OMG it's a tier list

[Jaybee]

Should Tormod really be below Stefan and Volke? He's helping out quite a bit on 1-7, 1-8 and 1-E, while Stefan and Volke help out in 4-3/4-5 and Endgame. Stefan has fail move in the desert, which takes away 1 chapter of usefulness where he could be great, and then Tormod is one of the better units in a weak team while Stefan and Volke aren't good replacements for others in endgame.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Joshybear25

[Zkirsche]

Then Tormod is one of the better units in a weak team while Stefan and Volke aren't good replacements for others in endgame.

You're severely underestimating them. They can double practically everything and both have decent crit, futhermore, Volke has very good offence, and both can survive pretty easily.

@Int/Narga: You can easily trade the crossbow for a purposefully weakened forge. It's not like Meg/Fiona have anything better to do.

Oh, and he's not facing cats all the time, and even if he does, he has to use Micaiah/Laura to heal him otherwise he doesn't do anything the next turn due to a lack of enemy phase.

BTW, I was exaggerating with Fiona, but you get the point, Meg/Nolan/Eddie/Micaiah/Sothe/Zihark/Jill can all attack behind their feelow units. So doing it is nothing special.

With respect to Leo's durability, as I've said before, his environment will assist him if you choose to have him tank. Leo is barely OHKO'ed in your example, but once 3-6 gets going I can have him bracketed by a cat forever, and cats cannot kill him. I can put him in a thicket and he can survive a tiger. I can toss him a stat-up and he can survive anything. He can gain a few levels and survive anything. Etc. He is not even an unreasonable drain on healing resources, since he can self-heal and the laguz will eventually untransform and become impotent and unable to attack him for stretches at a time.

Self-healing means he does nothing for a turn. And this can be done with any unit, especially when considering trading.

Edited August 1, 2009 by kirsche

[Narga_Rocks]

You're severely underestimating them. They can double practically everything and both have decent crit, futhermore, Volke has very good offence, and both can survive pretty easily.

I'd like to add that unless you send a flier with Micaiah to help take care of the 2 axe users and the dragonmasters nearby then once Stefan's been recruited there is already 5 enemies for him to kill. Also, this makes it easier to go after the purge user from behind as well as the other things with fail move. Of course, I send Marcia with wyrmslayer, but not many people use her so Stefan isn't exactly useless in the desert.

@Int/Narga:

Hey, I still agree that Ilyana > Leo. Just saying that he can be pretty good in 3-6 if you set it up right. Not many others can make full use of wrath (Micaiah's busy healing), and that can free up beastfoe for someone else.

I just don't want anything to be overlooked where Leo is concerned.

You can easily trade the crossbow for a purposefully weakened forge. It's not like Meg/Fiona have anything better to do.

I like having them use torch, and sometimes I don't want them torching from behind Nolan. And I'm not making some weak forge just so Nolan with beastfoe won't kill himself on enemy phase. Besides, what if I want them replacing someone else's weapon? Beastkiller seems like a good one to trade off Sothe for an iron dagger or something. Also, depending on the walling situation there might only be one spot behind Nolan that's already taken by an indirect attacker. Now, while you might say that unit would be able to trade, maybe it's attacking first so that when Nolan (assuming no beastfoe) kills the enemy he isn't countered? Just saying that forcing trading to be safe is inferior to not needing trading.

Oh, and he's not facing cats all the time,

Assuming nobody damages the cat he should be. Even if another unit is open, as long as that other unit has a weapon or even better concrete durability Leo will be the one the cat attacks each turn it can.

and even if he does, he has to use Micaiah/Laura to heal him otherwise he doesn't do anything the next turn due to a lack of enemy phase.

Well, Micaiah/Laura/partner priest have to heal everyone. At least Leo is guaranteed to not need it a fair number of turns while the cat is untransformed and too stupid to leave.

BTW, I was exaggerating with Fiona, but you get the point, Meg/Nolan/Eddie/Micaiah/Sothe/Zihark/Jill can all attack behind their feelow units. So doing it is nothing special.

Leo's pulling 30 mt or more at range with near 100% hit rates, and generally is only under 100 when he's on bad bio and the enemy is a cat on best bio. There is nobody pulling that kind of mt. Well, maybe Sothe, but he has beastkiller and should be attacking directly on player phase and having it traded out before enemy phase. Jill needs 19 str and an A Leo/Micaiah to get 30 mt, or 21 str if she supports someone else. Her hit rate will still be bad in comparison. Basically, the only ones who compare are Zihark vs. cats because of doubling (and he'll still have less hit, especially if you bought him a storm sword), but Leo doubles Tigers anyway so Z doesn't come close there without using a storm sword. And of course Micaiah does really well attacking, even promoted Laura with a forged light will do pretty well. But they also spend a fair amount of time healing. I'm just saying, Leo is your best ranged attacker by far, and doesn't cost you 4000 gold to get a storm sword (money that could've gone to the GMs for forging because the DB's really don't need it to win anyway).

Self-healing means he does nothing for a turn. And this can be done with any unit, especially when considering trading.

He does these things better. Besides, that A strike cat on turn 1 can be forced to attack Leo. There's only like 1 or 2 of the A strike guys, so you might as well try to keep it around (he'll happily stay in front of Leo if we don't injure the poor thing). Then Leo only needs healing every other turn. Or you use it to start out wrath and can go around blicking things if you don't want to use him as a "wall". Remember, best ranged offence by a lot due to accuracy and damage, and now became even better with 67% crit (20/2 + 10 + 5 + 50 - 7 = 67% crit rate, 89.11% for at least 1 crit on a tiger if Leo has 15 + 5 speed). Very helpful to your units that can't afford to leave anything injured because of the chance of facing two attacks. Can allow self healing and let Micaiah/Laura attack something.

[-Cynthia-]

Stefan usually shows up too late in the desert to do much at all IMO.

Micaiah only has 6 Mov and we pretty much have to clear all enemies from that side of the map or we'll be restarting. Stefan isn't that great when he's recruited, mainly because he has Mov issues like all other foot units, your fliers will be reaching things way before he does. If we recruit Stefan with enemies around, I don't see how they're not killing Micaiah.

Edited August 1, 2009 by -Cynthia-

[grandjackal]

Hmmm...I got a question.

Exactly how farfetched is the idea that Neal will have S strike by part 4? I assume it's rediculous, due to how little time he has in part 2. t sucks, because with a C support and S strike, he can actually 2 round common enemies in part 4...Sucks Michaiah doesn't have leadership, or else even Neal would be hard to touch. At base, they're pulling like 46 hit at best. Strongest enemy 3RKOs him, and has 24 displayed hit on him. Also add in that he's Naesala's fastest support, and most beneficial. Both need barely any avoid to become decent dodgers, and both love the power boost.

Without S strike though, he's like..4RKOing common enemies...Which is bad, mkay?

BEXP wise, His best growths are HP, Luck, and a tie between Defense and Speed (weird). Only needs 3 points of defense to max it out. Once it's maxed out, it's basically HP, Speed and Luck. However, the space between base and cap is hefty (7 HP, 5 speed, 11 Luck). Strength won't be getting abused any time soon.

His strength blows, but...his flying and still hard to touch-ness is still helpful, especially since it's not like he's paper durably now.He's still relatively hard to kill.

Perhaps I'm just talking out my ass though. Ravens have a weird meter, as it takes forever to transform but the benefit is they stay transformed for long. Blows he's 8 levels away froma satori sign.

In fact, the avoid difference between Neal and Naesala is...get this...8. Either way, doesn't stop him from beating Neal's ass up and down the street regardless. 15 more base might, twice as much crit, 6 more defense, 8 more resistance, 7 more HP, skills that kills...

I'll sum it up like this. If by some miracle you got Nealuchi to level 28 by endgame, and with an A with Naesala (since Neal's bound to have S strike by now), he's 3RKOing generals, and with Wrath can easier make it an instant kill. At a realistic level though prior to that, he's 4RKOing with said stats. Still...pretty bad. At least he has natural Wrath...

Basically, he'd be Naesala with less offense. Though at least he would be very hard to kill, as with an A Naesala and leadership, Neal's too damn hard to touch. 5 levels is also all he needs to be doubling auras. I could say a semi-salvageable part 4 with a great part 2 would be better than Eddie, Leo and Rolf.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Pretty Boi Wolf

[dondon151]

Don't start with the hype, bro.

I guess Nealuchi can get near S strike if we throw him in a giant group of enemies in 2-E, though, but I don't think anyone actually does that...

[grandjackal]

Don't start with the hype, bro.

I guess Nealuchi can get near S strike if we throw him in a giant group of enemies in 2-E, though, but I don't think anyone actually does that...

It's why I asked the question though, I'm aware I might be hyping him up with no warrented base. It could change him rather significantly ;;>>

But anyways, lessee how weird it would be for 2-E...

Neal at base has 96 avoid.

Basically to be able to have around 40 displayed hit on Neal, you need a crossbow, or you're the one of 2 swordmasters on the entire map.

To 3RKO Neal, you need 38 ATK, all of which there are 6 of on the map. They have about 30 displayed hit on him no less.

Can 2RKO generally anything not a general, can 1RKO mages, and then consider Wrath.

OK, might really be quite farfetched...How much would Elincia's 1 authority over Ludveck weigh here?

[Narga_Rocks]

Stefan usually shows up too late in the desert to do much at all IMO.

Micaiah only has 6 Mov and we pretty much have to clear all enemies from that side of the map or we'll be restarting. Stefan isn't that great when he's recruited, mainly because he has Mov issues like all other foot units, your fliers will be reaching things way before he does. If we recruit Stefan with enemies around, I don't see how they're not killing Micaiah.

I think you are exaggerating Micaiah's issues in that chapter. When she lands on the square to recruit Stefan, there are two warriors nearby and if you have flier support Micaiah and the flier can take out one and Stefan can take the other. I don't remember for sure, but I think the recruit square isn't even in range of the second warrior, so Stefan can take the first one and the second will suicide on enemy phase since only Stefan will be in its range. The recruit square is also just outside of the range of the dragonmasters, so she's safe from them. Aside from that, there are two dragonmasters in the northeast and 2 snipers also in the northeast to deal with. I don't know about Tanith, but a trained Marcia easily has the speed to double, so she one rounds if she hits twice with the wyrmslayer. She might miss, but it's unlikely she'll miss once each on both of them, and can finish the other on the following player phase. Or you can have someone else draw them on turn 1 enemy phase, but if the unit can't use swords it is unlikely they'll be able to ORKO. Anyway, the snipers are also easy enough to deal with because of fail move. You just need to kill 1 and she can dance through the other guy's range without it being able to attack (She has just enough if you place her right to get past it). There's also a sage that appears after the first turn in the northeast corner, but it's a sage. She's the queen of res.

Getting Micaiah safely to Stefan is basically a matter of killing two dragonmasters and one sniper. Then Stefan kills 3 dragonmasters and 2 fighters. It isn't much, but it makes the area around the boss much safer. Of course, if you trained Marcia she can do it too, but most people don't train Marcia, so it's a bonus for Stefan. Besides, even if you have a bunch of fliers that can do it, the fact is they don't have to do it because Stefan is there, allowing them to focus on the enemies coming up the middle and in the southwest, after a little bit of support for Micaiah in the first 2 turns in the northeast.

I'm not saying Stefan is going to do much against the enemies near the boss, since it would take him 3 or 4 turns of movement to get down there, but he's not useless since there are 5 things for him to kill.

[Mekkah]

Wolf, just get to the point. What do you want with the old crow?

Lower Middle (11)

Lucia

Volke

Stefan

Tormod

Edward

Rolf

Leonardo

Nealuchi

I can't see him climbing above Leonardo, tbh, so either they would have to both move up or others have to move down. But I'm really not seeing it.

[Lord Raven]

You're severely underestimating them. They can double practically everything and both have decent crit, futhermore, Volke has very good offence, and both can survive pretty easily.

Volke's crit is amazing and he can immediately rape with the Beast Killer in the chapter he comes in.

Stefan's bases are more or less comparable to a 20/4-5 Mia; in fact I do recall them being better. And guess what level Mia's likely to be at this time?

Same with comparable to Zihark, but Zihark's likely to be underleveled although his Earth affinity would kinda make up for it I suppose. Still if you want an end-game Vague Katti user ready from the getgo, Stefan is definitely your man.

[-Cynthia-]

Volke's crit is amazing and he can immediately rape with the Beast Killer in the chapter he comes in.

Stefan's bases are more or less comparable to a 20/4-5 Mia; in fact I do recall them being better. And guess what level Mia's likely to be at this time?

Same with comparable to Zihark, but Zihark's likely to be underleveled although his Earth affinity would kinda make up for it I suppose. Still if you want an end-game Vague Katti user ready from the getgo, Stefan is definitely your man.

When doing any comparison against Mia/Zihark, remember that they'll have an 'A' support by this time. Stefan will have like a 'C' by 4-E(3), half of which provides a hit bonus which doesn't help him much at all. That means Mia and Zihark end up beating Stefan pretty badly.

@Narga I think our fliers killing those few units around Stefan would be more efficient than waiting for him to do it. Anyway, I don't see killing like 3 units as much of a +, especially compared to what someone like Tormod does in his chapters.

Edited August 1, 2009 by -Cynthia-

[Narga_Rocks]

When doing any comparison against Mia/Zihark, remember that they'll have an 'A' support by this time. Stefan will have like a 'C' by 4-E(3), half of which provides a hit bonus which doesn't help him much at all. That means Mia and Zihark end up beating Stefan pretty badly.

@Narga I think our fliers killing those few units around Stefan would be more efficient than waiting for him to do it. Anyway, I don't see killing like 3 units as much of a +, esecially compared to what someone like Tormod does in his chapters.

Stefan's usefulness relies mostly on your look at his worth for endgame. I personally don't see him making it because Mia and Zihark will be better than he is for it. As such, I'd try to push him and Volke down further if I thought it would work. Ditto Bastian and Oliver. I'd really like to see Tormod > Lucia > Stefan > Volke, possibly with other units in between somewhere. But since a lot of people don't seem to see it that way, I've pretty much given up on it. As such, if he has 4-E = 2 chapters and 5 kills on 4-3, then he's looking at maybe 2 and a half chapters worth. Assuming most units are killing 10 enemies on 4-3. It's not that bad. We aren't waiting for long for him to kill them. He'll take out two of the dragonmasters the enemy phase after he shows up, if it's done a certain way. We are mostly waiting for him to be recruited, but I think that can be done before the middle is cleared out anyway, so our fliers are busy there. Tanith and Sigrun don't even count because they are moving around Sothe so we can arrange for a guy with a full inventory to pick stuff up and send it to cargo. Can't load up everyone just in case someone happens to pick something up. Well, maybe you could.

Anyway, Tormod kills a couple of things in the south of 1-8, takes out a sage blocking a ledge in 1-7 and isn't all that great in 1-E anyway. I think what he does is superior to Stefan since sending Stefan to 4-E isn't as good as sending Mia/Zihark, but since nobody seems to care about that I figure Stefan > Tormod is logically consistent with what is happening with other units on this list.

[Lord Raven]

No, only Zihark ends up beating him pretty badly by endgame. This barely grants Mia much of an attack bonus over Stefan; at best it's a +1 or +2. Stefan, in turn, has more HP for about even durability and offense (more AS, though). And guess which of these two require less work?

[CT075]

No, only Zihark ends up beating him pretty badly by endgame. This barely grants Mia much of an attack bonus over Stefan; at best it's a +1 or +2. Stefan, in turn, has more HP for about even durability and offense (more AS, though). And guess which of these two require less work?

Actually, Mia will have more attack than Stefan nearly all the time due to an A support, she'll probably have more avo if she got an earth support (maybe even without one; I'm too lazy to check), and she's faster than him too. Meanwhile, Zihark is awesome for most of part one (pretty eh on 1-E, though) and is still awesome in part 4. Not to mention that he's like the only one who can use the 3-13 Tempest Blade.

[Florete]

No, only Zihark ends up beating him pretty badly by endgame. This barely grants Mia much of an attack bonus over Stefan; at best it's a +1 or +2. Stefan, in turn, has more HP for about even durability and offense (more AS, though). And guess which of these two require less work?

Huh? A 20/5 Mia is already arguably better than Stefan and gives out support bonuses to boot, while Zihark will be just nearing promotion and always has Str issues. If anything, Mia is the one that beats him handily for endgame.

[Narga_Rocks]

No, only Zihark ends up beating him pretty badly by endgame. This barely grants Mia much of an attack bonus over Stefan; at best it's a +1 or +2. Stefan, in turn, has more HP for about even durability and offense (more AS, though). And guess which of these two require less work?

Even an A thunder would put Mia leagues above Stefan in terms of durability. They don't compete in 4-3 since sending Mia to 4-3 is nuts, so by 4-E-1 Mia is 20/10 if you weren't training too many people in Ike's part 4 chapters (like, 1/5 the kills for the 5 units you train or something), and Stefan is at best getting one level in 4-3.

At this point, Mia has:

50 hp, 29.9 str, 37.4 skl, 37.85 spd, 25.7 lck, 24.8 def, 17.5 res, and an A something. And had 4 level ups with a 1.6 growth so could've had some bexp to boost str and def (slowplaying a few part 3 chapters so it's cheap), so 30 str (+2 mt from support, so 32 effective) and 25 def seems pretty easy, and probably 27 or more luck and 19 res.

Stefan has:

53.55 hp, 27.5 str, 37.6 skl, 36.6 spd, 20.15 lck, 21.4 def, 16.5 res. No chance of bexp boosting until after 20/13, and no support until 4-E-3.

So, Stefan has 93+15 base avo, Mia has 101+15. Mia has only 3 or 4 less hp, but 3 more def (cancels out for one hit, then as the hits come in the gap increases in Mia's favour)

Mia can have either A earth, for 124+15 avo, or A thunder, for 5 total more def and 3 or 4 total more res and 109+15 avo.

She's either looking at beating his avo by 31 and def by 3, or his avo by 16 and his def by 5. Either way, she beats his durability pretty hard.

As for offence, 32 str vs. 27.5. 8 more damage per double attack, easily ORKOing things he doesn't and whatever she doesn't ORKO is a lot closer to death.

And the avo gap isn't going to change since Stefan isn't getting B until 4-E-5 at the earliest and his speed growth and lck growth are worse than hers. Plus it takes him until --/--/18 just to reach her def. He will catch up in res, provided she didn't boost it in tier 2 with bexp and that she doesn't have thunder. Otherwise he still can't touch that, either.

And Mia requiring more work? Well, it always requires using a unit to make it stronger, but Mia was actually helping us a lot the whole time. Would you begrudge Ike the cost of training him?

(I know others typed stuff, too, but I'm throwing in more numbers and was typing before I saw their's.)

[-Cynthia-]

Yeah, this kind of goes back to the discussion earlier I had where I showed Stefan was like the # 20 unit we could bring to Endgame(admittedly, some of the margins of victory were rather small, but still).

I'm actually content with Stefan/Volke's current positions. TBH, Tormod isn't really all that useful in Part 1.

[Zkirsche]

@RFOF: Any thoughts on Ena > Bastian? Or Lethe > Pelleas. Or Soren > Calill.

@Mekkah: Why can't Nealuchi > Leo? Nealuchi's part 2 is awesome, pretty boi wolf has shown how his durability is quite consistent and how his offence is helped through S strike, not fixed, but helped.

[grandjackal]

I said in my first post on the matter that maybe he should rise over Leo, Eddie and Rolf, which I don't think is to unreasonable. Eddie and Leo's part 1 isn't exactly stellar. Leo might have a case with his part 3, and Eddie with his part 4, but Neal ca be salvaged with a little help, while these two need tons of exp and effort dumped into them. Rolf's only good part is like more than halfway through part 3. Rolf doesn't get Neal's durability of his base until level 3 tier 3, and still doesn't have his dodge. Basically, I'm saying that while he's not as available, he needs much less effort to be usable. eddie's a pain to train, Leo's uses drop like a rock when part 4 rolls around, and Rolf sucks pretty hard in comparison to his team.

That support with Naesala is also rather justified. According to support data, Neal's his absolute fastest support, and they both get what they want out of it-Power. Neither of them really need a buttload more avoid as they'll easily have enough. Fliers are great in Michaiah's route.

Another thing to factor in is that Neal has Wrath and LOTS of speed. Basically as soon as he gets S strike, he is incredibly dangerous offensively with Wrath.

[Lord Raven]

Even an A thunder would put Mia leagues above Stefan in terms of durability. They don't compete in 4-3 since sending Mia to 4-3 is nuts, so by 4-E-1 Mia is 20/10 if you weren't training too many people in Ike's part 4 chapters (like, 1/5 the kills for the 5 units you train or something), and Stefan is at best getting one level in 4-3.

A Thunder with who? Shinon? Then she gets +8 Avoid and +2 Defense and +2 Strength. Except that Shinon's pretty much the only Thunder affinity and there are many other pairs he can go with that will arguably make them more useful as well; Ike/Shinon comes to mind.

50 hp, 29.9 str, 37.4 skl, 37.85 spd, 25.7 lck, 24.8 def, 17.5 res, and an A something. And had 4 level ups with a 1.6 growth so could've had some bexp to boost str and def (slowplaying a few part 3 chapters so it's cheap), so 30 str (+2 mt from support, so 32 effective) and 25 def seems pretty easy, and probably 27 or more luck and 19 res.

What chapter is this and what level is she? If this is by Chapter 4-3 then I see it as pretty unlikely. Maybe Level 20/8-9 by the start of the endgame compared to Level 20/8-9 for Stefan is a viable comparison, but that seems like you're favoring Mia too much.

And Mia requiring more work? Well, it always requires using a unit to make it stronger, but Mia was actually helping us a lot the whole time. Would you begrudge Ike the cost of training him?

Wrong.

Mia starts out pretty mediocre damage wise. Until you get Steel Blades. But at the start, guess who's beating her? Oscar is tying, Titania, Shinon, Ike, Gatrie, and eventually Haar when you get him.

Mia tends to 2-3 round, sometimes 4 round things early on. Yeah, she does get better over time, but the fact is that Stefan is still comparable to her. I'm not arguing Stefan > Mia by any means, I'm arguing that they're comparable on equal levels near the end, and she doesn't blow Stefan out of the water enough for Stefan to suck or be unusable or whatever. Zihark might with an Earth support, but definitely not Mia.

Helping lots? Not necessarily. Especially since she doesn't gain much more EXP than your higher leveled units and she's farther from promotion. That's what I mean by "work," because Stefan doesn't really compete for any of that early on; he comes in with pretty good stats from the get-go.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Lord Raven

[grandjackal]

Now thinking about part 2, How many characters with long-term use pull any benefit from part 2 where Neal also exists? Won't help Brom any, as great as he is. Mordy's in the same boat. Lucia is salvageable just like Neal, but has much less time to do anything about it and perhaps performs a bit worse than he during that time they share an existence (as great as being forced on exp heavy part 4 maps is). Elincia chapter 1 doesn't really benefit at all from the prologue, I'm sure Marcia would love to be babied by Neal that chapter since eventually Haar could end the chapter with a sneeze anyways, then Epilogue...

-Nephenee has the same problem, difference being that she has to carry over mehness to the GMs anyways. All it really does is help her get out of her mehness sooner rather than when it would best help.

-Calill has little time to do anything with herself. Neal could help set her up leech kills anyways.

-Elincia benefits more from healing than actual fighting.

-Brom is meh

-Haar doesn't NEED help to be awesome, he's just mainly there as a safety issue.

-Marcia might benefit, just like Neph but has a much worse situation.

-Lethe sucks, and nothing can be done about it anytime soon.

-Mordy's lack of doubling really kills how fast he gains strike levels.

-The CRK suck regardless.

-Lyre smells of herpes.

With how durable, dodgy and how well offensively he is his part 2 existence, see no reason we shouldn't really expose him to plenty of action. He benefits the most from just seeing action, as exp is of minor help to him at that time. He'd care more about strike level for part 4.

Basically I'm saying that Neal's offense is easier salvaged than some people's leveling problems.

Edited August 1, 2009 by Pretty Boi Wolf

[Lord Raven]

Lyre doesn't have herpes in part 2. because she doesn't exist in part 2

[Jaybee]

I guess Nealuchi can get near S strike if we throw him in a giant group of enemies in 2-E, though, but I don't think anyone actually does that...

If Neal gets hit by a Bowgun, he's in Wrath mode, a.k.a. killing machine. Though he'd be better suited for hit-and-ru ntactics.

[-Cynthia-]

If Neal gets hit by a Bowgun, he's in Wrath mode, a.k.a. killing machine. Though he'd be better suited for hit-and-ru ntactics.

A Bowgun leaves Nealuchi with 1 HP I think (24* 3= 72-20 = 52 Neal has 53 HP). I wouldn't really risk it.

[grandjackal]

Considering Neal would prefer to just attack whatever to build up strike level, unless a kill can net him actual exp at that point...

His problem isn't his actual level, it's strike level.