Tino vs. Red Fox of Fire

[Tino]

I open. Coming soon...

[Tino]

Apologies for the delay :o

So we've got Artur and Lute. Two units who are ironically their best support partners, probably making this a very interesting match-up.

Artur and Lute join at roughly the same time (Lute probably joins half a chapter later or something), so Artur won't have an extra level on Lute when she joins. Since Lute joins pretty late in Chapter 4, though, it's not the best chapter to compare them in, so I'm going to compare them at the start of Chapter 5, and Artur probably has gained a level by then, while Lute hasn't.

3/0 Artur

Lightning: 11 Atk, 8 AS, 8 Crt ,, 20 HP, 2 Def, 7 Res, 18 Avo

1/0 Lute

Fire: 11 Atk, 6 AS, 3 Crt ,, 17 HP, 3 Def, 5 Res, 20 Avo

So it's basically 2 AS, 5 Crt and 3 HP against 1 Def and 2 Avo (which pretty much converts to 1 Def. That 2 AS admittedly doesn't make much o fa difference, since Lute doubles what Artur doubles (Soldiers), and doesn't double what Artur doesn't double (everything else). So then Artur has a slightly higher chance to crit, for what it's worth, and has a bit more HP. Let's see what's more important: the 3 HP, or the 1 Def.

A 12 Atk Archer deals 10/20 damage to Artur, and deals 9/17 damage to Lute. No difference, really, since both get two-rounded (one point of Atk more or less wouldn't make a difference, either, since then they'll both get three-rounded or still two-rounded respectively). A 15 Atk Brigand deals 13/20 damage to Artur and 12/17 damage to Lute. A 16 Atk Fighter deals 14/20 damage to Artur and 13/17 damage to Lute. A 13 Atk Soldier deals 11/20 damage to Artur and 10/17 damage to Lute.

Conclusion? They're fucking equal... unless you want to argue 5 Crt vs 2 Avo, which would be insane.

Let's take a look at supports next. As I stated in my opening paragraph, Artur and Lute likely want to A support eachother, which is pretty ironic, isn't it? I mean, it's fast their fastest support, gives good bonuses (especially the much needed durability) and they're both likely going to be within support range of eachother due to both being magic users with meh-ish durability (so they're both back-lining).

Then Lute has various other support partners to choose from. I hope you don't mind that I'm going to lol at Ross and Knoll. Kyle, while quite an awesome unit, finds much better support partners in Forde and Ephraim, since they're more likely to be together and/or next to eachother to actually build the support. If Eirika Route is played, then there is a B support slot free for Lute, but then it's still very hard to build the support until Lute promotes, so this isn't a very viable support. Then there's Vanessa. Building supports with Vanessa is even harder than building supports with Kyle, even though Vanessa gives Lute awesome bonuses.

So Lute can get B Kyle or B Vanessa, but she won't benefit from the bonuses until very late, since she can't effectively build those supports until she promotes and gets a horse.

Artur has various good units to choose from. Tethys, Cormag and Joshua are all pretty awesome units, though admittedly, Cormag being a flier makes it a very hard support to build, so it's not very likely to happen. Tethys is a very possible option for Artur. Tethys only has A Gerik and then possibly B Marisa, but since that gives Tethys the same bonuses as B Artur, and Artur is more likely to be near Tethys due to being at the back more often than Marisa, Tethys wants to support Artur rather than Marisa. And otherwise there's still Joshua who he can likely support without trouble, since he often only takes A Natasha because his other possible support partners are already full or are pretty bad units.

So Artur is very likely to get a B Tethys support, and even if he doesn't get that support for whatever reason, he can still grab a B Joshua support.

Or in other words, Artur benefits more from his supports than Lute does, and his supports are more viable as well.

Let's continue looking at their performance now. I'm going to assume Lute catches up to Artur quickly, making them equally levelled. Let's skip ahead to the point where they are 10/0.

10/0 Artur, C Lute

Lightning: 14 Atk, 11 AS, 9 Crt ,, 23 HP, 4 Def, 11 Res, 31 Avo

10/0 Lute, C Artur

Fire: 17 Atk, 10 AS, 4 Crt ,, 21 HP, 5 Def, 10 Res, 37 Avo

So Artur has small AS and Crt leads, while Lute deals 3 more damage per hit. The Crt lead admittedly isn't worth anything, so it's all about 3 Atk vs 1 AS. I don't have any enemy samples, sadly, but if memory serves me well, there are plenty of enemies who have between 6 and 8 AS, so Artur will able to double all the enemies with 7 AS, of which there are also plenty, if I'm correct. So while Lute generally deals more damage, Artur doubles a bit more often.

As for the damage output, let's assume a 29 HP/3 Res enemy. Artur deals 11 damage per hit and three-rounds. Lute deals 14 damage per hit and three-rounds, and seeing how there are 27 HP/2 Res enemies in Chapter 8, I don't think it's very unlikely to see dudes with 29 HP/3 Res or something similar when Artur and Lute are 10/0, making Artur's very tiny AS lead more valuable than Lute's decent Atk lead.

Defensively, it's still incredibly close. 6 Avo is still rather insignificant, and likely won't make the difference (I'd say it's about equal to that 1 Res of Artur, so even if it would make the difference, Artur's Res lead nullifies it). So it's 2 HP vs 1 Def. Very close again.

14 Atk Mercenaries three-round both Artur and Lute. Same for 14 Atk Archers. 16 Atk Soldiers two-round both Artur and Lute. Same for 19 Atk Fighters. And it goes on like this for the entire time. Everything that two-round Artur, two-rounds Lute. Everything that three-rounds Artur, three-rounds Lute, etcetera. There's nothing physically out there that four-rounds or one-rounds either Artur or Lute, so those enemies don't matter. In other words, they're defensively equal again.

So Artur is slightly better here, due to his very tiny offensive lead.

Skipping ahead to promotion, around Scorched Sand. Artur promotes to Bishop, most likely, granting him Slayer, an Exp boost, and a very high Staff level immediately. Lute likely promotes to Mage Knight, granting her a pony, a bit more movement, and a higher chance to finally start building B supports a bit more easily (though it's still pretty hard due to Lute being at the backlines, even with her pony, which, by the way, makes her pony less valuable than Artur's promotional gains that I mentioned... and I really should stop saying "pony").

20/1 Artur, A Lute/B Tethys

Lightning: 23 Atk, 15 AS, 18 Crt ,, 32 HP, 12 Def, 22 Res, 62 Avo

Shine: 25 Atk, 14 AS, 21 Crt, 32 HP, 12 Def, 22 Res, 60 Avo

20/1 Lute, A Artur

Fire: 25 Atk, 16 AS, 6 Crt ,, 29 HP, 12 Def, 17 Res, 64 Avo

Thunder: 28 Atk, 16 AS, 11 Crt ,, 29 HP, 12 Def, 17 Res, 64 Avo

Looking at the raw statistics, it's pretty safe to say Lute has an offensive advantage, rigth? That's true, but there are a few other things to consider than just their Atk and AS stats. Thouh Lute has finally managed to obtain herself an AS lead, Artur is more likely than not doubling anyway with his 14-15 AS. He doubles those nasty Steel Lance Wyverns and Pegasi. He doesn't double the 13 AS Mercs, but neither does Lute, so that doesn't matter. Same for 15 AS Myrms. Both double Fightes, Mages and Shamans. Cavs with their 9-10 AS also are no problem for Artur and Lute. And then we have some promoted stuff like 16 AS Rangers, 14 AS Berserkers and 10 AS Paladins. In other words, everything that Lute doubles, Artur doubles as well. Everything Artur doesn't double, Lute also doesn't double.

Then it's basically 2-3 Atk vs 10-12 Crt. A 32 HP/2 Res Wyvern gets one-rounded by both of them. Same for a 24 HP/7 Res Pegasus. 30 HP/3 Res Mercs get two-rounded by both Artur and Lute. Same for 26 HP/3 Res Myrms. 32 HP/2 Res Fighters get fucked over by both Artur and Lute. Mages get blown to hell by both of them in one round, and so do Shamans. Then there's this 32 HP/2 Res (of which there apparantly are quite a lot) Cav that gets one-rounded by both of them. Rangers are the only enemies that Lute two-rounds with Fire that Artur doesn't two-round with Lightning, but Artur can simply use Shine instead so that he also two-rounds (and he still doesn't get doubled, so he can safely use it. 44 HP/3 Res Berserkers get screwed over by Fire Lute and Shine Artur in one-round. 40 HP/8 Res Paladins are the only enemies Lute has a significant advantage against, and there are a grand total of 2 on the map.

10-12 more Crt against all enemies >> Being better against two of many enemies quite easily, so Artur still has an offensive advantage.

Defensively, it's not very debatable. 3 HP and 5 Res obviously > 2 Avo no matter what.

Now I'll skip ahead to the end of the game. Artur has an Exp boost, so he can get himself a small level lead.

20/12 Artur, A Lute/B Tethys

Lightning: 28 Atk, 20 AS, 21 Crt ,, 38 HP, 13 Def, 26 Res, 74 Avo

Shine: 30 Atk, 19 AS, 24 Crt ,, 38 HP, 13 Def, 26 Res, 72 Avo

20/10 Lute, A Artur

Fire: 31 Atk, 20 AS, 7 Crt ,, 33 HP, 13 Def, 22 Res, 76 Avo

Thunder: 34 Atk, 20 AS, 12 Crt ,, 33 HP, 13 Def, 22 Res, 76 Avo

Offensively there's nothing to argue. Both double the same amount of things, but Artur has more Crt and Slayer against all those hordes of enemies, which easily >>>> 3-4 Atk. Defensively there's even less to argue. 5 HP and 4 Res vs. 2-4 Avo? Artur obviously wins that.

All in all, Artur is superior to Lute all the time, except when they have just joined.

Edited February 22, 2009 by Tino

[Florete]

Very sorry for the huge delay. Let's get on with this.

Conclusion? They're fucking equal... unless you want to argue 5 Crt vs 2 Avo, which would be insane.

I hope you don't mind if I don't respond to any of that since I can't think of anything that would give Lute a lead over Artur.

I hope you don't mind that I'm going to lol at Ross and Knoll.

Knoll I can lol at. Rofl at possibly the worst character in the game who doesn't even give very good bonuses.

Ross...not so much. Sure, he's not an amazing character, but he has a lot of time to grow and definitely wants at least a B Lute when he's played (since he'd likely take A Garcia), so I see this support very possible, though not happening all the time.

So Lute can get B Kyle or B Vanessa, but she won't benefit from the bonuses until very late, since she can't effectively build those supports until she promotes and gets a horse.

Kyle I can probably give you, but Vanessa definitely wants Lute since the only people on her list that match her movement are lolSyrene and Forde, who you just said is supporting Kyle/Ephraim anyway (and the bonuses aren't as good). The support might take time to build, but it's most definitely worth it for both of them. And it doesn't actually take that long: 25 turns for C, 30 turns for B. Considering Vanessa's earlygame frailty with her 17 HP/6 Def (only slightly higher by Lute's jointime) she's not too likely to be very far off anyway.

I should also mention that the boosts they get are pretty sweet. At B rank, it's +2 atk, +2 def, +10 avo, and +10 Crit evade. Hell, Lute would almost rather take A Vanessa over A Artur and have B Artur instead, but unfortunately, time and movement differences won't allow that quite as easily.

So Artur is very likely to get a B Tethys support, and even if he doesn't get that support for whatever reason, he can still grab a B Joshua support.

That one is a bit out there. Supporting a unit who's sole purpose is to get other units farther in the map means it's not likely any unit will end their turn next to Tethys, much less be fighting enemies while in her range since she has no combat potential. If Artur can grab B Tethys, I think it's very possible for Lute to grab B Vanessa.

I suppose he can get Joshua, but the bonuses aren't any good. All it matches is accuracy and Crit evade, which neither should have a problem with, and then they both get 1 Atk, 1 Def, 7 Crit, and 7 avo. In fact, the Tethys support isn't much better. It trades some crit evade for +8 avoid.

Actually, now that I see it, Joshua would rather have B Gerik since it's trading Artur's hit boost for a crit boost. I don't think I need to explain why a Swordmaster like Joshua would prefer a crit boost over a hit boost.

So Lute is actually benefitting more from her supports than Artur, as well as giving her partners better benefits (Lute's partners want her more than Artur's partners want him)

As for the damage output, let's assume a 29 HP/3 Res enemy. Artur deals 11 damage per hit and three-rounds. Lute deals 14 damage per hit and three-rounds, and seeing how there are 27 HP/2 Res enemies in Chapter 8, I don't think it's very unlikely to see dudes with 29 HP/3 Res or something similar when Artur and Lute are 10/0, making Artur's very tiny AS lead more valuable than Lute's decent Atk lead.

Not much to argue with here without enemy samples, but I find it pretty unlikely that there are a lot of enemies with 7 AS, and Lute only needs 1 more level to start two-rounding more often anyway (It's pretty likely she'd gain at least Mag or Spd, at which point she'd be doubling as much/2RKO'ing that 29 HP/3 Res enemy) which she can likely gain within the map.

20/1 Artur, A Lute/B Tethys

Lightning: 23 Atk, 15 AS, 18 Crt ,, 32 HP, 12 Def, 22 Res, 62 Avo

Shine: 25 Atk, 14 AS, 21 Crt, 32 HP, 12 Def, 22 Res, 60 Avo

20/1 Lute, A Artur

Fire: 25 Atk, 16 AS, 6 Crt ,, 29 HP, 12 Def, 17 Res, 64 Avo

Thunder: 28 Atk, 16 AS, 11 Crt ,, 29 HP, 12 Def, 17 Res, 64 Avo

I think I've fairly argued that if Artur can get B Tethys, Lute can get B Vanessa. In addition to what I said earlier, it starts sooner (as many as 9 chapters, in fact) and takes just as many turns to build. In fact, unless we're going Eirika's route, I can't see how he would have B Tethys since he'd only have 2 maps to build it. Even C is unlikely since he'd have to end his turn near a unit who has 0 combat ability on her own. On Eirika's route it's probably possible though.

But Lute can still have nabbed a B Vanessa pretty easily by now. This gives Lute another 2 atk to add to her previous lead, gives her +2 defense on Artur, closes the Resistance gap to 3 instead of 5, and gives her 10 more avoid to add to her previos 2-4 avoid lead. Based on your enemy samples, this isn't helping her ORKO any more, but it gives her a pretty good defensive lead.

10-12 more Crt against all enemies >> Being better against two of many enemies quite easily, so Artur still has an offensive advantage.

That's kind of stretching it. Lute is almost guaranteed to be better against these two enemies, but Artur only has a very small chance of being better against others, plenty of whom they would both one round anyway. The chance that Artur performs better against a few enemies is about equal to Lute being better than the 2 Paladins, so they're equal again.

Defensively, it's not very debatable. 3 HP and 5 Res obviously > 2 Avo no matter what.

Ah, but not with Vanessa around. 2 Def and 12-14 avoid > 3 HP and 3 Res. The defense lead climbs to 3 if Artur wasn't able to get B Tethys yet, and the avoid lead also climbs to 17-19, as well as Artur losing 3 of that crit that might have given him an advantage in the last point.

Offensively there's nothing to argue. Both double the same amount of things, but Artur has more Crt and Slayer against all those hordes of enemies, which easily >>>> 3-4 Atk. Defensively there's even less to argue. 5 HP and 4 Res vs. 2-4 Avo? Artur obviously wins that.

Once again, not with Vanessa, which is even more likely at this point since Lute has been promoted for a while. With Vanessa, Lute's leads become 5-6 atk, 2 def, and 12-14 avoid. That is, defensively, > 5 HP and 2 Res, since we don't even face many magical enemies.

I can't ignore Slayer. Artur will obviously have an advantage there, but that's really only against enemies Lute won't one-round anyway, which I think Cyclops are probably the only ones.

But what happens when we aren't fighting monsters? It's been established that they both 1-2 round near equally, but Lute has a damage advantage. Why does this matter? Because Lute and Artur are not the only members of the team. Whenever they don't kill, Lute's higher damage output means another ally is more likely to be able to kill the enemy without taking a counter in return. It also means she's more likely to be able to kill a weakened enemy on her own. This kind of point would not normally be worth much, but since these two are so even otherwise, it definitely means something.

Let's go back to supports. They support each other, so they benefit each other equally. But let's look at their B partners. Lute has Vanessa and Artur has Tethys. Tethys, being the utility unit she is, gets almost nothing out of supporting Artur, so the support is more or less one-sided for Artur. However, Vanessa is a combat unit just like Lute and a frontliner, so the support bonuses she gets are very valuable to her since they help her live and kill. Aiding another combat unit > getting one-sided bonuses since it helps overall team efficiency.

One more thing as a closer. Her pony. Why is this awesome? Because it gives her benefits and no downsides. It gives her +1 move, allowing her to reach enemies slightly faster. It gives her the move again ability, which is nice for visiting shops. It also allows her to rescue a unit and move away from that spot immediately, which can easily save a unit in need, like Tethys. It gives her higher aid (14) which allows her to rescue anyone except Gilliam, Garcia, Gerik, Dozla, and Deussel. On the next turn, she can drop that unit and then move to wherever as well. So Lute has more flexibility and utility than Artur does.

It's surprising how even these two are, but Lute manages to come out on top in the end. (Of the list, not the...other way)

[Tino]

I hope you don't mind if I don't respond to any of that since I can't think of anything that would give Lute a lead over Artur.

Fair enough, I suppose. Well, that 5 Crt actually might give Artur some small kind of lead, but a 5 Crt lead is so incredibly negligible that it won't matter anyway. And it's basically the same with Lute's Avo.

So let's simply assume they're equal there.

Ross...not so much. Sure, he's not an amazing character, but he has a lot of time to grow and definitely wants at least a B Lute when he's played (since he'd likely take A Garcia), so I see this support very possible, though not happening all the time.

"A lot of time to grow" matters nothing when the unit in question doesn't do anything with this time. Ross is an overall below average unit.

1/0/0 Ross

Hatchet: 9 Atk, 3 AS ,, 15 HP, 3 Def, 14 Avo

Iron Axe: 13 Atk, 1 AS ,, 15 HP, 3 Def, 10 Avo

He joins in Chapter 2, which is loaded with Brigands, just like Chapter 3 is. Well, "loaded" is quite an overstatment, I suppose, but that doesn't change that the majority of the enemies consists of Brigands.

Chapter 2 Brigands have 14-15 Atk and 6-7 AS, which means they can one-round Ross quite easily. If Ross goes for higher damage output with Iron, he gets one-rounded no matter what, and if the Brigand has 7 AS, Ross gets one-rounded no matter what. Now, you might argue that this doesn't matter nearly as much because he can utilize 1-2 range with his Hatchet and not get attacked, but here's the catch: Brigands tend to target those units that they can one-round, and the chance that Ross is protected all the time is very slim, which means there will be plenty of occasions where Ross can be attacked by at least one enemy, which means there's quite a good chance that he'll get one-rounded (or two-rounded, for that matter, which is still fail).

You think this doesn't prove enough? Let's compare him to the other units we have at this point.

3/0 Eirika

Iron Sword: 10 Atk, 10 AS ,, 17 HP, 4 Def, 26 Avo

Eirika is definitely doing a lot better. She can double, deals more damage per blow (since Ross doesn't want to completely destroy the little durability he has by using Iron) and has far better durability. She takes two less damage and has 15 additional Avo against the Brigands to top it off (which means the Brigands have something like 25% true Hit against her).

2/0 Franz

Iron Sword: 12 Atk, 8 AS ,, 21 HP, 6 Def, 18 Avo

Hmm, Ross gets owned pretty hard, once again, except that he gets owned even harder defensively by Franz than by Eirika.

4/0 Gilliam

Iron Lance: 16 Atk, 3 AS ,, 25 HP, 9 Def, 9 Avo

Gilliam features the same AS as Ross. However, the big difference lies in the HP/Def differences. Gilliam has a massive 10 HP/6 Def lead, which results in Gilliam getting two-rounded in the worst-case scenario, and five-rounded in the best-case scenario, which is obviously a lot better than Ross can ever pull off.

1/0 Vanessa

Slim Lance: 9 Atk, 11 AS ,, 17 HP, 6 Def, 26 Avo

Iron Lance: 12 Atk, 8 AS ,, 17 HP, 6 Def, 20 Avo

I see Vanessa deal more damage overall due to doubling with Slim, and having more Atk with Iron, and though she doesn't have much better durability than Ross (though Vanessa doesn't ever get one-rounded, where Ross does), she also boasts flier utility, which means getting that Pure Water quickly, and recruiting Ross and Garcia early. All in all, Vanessa is also easily better than Ross.

Then Seth and Moulder are far better than Ross for obvious reasons, and the same goes for Garcia. The above comparisons were just to show how much he fails in comparison to the worse units you have at the moment (though you can't exactly call them very "bad", but this does indicate that Ross is the worst unit by a very long shot, which is a huge negative towards the entire team).

Now you might argue that he gains a lot of Exp per hit, but this doesn't matter in the slightest, as it only makes him grow faster. It doesn't give him any direct advantage over the other units at the moment. There's no Exp rank in this game and his performance in a chapter also remains practically unchanged even with his higher Exp gain (and this much higher Exp gain is pretty much gone as soon as he promotes for the first time, which is when this Exp gain lead of him is worth even less than it already is).

So he already has a hard time staying alive earlygame.

And because this debate isn't about Ross, I'll stop this here, but I do want to mention that Ross has serious trouble doubling things later on (he might even have trouble doubling most monsters) and all he has is pretty high Atk. A Garcia support is very unlikely, because Garcia isn't much better than Ross, since he's even slower (but has a bit more Crt, is better earlygame, and possibly has more Atk as well) than Ross is.

Does the 2 Atk/10 Avo/1 Def Lute gives make Ross much better? Lolno. 2 Atk isn't going to make any significant difference since Ross isn't doubling, and that 10 Avo/1 Def might make him survive one or two more attacks, but survivability isn't exactly a big problem later in the game, not even for Ross, so even those durability boosts aren't going to do much for Ross.

So in the end, Lute isn't going to support Ross.

Kyle I can probably give you, but Vanessa definitely wants Lute since the only people on her list that match her movement are lolSyrene and Forde, who you just said is supporting Kyle/Ephraim anyway (and the bonuses aren't as good). The support might take time to build, but it's most definitely worth it for both of them. And it doesn't actually take that long: 25 turns for C, 30 turns for B. Considering Vanessa's earlygame frailty with her 17 HP/6 Def (only slightly higher by Lute's jointime) she's not too likely to be very far off anyway.

On Eirika Route, Forde does give Vanessa some much-needed Atk, so it's not very unlikely that Forde might support Vanessa on Eirika Route.

Let's see how they are going to build their support...

In Chapter 4, Lute barely exists, so the chance that they'll be getting even a single support point here is very slim. And no, Vanessa isn't the only one who can recruit Lute quickly. And even if you want to recruit Lute that early, I don't really see why you would want a defensively detrimental unit to join as early as possible, especially when, in that case (so when you recruit her early), she also won't have any others to protect the frailty that she is.

In Chapter 5, it's not unlikely that Vanessa is visiting all those villages. First of all, she's most likely the unit who's obtaining that Dragonshield for the team, and by the time she'll have catched up to the team, three turns have probably passed already. Then she might have to visit other villages as well (since she can reach them so quickly) or buy various things (like a Heal staff for Natasha, which she can do more safely than Natasha herself). I suppose they can get a few points here.

In Chapter 6, Vanessa is probably rescuing those villagers, protecting them from those nasty spider(s) and/or visiting the southern house. All in all, I doubt they're gaining any support points here.

In Chapter 7, I doubt Vanessa is following the entire main group. I'd say it's more likely that she's going for those enemies at the north-western side of the map, or those Soldiers near the bridge that leads to the castle, since it saves some hassle when the rest of the team reaches them. And perhaps she's also going for this nasty ballista? Her Avo is decent enough (6/0 Vanessa has 35 Avo against the Ballistae with their ~70 Hit, which means the chance that she'll get hit is fairly small, namely ~25%). They're probably not gaining any support points here, either.

In Chapter 8, they're more likely to gain support points, though they're obviously not going to be next to eachother all the time, so they still won't have their C support by the end of this chapter.

And after Chapter 8, Vanessa's durability is good enough for her to be pretty decent on the frontlines, which means Vanessa and Lute are even less likely to be next to eachother, and also aren't very likely to be in eachother's range as soon as they manage to build their C or B support, because Vanessa still has her flying duties to take care of).

So a Vanessa support also isn't going to work out.

That one is a bit out there. Supporting a unit who's sole purpose is to get other units farther in the map means it's not likely any unit will end their turn next to Tethys, much less be fighting enemies while in her range since she has no combat potential. If Artur can grab B Tethys, I think it's very possible for Lute to grab B Vanessa.

Fun fact: Artur is one of those units who, just like Lute, is going to stay behind your other units most of the time, just like Tethys. Therefore, Artur is actually pretty likely to be next to Tethys, and even more likely to be in her support range.

Oh yeah, and a defensive failure like Tethys benefits a lot from the 1 Def and 10 Avo Artur gives her.

Not much to argue with here without enemy samples, but I find it pretty unlikely that there are a lot of enemies with 7 AS, and Lute only needs 1 more level to start two-rounding more often anyway (It's pretty likely she'd gain at least Mag or Spd, at which point she'd be doubling as much/2RKO'ing that 29 HP/3 Res enemy) which she can likely gain within the map.

Actually, there are plenty of 7 AS Pirates, Fighters, and even the Sniper has 7 AS. Archers, Soldiers and Shamans have less. The only enemies with more than 7-8 AS are those Mercenaries at the bottom of the map (and there are one or two at the top of the map) which nearly nobody on your team can double anyway, and their AS is 10-11.

So Artur is doubling quite a bit more than Lute is, which already gives him an offensive advantage, and Lute gaining ten levels by Chapter 9 is pretty unlikely, since that would require her gaining 2.5 levels per chapter (hell, even her being 10/0 by now is pretty unlikely, since that still requires her to gain more than two levels per chapter). Artur on the other hand has one more chapter and comes at one level higher, so he has at least a better chance of being 10/0 by now.

So yeah, my comparison is probably off by a bit as well, but altering the comparison will only work more in Artur's favor, so it doesn't matter anyway.

By the way, these were Eirika Route enemies. Ephraim Route isn't much different, though. 7-8 AS Cavaliers, 6-7 AS Archers, 7 AS Fighters, etc. And there are quite a lot of Archers.

That's kind of stretching it. Lute is almost guaranteed to be better against these two enemies, but Artur only has a very small chance of being better against others, plenty of whom they would both one round anyway. The chance that Artur performs better against a few enemies is about equal to Lute being better than the 2 Paladins, so they're equal again.

Except that "all" isn't quite the same as "a few", while you seem to think the opposite is true. Artur is better against nearly all the enemies, while Lute is better against two enemies. Tell me how Lute is winning that?

I can't ignore Slayer. Artur will obviously have an advantage there, but that's really only against enemies Lute won't one-round anyway, which I think Cyclops are probably the only ones.

Nah, I'm also thinking Gorgons (with their high Res), some Maelduins (with their high HP), Elder Baels (huge HP), Gwyllgis (Lute can't double) and Draco Zombies (...).

But what happens when we aren't fighting monsters? It's been established that they both 1-2 round near equally, but Lute has a damage advantage. Why does this matter? Because Lute and Artur are not the only members of the team. Whenever they don't kill, Lute's higher damage output means another ally is more likely to be able to kill the enemy without taking a counter in return. It also means she's more likely to be able to kill a weakened enemy on her own. This kind of point would not normally be worth much, but since these two are so even otherwise, it definitely means something.

Artur counters Lute's Atk lead with superior Crt. This ~10 Crt is actually better than Lute's 4 Atk, because it allows him to one-round more often. Meh. I don't think this needs more explanation.

One more thing as a closer. Her pony. Why is this awesome? Because it gives her benefits and no downsides. It gives her +1 move, allowing her to reach enemies slightly faster. It gives her the move again ability, which is nice for visiting shops. It also allows her to rescue a unit and move away from that spot immediately, which can easily save a unit in need, like Tethys. It gives her higher aid (14) which allows her to rescue anyone except Gilliam, Garcia, Gerik, Dozla, and Deussel. On the next turn, she can drop that unit and then move to wherever as well. So Lute has more flexibility and utility than Artur does.

Lute has pretty bad durability, so the chance that she'll be utilizing this additonal movement is quite slim. What's more reliable is Artur's Slayer. Also, there definitely to come downsides with her pony, namely that she gets slowed down by terrain quite a lot, and terrain like forests happens to be existent very frequently later in the game (Darkling Woods, lol), so that's obviously not a good thing for her, as Artur will probably be reaching enemies faster anyway.

Also, lol at rescuing. Rescuing is such a negligible thing that it's not funny anymore, especially when looking at the durability of the units you mentioned. Gilliam has uber HP/Def, Dozla isn't even played, so he also doesn't need to be rescued, Gerik has awesome durability, and so does Duessel. Oh yeah, and Garcia is pretty fail as well, so he also isn't played. Other units who actually are in play? I doubt Seth, Ephraim, Franz and units like Forde and Kyle are going to need to be rescued, and I also doubt units like Moulder, Artur, and other non-physical units are going to need to be rescued, since they're behind the frontliners anyway.

For the things I didn't counter, that was because they had something to do with supports again, and countering those points would result in "no, with my supports it would look like this" and then Artur would suddenly win again, and then you would say "no, with my supports" and then Lute would win again, so that would become very annoying suddenly. Just some clarification ;)

It's surprising how even these two are, but Lute manages to come out on top in the end. (Of the list, not the...other way)

Hmm, I don't think I would enjoy looking at those two the "other way"...