Before I get started, there is an important thing I need to say. In this game, what you need can be summed up in three items. You need good move to efficiently advance to locations, you need healers to survive hits from enemies, and you need units with good offense so that you can eliminate threats efficiently to minimize the number of times they can hit you.
Zealot fits two of these roles amazingly well for a few chapters. He is one of if not your best combat unit in chapter 7, which is arguably the hardest chapter in the game, and the first chapter where Wyverns are introduced. He’s a Paladin and has 8 move, and thanks to his good base defense, he has significantly more freedom to go where he needs to go than most of your units. This matters a lot for a few chapters after 7, since those are big maps that require you to travel significant distances.
Thany on the other hand? She has good move since she is mounted, and has the advantage of flying to ignore terrain. However, this is nullified by her inability to increase her defenses with terrain and her glaring 3x weakness to archers who will severely limit where she can safely go. She is neither a healer nor is she a good combat unit when she joins. That’s pretty fail from the start.
Since Zealot actually fills important roles, and Thany does not, Zealot >>>>> Thany (three for combat, two for movement).
If that doesn’t convince you, I’ll show you where you went wrong.
There is a significant problem with this statement. Firstoff, when Thany joins, her base fail stat is significantly higher than Deak’s w1n stat. Actually using her in combat is almost as counterproductive as using Bors against those axe wielders that double him. She does almost no existent damage to enemies besides fighters, loldiers and archers (stuff that actually has low enough defense), both of which rape her terribly in some way. A lot of fighters have extremely high attack stats especially the ones with steel, and those are among a few enemies that are able to onehit her. She can get weakened archers on the player phase, but they will onehit her on the enemy phase (meaning of course, she is only able to take on weakened archers otherwise she will be stuck in a bad spot if the archer is not finished off). Soldiers are almost as bad as fighters for Thany to go up against since they have massive str that also takes a huge number out of her tiny base HP stat, but Thany does enjoy better accuracy vs them and can double them more easily.She can make her damage in one hit existent with an iron lance, but then that makes her speed bad. -4 AS from Iron is pretty crippling, as it only takes a gap of 4AS to double or get doubled. Thany can’t afford to take doubles, because her base HP is similar to that of one of your magic users, so she can’t soak up hits. And since she doesn’t have Bors’s decent base defense, that of course is why she gets onehitted by a lot of stronger enemies too.
Oh yes, we could give her a Javelin so that she doesn’t need to take counters, but then her hit becomes crappy (and she loses 7! AS from it), so that option of course doesn’t really exist for her, since that hurts your combat rank.
The fact of the matter is you have better units for helping the EXP rank. By using non-promoted units that normally wouldn’t get used, like say Wolt, you help the EXP rank. Only someone like Wolt has accurate ranged weaponry so he’s better at not taking counters, and someone like Ward actually can do damage, so therefore can actually sometimes score kills. Handaxe > Javelin against those common lance and axe wielders anyway.
...you’re right. You just stole my joke and turned one of my favorite characters against me. I should quit life right now and forfeit this debate. I can understand Rutger not supporting Deak. Rutger can get Clarine and Fil, who are both good units who have a reason to support him.The problem with giving Deak a support with Thany is that this hurts Clarine significantly by limiting her support options. As slow as the support with Clarine is, it is something you should do since you need as much durability as possible for your healers, since those are essential units in this game. Assuming you gave Deak a B with Lot and a B with Thany, that would only leave one slot for Clarine, which is not good. Clarine is hurting for support options if she doesn’t get Deak or Rutger, since the rest of her list isn’t good (except for Lance, who is supporting Roy and Alan).
To give you an example of how having supports with Deak matters to Clarine, let’s take a look at something like a Nomad Trooper from Sacae.
Average Nomad Trooper(Bow/Sword)
HP: 43
Atk: 21/24
Hit: 119/109
Crit: 18/8
Atk Spd: 20/18
Evd: 49
Crit Evade: 9
Def: 12
Res: 7
Clarine level 20/1 with Fire and B Rutger
15.7 atk, 20.2 AS, 139.1 hit, 17.1 crit - - 70.7 avo, 26.6 hp, 6.9 def, 16.6 res, 30.3 critavo
That Bow Nomad Trooper has about 50% hit on her. She’s totally not safe from that, especially since those can kill her in two hits.
Whereas if you gave her a B with Deak like you are normally supposed to, that hit would drop by 10%, which really matters since that puts the RN system more in your favor. Also, that extra 2 defense from supporting Deak would help her a lot by making it harder for that enemy to 2hit her.
You’re really sneaky you know that? Did you think I would simply fall for that just because I happen to think Lot is badass?Lot only gets half hit from the support...which is definitely better than getting no hit from Deak. But when you notice that stuff like that Nomad trooper actually has evade, it’s still not making him all that good at offense.
Which brings me to a sad point...that Lot is rather iffy to field later in the game since his offense is quite unreliable. Thany can definitely benefit from this for a little bit earlygame, but outside of that? Not looking so promising.
I’m doubtful that you’re going to field both Treck and Noah on the same playthrough, and Noah frankly is better than Lot since he has mounted movement, and better accuracy (thanks to getting swords/lances + partial wt control). Noah probably wants the evade bonus from Zealot more than he wants the attack bonus from Treck at this point in the game, so if he’s fielded, there is more benefit to supporting him with Zealot. True enough. Assuming you can even get any kills with Thany. The first 10 chapters you say? Let’s see how useful that actually is.Chapter 2, there is nothing for Thany to do. The village is too far away from her joining spot, and all the enemies rape her pretty hard, including the mercs which are strong enough to 2hit her and very accurate.
Chapter 3 is pretty much the same story. The village where Lugh at is out of the question for her since there is an archer there that will 1hit her. And there are a lot of enemies you need to get past in order to advance to the village with the Mend staff, so ultimately, one of your Cavaliers who can actually advance into those enemies will be your best option for getting to that village efficiently. Not good for her at all. She can however gain EXP this chapter since there are plenty of loldiers that your units for the most part won’t 2hko.
In Chapter 4, she finally has a real opportunity to put her flying utility to use without getting raped in the process. The one village in the south is fair pickings for her, and she can kill time in the other turns buying stuff for your team. For combat however, this chapter is a nightmare for her. The Cavaliers 2hit her, while she does like 0-1 damage to them with a slim lance. There are also a lot of Nomads and Archers, which make it pretty much impossible for Thany to do anything else besides getting to the village without getting raped gruesomely.
Chapter 5 is really boring for Thany. There pretty much is nothing for her to do this chapter except maybe rescue the occasional unit that you accidently put in a bad position. She’s more hopeless than someone like Bors on this chapter. Bors for example can tank a bit against those mercenaries which make a common appearance this chapter, but Thany has nothing that she can go up against without getting horribly raped on the counter.
Chapter 6 is a breather for everyone. You have a lot of space to move around and there are plenty of loldiers, and even a few mages that she’s okay against. Her move is now useful again for helping advance people, although she still has to watch out for archers.
I think you’re really underrating how massively important Zealot is when he is recruited. The only unit that beats Zealot in defense is Bors (who gets raped horribly due to his low hp and spd), and the only unit that has a chance at beating him in HP is Lot (who has significantly lower defenses and evade when he joins), and he beats everyone except Rutger and Thany in speed (Thany loses her spd advantage wielding iron). Seriously, best unit this chapter. Nobody even comes close except Marcus (who has lol growths and probably only gained 2 levels when Zealot joined, so Zealot is clearly better).As for Thany on chapter 7…wow. She’s just failing on this chapter. She basically does nothing to the enemies that have 9+ defense (the few that don’t are stuff like stray archers and priests). Zealot on the other hand is pwning massively this chapter. Nothing doubles him, and he doubles the 9 spd Cavaliers. A lot of the villages are not safe for her to rescue since she will get 1hitted by archers, so you’ll need a sturdy horseman to get those.
A few more chapters:
Chapter 8 sucks significantly less for Thany… but there are still a number of archers that she hates dealing with, and Knights she can’t do damage to. Zealot is winning even more this chapter since his move advantage, and not being weak to bows, not to mention his ability to own the boss with various weapony is very valuable.
Chapter 8x…finally Thany gets to do something that nobody is able to do. Rescue units and take the southern shortcut to the boss. Nice I guess. But still, you’ll need Zealot, Marcus, and other dudes to take on the boss.
Chapter 9 is more hell for Thany. So many fighters. Zealot on the other hand is still wtfraping since he can get wta and never die vs them while doing a ton of damage to them. And of course, you will want to have sturdy horsemen to help rescue those villages.
As you can see, Thany’s usefulness is pretty much neutered most of the time since she is one of the worst characters in the game at dealing with the majority of enemies around her and due to her fail hp and weakness to bows she gets 2hitted or 1hitted a lot earlygame. Zealot on the other hand can be used for a few chapters and is your best unit for those few chapters right after you get him.
I beg to differ.Being THE BEST unit at something that matters a lot >>> Being a horrible unit at a lot of things that matter and semi-decent at something that only somewhat matters.
