Are Lena and Maria worth it?

[BeeperoniThe3rd]

So as I was starting my FE11 run FE1 came around the corner and... Now I'm finding it hard to get back into FE11 without FE1 Flexing it's addictiveness. Anyway back to topic, I beat FE1 yesterday and I wanna play through it again, but I'm thinking about using Lena and Maria long term unlike my first time when Lena got benched after I got Wendell and I didn't use Maria at all. I already plan on giving my two bishop rings to Merric and Linde, but I can buy more at the secret shop in chapter 23 and I will only be using Lena and Maria primarily for their healing; so their promotions don't really matter but I just wanted to know if it's worth using them long term, and if so or if not, why?

[X-Naut]

If all they're doing is waving their staffs then no. You can still deploy them as filler, but training them to promotion level requires exposing them to enemies, which can be rather tedious to outright dangerous. Wendell can always be your third-string magic attacker alongside Merric and Linde.

[eclipse]

Lena - gets a unique staff later on, so maybe?  But if she's just a warpbot, not really.

Maria - not unless you think "No protesting!" is one of the better lines in the game.  Which is a perfectly acceptable reason to using her BTW.

There's very few units that are "must-use" outside of early chapter Jagen on harder difficulties.

[Interdimensional Observer]

27 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Lena - gets a unique staff later on, so maybe?  But if she's just a warpbot, not really.

Maria - not unless you think "No protesting!" is one of the better lines in the game.  Which is a perfectly acceptable reason to using her BTW.

There's very few units that are "must-use" outside of early chapter Jagen on harder difficulties.

This is in the NES-SNES forum. I understand how you could be a little confused by what they wrote, but they're referring to FE1, not 11.

 

---

I think I remember reading somewhere the best way to level Wrys/Lena/Maria/Elice is to find a chapter with a fort and a thief. Plop the staffbot on the fort, and somehow get it so the thief constantly attacks them. 40 EXP per turn, thieves supposedly have such low Atk that with Fort healing the healer will be fine as the turns pass.

As for whether it is worth doing. Well, Wrys has a 20% chance of getting HP, but otherwise the only stats they can get (except for Elice) are Spd, Lck, and Weapon Level. They barely need Weapon Level procs, so they really only gain in two stats. And promoting them, due to how it works I think, would bring them to the performance of Boah and Wendel. Hammerne comes late and there is little lost swapping in her for when you need it. But otherwise, mind you I'm looking from afar because I've merely versed myself with SF's information on FE1 and haven't played it myself, Wendel and Boah obsolete the three first tier staffers.

[Robert Stewart]

I promoted Lena in my playthrough. Got her to lv10 by getting her to a fort while a pegasus chucked javelins at her for ~39 exp per attack.

Objectively speaking it's not worth it, their growths suck so they won't gain much after leveling, and after promotion they'll maybe be slightly better than Boah or Wendell. And you don't get a Bishop's Ring until way late, so they'll be stuck as 5-mov clerics for about 3/4 of the game.

They can always use physic though. And maybe getting Lena to 6 mov will be helpful for when you deploy her to repair stuff. But FE1's mostly an easy enough game where you can probably get away with using anyone if you set your mind to it.

[Ertrick36]

I mean, the stats that matter most are weapon level and speed when it comes to mages (mostly because they'll have jack for strength and defense, and the other stats are only passingly important).

I don't know how promotions work in this game because I haven't gotten far yet, but Lena and Maria have... serviceable speed and weapon level - enough that they can chip at enemies.  Problem is why would you use them when you're already using Merric and Linde, both of whom are likely to be reaching near max stats in weapon level and speed.

And if you want to use them as simple staffbots and nothing more, then lemme give you a bit of a news flash: bishop promotion ain't gonna help them do that.  Maybe Lena might need to promote to eek out a +1 to weapon level so that she can use literally every staff in the game except Aum (she only needs weapon level 8 to do so), but Maria is already at that point.  No other stat is gonna affect how they perform as staffbots.  I mean, strength will, but Wendell has the only non-zero growth in that regard and his growth is a hilariously pitiful 10%.

 

In my opinion... they are hella not worth leveling up and promoting.  They are barely worth deploying once you get good ol' Wendell.  There's only one use for either of them, and it's when Lena is given the Hammerne staff, since it's exclusive for her.  But if you were inclined to do a "magic units only" run, then... well, first you'll have to get the point where you even get a mage.  Barring that, all mages is a viable run - you'll just have to watch out for the bosses, probably keep Lena and Maria away from them entirely.

[Interdimensional Observer]

21 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

I mean, strength will, but Wendell has the only non-zero growth in that regard and his growth is a hilariously pitiful 10%.

I thought FE1 staffs healed for only their base value, and magic attacks used solely Tome Mt, no Str involved?

[Robert Stewart]

44 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

I don't know how promotions work in this game because I haven't gotten far yet

They work like FE2/Echoes - stats are raised to the promoted class base if lower, left unchanged if not.

[Ertrick36]

23 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I thought FE1 staffs healed for only their base value, and magic attacks used solely Tome Mt, no Str involved?

I checked, and they are both fixed values, yes.  I was thinking of Mystery of the Emblem, where strength modifies attack might and healing amount.

Just like every error in judgment I make about this game, it's because I base my knowledge off of its vastly superior successor which honestly should've been the game that was localized, but it is what it is.

Also, I still would love to see them localize New Mystery.  I know it bombed in Japan, but I think if nothing else it would lead to better appreciation in the West for Marth's story.

Just now, Robert Stewart said:

They work like FE2/Echoes - stats are raised to the promoted class base if lower, left unchanged if not.

That was my suspicion.

That means their speed and weapon level skyrockets to the point where they can use anything.  Which is actually really, really good.  They'll basically be other Wendells on the battlefield, meaning they'll more or less cook everything alive except bosses.

[Sidereal Wraith]

I used Lena and Wendell as my primary healers during my run. It’s really stupid that curates don’t get XP from using staves, making their use limited. You don’t get your first Bishop’s Ring until Tiki’s chapter I think, at which point Merric and Linde make Lena and Maria obsolete.

[The Roger The Paladin]

5 hours ago, Wraith said:

I used Lena and Wendell as my primary healers during my run. It’s really stupid that curates don’t get XP from using staves, making their use limited. You don’t get your first Bishop’s Ring until Tiki’s chapter I think, at which point Merric and Linde make Lena and Maria obsolete.

I did the same. That said, Merric only used a physic staff as necessary after the promotion, primarily sticking to using offensive magic. Wendell would have one tome on him, but would mostly use staves. Lena would exclusively use staves. She didn't get a level in the entire game...  but got kind of close due to a mishap with an archer in chapter 10, and a wyvern I accidentally aggro'ed  in Khaiden going after a thief with Caeda, (which thankfully missed when I couldn't get Lena out of range in time)

That said... I only used Lena because I expected to get some use out of Hammerne... but never ended up actually using the damn thing once. As such I'd personally say it's pretty safe to use Boah once you get him if you want two healers (which I prefer tactically)
 

15 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

And if you want to use them as simple staffbots and nothing more, then lemme give you a bit of a news flash: bishop promotion ain't gonna help them do that.  Maybe Lena might need to promote to eek out a +1 to weapon level so that she can use literally every staff in the game except Aum (she only needs weapon level 8 to do so), but Maria is already at that point.  No other stat is gonna affect how they perform as staffbots.

Personally, I just gave her the Manual. By the point in the game I got that, everyone I had who could use lances was either up to the point they could use Gradivus, or at least close enough they'd have surely made it by chapter 20. Barst was so far past the maximum 4 Weapon lvl. he needed to use all the axes it wasn't funny. My sword users were all at lvl. 9 or better. Jeorge was closing in on Parthia, and I didn't need it yet (I mean the enemies in this game aren't that tough). Merric could have theoretically used starlight then and there.
There's no ability to sell items in the game either. That said, if you want to use Wrys for meme purposes (something I plan to do next time round), well, the Manual takes him up to the 8 as well... as long as you can deal with the lack of warp before that. Or swap out Lena.
 

14 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

Also, I still would love to see them localize New Mystery.  I know it bombed in Japan, but I think if nothing else it would lead to better appreciation in the West for Marth's story.

Quite honestly, I'm still pissed they didn't localize that game. As I have been since Awakening came out and I realized it was never happening.

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

I'd say it's worth having a couple staffbots around, specifically if they can use Warp, which Lena can use at base

It isn't worth levelling healers in FE1, if you're concerned about their stats then you can just give them stat boosters