Seven Deadly Sins

There's a distinct difference between me plugging my ears and you simply not bothering to read the OP of a goddamn tier list, because not only did you miss the fact that Radd was in the exact tier you wanted him in, you made arguments based on the idea that Bottom was ordered (the rules state it isn't) and that being forced deployment gives units a free pass out of being useless. I never said that characters in Free Silvers are lower than Bottom, I said that there has to be an explicit reason that a Free Silvers unit will be at least in Low or Mid in order to even bother trying to tier them. You made these assumptions, and now you're the one plugging your ears. Have fun not participating in the tier list. "And nothing of value was lost." Back to the actual point, which is not a bunch of meta argument bullshit! GJ's argument for Maris has convinced me. I'm going to be making a couple changes soon, including: - Tiki/Nagi immediately below Jeorge - Rody to top of Low - Maris immediately below Rody near top of Low- I want to preserve the tier gap between her and Navarre, but she has utility and some potential longevity. - Palla to bottom of Top - Arran to bottom of High - Sirius to above Luke but below Shiida - Merric above Jeorge Feel free to argue for/against any of these changes. Also, new rule: Potions are not assumed.

Make one more ignorant useless post here that is better answered by the rules or a little common sense and I'm done with you.

Maybe you didn't read, because he is there? Don't be a condescending fuckwit around here. I'm tired of it. Read them again. You missed something fairly important, which pertains specifically to one of your earlier comments..

bblade, I'm assuming you didn't read the rules, because you're definitely not abiding by them. Go read them and try again.

This isn't the place to post your half-cocked cooked up tier lists. Want to suggest changes to THIS one? Sure, post here. Otherwise, keep that shit outta here. Also, healers aren't promoting. At least, they shouldn't be, and even after they do, it's not like they're seeing any real combat. EDIT: Yeah yeah, Dolph/Macellan are forced. Doesn't mean they're good and/or even marginally acceptable at any point in time.

That looks ok... until you realize that Cain has a good 30% Speed growth and 20% Def growth on Maris, as well as availability, lance rank, AND prologue. By the time you would have Maris, you already have a ton of units that do the same thing without having fail Def growth. Like I said, stats are nearly irrelevant to how a staff user functions. I might be willing to buy Curate Cecile, but all that would do is move her into the No Contest tier. As for Linde, she can at the very least Aurabomb shit, and I doubt that being a fourth random lol healer is worth giving potential mad chip up.

Jeorge is awesome when he's pwning Flying Dragons with Parthia, but when he's not, he's just meh. Part of being in High is that you kick ass *all the time* while you are around, not just when enemies that you do well against show up. Arran is solid all the time until Sirius shows up and takes up his spot. He's also crucial for earlygame, far more than other characters are. Marth has fairly great growths and is obviously the lord, so he's basically someone like Navarre/Ogma with better growths, better availability, no need to promote (solid exp gains forever), Rapier utility fwiw, and his very own "fuck Earth Dragons" weapon/shield. Shiida will double forever and still has Wing Spear utility. Tiki/Nagi are incredible for taking out the bullshit lategame. Jeorge has a couple moments to shine, and other than that either provides chip or benchwarms. Ryan is the bottom of mid, and that's only because people wanted a tier gap between him and Gordin/Warren. Originally, I had Upper/Lower Mid, but I didn't think they were necessary once we decided to throw out the trash below Ellerean. I'm all for him chilling next to his equally fail compatriots, I just remember seeing some resistance there.

I'll buy Rody > Cecile, but neither of them is especially good. Maybe Rody at bottom of mid? He's not exactly low tier material, IMO, but he isn't deserving of being anywhere near Draug and Luke.

Ellerean is the last of the big block of "useful characters". About 1/4 of characters before him are useful, whereas about 1/20th of characters afterwards are. Again, until we have concrete information like "assumed levels" and detailed enemy stats, I'm not bothering to include stuff like this. Not even going to bother tiering 4 random staffbotters that only show up at the very end. In fact, note that I'm not even bothering trying to tier staffbotters at all, because it's about as fun as sticking my hand in a box of razor blades. Fuck that. Too many combinations. Besides, MU is forced on every map, and is going to essentially stomp every nut ever as long as you're marginally competent. At some point I'm going to compile a list of "best MU builds" like Fighter -> Hero/Berserker or AK/Cav -> Paladin. You might be right, but Sirius has solid bases, awesome weapon levels, and fairly great growths. He's pretty much replacing Arran as soon as he shows up, and is more useful for the rest of the game. Shiida still has Wing Spear utility, even though it's not as big a deal as in FESD. FWIW, I wanted her immediately below Arran, but IOS, dondon, and PBlade said otherwise, and I'm gonna trust them on this one. Rody was originally in Low near Cecile, and Colonel M cried. I'd be glad to drop him back down, I find him to be fairly useless. He's back below Cecile. Beats me. I'd be okay with them being a little lower, but Paperblade vouched for their effectiveness in dispatching dragons of all kinds. I don't really care which is higher. Also, Tiki shows up earlier, which is a plus. Again, IOS, dondon, and Paperblade agreed that top of Mid was better than bottom of High for him. I'm willing to rethink that one with a little convincing. Ryan is busy being mediocre and then getting dumped when real units come along. Frey, Roger, and Cain join with decent bases and have some staying power once their growths kick in. Obviously Prologue isn't weighted nearly as much, considering that the game basically explicitly makes it clear that "these are the units you are supposed to use this way". It's a tutorial through and through, and just because you're intended to figure out "man, archers really really rape peg knights" doesn't mean that I'm going to say Ryan is a good character simply because he fulfills a role that he's explicitly created to fill. Beats me. Everyone wanted him lumped in with the other "average joes" like Frey, Navarre, and Ogma. Linde exists, and if you're THAT starved for magic use, just chip a little with Mage!Cecile early on. 15 combats to D, and that's not especially impossible to achieve. Yubello has -2 base Mag. That's 22 EFFECTIVE MIGHT. That's trash. You're better off using Gordin, Ryan, and Warren to do that than fucking Yubello. Like I said, feel free to argue him out. He looks decent enough, with solid bases, but his weapon levels are underwhelming. Still, I'm willing to give him a run. Just gimme a little more evidence. Frost provides nothing to your team that you don't already have. You should have at least 2 of Malliesia, Wrys, and Yumina, and Katerina shows up stomping Frost all around the town.

Draug being reclassed into Cavalier makes him essentially Rody++, as he has excellent speed growth, solid bases, etc. Between a 50% base Speed growth and ridiculously better bases (+2 base HP, +3 base Str, +5 base Spe, +2 base Def), Draug is looking at being just as effective as Jake and Rody as a cavalier in the long run.

Need a ranged attack? Javelins and Hand Axes start showing up damn fast, and when Ryan isn't doubling, you're better off fielding someone who isn't guttertrash and a combat liability.

20% Base Speed Growth, 0 Personal Speed Base? You're looking at 45% growth MAX due to Hunter being your class of choice (Archer with the boss 5 mov and terrible terrain penalties? nothx). Archers aren't important anyway until Flying Dragons, at which point Jeorge shows up and starts annihilating things with Parthia. Also, Arran can reclass to Sniper for DK-raping utility.

Ground rules: - Game is to be played on H3 (Lunatic) difficulty. - Players have completed H1, and as such have access to Mixed Male Classes. - Efficiency is defined as "Turncount per Chapter", not flat out lowest turncount. - Prologue performance is not counted for or against a character. Ability to get prologue EXP does, and characters can be assumed to have gotten a reasonable amount of EXP from Prologue. - All characters are to be recruited for tiering purposes, with the exception of those on the “Joins After Ellerean” list and possibly those in Bottom Tier. - Units are tiered based on their ability to contribute to an effective team. Units that do not contribute, or contribute extremely poorly, are placed in Bottom Tier. The greater the unit's potential contribution, the higher the unit's tiering position. - Units in Bottom Tier and the special lists are not ordered. However, all other tiers are assumed to be ordered by level of contribution. - Gaidens are assumed to exist and be visited. - At this point, Stat Boosters are not determined as being allocated to any one unit. This may change in the future. This also applies to the buyable Stat Boosters obtained by defeating Lunatic the first time. This may change as more information becomes available, but for now we got nothing. Also, Potions are not assumed to exist. Also, Wifi is not assumed to be accessible. - NEW RULE: Rainbow Potion is allowed, and is assumed to be used for up to 4 characters per chapter. Feel free to use it in arguments for characters. About the Special Lists: The “Free Silvers” list is based on the idea that pretty much every character that shows up after Ellerean provides no real contribution to a team, save for a select few characters (Endgame Bishops, Katarina, Xane, Tiki, Nagi). Athena is tiered due to being available in Prologue. Feel free to argue characters out of this list, but bear in mind that you need to state specific situations where they can provide useful utility that is not “reclass to Cleric/Bishop and staffbot” or “perform actions that anyone can such as trade”. The Unique Utility list is used to include characters that simply cannot be tiered by conventional means. My Unit is in the Unique Utility list simply because based on player choices, it will either be boss as hell of fairly meh, so its tiering position depends on the player, as well as far more variables than can be calculated effectively. This isn’t FE4 where the only thing determining stats is a limited pool of fathers. The 4 Bishops can’t really be tiered effectively, simply because they show up for one chapter and are basically used to staffspam for Medeus, so it’s impossible to conventionally tier them. Healers and Thieves are going in No Contest tier simply because of the impossibility of tiering their usability in comparison with combat units. In addition to this, thieving and healing are so vital to the game, and their stats are so irrelevant to their ability to perform this task, that other than Malliesia’s access to Hammerne, all of the healers are basically interchangeable in this regard. You "must" have at least 1 thief and at least ~2 healers, so just pick some from this list and you're good to go. Unique Utility Marth My Unit Julian Rickard Xane Feena Malliesia Wrys Yumina Etzel Katarina Lena Maria Nyna Elice FE12 Tier List: Jesus With Wings - Palla - Sirius - Catria High - Shiida - Luke - Draug - Rody - Minerva - Cecile Upper Mid - Linde - Arran - Ryan - Merric - Jeorge - Nagi - Darros - Belf - Leiden Lower Mid - Tiki - Cain - Frey - Roger - Nabarl - Ogma - Barst Low - Gordin - Warren - Bord - Wendell I'm FE12, what is this? - Norne - Samto - Castor - Bantu - Caesar - Radd - Yubello - Matthis - Cord “Free Silvers” Ellerean Dice Maris Horace Jake Robert Beck Athena Est Dolph Abel Macellan Astram Tomas Sheema Samson Frost Roshea Vyland Sedgar Wolf Midia Ymir Michalis

Stuck using? The only maps where his deployment is forced after that map have so many slots that the likelihood of him actually having to participate in combat is very low. Also consider that in a ranked playthrough he might not even get promoted, so dropping rare resources on him is quite an iffy proposition. I'm still standing by Dracoshield Florina, but I have to say that I don't rule out putting it on other solid characters like Sain/Kent/Raven.

Flight makes supports shaky at best, and without the supports, Florina is 3HKOed by said wyverns. Dracoshield turns that 3hko into a 4hko even when she's not sitting next to her support partner(s).

Florina should come in fairly levelled from Lyn Mode. We're not looking at Thany where she shows up in Ch. 1 at level 1 and she's ferrying for the majority of the chapters immediately afterwards. Much of the time, Florina will be able to actually drop someone and then immediately fight alongside that someone or fly off and pick some guys off, etc. She also shows up at ~7 (I think that's about the level I see her coming out of Lyn Mode at), and with claim to either one or both of the boosters, is putting up combat similar to Kent in all cases. She picks up Pirate Ship by transporting people near the boss and still being able to either flank the main force or fight alongside whoever she dropped, and she's also capable of staving off pegs before they can get at your squishy back lines. On 19 she can handle incoming pegs or Pirates since she's not ferrying due to nomads in fog. 19x has her potentially grabbing the top peg squad as well as being able to take potshots at the level 17 Snipers that show up with Kishuna for free EXP. There's plenty of ways for her to get EXP that don't hamper her ability to ferry, especially since at that point you can use Fiora for all your ferrying needs.

I've always advocated Florina up for pretty much forever, and I also have her at top use for both the Robe and the Ring in the allocation topic (and the ch15 dracoshield / first body ring but maybe thats a bridge too far ?_?). Florina is providing a ton of great flight utility even without combat, but the likelihood that she's getting the boosters that she needs to participate in combat at a level equivalent to Kent but without the issue of terrain just gives her the bump that she needs to shine. If she gets the ring (or the robe or both), she's pretty much outstripping Eliwood combat-wise all day long, she's got an essentially free promotion item, and she also happens to shave turns all over the place, especially on her join chapter where she airlifts Marcus and Hector over the ridge, preventing them from having to wander through the forest and fight their way through.

Added Oswin to the Talisman list. As for stuffing the Dracoshield on Lowen, I'm not a huge fan of that one, mainly because of the fact that you're seeing a major short-term and long-term shift in the performance of Florina, Sain, Kent, and Raven, while Lowen stops needing its benefit once his growths kick in. Still, I guess I'll list it. Not much really that can be done with the boosters here, considering it's really not worth it to give resources to anyone other than the best units considering how much of a boost they get from them. More boosters coming soon!

Double Post! Mainly because the last post was uninteresting. (give promotion item to good unit woo) Ch. 18 Guiding Ring is actually interesting. You've got a lot of options for Mage promotion at this point. - Lucius is probably the most deserving of an early promotion out of the lot. His offensive stats are going to be pretty killer even with an early promo, and he also gets C Staves immediately on promotion, putting him extremely close to the B Staves needed to use Physic. Early promo also means that he'll be able to build staff rank and actually feasibly reach B or A, something that none of your other promoted mages will be able to do. - Serra is probably your first healer actually capable of using the Guiding Ring, since she comes out of Lyn Mode with a level advantage over Priscilla. The extra Mov helps her actually get where she needs to go more effectively, and after she promotes, she can actually fight fairly competently as well. - Canas gets a sizeable benefit from an early promotion. Not only does he get a solid durability boost (+4 HP and +2 Def/Res), making him actually fairly durable as far as mages go (5 base with a 25% growth and +2 on promotion is actually better than many melee characters). He also not only gets +3 Speed on Promotion, making up for his iffy speed, but he also gets +1 Con, which allows him to wield Flux at -0 AS, giving him effectively +4 AS. He can also staff, though starting with E staves doesn't do much for him in that department. Ch. 19 Orion Bolt is getting sold. Seriously, who's using it? Rebecca? Wil? You get a SECOND ONE by the time Rath is ready to promote, just in case you're using him. Sales fodder for sure. Ch. 19x Goddess Icon is just like every other Goddess Icon. Raven wants it to make up for his shitty LCK base, and then after that maybe Lucius, Oswin, and Dart so that maybe they don't face listed crit from scrubtard enemies. Ch. 19xx Talisman PROBABLY DOESN'T EXIST. But just in case it does because you're lucky enough / savestate abusing enough / stubborn enough to actually kill Kishuna, here's a couple good ideas. - Lowen may be a physical beast, but he's not the toughest guy when he's looking at magic attacks. 0 base sucks, even with a decent 30% growth. Because of this, he's looking at a fairly significant boost from the Talisman due to his high HP. - Sain and Kent don't benefit as much due to their lower HP and less tanky nature, but they can still make use of it, especially since they're more likely to be ORKOing stuff and facing multiple attackers per turn than Lowen. - Raven has the same claim to it as Lowen has, due to his high HP and need for tankiness. However, while Lowen has the crucial 2 Mov advantage, Raven's got the whole "I kill everything I face in one round forever" thing going on (especially after promo when he gets Hand Axes), so being able to fight multiple Mages/Sages/Bishops/etc in a turn and not fold due to low Res is fairly useful. - If, for some reason, you're displeased with how piss-poor the damage Oswin takes from mages is, you can drop the Talisman on him. Later on in the game, the Talisman results in a damage mitigation of 4 on Oswin due to the fact that he is likely doubled by the Valkyries on maps like Cog of Destiny, and combined with his fat HP and solid Strength, it makes it a lot easier to utilize Oswin on maps like that where you're liable to be taking numerous magic assaults. It also allows him to extend himself further when he's doubling the weighted Mages and Monks later in the game, since it means he can take more attacks without needing healing. Ch. 19xx Dracoshield ALSO DOESN'T EXIST. That said, its candidates are pretty much the same as the candidates for the first one. Toss it on pretty much whoever you didn't give the Ch. 15 one to. Florina, Kent, Sain, Raven, you name it.

Promo items this time around! Ch. 17 Knight Crest has a fair few options. - Oswin is a solid candidate due to the fact that he's likely one of the few characters that actually has the level needed to promote. He gains access to Axes, which is pretty neat, and General has INCREDIBLE promotion gains. 4 HP / 2 Str / 2 Skl / 3 Spe / 2 Def / 3 Res / 1 Mov / 2 Con. Not only does it make it easier for Oswin to keep up with the army, but he's essentially completely invincible after promo. Also, the cavs likely need much more time for their growths to kick in, while Oswin comes at a high level with great bases and little reliance on growths. - Your "cav of choice" (Sain or Kent) is probably coming out of Lyn Mode at something like level 9 or 10, so they might be ready to promote in short order. If so, they gain access to Axes, better Con, and decent stat boosts. Ch. 17 Hero Crest has two main options. - Raven is the obvious choice, as his promotion gives him a lot of perks, such as extra CON, a 2-range option in the form of Hand Axes, and the fact that his bases more than make up for any lost growth from early promotion. - If Raven's still lagging in levels, Guy can take advantage of promotion to pick up an extra point of Mov, some Con, 5 HP / 2 Defense, and bypassing Guy's Speed cap, which he should reach at around level 13 in Hard Mode. He also gets 2 Str, approximately the equivalent of 7 levels. He can also pick up S Swords fairly quickly, giving him a small stat boost. Ch. 17x Secret Book is pretty much identical to the Ch. 12 one. Ch. 18 Elysian Whip is quite limited in use here. - Florina should be able to use it by now if she's picked up a couple levels, and promotion gives her a lot of perks. +5 HP and +2 Def/Res helps her durability a lot, and +2 Str helps patch up her iffy Str issues. She doesn't get any Speed, but she does get +1 Con and access to much lighter Swords. - If you aren't using Florina for combat, Fiora's a good choice. She's got better bases, including superior Defense and HP, and also benefits a lot from the +2 Strength and Sword access that promotion gives. She also shows up fairly close to promotion, so she's not all that hard to raise up.

Funds is a joke. Take Balcerzak's S rank run, where he bought Farina and still ended up 87k over the funds rank requirement.

Onto the full game! Ch. 12 Secret Book is probably sold since your funds are fairly ass during the early game, but if you're inclined, here are some good picks: - Hector is Axe-locked for the vast majority of the game, and while enemy Avo in this game is fairly poor and Axe accuracy is decent, he's still got some accuracy issues, especially when attacking the many bosses that are vulnerable to his Wolf Beil. - Sain is looking at some accuracy issues, especially when you consider his 4 base Skill and 35% growth, so it at least helps him pick up some much-needed hit on lance cavs. - If it's still around (and you're actually using him), Dart can use it to offset his poor 20% Skill growth. Ch. 14 Goddess Icon comes on Erk, and like the Secret Book, should probably be sold. - Raven is probably the best choice for it, since it helps him avoid listed crit from enemies with actual skill throughout the game, as well as bosses. 2 base with a 35% growth sucks. - Lucius wants it for the same reason, as do Oswin and (if you're using him) Dart. Still, Raven gets more out of it, since Lucius is liable to die from most hits anyway and Oswin can eat a crit easily. Ch. 15 Dragonshield is the first stat booster of HM that you actually might want to use on someone! - Marcus goes from crazy mounted murderbeast to crazy indestructible mounted murderbeast with the Dragonshield, and basically goes from almost the best unit all game to absolutely the best unit all game. It also makes him a lot more extensible, as you can put his neck out in silly situations and not have to worry. It also helps his long-term durability, as unlike Seth and Titania he's kinda lacking in durability growth, so the Dracoshield helps him keep his defensive prowess later in the game and keep up with your other cavaliers. - If you've given Florina the Robe and Ring, you might as well go all the way and give her the Dragonshield as well. 4 + 15% Defense doesn't get you very far in open combat, so a Dragonshield goes a long way to complement the durability given by the Angelic Robe and make Florina more capable of standing at the front line with the cav trio or dropping people into hazardous territory. - Sain and Kent appreciate the Dragonshield in order to keep up with Lowen's durability when they're out past the rest of the army. If Kent got either of the Robe or the Ring, it's probably a good idea to support it with the Dragonshield. - Raven's overkill offense makes it likely that he's looking at multiple attacks per turn, especially after he's promoted and using Hand Axes, so the Dragonshield helps him survive attacks. He's also likely looking at WTD in many different situations, especially with the large number of Lance cavaliers around. - Lowen's defense base isn't too hot, so the Dragonshield lets him go from decent tank to beast wall a lot sooner. Still, Lowen doesn't really need the boost after his growths kick in, so the booster is much more useful in the long run on one of the previous choices.

I wasn't even considering Energy Ring on Lucius because his Mag is pretty overkill just in general. The only reason I listed it on Erk is because his early offense is useful when your team is low on it, but once more competent characters start showing up, Erk is liable to be benched. The fact that Erk's contributions with the Ring are really limited to the early chapters where other characters' offense is iffy is a big part of why I've never been a huge fan of giving him the Ring. That said, it's really his best shot at actually contributing past Ch18, and it certainly improves him early on, but Erk is pretty much getting tossed 100% of the time once Pent shows up, while characters like Florina and Kent are getting a ton of mileage out of the Ring all game. Yeah, I forgot about the issue of Javelin AS. Still, neither is reliably doubling anything with said Javelin until later, when Florina's superior Speed growth mitigates the WT issues, not to mention any claim to the Ch. 23 Body Ring that she may have. Also something notable is that Paladin only gives +1 Str on promo, while Falcoknight gives +2, so after they promote, they're tied for Strength. That said, Florina is the one likely to promote earlier since Knight Crests are kinda rare and Kent has to compete with Oswin, Sain, and Lowen for the few earlygame ones. (For reference, the first 2 Knight Crests are Ch. 17 and Ch. 22 respectively, whereas the game pretty much floods you with Whips all game long, so even if you were using every single flier, you still wouldn't have issues promoting all of them.) Enemy AS is pretty ass in this game, so unless it's a myrm or maybe a stray merc, Florina isn't really liable to get doubled even when she's carrying someone. Also, remember that canto doesn't really exist in this game (iirc you can't canto after dropping someone), so she should be prepared to eat a hit after the drop, since her lower DEF means it's fairly likely that she's going to end up attacked. Still, it's mainly icing on the cake, since as you pointed out above, Florina does have durability issues in general combat as well. Generally I think of Florina as an all-or-nothing proposition. If you give her one, you might as well give her the other, because Kent and Sain are still doing their jobs effectively without the boosters, while Florina is having more issues holding up her end of the combat, and flying combatants are fairly sparse in this game.

Yeah, so I figured that this was probably a good thing to have for FE7 as well, and at the very least, it would foster discussion. Like with the RD one, I'm posting all the characters that could feasibly gain a reasonable boost from the resource, rather than just trying to nail down the best use. I'm also including promotion items here, since a couple of them are fairly contested. Feel free to bring up anything that I've missed here, and remember to keep it on topic. Also, like GJ, I will be keeping this rule in place, so keep that in mind. EDIT: I'm assuming that all boosters are used in a fairly short time from when they're obtained. No holding onto that Ch. 15 Dragonshield for 10 chapters so that you can give it to Farina in Crazed Beast! Let's start off simple, shall we? Lyn Mode's items are probably the most hotly contested, simply because there are a lot of decent characters who show up there, and they can all benefit for the most part. Ch. 6 Angelic Robe has a fair bit of competition, simply because at that stage in the game, 7 HP is something like a 25-33% boost in durability. - Florina is probably my first pick for the Angelic Robe, simply because it provides the durability she needs to play ferrybot, as well as participate more effectively in combat in both LM and afterwards. It also has a significant benefit of making it easier for Florina to do the ridgedrops of Hector and/or Oswin that make Ch. 16 significantly faster and easier. Same goes for Ch. 17x, Ch. 18, etc. - Matthew may be an odd choice, but considering that he's your only other combatant on Ch. 11, and he's going to be fairly decent (doubling a lot before others may be) for an extended period of time, it does give him a little more leeway to do his job. It also makes it easier for him to do thief duties later in the game, since he can actually afford to take a shot. - Lyn's main use in HHM is as a combat unit capable of cleaning up the numerous cavaliers that inhabit the earlygame with liberal Mani Katti use. The Angelic Robe helps her do this, since her durability is pretty terrible. Angelic Robe extends the amount of time that Lyn can actually be useful as a cavalier/armor killer by allowing her to much more safely act on Enemy Phase. - Sain and Kent are pretty much getting lumped together here. As the token cavs, they're liable to be extended significantly farther than the rest of your army, and so durability is important for them. As such, the Angelic Robe on either one makes it a lot easier to extend that character, say... outside of the range of your healing. - Erk and Lucius want this for pretty much exactly the same reason as well- As mages with fairly terrible durability, every little bit helps. Ch. 10 Energy Ring is a bit less contested, since there aren't as many characters that get a significant boost from it. - Florina probably gets the best use out of this, since it patches up her early damage-dealing problems fairly effectively. Assuming that she comes out of Lyn Mode at around level 7, the Energy Ring lets her 2HKO opposing Pegs in Ch. 16, as well as 2HKOing all but the level 5 Mercenary if she either picks up an extra level or has her 40% Strength proc. It also allows her to ORKO the Ch. 16 Mages with the Slim Lance if she picks up said STR proc or level. She gets similar benefits throughout the game as well. - Kent appreciates the Energy Ring since he's looking at trailing Strength-wise for a while, so he's more likely to need the Energy Ring. He also happens to double fairly reliably after a short time. However, you're seeing performance improvements similar to Florina for him (early on their STR is fairly similar, with them having the same growth but Kent having a higher base by 1), except without the advantage of flight. Still, Kent gets a lot of mileage out of the Energy Ring, can take a hit better (especially if he also gets the Robe), and also has the advantage of access to Swords and less AS loss from Javelins. - Matthew again sounds like an iffy choice for this, but again, he's your only other fighter for Ch. 11, and it also helps get him out of his "lol thief combat" rut for longer, since he's likely doubling pretty much everything under the sun, meaning that said +2 STR will effectively be doubled when he attacks. - Erk has the same Strength issues as Kent, but unlike Kent, his competition for "main magic-user" isn't really lacking in the Speed department. The real draw is that Erk is feasibly your only non-Pent user of Anima magic in the game. However, even after the Ring, he's still having a hell of a time not being outclassed by Lucius due to a better starting level and Lucius' superior offensive stats. Still, the Energy Drop helps to close the gap and make Erk's mediocre Strength a bit less of an issue... but not by much. That's enough for now, but I'll come back later with the early boosters from HHM.

If by "helped certain characters" you mean "nearly obsoleted anyone without it not named levin/lex" then yeah, Pursuit helped people. However, I honestly think that FE4 without Pursuit (or with inborn pursuit for all characters like it is in FE6-on) would have a bit more balance in the tiering, at least as far as certain characters go. Then again, Levin with natural Pursuit? "lol"