Rate The Unit 21: Atlas

[Quirino]

Dat Rules (borrowed/stolen from Integrity)

- Ratings are assumed to be on Normal.

- Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted. If somebody has already given good reason for a score +/- half a point from yours, you can decide not to explain your score, but I always encourage personal reasoning. 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.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is encouraged, but no more. If you exercise your bias privileges, please do so explicitly. Also, if your vote is already a 10/10 or greater than 9 and you give a full point of bias, The score may not exceed 10!

- Numerical votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Make it easy to calculate for my sake.

- Every ranking phase ends from 2100 to 2200 EST. Every ranking phase starts from 2200 EST to 2300 EST. Do the math if you are in another timezone!

- I will insist you do not use the "Not X" reason on any character, where X is another unit. If you do, your vote will be thrown out.

- "Recruits X" or "takes you to X chapter" arguments are explicitly banned. C'mon, people, this shouldn't need to be a rule. That's not gameplay performance.

- Assume that the character in question is being recruited.

- Similar to the "Recruits X" rule, do not use "He Comes with a Free Weapon" as an argument.

- I withhold the privilege to tell you your rating is bogus and demand you revise it if it breaks any of the above. I will not throw out votes anonymously, you will be informed and given a chance to revise.

Averages:

Clerbe/Cleive: 3.91

Robin: 4.45

Boowy/Boey 4.64

Cellica/Celica: 6.06

May: 6.15

Fols/Force: 6.78

Grey: 6.85

Valbo: 7.10

Leo:7.5

Kamui:7.5

Clea/Claire: 7.58

Jenny 7.61

Ruka/Luka: 7.89

Cliff: 8.31

Silk: 8.47

Paison/Python: 8.60

Palla: 9.18

Sevr/Saber: 9.26

Alm: 9.59

Catria: 9.76

I'll just continue chapter 3C now, so next unit is Atlas. Unfortunately, it has not been clear from day 1 whether the votes should include grinding or the endless villager promotion cycle. I personally always rate without grinding included in the ratings.

The guy comes during one of the most difficult parts in the game at tier 0. So he's FE2's Amelia, with great growths that can make up for the low base level in the long run? Well... No, his growths are mediocre. He does have good base HP and strength, but this guy has obviously never heard about skill, speed and luck. This makes him too difficult to train. If you decide to go for it, you'd best make him a cavalier as Celica's team doesn't have any, or a mercenary to make up for his horrible skill and speed (although this team will probably have enough mercenaries already), but I usually just bench this guy real quick. He comes way too late to be of any use. Not worth it...

2/10: Too little, too late. He's horribly underleveled and his skill, speed and luck ensure that he will never be good.

[Jacoban]

Atlas sucks. Level 10 anything with 3 Skill/Speed is bad, and he can't even make up for them with good growth rates, because, well, they aren't (10% for speed...) His strength is decent, but he'll get doubled by pretty much anything, so what does it matter? He's not at all worth using.

1/10

[SRC]

How are his skill and speed when he immediately promotes to Mercenary? That already makes him as fast as any of the bow units will ever be! 30 HP, 14 Str, and 10 speed is actually pretty good, but his problem is he'll never get to 3rd tier to take advantage of the awesome Demon Fighter class, so he'll have mobility problems just like the rest of your units. He also joins late so his limited usefulness won't last very long, but the good news is he can be recruited by completing a map early instead of heading straight right in Celica's route.

Despite his STRENGTHs, I don't think he deserves more than a 4.5/10. (+1 bias)

[Byte2222]

Oh dear. What we have here is an unpromoted villager with skill and speed bases of 3 and growths of 20 and 10 coming in chapter 3, where Celica already has a full team and no time to baby a troubled unit. It gets worse too: what do you promote him to? Mercenary fixes his problems but Celica's team already has too many of them, Knight fills a gap but with terrain won't be very helpful (especially if the Pegasus Knights are in play), Soldier/Armour only exacerbates his problems, Archer still doesn't fix anything and as a Mage he only learns the worst spell in the game. His strength's good but Celica's team doesn't really need it, with Mages hitting res for high damage, low versatility needs and Mercenaries hitting defence for all the other times. When you boil it down he's an underleveled unit with poor speed and skill with no good class who just isn't worth it. He'd make a good fighter in a remake though.

1/10, there's no excuse for coming at such a low level with so little speed and skill. Only his strength spares him the zero.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Byte2222

[SRC]

Okay, if Atlas is so helpless when he joins, let's compare him to the top 2 units in Cellica's route when he joins. (Without exaggeration, he joins around 1-2 battles after the pegasus sisters do.)

Base Level Catria (Lv. 5) HP 24 Str 11 Skl 12 Spd 12 Luk 12 Def 5 Res 9

Mercenary Atlas (Lv. 1) HP 30 Str 14 Skl 8 Spd 10 Luk 4 Def 5 Res 4

Hero Saber (Lv. 3) HP 31 Str 11.4 Skl 11.3 Spd 14.2 Luk 6.8 Def 7.8 Res 6

So Atlas is a bit more frail than Saber in general, and more durable than Catria against physical attackers yet weaker against mages. But, he is holding up to and even beating them in offense on anything he can double. (With 10 speed, that includes quite a lot.) Obviously he has flaws, such as mobility. But, with STRENGTHs like that, it's baffling that Atlas can be viewed not only as the worst unit in the game, but the worst unit in the game by a landslide.

[Quirino]

Okay, if Atlas is so helpless when he joins, let's compare him to the top 2 units in Cellica's route when he joins. (Without exaggeration, he joins around 1-2 battles after the pegasus sisters do.)

Base Level Catria (Lv. 5) HP 24 Str 11 Skl 12 Spd 12 Luk 12 Def 5 Res 9

Mercenary Atlas (Lv. 1) HP 30 Str 14 Skl 8 Spd 10 Luk 4 Def 5 Res 4

Hero Saber (Lv. 3) HP 31 Str 11.4 Skl 11.3 Spd 14.2 Luk 6.8 Def 7.8 Res 6

So Atlas is a bit more frail than Saber in general, and more durable than Catria against physical attackers yet weaker against mages. But, he is holding up to and even beating them in offense on anything he can double. (With 10 speed, that includes quite a lot.) Obviously he has flaws, such as mobility. But, with STRENGTHs like that, it's baffling that Atlas can be viewed not only as the worst unit in the game, but the worst unit in the game by a landslide.

He just comes horribly underleveled. When he's promoted he's level 1, he needs another 7 levels to promote again. For the stats' sake, you'll want to promote units as soon as possible and that's what makes Atlas bad, he'll be able to promote again way too late. And why would you make him a mercenary? You'll already have enough way better mercenaries than him.

The reason why Catria is much better is because she flies and has way better movement. And she just has way better growths period. Not to mention that after Atlas joins, many levels will be desert/swamp levels, which are simply made for Palla and Catria. Atlas will have a very difficult time getting EXP in those levels.

Atlas wouldn't be that bad if he came sooner, but he's just not good enough anymore at that point. He's just too late at a too low level.

[Ϲharlie]

And why would you make him a mercenary? You'll already have enough way better mercenaries than him.

What else would you make Atlas? No other class gives him a sufficient enough boost to skill and speed to offset his poor bases and growths in those stats.

I'd have to agree with SRC that Atlas is generally a bit underrated, but I'm not going to be as generous. I'll give him a 3/10.

[Byte2222]

And why would you make him a mercenary? You'll already have enough way better mercenaries than him.

Presumably because it's his best class by virtue that it's his least bad. I've weighed in on this in my other post and "too many in the class already" is probably the least significant weakness of the various classes. Not that it's not a problem, it's just less of a problem than "terrain negates the class' advantage", "doesn't actually fix his problems" and "learns no spells".

[SRC]

He just comes horribly underleveled. When he's promoted he's level 1, he needs another 7 levels to promote again. For the stats' sake, you'll want to promote units as soon as possible and that's what makes Atlas bad, he'll be able to promote again way too late. And why would you make him a mercenary? You'll already have enough way better mercenaries than him.

The reason why Catria is much better is because she flies and has way better movement. And she just has way better growths period. Not to mention that after Atlas joins, many levels will be desert/swamp levels, which are simply made for Palla and Catria. Atlas will have a very difficult time getting EXP in those levels.

Atlas wouldn't be that bad if he came sooner, but he's just not good enough anymore at that point. He's just too late at a too low level.

My point isn't so much that he is as good as Saber or Catria, it's that he can fight around as well as them and just with a promotion. In a minimal grinding run, a guy with that sort of offense without any experience investment carries some value. You're right his movement will suck. It especially will chapter 4, to the point where he will lose most of his value. But in chapter 3, Atlas fills a roster spot better than an underleveled Bowy or Kamui would.

Edited July 29, 2012 by SRC