Espinosa

I typed "Marcus fire emblem" into Google image search once, and one of the first results was a picture of him raping someone (can't remember whom, and doing the search again now doesn't give me the same picture). I chuckled, actually, because that's an accurate description of his earlygame performance.

You will still need to perform grinding actions if you want to unlock good jobs or skills, only difference is how much you do it, how you do it (I can think of plenty unnecessarily time-consuming ways to JP grind) and what you're investing this time into. Spending time on unlocking Bard or Dancer is pretty much the FFT equivalent of training Bors or Rebecca. Raising a Calculator, on the other hand, changes the time spent on storyline maps drastically, once unlocked, and there's no other way to match the sort of domination Math Skill does with a handful of other skills from other magical jobs. Since there are no 'turns' (in FE sense) to speak of in FFT, the 'turns' part of 'efficiency' can only be replaced by the concept of time, hence I would say it's not a stretch to state efficiency equals time, or speedrunning as you put it, in FFT. And there's no faster way of completing the game than to turn Ramza into a Calculator at an earliest convenience. JP Scroll Glitch wasn't used on chessjerk's earlier speedrun iirc, and Calculator was still by far his most efficient long-term investment. There, found it: http://archive.org/details/FinalFantasyTactics_519 Even with the glitch though, you need to do a lot of manual ability grinding to unlock everything you need until the end of the game. Can you match the time of 5:20 without Calculator?

Grinding JP up doesn't take nearly as long as the time Math Skill saves you. Ramza literally ends most of the storyline maps in one single Math Skill action. As displayed by the speed run found here, Math Skill is THE efficient way to play the game: http://speeddemosarchive.com/FinalFantasyTactics.html Not admitting that Calculator is at the top of efficiency play is much like discrediting FE7 Marcus for 'hogging experience', it's something you have to do to be efficient, which is what the tier is all about. The only difference is that using Marcus is a must in the first three quarters of HHM, while Calculator is a must in the last three fourths of FFT. Try speedrunning the game without Math Skill and tell me what time you'll have at the end. I can guarantee Ninja, Wizards, Summoners and Orlandu waste a lot more time taking out one enemy at a time (or occasionally small groups) than what you could've saved by training one single Calculator in Ramza.

A good way of going about that part of the chapter is forging a really powerful Wing Spear for Caeda, having her (perhaps with some help) kill the boss, then have a Bishop rescue Marth for a seize. I think you can just kill one of the AKs and ignore the rest.

I'm still not getting the Wolf/Sedgar averages. I understand why there's a problem with these two, it's just the justifications for low ratings I read I didn't find very reasonable. For example, low bases aren't an issue when you can reclass into General or Hero, and low move (as a General) doesn't hurt much when there are plenty of chapters where they can still tank hits without slowing the party down or wait for reinforcements. They'll probably never be boss killers during an efficient run, but there's quite a bit of unique utility to be seen from them beginning with the next chapter after they join regardless (screw Horsemen bases).

Calculator probably should be Top Tier, seeing how the game's fastest speed run time relies on math skill almost exclusively throughout. Propositions are irrelevant in the argument seeing how they aren't available for a while; when they do become available, it's difficult to trigger them without wasting time running into random encounter battles, but what's important is that by grinding JP quickly (doesn't take nearly as long as you'd think if you kill all enemies and leave one weakened, causing him to hide away) you save yourself a lot of time, since the game eventually becomes text skipping + using math skill once you're done.

Honestly, if you're trying to kill the boss with freaking Draug, you should leave the "challenge" alone until you're more comfortable about what you're doing in the game. Try to pay some attention to what's going on and understand how the game works before you add extra restrictions for yourself. I mean, sure, it's your playthrough and your time, but the learning curve will change dramatically if you just play slowly and attentively until you understand what's going on. Minding the weapon triangle (not as reliable in the DS games), counting the attack speed of units involved in combat and the damage the two sides are likely to exchange are a good way to begin.

Ah, I see. I always give all this stuff minus the robe (which I sell) to Volug since he gets double the stats from those boosts.

I've been wondering, is Jill (N/T) still the best candidate for all your DB resources (and not, say, Volug, Sothe or Nolan) if one goes for low turns? Without transfers, she's doing kinda poorly when she joins.

lol when I played through the game for the first time (my first playthrough in any FE ever), I used Rebecca thinking "cool an archer, she won't get countered" and she actually ended up with the highest Strength stat out of all physical units by Endgame, even though I also trained Raven (except he was almost just freshly promoted for the final chapter or so). In general, I just couldn't focus on whom I wanted to train during that run. Had to rely on Athos to do all the work for me in the final chapter.

It's not like the magic stat is that big of a deal. 2 points of it only make 1 HP difference when healing, and Physic/Rescue have infinite range anyway.

Isn't TRS also the only game where a foot unit can promote to Pegasus Knight?

You have two chapters where you can spam Torch, and buyable Barriers in chapter 14. You absolutely needn't limit yourself to one healer, as you should be taking enough damage for several (2-3) healers to be relevant. The only lordly thing Eirika does is seize in several chapters (this game is quite rout-heavy), but if she's not attacking when she seizes, how is it any different that she isn't healing on those turns? She's forced and her combat never quite gets any good, so if she were a healer, she'd save a deployment slot for a better fighter.

He's only 4, there's no reason to be worried. If this lingers on in 10 years, on the other hand...

Does she absolutely have to warp though? You only need one warper with the highest mag stat, and the rest could do staffwork of other kinds.

She'd probably compete with Moulder and others for being one of your healers, and availability would give her good chances to function as one.

Except they use 20.

Is it possible to keep units on the field just for their support bonus without any fear they will be attacked? Because the word utility gets a whole new meaning in this game.

But we don't put Louise in the top tier just for supporting Pent. Though this is a pretty poor example, seeing how Pent is doing fine without her deployed anyway.

Your best unit in that one chapter where she exists, after that really lagging behind in stats and hardly worth the BEXP investment. 4/10

Oh lord it's easy modo all over again.

Amelia could always be a speedy knight if you need one (at base that is). Just for the hell of it.

Instead of subtracting 10 from 24, you have to subtract 31 from 47, implying additional cognitive effort. More calculation is required when counting possibility of skill activation, double system and other things. Then again, I haven't played the game to know how high the enemies' stats are endgame and how close to capping your stats if you're doing an efficient run, and maybe the maingame offers statistics close enough to most FEs.

Calculating damage is going to be a bit harder I guess, but we've already played FE4 and RD so it shouldn't be too bad.