Emperor Hardin

I'm aware Gunt is an armadillo in armor fitting in with Shining Force being more fantastical then FE, but armored units traveling well over certain terrain such as forests is no more unrealistic then magic users and priests walking faster in the desert or people not being able to unequip armor. Heroes even does exactly that, making armored units not slowed in forests unlike infantry.

The idea of them not being slowed by forests is brilliant and I hope it eventually makes into FE. There are also skills like armored march to increase their movement. I'm hoping regular FE implements the armored buffs, but I don't have my hopes up. General Wolf and Sedgar are indeed broken due to their personal bases & growths creating an incredibly powerful early game unit when combined with the very high class bases & growths of a General. So your first impression wasn't wrong. Shields are a thing in Berwick Saga and add defense but are often heavy. Unequipping can increase attack speed. There are three types of shields each with more weight and defense then the last. Light Shields: Used by unpromoted cavalry and Wyvern Riders. Medium Shields: Used by the tankier promoted cavalry classes as well as the Axe Guard class. Large Shields: Exclusively used by armored units. Almost all anti armor weapon is instead anti shield in Berwick Saga. However armored movement, unit type and one anti armor weapon are still a thing. Dalshin is situationally useful from my experience. Xavier is really good for his skills, powerful base stats and maximum bow ranks in a game where every other unit has terrible bow ranks in a game where weapon exp takes forever to level.

That really reminds me how terrain in Fire Emblem should be an advantage for Armored units, yet instead it is always a disadvantage instead with armored units being unable to cross certain tiles or taking reduced movement, crippling their already low movement down to absurd levels. I can't think of even one time in FE where being an armored unit has provided any terrain advantages and that is bad. The most I can think of is in FE2 all non flying units getting 1 movement in desert chapters meaning all non flying units move at the same pace as armored units. But that still isn't an advantage. Also the movement ring really should not been removed from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Finally if Berwick Saga still interests you, the only thing Marcel not being an armored unit effects, is his terrain.

Niime is pretty cool, I wish old lady druid could've been a thing.

I just realized I forgot to cover Hector for some reason. He is another extremely good armored unit, though starting out with normal infantry movement is a major point in his favor. The movement stat in Fire Emblem is so integral that the series really needs to try to balance armored units to even out this major weakness. Armored units really need a canto of some sort. I've seen provoke, adjacent buffs, defensive skills and such suggested as their canto. And as mentioned before, there needs to be a moment taken from Berwick Saga and Heroes of giving armored units some sort of way to increase their movement even if temporarily. I just remembered that Hannibal is very good at guarding the player's castle in his recruitment chapter. Too bad that is the only moment in all of FE4 where defending the player's castle is at all used.. They aren't terrible, its just the default armored units outside of Dolph who comes in late, haven't had their growths updated to suit their class. To be fair, early to mid game is arguably the most difficult part of any Fire Emblem game so being good in that portion is nothing to sneeze at. Outside of that, you are correct that isn't a long term. Still you're never going to get high defense as a Paladin or DracoKnight without RNG Abusing unless you level as an armored class. Naw, they stink there too and they look like crap. They're actually significantly worse then the original NES game. Unlike FE11 and FE12, they aren't a good class to level in. I forgot to ask, does Guntz have low movement and what makes him good?

To answer the question raised in the title, FE11 and FE12 are the best they've been in a mainline title, being the preferred class for an Avatar in the latter. However they are mainly a utility class rather then something you want to be in 24/7. There's also Fates, they're high tier in multiplayer at the very least from what I remember. Lorenz is actually quite good unlike the other FE1/FE3 armored units, his base stats are strong enough to kill Medeus with the Gradivus, in 0% runs he is the MVP. He is around mid tier. That isn't entirely correct, whilst Dalshin is only useful for the prison escape, Xavier is considered a good unit on tier lists due to the power of his weapon ranks, skills and sheer bulk. For reference, he is the only unit able to use the Hero bow at base and his base stats allow him to ORKO Elf, the most dangerous Dark Warlord/Deadlord. The hammer isn't that a big of a deal for Xavier as effective damage is lowered in Thracia . Zachariah has monstrously high HP and good stats, so he has his uses similar to Lorenz without the Gradivus. Supposedly Billford is very helpful in 0% growth runs thanks to a strategy against the boss, Barabossa. Otherwise he's mainly there for the meme of a 12 movement armor. That is correct. Many maps encourage tanking, Generals have massive base stats and incredible class growths which also work with few characters having personal growths with very high speed and low defense. Marcel is an armor in all but name, even having armored movement and animating one. I've heard Marcel isn't among the top units, but he's workable, especially if you capture enemy armored units to take their large shields. He also gets a powerful personal weapon. Most interestingly Marcel's movement of 3, the same for armored units, automatically becomes 4 after he reaches a certain level. This could be a very good idea to implement in FE in my opinion. I've also heard many good things about the armored units in Vestaria and its Gaiden.

@Acacia Sgt beat me to it. I believe there were jokes about recruiting a bard named McCartney even before the video, with the creator of that video combining it with the bandit with Thunder Affinity. I could be slightly off though? A LPer also suggested Clarence for Random Bandit with Thunder Affinity, but it seems Mccartney stuck.

Nice team. What star boosters did you use besides the boots and that power ring? I always give Barst or another Devil weapon wielder, the luck boost.

Generals need all the help they can get and Pavise is definitely better then no Pavise, especially if its the not the Awakening version of Pavise.

Was the last story originally a Final Fantasy game and done by the creator of the franchise? I'm legitimately curious?

You know they should've kept the fire, thunder, weaknesses but expand and refine them. Fire hurts beasts including horses/cavalry units. Thunder hurts dragons including wyverns, but they are still weak to bows. Wind hurts birds and pegasus riding classes.

That isn't correct. First of all, RD has no mercenaries, unless you mean Vanguard which has a a minus 3 defense cap and and minus 4 base defense compared to Sentinel. And if you're counting Vanguard, then Path of Radiance's Hero class should be mentioned as having 4 less defense cap then Halberdier. In TearRing Soldier, Spear Soldier also has higher defense, HP and attack then mercenary. In Fates, Spear Fighter has higher defense then mercenary as well. So if anything, Mercenary is consistently less defensive then Soldier.

Exactly and weapon ranks increase at a snail's pace. I like lances, so its a little annoying for me. There should've been a soldier or at the very least, Lance Knights should've kept lances upon dismount.

I would disagree on that particular point; water walking is extremely helpful in Shadow Dragon, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones and Berwick Saga. Mountain walking could be nice too. I think the only time it wasn't useful was Path of Radiance and only due to Largo coming when all those maps had stopped appearing.

I'm ok with Fighter and Pirates/Brigand, though pirate and Brigand existing separately necessary. The problem is that Pirate/Brigand is almost always way better then Fighter. The thing is supposed to be that Pirate/Brigand has higher speed in exchange for lower skill then fighter which is fine in theory but Pirate/Brigand always has way more speed then Fighter has skill. Like in the DS games, Pirate has 15% skill growth and 30% speed growth which is higher then Fighter's 10% speed growth and 20% skill growth. Similarly critical bonus is way better then bows. I liked the idea in Berwick Saga that pirates can focus on thievery. And we need lance infantry most the time.

It also helps them stand out more for Brigands/Pirates. Interestingly the TearRing Saga series never stopped having that depiction of Fighters. The Fighter of Berwick Saga is even the Navarre archetype.

Dragons could work like that. Their size is always supposed to be huge, regardless of what the graphics portray.

Actually an unpopular opinion of mine is that Mercenary and Myrmidon are redundant to have together. Especially when branching promotions exist! Soldiers are significantly more defensive then Mercenaries.

Mine too. Soldier makes sense as a playable class in most games and I believe most FE players love the class from my experience. I'm fine with it being absent in some games like Shadow Dragon as its a remake with not a lot of classes anyhow, but something like Awakening not having soldier, but having pointless classes like villager, Griffon Rider, Taguel and such was a very foolish decision. And if dismounting exists, you have to have soldiers as well. Thracia 776 not having any soldiers hurt a lot as it meant you had no lance users during the indoor chapters, conversely TearRing Saga including Lionel the soldier was so much more awesome.

That is definitely true in the english version, Robin doesn't buy it. The Japanese version put so little thought into Aversa, there wasn't even any kind of explanation of why Validar kidnapped her. Her having dark blessing all along with a localization addition. That would've been much more preferable.

Ah got it. Those two are the only enemy classes. Earthstone works as an item, though the in battle animations are unfinished. With an action replay and a Japanese version of the game, I've used Medeus in the Earth Dragon class in the various maps after having him transform in the final map. Soldier works perfectly and even has an ally battle palette unlike the other unplayable classes. However while Soldier levels to 30, all it's non HP stat caps are 20.

You fought invisible beasts in Revelation and the DLC chapters too.

So Soldier and Earth Dragon are included? Come to think of it, maybe Soldier's caps could be increased to 25? Though 20 caps could suffice if you play it safe.

Without any spoilers, Desmond is surprisingly well defined here.

Laguz enemies appear throughout both Tellius games. Actually the only Fire Emblem, including TearRing Saga, to have a shifter class and no enemy variant of any sort is Awakening. Yes, even Sacred Stones has Dracozombies who use the same mechanics and a boss who uses the Manakete class.