Swordmasters.

[Icon of Sin]

To add for the FE 5 ones, Dean has his own lance he can use outdoors without worrying too much about its number of uses since you get it halfway in the game, though it should be mostly used for things he can't kill with a common lance (read: very few with a PCC of 3, just give him Eda's Killer already) or enemy phases you don't want to take a hit from. His base speed is good enough to quad everything right from the bat, he has an awesome PCC if he even needs it (mostly if you want to bring him unmounted or if you're using a lance that doesn't double on its own), he actually has nice durability and he even has an awesome support with Linoan and 2 movement stars.

Eda? Not so much. Shitty PCC when she can't kill much without a critical, low BLD kills her AS with lances, requires a Knight Proof, bad swordswoman due to D rank, no skills or anything else... she's really nothing special when most of your good early units, from the Fiana axefighters to Shiva, Brighton, Fergus, Asvel and the others, should be already promoted. Sure, she brings flying utility, but you already have Karin for that since early in the game and you just got Dean who crushes her. She's ok if you baby her I guess, but it could be said for a lot of units. And even Homeros, who joins in the same chapter and same level, actually has Elite and magic to make up for it. Broken promotion bonuses that he could use at level 10 without caring too much and staves are icing on the cake.

Edited February 6, 2010 by BsTrD

[Colonel M]

Heath kind of gets underrated by people, but I guess I can see why. Consider the desert chapter his "training ground". Slap a Pure Water and it's gg for the most part.

[Shadow Mir]

Heath kind of gets underrated by people, but I guess I can see why. Consider the desert chapter his "training ground". Slap a Pure Water and it's gg for the most part.

AKA, babying and favoritism. Heath turns out good when babied, but I can say that for a lot of other people.

Heath's problem is that he's got a number of circumstances working against him from the moment he joins. Ballistae in his joining chapter. Mages and two warrior bosses in the desert. Silver Bow Sniper or Bolting Sage depending on which version of FFO I get. Crazed Beast? Axes to the southwest, ballistae to the northwest, and mages in the northeast. When does it stop getting bad for Heath...?

Edited February 6, 2010 by Richter Renard

[Rewjeo]

How many other people can do that? Florina and Fiora. Both of whom already have decent RES. And it's a huge map. I see no reason to not send Heath out there w/ a pure water.

[Colonel M]

Yes, it's partially babying Heath. But consider the only other units that have mobility in this chapter was listed above. Heath still has the advantage of being on the field and contributing positively, and the Pure Water negates the Mage problem for the most part anyhow.

[Inui]

"Babying" Heath for a short period of time creates a god. I hate babying and rarely use Heath, but I can't deny that. Crazed Beast is bad for Heath? What? He can massacre anything on that map. That map is free EXP for anyone. Barrier/Pure Water = GGs for Monks. Cavaliers = roflmao. Pirates = owned by an Axereaver.

Dean is better than I thought. Cool. If Carrion was very easy to level up, I don't see how it can be too hard with Eda, but okay...

[Shadow Mir]

"Babying" Heath for a short period of time creates a god. I hate babying and rarely use Heath, but I can't deny that. Crazed Beast is bad for Heath? What? He can massacre anything on that map. That map is free EXP for anyone. Barrier/Pure Water = GGs for Monks. Cavaliers = roflmao. Pirates = owned by an Axereaver.

Dean is better than I thought. Cool. If Carrion was very easy to level up, I don't see how it can be too hard with Eda, but okay...

First bold: But with the fact that FE7 is an easy game... Meh.

Second bold: Then why would I bother? He fails to stand out in any way if that's the case.

Why the mention of cavaliers? I didn't mention anything about them. What's more of a concern than those are the ballistae in the northwest section of the map. Axereavers? 15 uses ftl. And not helping is that Heath's support prospects are rather dim.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Richter Renard

[Colonel M]

Actually, "babying" Heath brings you a net reward of another unit that keeps up with your Cavalier / Pegasus Knight troupe, and flying utility is never a bad thing to have in any game whatsoever.

[Saint Nightroad]

It's not even a contest. Zihark hands every other SMs ass to them. Best stat potential, not half as much baby'ing required as Mia, good availability, great affinity, comes with Adept. There are only 2 reasons to not use him. 1) He comes in at a bad time- lots of other great units who could also use the experience, such as Kieran, Nephenee, and Jill. 2) To purposely gimp yourself.

Stefan I find a bit mediocre... His defenses are nothing short of bad. His offense is good but not as good as Zihark's. Astra is great, but I personally dislike it. Not as effective as Vantage + Adept and it eats throgh your weapon durability like nothing else (which when using your Vague Katti is a problem. Still a staple because of being basically an already trained and fairly average unit.

Mia is.. unreliable. I love her personality and appearance, but she can either be great or horrible. I've had Mias that could show up my Ziharks stat-wise, but I've also had Mias that almost made me want to replace them with Lucia. Now that is sad. She has the best availability sure, but atleast Zihark doesn't need any real baby'ing... he might want a BExp level up or two in HM, but other than that... really... he's solid. She starts off eating your BExp just to be useful in the next chapter, and can still require baby'ing after that due to horrible strength. Simply put, she won't be killing anything until either you can get her steel weaponry or her strength goes up, which it may not.

Lucia is... fanservice and nothing more. She's like Mia if she lost her personality, gained an awesome outfit, became hard-to-get (poor poor Bastian... I hate to see my favorite FE character treated like that), had pathetic availability, shitty skills, and even worse stats. The only thing that she has going for her is that she comes with a silver sword. Give it to another SM... move on.

[Inui]

I don't care about Zihark or Mia or whatever else you said, but Zihark's offense is definitely worse than Stefan's.

19 Str/27 Skl/25 Spd + Astra right when he joins = lolwtfinsane. He has the best offense of anyone. He can pick up something like a Steel Blade and OHKO magic using units and 2HKO everything else. He can use the crappy heavy weapons because his Skl is absurdly high. Zihark won't have offense like that until long after promotion. Actually, does his offense ever get better? I don't think so. Stefan probably always wins offense, forever and ever. Zihark gets to pwn him in durability after he promotes and gets supports, but Stefan starts off more durable.

@Heath stuff: Crazed Beast gives units like Farina and Heath free levels like all the way to 20/0 or close to it while taking away very little from your already awesome team that gains little from those kills. Heath and Farina can help the Experience rank greatly doing this, and if you don't care for ranks, they can just turn into awesome units, especially Heath. Heath's stats are insanely good. Why would I send him south or east? Just have him eat up some Cavaliers. Ballistas have shitty Hit, can't even come close to OHKOing him, and run out.

[Saint Nightroad]

I don't care about Zihark or Mia or whatever else you said, but Zihark's offense is definitely worse than Stefan's.

19 Str/27 Skl/25 Spd + Astra right when he joins = lolwtfinsane. He has the best offense of anyone. He can pick up something like a Steel Blade and OHKO magic using units and 2HKO everything else. He can use the crappy heavy weapons because his Skl is absurdly high. Zihark won't have offense like that until long after promotion. Actually, does his offense ever get better? I don't think so. Stefan probably always wins offense, forever and ever. Zihark gets to pwn him in durability after he promotes and gets supports, but Stefan starts off more durable.

@Heath stuff: Crazed Beast gives units like Farina and Heath free levels like all the way to 20/0 or close to it while taking away very little from your already awesome team that gains little from those kills. Heath and Farina can help the Experience rank greatly doing this, and if you don't care for ranks, they can just turn into awesome units, especially Heath. Heath's stats are insanely good. Why would I send him south or east? Just have him eat up some Cavaliers. Ballistas have shitty Hit, can't even come close to OHKOing him, and run out.

You forget that Stefan's offense is largely reliant on Astra.

But regardless.... They'll both be killing almost everything foolish enough to stand in their way in one round. -_-

Edited February 8, 2010 by Saint Nightroad

[Interceptor]

It's not even a contest. Zihark hands every other SMs ass to them. Best stat potential, not half as much baby'ing required as Mia, good availability, great affinity, comes with Adept. [...]

Mia is.. unreliable. I love her personality and appearance, but she can either be great or horrible. I've had Mias that could show up my Ziharks stat-wise, but I've also had Mias that almost made me want to replace them with Lucia. Now that is sad. She has the best availability sure, but atleast Zihark doesn't need any real baby'ing... he might want a BExp level up or two in HM, but other than that... really... he's solid. She starts off eating your BExp just to be useful in the next chapter, and can still require baby'ing after that due to horrible strength. Simply put, she won't be killing anything until either you can get her steel weaponry or her strength goes up, which it may not.

This is why we have "PEMN". Not just for the RNG, mind you, but also for knowing how to use characters efficiently. If your Mia is not stomping Zihark in their first shared chapter (forget about all chapters before that, which Zihark has no answer for), you're Doing It Wrong<tm>. There's certainly a chance of Mia getting mt-screwed in Random mode, even with her 40% STR growth and easy +mt supports, but the vast majority of the time that does not happen. In Fixed mode, it never happens.

Zihark's dual claims to fame: 1) Adept, which will occasionally allow him to ORKO something that he 3HKOs, and 2) avoid in lategame, owing to his supports.

It is, unfortunately, a contest. Mia exists for longer, and if you haven't abused Vantage, you haven't lived.

Zihark won't have offense like that until long after promotion.

Good thing for Zihark that he's basically promoted around the time that Stefan joins in the first place, which means the distance between them is only getting smaller as the game wears on.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Interceptor

[Inui]

You forget that Stefan's offense is largely reliant on Astra.

His Str alone usually kills things. Zihark doesn't have that. He hits Stefan's 20/8 base Str (which he joins with before Zihark hits such a high level) at 20/9 and has a lower growth, so he's being owned in Str for the entire game. Immediately upon joining and for some time afterward, Stefan has the highest offense on your team unless you greatly favor some other unit and powerlevel them and give them stat items and stuff like that, which is just ridiculous because you can give Stefan the same treatment and have an equal or better unit.

Good thing for Zihark that he's basically promoted around the time that Stefan joins in the first place, which means the distance between them is only getting smaller as the game wears on.

Even if he's promoted, he's not 20/9, which is what he needs to be in order to match Stefan's base offense.

Stefan potentially has the best offense in this game if you decide to add some other offensive skill to what he has. I can't think of much else that could be better unless Mia gets blessed in Str, gets supports that build her Atk, and then gets some skill added that boosts offense.

[Interceptor]

Even if he's promoted, he's not 20/9, which is what he needs to be in order to match Stefan's base offense.

I like your phrasing here, how you subtly suggest that Zihark may not actually be promoted by this time by qualifying it with "even if". In the interest of balance on this point, let's compare the respective positions:

- Zihark promoted to 20/1 by Ch.16. Evidence in support of this: a Fixed mode playthrough of mine where I have various growth units promoting around this time, whilst simultaneously banking enough extra BEXP to either push past that figure or to add an entirely new unit to the army.

- Zihark still tier 1 by Stefan's first full chapter. Evidence in support of this: a double-handful of fairy dust and bupkis.

Now that we've established that I'm the third little pig resting in a house made from Bricks of Truth, and that you're a Big Bad Wolf with emphysema, we can stop pretending that Zihark is going to be anything less than a Swordmaster in Ch16+, and move on to more important matters.

Important matters, such as what I actually said, which was "the distance between them is only getting smaller as the game wears on", and not what you saw, which was apparently "blah blah Zihark beats Stefan blah blah". I don't know what happened to prevent you from seeing the incongruity between what I said and what you replied to, but let's clear that up right now:

The distance between Z/Stef, STR-wise, is about 3.5 STR when Zihark is 20/1 and Stefan is at base, and this is a situation which ignores the possibility of Zihark taking levels with a STR band (which reduces the starting gap between them). But the difference in terms of mt closes from this point forward, in favor of Zihark, for three reasons. The first reason is that Zihark flat-out grows faster than Stefan, since he's lower-leveled. The difference between their STR growths is only 5%. The second reason is that Zihark is about to get to B Brom, which is +1 mt that Stefan is not getting without Mordecai and some time. The third reason is the SM STR cap: once Stefan hits it, he's no longer making progress in that department, while Zihark continues to make inroads. Conclusion: the distance between them only gets smaller, which is why I said that.

Realistically, the STR advantage that Stefan has doesn't amount to a great deal. It's nice that he can OHKO mages with a Steel Blade (except that he can't, apparently you saw that he kills the weakest mages but missed how he fails on all of the rest), problem here is that Steel Blades aren't buyable until Chapter 21 in HM. So, what we have here is Stefan borderline failing to OHKO with a weapon that doesn't actually exist. I'm going to go ahead and assign this particular case a weight of "lolwhocares", if it's all the same to you.

In terms of non-mage generics in Ch. 16, which is a actual argument, it's true that Stefan can catch people with, say, an Iron Blade or a Steel Sword. But the real-world implications here aren't that Stefan is killing things where Zihark fails, it's that Zihark's army needs to have him using a forge on some targets, because that's how close that Zihark is to a ORKO himself. Steel forges show up in Ch14 iirc, and the Vague Katti itself is also equal to the task.

Stefan potentially has the best offense in this game if you decide to add some other offensive skill to what he has. I can't think of much else that could be better unless Mia gets blessed in Str, gets supports that build her Atk, and then gets some skill added that boosts offense.

I'm assuming that you mean best amongst Swordmasters when you put Stefan here, otherwise I might die laughing. Don't forget about Wrath + Vantage when it comes to Mia, and both of her +ATK support options are just fine. Consider her partners as a profit for the army, since you get two perfectly capable healers and plenty of availability on them in addition to +4 mt.

Immediately upon joining and for some time afterward, Stefan has the highest offense on your team unless you greatly favor some other unit and powerlevel them and give them stat items and stuff like that, which is just ridiculous because you can give Stefan the same treatment and have an equal or better unit.

Oh absolutely, Two Years Tennis Experience, that's ridiculous. Why on earth would we want to greatly favor some "other" unit than Stefan? I mean, it's not as if someone like Boyd has offense at 1-2 range that rivals what Stefan does at 1-range, and he's doing it for twice as long. There's no reason to "power level" a unit to be more capable of clearing chapters prior to Stefan, or use up stat items and apply their benefits for longer. After all, we can just sit on tons of BEXP and have boosters rot in the convoy until...

You know what, never mind, it's easier to just skip to the part where I say that your argument is asinine.

[PuffPuff]

Zihark.

You don't have to baby him as he starts at a good level, doesn't detest the laguz, is hawt, and that he can become even more h4x with the transfer data in RD. <3

Edited February 8, 2010 by Jemnezmy

[Junkhead]

Zihark.

You don't have to baby him as he starts at a good level, doesn't detest the laguz, is hawt, and that he can become even more h4x with the transfer data in RD. <3

Same with Mia @Bolded...

But yeah, Zihark is defeneatly the best:

- Decent Str, he also caps it.

- Good Skill

- Same Spd as Mia

- Slighlty less Luck than Mia

- Has a good Def for a myrmidon

Yeah, he's awesome, his sword level is also fine.

[Inui]

I don't play fixed growth mode and never have and don't understand it at all, so...

Oh, and uh...Stefan does OHKO Mages with a Steel Blade.

http://reikken.awardspace.com/FE9EnemyStats/Mage.txt

Level 15 Mages pretty much die and then he needs like 1 more Atk for the others, which can be made up for with a level up that gives him Str or some other sword. He can easily OHKO Mages to avoid their counters.

[Narga_Rocks]

I don't play fixed growth mode and never have and don't understand it at all, so...

Oh, and uh...Stefan does OHKO Mages with a Steel Blade.

http://reikken.awardspace.com/FE9EnemyStats/Mage.txt

Level 15 Mages pretty much die and then he needs like 1 more Atk for the others, which can be made up for with a level up that gives him Str or some other sword. He can easily OHKO Mages to avoid their counters.

It doesn't matter until chapter 21 when steel blades are available. And by then...

2x Mage lv 19-20 (elfire)

28 hp, 21 atk, 12 AS, 110 hit, 27 avo, 7 def, 16 res, 5 crit, 3 cev

3x Mage lv 18-20 (elthunder)

26 hp, 22 atk, 11 AS, 102 hit, 25 avo, 8 def, 16 res, 16 crit, 3 cev

1x Sage lv 3 (elfire)

30 hp, 19 atk, 12 AS, 112 hit, 27 avo, 8 def, 16 res, 6 crit, 3 cev

1x Bishop lv 3 (shine, sleep, mend)

30 hp, 19 atk, 8 AS, 101 hit, 24 avo, 5 def, 21 res, 4 crit, 8 cev

2x Bishop lv 6 (shine, sleep, 1 mend, 1 physic)

30 hp, 21 atk, 9 AS, 103 hit, 26 avo, 6 def, 21 res, 5 crit, 8 cev

Needs anywhere from 34 mt to 38 mt to OHKO the things. So with 11 mt weapon that means he needs 23 str, or 22 str with a CC Soren/Mordy. (Well, you can have B Mordy by then, so Soren isn't necessary.) And that's just the weakest ones. 26hp + 8 def. 3 of them. The rest need even more. Like, 35 mt requires 24 str or 23 str and B Mordy. 36 mt requires 24 str and B Mordy. 37 str can't be done.

chapter 22

1x Mage lv 15 (elthunder)

25 hp, 20 atk, 7 AS, 95 hit, 16 avo, 6 def, 13 res, 14 crit, 2 cev

1x Mage lv 17 (elwind)

25 hp, 19 atk, 11 AS, 113 hit, 25 avo, 6 def, 14 res, 5 crit, 3 cev

1x Mage lv 19 (elthunder)

28 hp, 21 atk, 10 AS, 98 hit, 23 avo, 7 def, 14 res, 15 crit, 3 cev

1x Sage lv 4 (bolting [d], elthunder)

29 hp, 26 atk, 5 AS, 90 hit, 13 avo, 9 def, 15 res, 10 crit, 3 cev

He can have two of them with 20 str. Otherwise, 35 mt means max str and B Mordy (B Soren not possible yet, neither is A Mordy). So yeah, I don't think he's maxing str this early. And the sage needs 38 mt, which isn't possible with a steel blade.

There is precisely one steel blade available before chapter 21, and you have to abuse Volke's str to get to 18 in order to steal it in 17-4. (It's not on this page, though, but it's there, trust me.) Well, that's not precisely true. There is a steel blade in chapter 10, but good luck getting Volke to 18 str in his starting chapter. I'm not even sure if he gets access to the base in chapter 10. Don't think so, though. So steel blade performance before chapter 21 means nothing since you won't have any steel blades before chapter 21 on a non-abuse HM runthrough.

So, I'm afraid he's relying on steel sword forges if he wants to be OHKOing mages before then. And if you give him a forge for them, Zihark and Mia may as well be considered with a forge against other enemies, allowing them to ORKO more things than they would otherwise.

Then in chapter 23, silver swords are available for purchase and Stefan's steel blade performance is irrelevant.

http://www.serenesforest.net/fe9/shops2.htm

So, since I'm thinking 22 str is unlikely by chapter 21, since that needs 6 levels above base when he starts at a fairly high level and would only have chapter 16 to 20 to get there, I'm looking at 2 enemies on which it matters. Except only one of them has elthunder, and I never cared about the elwind mage that can't crit base Stefan. 3 extra if you want to give him 22 str for chapter 21. 4 enemies total that have elthunder that he can avoid the crits on player phase.

As Int said:

I'm going to go ahead and assign this particular case a weight of "lolwhocares", if it's all the same to you.

(So, giving Stefan 23 str and B Mordy in chapter 23, Stefan can have 37 mt with a generic silver sword. So good news is that he's finally OHKOing all the mages/sages/bishops. Then in chapter 24 there is just one sage and he has 30 hp and 10 def, so Stefan could have max str and BB Mordy/Soren and still fail to OHKO because 24 + 2 + 13 = 39. Oh, and since Soren is a 4, 9 support and Mordy is a 2,4,11, Stefan can't have +2 until chapter 25 anyway. So 38 mt is his max here. Of course, it's elfire so by now Stefan should have 6 luck or more and not care about the counter anyway. Chapter 25 has no sages, chapter 26 Stefan should have his str to 23, possibly 24, and have 39 mt with Mordy and Soren hanging around him while he uses a silver sword. He only OHKOs bishops. Of course, no mage should have crit on him here anyway.)

(Now, you could maybe argue for that silver blade in chapter 15 could go to Stefan, but I suspect that thing would be traded around between any units with A swords for the extra punch, though the most reliable of which would likely be Mia thanks to her fire x fire and fire x light supports. A BC gives +15 hit. BB from chapter 17 on gives +20 hit. She actually manages to be more accurate than Stefan despite his massive skill lead because of her supports and her luck lead. Of course, as soon as he gets a CC or B going he's more accurate again, thanks to Heaven. Well, it might just be a tie by then, but he'll take the lead by the time he gets BC I should think.)

Edited February 9, 2010 by Narga_Rocks

[Interceptor]

I don't play fixed growth mode and never have and don't understand it at all, so...

It's not rocket science. At the most basic level, absent slight modifications from weapons and enemy class match-ups, you just keep adding the growth rate every time that someone levels up. When you hit 100%, the stat goes up. Some characters start with "base" growth points that at least allow them to get something on their first level-up.

You essentially wind up with the "lazy average" stats, and you can't get RNG-blessed or RNG-screwed. That's why I used Fixed mode, to keep people from going "waah waah PEMN" and staining the thread with their salty tears.

Oh, and uh...Stefan does OHKO Mages with a Steel Blade.

Do I need to send you a hand-written note before you understand the most basic of my points? It doesn't matter that Stefan can OHKO with a weapon that for all intents and purposes doesn't even exist. You might as well say that Mist can clean house with Ragnell, for all the difference that it makes in a real playthrough.

Level 15 Mages pretty much die and then he needs like 1 more Atk for the others, which can be made up for with a level up that gives him Str or some other sword. He can easily OHKO Mages to avoid their counters.

Sure, he's close on level 15 Mages, but "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, not Fire Emblem. If a mage so much as lands on the high end of HP, Stefan misses the one-hit kill. He can get it with a Silver Blade, but so can Mia and Zihark, which sort of eliminates his supposed advantage in the first place.

@Narga: Volke does get base access in Ch10 (I BEXP his STR/SPD up high enough to steal the Laguzslayer), but that's basically plowing him to his tier 1 cap in order to hit 18 STR. It's altogether unreasonable. You'd be better off just BEXP'ing Stefan's STR at that point.

[Colonel M]

You could just forge a Steel Sword for +5 Mt, which negates the Steel Blade argument a bit and the possible +HP possibility on the Mages. Nevertheless I'd call Zihark better than Stefan any day of the week (hi I'm not a crit magnet).

[Interceptor]

Absolutely you can forge Stefan a sword that will let him get the OHKO. But now there's an argument for Zihark/Mia getting the same forge, which incidentally allows them to ORKO the non-mage generics that they'd otherwise miss with a plain weapon.

You could even have Stefan use the Vague Katti, since it has 12mt, but again that changes the entire nature of the comparison. As soon as Stefan needs special treatment to do something, it erodes the value of his advantage.

[Inui]

If a Steel Blade isn't around right when he joins, forge something for the OHKO. It doesn't matter if the others can get the same treatment. Stefan has amazing stats at 20/8 while consuming absolutely no resources at all, but Zihark and Mia must consume a lot. That is an advantage he always has. Using BEXP and stat boosters and whatever on some other unit always detracts from what you can use on others, and Stefan never has this issue.

[Interceptor]

If a Steel Blade isn't around right when he joins, forge something for the OHKO.

Stefan has amazing stats at 20/8 while consuming absolutely no resources at all

What exactly is a forge, if it's not a resource? Hello? McFly?

It doesn't matter if the others can get the same treatment.

Actually, TYTE, it does matter. If you give Mia and Zihark the forge that you give Stefan, his offensive lead begins to evaporate. Why? Because now they are ORKOing things that they were borderline on before. So much for Stefan's STR lead, which now matters even less than it did before.

[...]but Zihark and Mia must consume a lot. That is an advantage he always has. Using BEXP and stat boosters and whatever on some other unit always detracts from what you can use on others, and Stefan never has this issue.

Stefan doesn't exist in any meaningful way prior to Ch.16, which is sort of important because the game starts in earnest way back in Chapter 1. There is nothing Stefan can do to leverage his bases until he arrives. Mia and Zihark consuming resources is only an issue if they are 1) terrible or 2) there's not a lot of resources to go around. In PoR Hard Mode, neither of those things are true, and it's trivial -- trivial! -- to prove it.

[Inui]

What exactly is a forge, if it's not a resource? Hello? McFly?

You missed my point.

Stefan joins at 20/8 with very poweful stats for when he joins. Did he consume anything at all to reach that? No. He consumed no EXP or gold or anything. That was my point. Choosing to field Stefan lets your other units inflate their own levels because of Stefan not needing much EXP. If you decide earlier that you will field Stefan later, you have to build less units, which means giving more EXP to units you are using.

Even if resources are plentiful, not needing them is a benefit, because it allows everyone else to use more.

Actually, TYTE, it does matter. If you give Mia and Zihark the forge that you give Stefan, his offensive lead begins to evaporate. Why? Because now they are ORKOing things that they were borderline on before. So much for Stefan's STR lead, which now matters even less than it did before.

This is true. However, Stefan only needs that forge to OHKO a Mage or something. He can use cheaper weapons on other things and thus consume less resources.

[-Cynthia-]

Mages are fairly uncommon, so Stefan being able to ORKO them with a forge makes little difference, since both Zihark and Stefan need to proc Adept/Astra/crit to ORKO for the most part anyway.

Anyway, the big reason I see Zihark>Mia>Stefan is durability. Zihark becomes untouchable once supports kick in. Mia has Vantage, which helps her durability somewhat but it's not as good as Zihark's. Stefan gets critblicked.