Is Seth better than a Sniper Rifle?

[Jotari]

You can take with you into Sacred Stones either Seth, or a Sniper Rifle. The Sniper Rifle has 100% accuracy, guaranteed kills and infinite range, but can't shoot through obstacles. So, for example, you wouldn't be able to shoot Pablo at the start of Chapter 10. No shooting around corners either. The target needs to be in line of sight from the unit using the Sniper Rifle.

I'll let you make up your own minds about durability and weapon ranks.

Edited June 16 by Jotari

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Well the simulation can't begin until we've chosen our weapon. There's some debate over what makes a "sniper rifle". After all, modern rifles are built with modular parts. Slap a high magnification scope on something and it can function as a sniper rifle, even if still switched to full auto. Another common, liberal definition focuses on the capability of the rifleman itself. Are they a competent sniper? Then it's a Sniper's Rifle, no scope necessary. I'll be a little quirky in choosing the retired NATO standard FN FAL as my weapon:

While capable of full auto fire, it's characteristically high recoil and 10-20 round box magazines generally encourages shooters to fire one or two rounds at a time which is ideal for our Fire Emblem setting. We don't know where we'll be sourcing new ammunition in the world of Magvel. No one living there has ever developed a rifle cartridge and I don't expect we'll be successful in designing them with Grado snapping at our borders. So I'm running on the assumption that this weapon and six 20-round 7.62x51mm magazines and a detachable 3x magnification scope fell out a portal and bonked Seth on the head while searching for Eirika's missing ring, killing him instantly. Transfixed on this foreign object, Eirika had forgotten all she knew of swordplay and her unspoken love of Seth and suddenly mastered the weapon as her fingers grasped it.

121 rounds will probably fall short of the amount of kills Seth would be getting in the more efficient FE8 playthroughs. But I would contend that the rounds would pierce defense. A solid brick wall should stop this calibur. But medieval plate mail was 1-3 millimeters thick according to google, and these rifle rounds have an expectant 6 millimeters of penetrating power through solid steel. This makes the weapon an attractive choice against the bulkiest targets: Lyon, the Necrodragons, and Fomortis. Especially if we're permitted the ability to fire from further than 2 range and thus avoiding their counterattack. 

I think I would take the sniper rifle over Seth. He would gladly give up his life for the survival of his kingdom anyway. And by the time we reach the final maps he's not providing anything unique to the team. The maps where we'd be hurt the most are admittedly the Fog of War maps, which are already the hardest of any Sacred Stones playthrough. But if it's eirika route at least we won't have to do ghost ship.

Edited June 16 by Zapp Branniglenn

[ARMADS!!!]

I think it'd all depend exactly on the durability and weapon rank lol, but otherwise... Er... I'd rather have Seth since FE8 isn't hard enough to need this Sniper Rifle and Seth REALLY helps on the first few chapters more than the Rifle could (such as the first chapter or sending him to save the villagers from the spiders on the fog in chapter 6), and on the later chapters you already have a bunch of OP units that can easily slide throught the game.

 The rifle is probably more OP in general but I think Seth could help a bit more than it unless Eirika could use the Rifle from the very beggining of the game or something.

[Armchair General]

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

but can't shoot through obstacles

I'm calling bullshit

 

I can't find one with actual ballistic gelatin behind an solid wall of concrete, but I'm pretty sure that this is extremely close towards being lethal.

 

Edited June 16 by Armchair General

[Saint Rubenio]

The question is, why would I use top tier losers like the sniper rifle or Seth when I can instead use Gilliam and this blunderbuss I found at a flea market?

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Armchair General said:

I'm calling bullshit

 

I can't find one with actual ballistic gelatin behind an solid wall of concrete, but I'm pretty sure that this is extremely close towards being lethal.

 

The issue isn't one of penetration but of accuracy. You can't snipe Vigarde from the other side of the castle because you won't know where exactly he is without X-Ray vision.

[ARMADS!!!]

22 minutes ago, Jotari said:

The issue isn't one of penetration but of accuracy. You can't snipe Vigarde from the other side of the castle because you won't know where exactly he is without X-Ray vision.

But we can shoot arrows throught walks... (I get it though, that'd make the Sniper Rifle even more OP).

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Seth, and it's not particularly close.

It's not hard to one-round most enemies in Sacred Stones. So, what matters more is durability, mobility, and 1-2 range. Seth has all three. The Sniper Rifle would arguably solve the "mobility" issue, but only insofar as whom it could target. It can't help Eirika get to the throne any sooner, like a Rescue-Carry can. The Sniper Rifle does nothing for its users durability (unless it has Vantage hidden in the scope), and it can't always counter at 2-range.

Would the Sniper Rifle be situationally better? Sure. It'd likely be the better option in bosskill maps. But in Seize, Rout, and Survive maps, Seth is almost certainly doing more for you.

[Armchair General]

38 minutes ago, Jotari said:

The issue isn't one of penetration but of accuracy. You can't snipe Vigarde from the other side of the castle because you won't know where exactly he is without X-Ray vision.

But there's is an chance that you can reasonably guess where someone is at through an combination of psychology and math...Or you could wind up killing some random serf.

[Armchair General]

20 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

and it can't always counter at 2-range.

Just stick an grenade launcher on it, it's the solution for everything

 

 

[lenticular]

I'll take the sniper rifle. It does depend on stuff like durability and weapon ranks, of course, but if you make favourable assumptions then I think the sniper rifle is better. I'm going to assume it's a magic sniper rifle that never breaks, never needs to be reloaded, and can be used by anyone.

One good thing about the sniper rifle is that you can use it to feed kills to anyone you want. Even your weakest unit is getting an almost guaranteed kill every player phase, or two kills per player phase after you recruit Tethys. They will very quickly gain levels to catch up and even to get ahead of the curve. Making sure Eirika got enough experience without putting her in danger would be effortless. Levelling up any of the trainee classes would be a breeze. Seth is great, but there's only one of him. All the experience he gets is for him alone. The experience from the sniper rifle can be split as you need it, ensuring you get a full army of strong high-level characters.

Sniper rifle is also disgusting when paired with Pegasus Knight. From the moment you recruit Vanessa, you can give her the sniper rifle, have her fly somewhere inaccessible, and then have her take out the entire map with impunity. Since we also have infinite accuracy and damage, we also don't need to worry about stat penalties from rescuing, so if we want to we can just have Vanessa rescue Eirika before she does this. No need to even bother to deploy anyone else if we don't want to.