Whisky

Yeah, it's an interesting question. Some things are more obviously overpowered and then there's things that are more debatable. Ultimately it is subjective and no one can be wrong for having different perspectives on it so it's interesting to see what other people think about it. What are the key points that make something overpowered? Different people could have different answers, it could be how powerful the thing is compared to other options, it could be how early the thing is accessible, it could be how easy the thing is to use, etc. Obviously it's a combination of things but people could have different things they prioritize. I definitely understand why people would consider dodge tanking overpowered. For multiplayer competitive games of course it matters a lot more whereas in a single player game there's always going to be that question of if it even matters if something is overpowered. In Smash Bros Brawl, Meta Knight requires a high level of skill and practice to be really good with but that doesn't mean he isn't OP. People are just going to focus on practicing with him because they know that he's their best chance of winning so my 'investment and ease of use' argument doesn't work here. But if we stretch it to the extreme, then it could apply again. If being good with Meta Knight required basically super human skill and only a few people in the world could do it while most people were better with other characters, then it would again become a feat of the player being good and not the character being too OP. If a character was both really good and really simple to use to the point that a beginner with that character could beat a more experienced player with a different character then I think we'd all agree that that would be more OP. It's not super complicated or anything, but I think it does require some level of knowledge and planning. I don't think someone could do it on their first playthrough, at least not as effectively as it can be. A first time player wouldn't even know what those different options are or how to get them. Even if they think of the idea to make a dodge tank they wouldn't know the best way to do it. If there was a a single item that you equipped that instantly turns a character into a dodge tank, that would obviously be more overpowered. I still understand why people would consider dodge tanking overpowered as it is though.

We're practicing necromancy. Discussion forums are a safer place to start before moving to a graveyard.

@Dark Holy Elf Those are all fair points. Dodge tanking and Vantage/Wrath both seem to have pros and cons compared to each other, which makes me hesitate to call either of them overpowered. Vantage/Wrath builds might not be as good at avoiding damage, but they are better at dealing damage back to their enemies. If they require more investment and higher stat thresholds then that’s a fair point, but there are variations of the build that require less. A lot of people consider Dimitri’s Battalion Wrath/Vantage combo to be overpowered, and it certainly does seem really good though I haven’t used it myself yet. Not being good against enemies that it can’t counter can be mitigated by Retribution. Impregnable Wall has limitations, but it’s easy to use and is very versatile. I like it a lot, maybe to the point of being a little biased. It’s nice that you get it and can immediately start utilizing, combining with various other strategies. You don’t need to build specifically for it. Flyer classes being good, and especially better than mediocre classes like Warrior is a good point. Flyer classes are great whether you’re dodge tanking or not, whereas I would recommended staying away from Warrior unless you’re specifically there for Wrath (or maybe as a stepping stone to Warmaster). So you would say that dodge tanking could be considered overpowered because there isn’t any other way to do what it does as good as it does, at least not in every way, whereas there are multiple strong player phase options that are mostly interchangeable? That’s a fair perspective. I might take Shanty Pete’s perspective though, that ultimately dodge tanking is a means to the end of clearing the chapter, and there are multiple other ways to accomplish that. In a lot of chapters I found the easiest way to clear them reliably was by boss rushing / Warp skipping, which high mobility options help with a lot. Maybe dodge tanking can help with those strategies too though? Personally the way I typically think of something being broken or overpowered would be something that you basically get for free and is immediately super good even without knowing the best way to use it. If something requires a lot of investment and knowing how to best build and utilize it, hey, kudos to the player for figuring that out. That’s not the thing being overpowered, that’s the player being good for figuring out how to utilize the game’s tools and mechanics. That’s my perspective anyway. Obviously it depends on the extent of just how strong the thing in question is though. Plus this becomes somewhat of a moot point when people look up the best builds instead of figuring them out themselves so this perspective might be a bit flawed.

Lilina joins later than Lugh and joins underleveled. She has a high Mag growth but not high base Mag. By the time Lilina joins, Lugh could already be much higher level and have a few points higher Mag than Lilina starts with, not to mention the other stats. Lugh can be ready to promote around the same time Lilina joins which gives him a whopping +4 Mag bonus. Lilina is going to be playing catch up for a while, especially if you promote Lugh. And again, I’m just talking about Mag. Having significantly better Skl and Spd also allows him to double more enemies and more reliably hit enemies giving him the higher and more reliable damage output overall. I wouldn’t consider Lilina “consistently strong”. Yeah I really thought you were going for the meme there too. How is it possible for Raven to get Speed and Skill screwed? He is super fast, he’s one of the fastest characters in the game. And most of that Speed doesn’t come from his growth (which is also good) but his high base. In fact, one could even argue that he’s the fastest unit in the game. He has a higher base Spd than Guy, and he also gains +2 Spd from his promotion. This guy would probably be doubling most enemies even if he never gained any Spd from his level ups.

Hello there everyone! In my opinion, dodge tanking isn’t really broken in this game. It’s a powerful build, but it requires investment and planning (as well as knowledge of the game’s mechanics). It’s not like you just get it for free and it instantly breaks the game. You have to work for it. And it’s not the only powerful build in the game, and arguably isn’t the most powerful nor the easiest to create or to use. There are plenty of other very powerful options. Vantage/Wrath builds arguably do the same thing as dodge tanking but better. There’s multiple powerful player phase options that can one shot almost any enemy. There’s powerful Gambits that can allow for some pretty incredible strategies like Retribution and Impregnable Wall. Personally I’ve always been a bigger fan of the more player phase focused strategies. Dodge tanking is also not completely safe or reliable at all times. It makes your unit hard to kill but not invincible. There are enemies with high Hit rates and enemy Gambits can still hit you. When fighting large numbers of enemies per turn like that, even a small chance of getting hit becomes an inevitability. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great build, but it’s not fail proof. You still have to be careful, it’s not an instant win build once you get it. If you play carefully enough you can have safe and reliable strategies without dodge tanking too. In regards to the efficiency discussion, I used to know a speed runner who recommended dodge tanking, so I’d say it can be pretty efficient if you know what you’re doing. Maybe not for LTC, but speed running is another metric for efficiency.

I agree Rutger's ambush spawn is bad, for a few reasons. In addition to what Dark Holy Elf already said, Rutger doesn't appear just outside of the castle, he appears off to the side of it, towards your units, and with a whole squad around him that are also several spaces closer to your units than you might reasonably expect them to appear. You literally see them come out of the castle and run basically a whole turn's worth of Move to the right of it, and then immediately take their turn with their full Move. It's almost like they get two turns in a row. Also to add specifically to what Dark Holy Elf said, "if you do know, you just keep back for a couple extra turns", the reason for that is that they appear in between your team and where you are going (it actually feels like they appear right around where you would naturally be at that point in the chapter which might raise credence to Dark Holy Elf's suggestion that Rutger is supposed to kill someone (which I also agree is bad)). There are cases of ambush spawns that incentivize and reward players for playing quickly, getting past the ambush spawns or otherwise into better positions before they appear. There are other examples of ambush spawns that appear behind the player like the Cavaliers in Chapter 7 (which you're given plenty of warning about). But the ones that basically force you to slow down are some of the worse cases of ambush spawns. Other examples like this (and I think are worse than Rutger) include the enemies that appear around the boss in Chapters 6 and 7.

Maybe I don’t understand what drafts actually are, but I thought drafts were where players compete with each other to try to beat the game with a lower turn count than the other players (and obviously after drafting certain characters)? And I would have assumed that they don’t reset a bunch of times until they get super lucky RNG but I could be wrong. So wouldn’t this be kind of like an Ironman draft competition? I don’t see why that couldn’t work. Or even if I’m completely wrong about what drafts are, there’s still no reason it couldn’t work that way. I like that idea. It creates a risk reward system where riskier plays could put you ahead of your competition if it works but if it doesn’t work it could put you at a disadvantage if you a lose a unit. Who ends up winning, the player that plays it safe using reliable strategies or the player that makes riskier moves to save turns and get ahead? You’ll probably fall behind if you play it too safe but you have to decide which risks are worth taking. And depending on how the RNG works for you, as well as how your opponents are doing (assuming you know that), you may need to adapt. If you know you’re behind your opponent in turns then you may be forced to make riskier plays in order to catch up.

I agree. When you’re familiar with the game, ambush spawns are more engaging. It can reward you for moving through the map quickly to get into position before they appear. In a non ambush spawn game you can just rush forward and if they appear who cares. There’s more strategy with ambush spawns, but only if you know when and where they will appear… This sounds like it could work well. I haven’t played Mario+Rabbids but it sounds like it would be a good solution, and a good compromise between ambush and non-ambush spawns. The big thing with ambush spawns is that they are sometimes designed much better than other times. Some people hate ambush spawns and say that ambush spawns are always bad design, but not all ambush spawns are equal. Some are terribly unfair even if you know they’re coming, other times you are given adequate warning about them. Even though in game dialogue is supposed to seem more natural than a 4th wall break text box, those conversations don’t actually make sense either, because the player characters shouldn’t know that information. It would make more sense if the dialogue came from NPCs acting as your team’s scouts or spies that obtained this information. As for the specific number of turns, this could sound more natural in dialogue if turns represented a specific amount of time. Some games have a day/night cycle.

That’s fair. I understand not wanting to train underleveled units late in the game. I don’t actually think it’s worth using Zeiss most of the time either, with better units being available, and like you said probably already trained up. Although as far as underleveled units go, I’d say he’s a pretty decent one. Starting with nearly maxed Str and good Def, and flying utility is always nice. You can get 3 Elysian Whips so if you aren’t already using every other flyer then you should already have an extra for him. I don’t think he takes a lot of investment to get up to par compared to a lot of other underleveled units. Subpar, yes. But bad, I don’t think so. For Heath, if you skip Lyn mode, I actually think Florina is questionable if she’s worth using or not as she starts out at a low level and pretty weak. Farina only exists on Hector modes so if you’re playing on Eliwood mode, there might be extra incentive to use Heath if you want another flyer. He doesn’t get HM bonuses then but the enemies are also weaker so he should still perform fine.

Yeah that’s probably true, but he doesn’t have to participate in it either.

Also, if you only playthrough the story chapters and not the creature campaign then Sacred Stones is one of the shortest FE games. Without grinding or extreme favoritism, most units aren’t going to reach 20/20, and it take Seth less investment than anyone else to reach max level because he starts higher level.

I agree that even if Myrrh has better combat than Seth, he has better utility and is more versatile and has higher Move. She does fly which is nice, but I think he beats her out overall. Her advantage is supposedly combat, but this is Seth we're talking about. It's no meme that he can literally solo the game. His combat is obviously amazing too. Myrrh is strong and has some advantages, but other units clearly have their own advantages that Myrhh doesn't. 1-2 range definitely nice to have in Sacred Stones, even if I don't think it's as much of a requirement as it is in FE7, it's still a clear advantage to have it versus not having it. Seth has some combat advantages over Myrrh too. He’s faster than her and has access to more variety of weapons including Brave weapons. Against strong monsters he could use one of the legendary weapons so she isn’t definitively better than him against monsters. When with the right weapon he can be just as good. Also, does it matter if Myrrh is stronger than Seth in the late game? I think he’d be stronger in the early game, so does that balance their combat out overall or do you consider the late game more important than the early game? Also, Myrrh is pretty strong. But what about other Manaketes like Fa? Like I said, Fa is decent but she isn't super strong, certainly no match for Percival or Miledy. And Manaketes aren't in a lot of FE games. In the Tellius games, do Dragon Laguz count?

They’re not that great in a lot of games. I’m most familiar with the GBA games. Fa and Myrrh and both decent units but not great. They have their strengths but they also have their weaknesses. I think both units are generally considered roughly around mid tier on tier lists. Fa hits pretty hard and is accurate but isn’t very fast or bulky so you have to be careful with her. She has high Res so she’s a good status staff baiter and she deals effective damage against enemy Manaketes, but there are other units that can deal with both of those problems. She has her uses but isn’t one of your best units. Myrrh is pretty tanky for the most part but is weak to arrows because she flies. Flying is nice but she doesn’t have the utility of other fliers (sky taxis) and she has low Mov. She’s pretty strong especially against monsters but you have other strong units that can do most of what she can do. Again she has her uses but I don’t think she’s your best unit (in some ways probably but also has weaknesses). Mediocre maybe, but outright bad? That seems extreme. Stats don’t directly correlate from level in FE games so even if a unit is under leveled that doesn’t mean they aren’t strong. Zeiss for example starts with nearly capped Str and high Def, and Heath has pretty decent stats too. They can level up quickly since they’re low level and can promote shortly after joining. Zeiss has some issues with Skl and Spd, but I definitely don’t think he’s bad. Just not as good as your better units. He’s still a lot stronger than a lot of weaker units in that game and he still has flying utility. I was quite impressed with him in one of my Ironman runs where I got my best units killed, he ended up as one my best units, and it didn’t require a particularly high amount of investment for him to get there. Heath in particular I think most people consider pretty good. He joins roughly half way through the game which is still plenty of time to train him and make use of him. If you skip Lyn mode then Florina starts low level is arguably not worth training so Heath becomes a good candidate for an Elysian Whip. I think Heath is generally considered pretty good and Zeiss somewhere around mid.

Yeah, notice that he suggests reducing it and not stopping it. True. Very strong contenders actually. Rhea isn’t recruitable though.

Binding Blade -Garret. He made a living as a bandit, pillaging villages. By the time he joins you he wants to turn his life around but still, he has a very dark past. -Gonzales but to a lesser extent. I know he has a good heart and doesn’t want to hurt people. He’s just misled by evil people and feels like he has no choice because people treat him like a monster. That’s why he needs someone like Lilina to convince him to join you. Still, he goes through with destroying the village in his joining chapter of you don’t stop him. -Geese. Not sure what he’s done, but I mean, he’s a Pirate right? Pirates are usually pretty bad. Blazing Sword -Geitz. Same as Geese. Isn’t he a pirate? -Guy. So here’s the thing about Guy. He only joins you because he is indebted to Matthew for saving his life in the past and feels obligated to pay back that debt. This does display a code of honor. However, the thing is, he doesn’t actually want to join you. He only does out of obligation. He wants to stay with the bandits that are killing innocents. He also seems willing to kill anyone they tell him to. -Vaida. Maybe I’m misremembering, but isn’t she literally trying to join the Black Fang under Sonia and Nergal. And isn’t she pretty enthusiastic about killing your team when she gets a power boost from Nergal? She seems like she wants to be a bad guy. And then they kick her out because she failed, she doesn’t leave because she has a change of heart.

I want to mention Jaffar as a candidate. He might not be the worst among some of the competition but he is a merciless assassin who has no remorse about killing innocents. The only reason he didn’t kill Zephiel is because Nino was supposed to do it and then he tries to protect her. If he was sent alone he would have killed the prince without hesitation. And who knows how many other innocents he has killed in the past. He was raised by Nergal of all people. And he is very good at killing. You don’t get that good at something without a lot of experience.

A lot of classes have had their ups and downs across the series so a lot of them aren’t consistently good. I think probably Wyvern and Cavalier/Paladín are consistently among the best classes in each game. Utility classes are always nice to have like Thieves and Staff users. Oh yeah, and Dancers. I think Dancers are another strong candidate for being consistently the best.

@Dark Holy Elf @Shadow Mir I think it's fair to consider opportunity cost when comparing units. I personally find it hard to ignore that I have to actively bench a much better unit in order to use Lyn, espeically since FE7 (HHM) has so few deployment slots in a lot of chapters. I'm fine with ignoring the deployment slot thing though. My main point is that unit quality is relative. They need to be compared to their competition, to the other units within their own game. They exist in very different context. Enemies are much stronger in FE6 and that applies to all units in that game, not just Roy. Lyn doubling more enemies than Roy as well as being better at killing enemies isn't because she's better than him, it's because enemies are much weaker in FE7, for all of your units. Doubling in FE7 just isn't as impressive of a feat as it would be in FE6. Especially if Lyn still can't 1RKO a lot of enemies even with her doubling whereas most other units in her game are better at 1RKOing most enemies than she is. Of course Roy can't 1RKO most enemies, most other units can't either in that game. Even Marcus can't double or 1RKO Ch4 super Cavs. Roy just being able to chip them seems much more useful to me than Lyn being able to 1RKO weak Cavs in FE7 that other units can also 1RKO without worrying about getting killed by the counter. The stronger enemies provide more opportunities for Roy to actually help out and contribute as a team by working together to finish off enemies that are too strong for your stronger units to kill on their own. FE7 is more about individual elite units 1RKOing groups of enemies at once, something Lyn can't do much to help out with. The stronger enemies of FE6 make weak units more useful than in FE7 because they can help finish off enemies weakened by your stronger units. Plus like I said in my above post, Roy actually does have moments where he shines above most other units on your team, if only slightly. In the early game he has a few useful strengths that help him stand out and in the late game he has the Binding Blade. He's actually pretty decent at a few points in the game. I find Lyn's strengths to be fewer and less outstanding. Guy and Raven do the fast swordsman thing much better than she does, and most other units (including Raven) have other big advantages like 1-2 range, a mount, utility, access to better weapon types, better durability, the strength to 2HKO more things and therefore 1RKO more enemies because so many enemies in FE7 are very slow. I honestly think Lyn is really bad compared to most other units in FE7. I mean she's far from the worst unit in her game, but so is Roy in his.

Yeah, I completely agree with the title. Roy is very over hated and underrated. He actually has a few strengths that help him stand out more so than several other lords in the series. These don’t make him a great or even a good unit, but frankly, his competition sets the bar low. - Rapier deals effective damage against Ch4 super Cavs. It’s still not great but he deals more damage than most of your other units and these enemies are super strong, being one of the better units against them is pretty nice. - High accuracy. People like to complain about FE6’s low hit rates. Well it works both ways. Low hit rates being an issue in this game make Roy’s high accuracy particularly useful early on for reliably finishing off enemies. - High Luck. This is definitely a smaller strength but it is nice to have. Early game Mercs and Thunder Mages often have low Crit rates against your units giving them a random chance to give your units an early retirement. Roy doesn’t have to worry about that as much. - The Sword of Seals, uhh, I mean The Binding Blade. Very great weapon that actually makes Roy good once he gets it. Yeah it comes late, but not as late as the FE7!Durandal or the Sol Katti which both suck anyway. It still makes him very strong for the last 3 chapters. It also makes him the strongest unit against the final boss. People joke about how easy that boss is but that’s only because of Roy with his flaming sword. (Wait.. The Blazing Blade.. something seems off here). Eliwood and Lyn aren’t anywhere close to the best against their final boss. In conclusion, Roy is genuinely a decent to good unit in the early game and late game. He has advantages that stand out over other units in his game and over several other lords in the series. He sucks in the mid game but so does his competition. Stronger enemies that force your units to work as a team to take down, make it easier for Roy to help out. Most of the advantages I listed wouldn’t even matter in FE7 or FE8, but in FE6, those things are actually nice to have. Dealing bonus damage against super strong Cavaliers that all of your other units also need help against is significantly more useful than Eliwood or Lyn dealing bonus damage to weak Cavaliers that your stronger units can 1RKO on their own. This also applies to the mid game when all the GBA lords are at their worst. Stronger enemies give Roy more opportunities to contribute by finishing off an enemy that your stronger units failed to kill, whereas again in FE7 or FE8, your stronger units simply don’t need the help and all Eliwood or Erika would do is get in the way. Worse yet is that Lyn and Eliwood and Erika (depending on route) cost a deployment slot that could have been filled by a stronger more useful unit. Roy is deployed on every map for free so any opportunity he gets to help out is free money. Eliwood and Lyn have the opportunity cost of not using a much stronger unit. I just don’t see what makes Eliwood or Lyn any better. They’re both really bad units. They can promote earlier than Roy but they still promote later than other units that they’re competing for deployment slots with and a promoted Eliwood or Lyn don’t shine as much in their late games as Roy with the Binding Blade does. They don’t shine as much as Roy in his early game either with him being a decent unit in the first few chapters whereas Eliwood is clearly inferior to other units in his early game. And in the mid game their mediocrity (or worse) doesn’t give them anything useful to do compared to stronger units, whereas Roy can occasionally finish off a weakened enemy with his high accuracy, since enemies are much stronger and harder for most units to 1RKO, this seems more useful than whatever Eliwood or Lyn are doing in their Mid games, which is also their worst parts of their games. I fully believe that Roy is better than Eliwood and Lyn, and maybe Erika. Doubling doesn’t make her inherently better, especially since they’re in different games with very different standards. A lot of units don’t double enemies in FE6, especially early on where Roy is able to shine, if only a little. Doubling in FE7 is common for a lot of units so Lyn doesn’t stand out much in that regard. She struggles to double particularly fast enemies, and even if she doubles, she struggles to 1RKO most enemies with her low Str. Most other units can start 1RKOing most enemies at a lower level on average than Lyn. Despite being fast enough to double most enemies, I just don’t see what about her makes her shine. She’s just generally weaker than most other units throughout most of the game. On top of having some notable weaknesses. She is extremely frail, getting 2HKOed by a lot of enemies and still 3HKOed by weak enemies. Her lack of 1-2 range hurts more in FE7 than it does in FE6. The two above issues are both amplified by FE7 being a much more enemy phase focused game than FE6.

I had Seth as a Berserker. He conquered countries and didn’t afraid of anything. Seriously, Berserker Seth basically soloed the game. Meanwhile, Erika was a dog.

This. I think Dieck might be the better unit on NM because he can often double NM enemies and is stronger and more durable than Rutger and has Axes, with Rutger’s 30% Crit not being as important. Rutger’s stats are of course also lower on NM. On HM Rutger’s high Spd and accuracy with his Crit bonus becomes very useful for reliably killing enemies. Rutger is better on HM but Dieck is definitely still good and I honestly think the gap between them is a little smaller than most people say. Dieck does still have some advantages over Rutger on HM, though he isn’t as good overall. Regardless, being overshadowed by one of the best units in the game is hardly something to hold against him. Dieck is still a really solid unit.

Not all ambush spawns are the same. Some are fine, some are unfair. I think ambush spawns in 3H Maddening are among the worst I’ve ever seen. FE6 is generally much better about telegraphing where ambush spawns will appear and/or having them appear so far away that it doesn’t matter, but it does have cases of unfair ambush spawns too, like Ch6 enemies appearing right by the boss while you’re trying to fight the boss. I agree with whoever has said that they don’t like getting punished by something they couldn’t have known about. But sometimes ambush spawns are telegraphed better than other times. I’ve seen the suggestion before for the games to allow you to see ambush spawns the turn before they appear which I think I like. Something I noticed from my own experience is that I actually found ambush spawns in FE6 very frustrating on my first playthrough of that game, but the more I replay that game the more I like it. I don’t have all ambush spawns memorized but I have a good idea of what to expect ahead of time and I find that trying to play quickly to beat the enemy reinforcements can be an engaging challenge. Ambush spawns often incentivize and reward playing quickly. So arguably, they aren’t as good for first blind playthroughs but actually are good for players familiar with the game. Non-ambush spawns are often not much of a threat at all. You can just kill them immediately before they even get a chance to do anything. I don’t think that is wholly better. I do think ambush spawns definitely could be done better than they have been though.

Personally that seems too specific. It would only apply to Fire Emblem after all and maybe a few other games that I don’t know about. For that definition, well, to each their own I guess, people can have whatever preferences they want, but I think it’s a shame people would limit their experience like that. I think for some people, it’s their own play style and mindset that makes the idea of ‘permadeath’ seem more intimidating than it really is. Personally I started enjoying FE games more when I stopped worrying so much about everything. When I was younger I would reset whenever a unit died, but at some point became more willing to continue on without them, and felt like FE games became a lot less stressful without worrying about stuff like that so much. The games are designed for this, losing even your best units won’t make the game unbeatable, a lot of FE games keep giving you strong units throughout the game. Ironically I think people who are put off by the idea of ‘permadeath’ aren’t playing casually enough and are instead stressing themselves out about things that don’t even matter that much. I wonder if people who are scared of ‘permadeath’ also reset when missing a village or chest? From what I’ve seen, I think some people play FE games with sort of a completionist mindset of wanting to get everything and keep everyone alive, to the point of stressing out over it, not realizing that the games become easier and less stressful if you just play through them more casually without trying to be perfect.

I self identify as a “filthy casual” and I like to play challenging games. The only game I play competitively is Smash Bros, I’m a casual for any other game. I’d consider pretty much anyone who doesn’t LTC or speed run FE games to be casuals, or do we have different definitions of that term?

Paladin isn’t a bad class in 3H at all. Wyvern Rider is clearly better for most units but it’s also better than most other classes too. Paladin is a good class for a few units, most notably Ferdinand and Sylvain, also for those two the Spd penalty (which is only 10% anyway) doesn’t matter much since they can always double with Swift Strikes. Bow Knight does not have decreased base stats from Sniper. It has +2 Dex and +2 Luc but that’s it. That amounts to only 3% extra Hit and 1% extra Crit. It’s a really negligible difference. Meanwhile, Bow Knight has +1 Spd while mounted and +3 Spd if you dismount. Movement could also be considered part of the base stats of a class and obviously Bow Knight has +3 Move along with Canto+. Even a dismounted Bow Knight still has more Move and Spd than a Sniper (and Bow Range too). Sniper is good because of Hunter’s Volley but aside from that Bow Knight is much better. - As for the topic, I still haven’t played quite a few of the games but from the games I have played, every game has at least a few good infantry units, and mounted units are always at an inherent advantage over infantry. I think the worst game for infantry out of the ones I played is Path of Radiance. Maps are big and mounted units are really strong in that game, and they have Super Canto. Infantry is really at a huge disadvantage compared to mounted units in this game. For the best games for infantry out of the ones I’ve played, I’m not sure but a few come to mind for different reasons. 3H does have a few good infantry classes like Sniper with Hunter’s Volley or Grappler/WarMaster with their unmatched killing power, but mounted units still have some huge advantages over them too. There are some strong infantry units in Echoes with Dread Fighters being really good and Mages being able to kill enemies from long range (that applies to 3H too actually). I also want to give an honorable mention to Binding Blade and also give some push back to some other people bringing it up as one of the worst for infantry units. In what other game is a Sword locked infantry unit in debate for being the best unit in the game? In what other game will you see an infantry Priest generally tiered higher than the mounted Troubadour? Mounted units are still really good in FE6 as they always are, but there are quite a few good infantry units. The balance between the classes themselves is honestly among the best in the series in Binding Blade.