the game is a huge advantage for him since as early as chapter 5 I want to say (could be earlier) he can easily chip away at an enemy safely allowing your other units to pick up the scraps. Finesse Blade is fine if you're Assassin or Trickster since they offer a high dex stat growth. His budding talent in bows allows him to unlock Dead Eye which is a huge range attack. It's a pretty good combat art but nothing special. Now if he had let's say Encloser or Point-Blank Volley (especially with his Honorable Spirit personal ability) this would be amazing. His spell list isn't too bad, as his Faith spell list consist of Recover at rank C, Silence at rank B and Aura at rank A. Recover tends to get slept on because it's a one range spell but it's a strong super heal. Silence can be useful on occasion making safer for your allies with bad res approach them with ease. Aura is a strong spell in it's own right with a 20% chance to crit, you only have 3 shots with it at most with him unless you're making him a Bishop, then at that case you would have 6 uses of it. His reason spell list consist of Wind at rank D, Cutting Gale at rank C, Sagittae at rank B and Excalibur at rank A. Considering how light these tomes are, this gels well with his naturally high speed growth. Allowing him to actual double with these spells. Unlike Annette who needs Darting Blow in order to more likely double enemies that aren't Armored Knights or Fortress Knights.

As for class paths, there a few he can take. For the physical side, he can easily slip into Trickster as this class provides utility for the team. Having Duelist's Blow can be okay at times but being a dodge tank on player phase but it feels a but redundant because if you're killing on player phase then what's the point of adding avoid when it's better used on enemy phase. But sometimes you could still use the extra avoid if your aim is to have him chip away without much fear of getting hit back. Foul Play is an interesting combat art as it allows you to swap places with other allies. This can be fun to use as it would help your lower move units get in range or one of you're weaker units to safety. Yuri can also go Assassin thanks to his budding talent in Bows. His high dex stat could feasibly make somewhat of a use with Lethality. I wouldn't count on it happening often though. It's awesome when it does occur though. You can muscle through his axe bane and get Death Blow if desired. Archer's Hit +20 is always useful especially if you plan on going to Sniper and go for Hunter's Volley.

If you want to tackle his magical prowess, there is Mage for Fiendish Blow, Warlock for Bowbreaker then finally Mortal Savant. I know that Mortal Savant is technically a bad class because of hybrid attackers tends to struggle at either role and the -10% speed growth is pretty awful when earlier on you're enjoying a +20% speed growth as an Assassin or Swordmaster. But he's pretty much the only one who can pull it off. Felix can too but he's much better off as any physical attacking class since he only gets Thunder and Thoron. He gets Battalion Vantage at rank C which is good for crit stacking builds. Again, Trickster, Assassin or Swordmaster would gel nicely with this since 2 out of the 3 sword classes offer high dex growths and swordmaster has an innate sword crit +10. Not to mention that swords are easy to crit stack with, like using a Wo Dao+ for example.

Overall, I think Yuri is a solid 7/10 unit. He certainly has tricks up his sleeve and he can be good early game, but as you progress you'll see that other units who are while in comparison slower than him can access to better mounted or flying classes that can easily catch up to him stat wise. This is not to say Yuri is a bad unit, it's just that there are units that can have access to better classes which he can't as easily and they can just as competent as he is