Folt

Gotta go with Luna here. Halving defense is pretty neat on higher difficulties, and its awailability is better than Ignis as well.

Since this thread hasn't been posted in for a while, I'll chime in with some things: I support Chrom moving down from S to A tier, sword-lock hurts, but reclassing to Cav. means he loses out on the Rapier weapons (which I've used to great effect during most of the Valm arc). I also support Avatar!Lucina moving down to A on the grounds that she comes at the halfway spot. Slightly more Henry vs. Tharja: Now that I've gotten Tharja up to speed (promoted to Dark Knight of course), she and Henry are pretty interchangeable stat-wise. Tharja ends up with slightly better Magic and Speed on average, but Henry isn't that far behind either, gets much better Skill, and better Defense as well. Both will have crappy Resistance. I still think Henry gets better Support options since he can take either Sumia or Cordelia (and in the long run, it's probably better to give Sumia a new Pair-Up partner than to saddle her with Frederick for the rest of the game, thanks to bows and wind magic being a thing, and Frederick's not-so-good stats also being a thing). Being able to go with a Peg. Knight/Dark Flier also makes it easier to gain experience for him in my opinion, since they give Speed and Resistance bonuses (and Dark Fliers give Magic), and once he is properly supported, he can gain overkill Speed (and Magic). I might do another run to see how Henry is with a Falcon Knight pair-up, which would give him slightly more Speed and Res at the cost of a Magic bonus. Also, I have to admit that I prefer Henry's high Defense and consistency of hitting enemy units over Tharja's slightly higher Magic and Speed: I've had Tharja die on me once or twice, but Henry hasn't died yet. Also, both will want Speed Tonics and/or a Pair-Up that gives Speed when you first get them (and Tharja will want Skill and Luck Tonics during her Dark Mage phase, and Luck Tonics after, unless you pump her with Goddess Icons), and throughout most of early Valm. But once you do their base Speed is adequate to get them enough kills and levels to get to the point where they pay back their interest with rents later in the game. So Henry should go up at least to B tier. Tharja should go down, but stay in B tier. Also, I think flying definitely tops both staff and thieving utility, so both Peg. Knights over Anna sounds reasonable, though Anna is pretty much all you need regarding thieving and healing (and Rescuing). Also, Anna with a Killing Edge is pretty good, whether as a support unit or as a main unit. (Though part of it is because I've supported her with my Avatar.)

Well, here's my list: 1. Luna: Pretty much the best proc skill, halving Defense or Resistance is pretty boss. 2. Aggressor: Great player phase skill, +10 attack is nothing to not write home about. 3. Lucky Seven: +20 Hit and Avoid for 7 whole turns is pretty good, especially considering that that's how many turns it usually takes you to finish a map. Even better is that my favorite units: Gangrel and Henry, can use this skill, and Gangrel comes with it. 4. Armsthrift: Nothing quite like saving resources on weapon usage. 5. Aether: Sol and Luna in one skill, I've found it to activate frequently enough to give it 5th place. Honorable mentions go to -breaker skills (especially Tomebreaker), Aegis, Pavise, Sol, Ignis, and the 'faire skills.

Hironobu Sakaguchi approached The Last Story as if it were his last game. Then again, I dig The Last Story. Also, reminds me of Final Fantasy which could have been Sakaguchi's last game, and we all know what happened to that..

First run through Infinite Regalia got me Sol Katti, Tyrfing, and Forseti. Not bad.

No objections here.

He could in fact take Anna or Lon'qu, but why take them when you can take someone he could support with and work much better with?

I can post what I have at the end of the chapter: Henry, Lv. 4 Dark Knight (Promoted at Lv. 20): HP: 46 (Can't remember what it was before promotion, sorry.) Str: 14 (did not have any sword equipped. I do remember that Promotion put it into the double-digits, but I wasn't that far off having 10 Strength either.) Mag: 23 (Was 19 before I promoted Henry) Skill: 23 (Was 17-18 before I promoted Henry) Speed: 22 (used a Speedwing before, I'd also say that his Speed was 17 with the Speedwing before I promoted him, 19 after, so I proc'ed Speed every level after Dark Knight promotion (during Chapter 14), and I had a C Support with Sumia, which would give me 6 more speed when paired up: 3 from the Pair up bonuses, 1 from the C-Support bonus, and 2 from Sumia's 27 speed) Luck: 16 (was 14 or 15 when I promoted Henry, as I remember him proc'ing Luck after promotion.) Def: 25 (was 18 before I promoted Henry.) Res: 12 (used a Talisman before. Also remember it was 10-11 before Promotion, but with the Talisman.) Inventory: Elthunder Elwind Elfire Concoction Dark Mage to Dark Knight promotion bonuses for reference: HP: +7 Strength: +3 Magic: +2 Skill: +4 Speed: +2 Luck: 0 Defence: +5 Resistance: +1 Movement: +3 Sumia, Lv. 3 Dark Flier (Promoted at Level 19, used an Arms Scroll on her to get D Tomes): HP: 32 (Can't remember what it was before promotion, sorry. It should be about average though.) Str: 15 (13 or 14 after promotion.) Mag: 16 (Pretty certain that this one is blessed, as I remember it being 15 after I promoted her.) Skill: 26 (Pretty sure this is average as far as Sumia goes, though she proc'ed Skill after promotion.) Speed: 27+2 (Pretty sure this is also average, though she proc'ed Speed after promotion.) Luck: 21 (Pretty sure it's around average, maybe a bit above.) Def: 15 (probably a bit blessed, though I did give her a Dracoshield. Defense has proc'ed after promotion though.) Res: 19 (above average, but not excessively so.) Inventory: Elthunder Elwind Iron Lance Killer Lance For the record, the Difference between Pegasus Knight and Dark Flier bases is this: HP: +3 Strength: +1 Magic: +4 Skill: +1 Speed: +2 Defence: +1 Resistance: +3 Movement: +1 Also, on average, Sumia will have 10-11 Mag, 16-17 Resistance, and over 20 Skill and Speed, upon promotion to Dark Flier, which means she.will give 4 Magic, 2 Skill, 4 Speed, and 3 Res upon pairing up. So I think I have an average Henry, but a Mag-blessed and Def-blessed Sumia. Regarding Short Spears, I do believe that Sully, Stahl, and Cordelia also want one, so all of them are competing with Sumia/Frederick for one, and all of them will eventually end up with better stats. And as for why Henry instead of Frederick, Frederick will eventually taper off, due to coming with quite the low stats for a Great Knight. Henry comes with about appropriate stats for his level, if a bit late, and can replace Frederick with training, thanks to Dark Knight's pair-up bonuses. He also comes in at about the point where Frederick will taper off, and should go to the bench or support someone else. Also, the reason Frederick "steals" valuable experience is because he's eventually gonna be made into a Support bot, thanks to his stats tapering off... which means he can't defend Sumia from archers and wind magic as well as he wants to. That said, looking back at Chapter 14, I think I could have gotten Henry to kill off everyone on the left side anyways, just not immediately on Turn 1.

83 hit with Nosferatu (after one Secret Book and two Goddess Icons) as a level 18 Dark Mage does not a good tank make. Welp, the Sumia/Henry combo (as Promoted Dark Knight and Dark Flier) could handle all the enemies on the left side on Chapter 14 with a bit of luck. (I'm sure I could say that they could positively handle all of them if I gave them Tonics.) I should have them sit out the next chapter so I can bring more units up to par and to promotion. Henry as a Dark Knight gives her the exact same Defence and Movement bonuses, and the exact same Defence bonus as a Dark Mage. She won't lose much if she goes Dark Flier and builds up the Henry Support. Oh, and I've checked this on this very site (Thanks Vincent for the Pair Up page). Also, Henry can get Strength, so he will likely provide Sumia with at least one point of Strength once trained, though his Strength growth is as shaky as Tharja's Skill and Luck growths while he still is a Dark Mage.

If you give Anna to Tharja, she'll have to content with weaker defenses than Henry overall and using Anna only as a statbot. Sumia and Henry can do more for each other than that.

I looked up what stats Dark Knights give to people when paired up, and holy shit: that 3 Defence and 1 Movement will do wonders for Sumia, especially given that Henry's Defence sits on a 23 (+2) which, adding the +1 from the C Support with sumia will be... +6 Defence! And I agree. I think giving the Speedwing to Henry was one of my mistakes, but I started this no-grind run specifically to test Tharja and Henry, so my resource priorities lie on these two. Still, I should probably just have gone with that one Speed Tonic.

Dark Knight. I feel that will be the most useful option for this pair-up team in the long run. He currently sits at 19 Speed (would have been 17 if I didn't give him the Speedwing).

Actually, I entered Paralogue 8 (Kjelle's Paralogue for those of you who don't know) without knowing what I were doing, because I certainly wouldn't have let Henry get all those reinforcement kills that he got if I did know about them. I just didn't expect him to actually hold his own against almost all those reinforcements, and before I knew it, he was ready to be promoted. And actually, the set-up of all those maps before Chapter 13 made me realize how out of the way I had to go in order to give Tharja experience. (Also, Pretty much agree with the guy who said that Tharja has some of the same problems as Henry when it comes to Speed, but I'd like to say that she's not really that durable without her Nosferatu either, which meant I used her sparingly.) I'd like to say that this will pretty much go down to whether you think Tharja's earlier awailability (and thus chance for experience) trumps Henry's advantages: ease of levelling if you know what you're doing, Speed issue being easier to fix compared to Tharja's hit issues, superior Support/Pair Up options thanks to being of the opposite sex (and thus having Sumia and Cordelia awailable to him). As for resources, I was right in giving Henry a Nosferatu Tome, as I don't think he would have survived the onslaught of reinforcements if I didn't, and the two Goddess Icons that you'll get over the course of the Paralogue (unless you miss the chest in Chapter 11), as well as a Skill Book (or preferably both Skill Books), should go to Tharja if you're prepared to use her. You may want to give her a Defense Tonic or two as well in the early training stages. Both mages may also appreciate a Speed Tonic and a Resistance Tonic (Tharja has higher Resistance, but Sumia or Cordelia Support means Henry can do fine, and give Henry the Speed he wants as well). I've tried Tharja on two of the maps after her recruitment: Chapter 10, and Paralogue 4 (before I got to Henry's map, which was incidentally where I deployed her again). She didn't impress me much regarding her earlier awailability. Thus, I think Henry is a tiny bit better than her, as he comes early in his chapter, and his base Speed is good enough to allow him to spend one turn on fixing it with a Speed Tonic traded from Sumia or Cordelia (for then to proceed doubling and murdering Fighters and/or Archers in Chapter 13). Also, I should note that both Tharja's and Henry's levels were equal when Henry joined, and Equal when I finished Chapter 13. After Paralogue 8 (which I did immediately), Henry was already at level 20 and ready for a promotion, while Tharja was at level 16. If you manage to open up Paralogue 8 after Chapter 13, slap a Nosferatu tome or two and a Speed Tonic (and Speedwing, though he could probably double anyways) on Henry (though I should note that he was level 14 when I entered it since I gained two levels with him in Chapter 13), and he can solo most of the reinforcements (including promoted Sorcerers and Generals) and gain more levels, allowing you to move fast enough to the boss (or take a detour to the chests, though the loot was pretty terrible). Either way, I think Henry should go up into the same tier as Tharja, Tharja should go down a bit, and Henry could possibly go above Tharja (though I'm not saying he should) as I think he's actually easier to use and give better rewards for the resources spent on him in the long run. Oh, another thing. Henry benefits from Sumia and Cordelia not only doing wonders for his Speed and Res, but also from the fact that both are A Tier units, which means I give them higher priority regarding unit deployment (AKA one or both of them are likely to be on the field at any given time), compared to Libra (the one I pair up with Tharja) who I switched out for Anna a fair number of times.

Aether activates frequently enough for me to consider it better than RFK. Also, I forgot that Brady also gets Aegis. Sue me.

Well, that's kind of a given, since Kjelle gets the better skill of Aether and Rightful King. (Not to mention that Brady's only proc. skill for him to use with Rightful King is Luna.) I find that if you're battling units with stats equal to or exceeding yours, you want skills that give you advantages when battling, not advantages outside it.

I've personally never felt the need to grind Sumia in my no-grind run (in accordance to SDS's tier rules). Frederick just kind of fixes her flaws for early-game, and she turns out decent when she doesn't need him anymore. And as far as Chrom/Sumia vs. Chrom/Olivia goes, Sumia!Lucina has the classes and skills needed to set her apart from Olivia!Lucina as a viable option in her own right, having strengths that Olivia!Lucina lacks, and Cynthia gets Aether which is the better skill for me, compared to Inigo's Rightful King. Too bad everyone who ships people believes that their way = true way, no matter what happens. Exceptions do exist of course.

Now that I've come a bit far in my Hard Mode Casual tier run (at Chapter 14, with Paralogue 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 cleared, Chrom married Sully), I was able to test Tharja and Henry (gave a Speedwing and Talisman to Henry, and a Skill Book and two Goddess Icons to Tharja, and I gave Libra Support + Skill and Luck Tonics to Tharja for every single map she were in, and a Speed Tonic to Henry for every map he was in, as well as a Resistance Tonic on Paralogue). And I have to say, I think that you want Tharja to be better than Henry, you basically have to get levels on her ASAP, as if their levels are around the same, then Henry just flat out only really needs to pair up with Sumia (preferably promoted to Dark Flier so she can give him both Magic and Speed) and some Speed (through level up or through stat booster items, permanent or otherwise) to have an easier time contributing (and gaining levels) than her. Tharja currently sits at around Lv. 15, while Henry easily got to Lv. 20, so I promoted him to Dark Knight. As for why Henry got that many levels before I even went to Chapter 14, it's because I went into Paralogue 8 blind (with Tharja and Henry at Lv. 14), and hadn't the slightest knowledge about all those freaking reinforcements that showed up, some of them promoted, and I was going for the chests as well to see what the Paralogue had of loot (which was unimpressive: a Short Spear and a Medium Bullion, I shouldn't have bothered). Henry took the brunt of those reinforcements (since the only other target was Panne, who was an almost newly promoted Wyvern Lord), and soloed almost everyone of them (at the cost of a Nosferatu Tome). That said, I still have to complete my run. EDIT: Damn it. Made a mistake about Panne in my post. Corrected it.

For me, the only ones I really would have wanted to see are Marcus, Erk, Canas, Pent, Ross, Joshua, Tana, Ewan, Duessel, and Rennac. Otherwise, I'm pretty content with what we got.

Kicking ass in a frilly dress in a really girly way is something I adore to the core, so the Bride class has a special place in my heart for making that possible.

Donnel is good only because of the Peg. Knight tree and the Mercenary tree that he can pass down to kids (+ Aptitude, though I think that one is a load of bollocks, given how easy it is to get experience through DLC, and thus chances for level ups, and the kids not being worth much on Hard or Lunatic in my opinion). And out of all the children, two of the girls can't have him as father, two of the girls are absolute wastes of his inheritance due to getting both of those trees, two of the boys are similiarly a waste since they get Mercenary as well as the chance to inherit Galeforce from their mothers, two more boys can get Galeforce through their mothers, and three of the boys can't get Galeforce at all, but can get Sol, Renewal, or Axefaire, and/or wants a magic father or Gregor (who can give both Mercenary and Barbarian). That leaves three girls who can't get Peg. Knight or Mercenary: One girl's mother can marry Vaike and get Mercenary that way + Axefaire, as well as access to the Thief tree for skills that help with mobility and avoid, or can get Gaius for access to Peg. Knight + Sol and mobility/evasiveness skills through the Thief class (both also allows for you to eventually build a fairly mobile General). one girl wants a magic father for Tomefaire, and Ricken fills both of those on top of passing down the Cavalier tree, which enables her to access the Aegis/Pavise combo which, coupled with access to Sorcerer, allows her to be a really good Nostank. One girl is a member of the tankiest class in the game, and wants skills that help her in this role more-so than Galeforce and Armsthrift, especially since her most powerful weapon in that class can be bought infinitely.

1.2k-1.5k that could have gone to a Rescue Staff or a new weapon. That kind of money is also quite the hit to your funds in the early-game. Overkill offense and defense which ensures I won't need to spend money on tonics, and can save it for other, more important things. Also, if this were an LTC tier list, I'd wager that either Anna or Libra would be much higher than they currently are.

Anna has enough Magic to get the job done, and because Thief utilites have been reduced to unlocking doors and chests, she can do every utility thing that Gaius can. Anna can also make use of the Levin Sword which is the most common 2 range sword (but not that common), gives Speed and Move as bonuses if you pair her up with someone (with or without Supports), and gets access to Lucky Seven which gives her a +20 bonus to hit and avoid for 7 turns: 7 turns is pretty much all you need to clear most maps on a brisk pace. There's also the fact that while Gaius makes a better Assassin, Anna makes a much better Trickster and starts off with decent bases, and with the rules of this tier list being as they are, having a Trickster around is much better than having an Assassin around, because the Trickster is more worth to have in the main story for its healing, rescuing, and door/chest unlocking, than the Assassin is for its fighting skill.

I have to say, if I were to prioritize the deployment of Gaius, Libra, and Anna, I'd do it like this, from highest priority to lowest priority: Anna > Libra > Gaius. Why? Anna is able to do healing and stealing at the same time (and also Rescuing), which frees up slots for another battler. As for going with another healer or thief, I find that, depending on the map, I might just use both Anna and Libra, instead of Gaius and Libra, simply because I might need to Rescue her to keep the turn count low, but that depends on the loot of the chapter and if I want it, and for the rest, I find that just going with Anna is good enough because her magic base is as it is. If I don't need another Rescuer, it's better for me to just give some key units a healing item and go from there. And as for no notable Supports other than Avatar and Tiki, I find that I could always just give Anna a Pair-Up unit anyways, because while she won't get bonuses, she will still get stat boosts, and once Lucky Seven comes around, she will do just fine. Alternatively, pair her up with Avatar (whose level and stats should be fairly high, thanks to Veteran and Pair-Up) and rack up some Support Ranks, and/or take Tiki when she comes and rack up Supports with her.

It gets particularly problematic in lategame and postgame, where enemies will have high HP to make Counter downright dangerous, and reinforcements can still send in Warriors who, among with Entombed, is the enemy that most often gets Counter, and with their high HP and Strength (so that they might damage you back), but low-ish Defense, gets the most use out of it.

If you can kill it in one hit, you won't proc Counter. Astra doesn't make you kill in one hit, but rather in several hits generated by Astra itself. And all those hits (unless one of them kills the enemy) will proc Counter.