Cord (smash fanatic) vs Draug (Joker)

[Progenitus]

Cord is going fighter/hero, Draug hunter/general.

I open.

[Progenitus]

So Draug is not bad in chapter 1, where Cord doesn't exist. Fighters knock off... 25% HP? I think they get +1 att due to WTA on him, which is 15 + 1 - 11 = 5, and Draug has 20 HP. I wouldn't get too excited though, because Cain/Abel lose 40% but have almost twice his move, and for what it's worth they'll have more hit/avo due to swords and WTA. Caeda gets wtfpwned defensively but she doubles and 4HKOs with wing spear and flies, which isn't too bad. Jagen is self-explanatory (lolsilverlance). lolgordin does chip damage and nothing else

But chapter 2 comes along, and Draug's in trouble. Big trouble. Pirates have 8-9 spd which means Draug gets doubled, and 19-20 att and then WTA on top of that means he's borderline ORKO'd. Ouch. Cavs have 18-19 att and 9 spd, so they're not pretty either. The pirates knock off a huge chunk of Cord's HP, but at least he's not borderline ORKO'd, since he has 20 HP/5 def/9 AS. Draug is pretty much limited to luring in enemy hunters, and he's barely any better than Cord at that. Easy win for Cord.

Chapter 3 is a similar case, Draug getting blasted in the face by axemen who double Draug.

On offense for chapters 2-3, they're pretty much the same. They have the same base str, and while Draug could have gained a level in chapter 1, Cord has a much higher growth. Cord has more spd, but he doesn't double anything anyway. Their hit is too similar to care, especially since FEDS has a terribad hit system (lol, let's make skl and lck even MORE useless than they already were!).

But the durability makes Cord a pretty clear winner for chapters 2 and 3. And, just for putting salt on the wound, Draug has terrible lck, which means he's actually worried about getting critted.

Oh, and Cord wins move by 1.

Now for chapter 4.... what are their levels going to be? Well, 1 level for Draug in chapter 1 sounds fair (13 enemies + boss, but we have Abel/Cain/Caeda vying for kills, and since we care about efficiency, Jagen and even Gordin might snag a kill or two. So maybe, 2-3 kills for Draug/Abel/Cain/Caeda, with hit exp. Even if you don't use one of Abel/Cain/Caeda, 3 kills for Draug is probably the most it'll ever go, and with hit exp he may get like level 2 with 50 exp or something). This puts him at about the same level as Cord for chapter 2. From here I'd say 1 level per chapter sounds fine, so... about level 4 for both for chapter 4.

gogo FEplanet stats

Cord

21.6 HP, 8 str, 9.8 spd, 5.2 def, 5.8 lck

Draug

21.8 HP, 7.6 str, 10.2 spd, 3.9 def, 1.9 lck

I mentioned the lck because I'm still seeing Draug worried about crits. Other than that, their stats are too similar to care.

However, Draug is actually stuck at E bows right now, while Cord is most likely capable of using a hand axe by now, which has 3 mt over iron bow. Cord has liek 68 hit/16 att or something vs Draug's liek 98 hit/12.6 att. Which is better? Well, ch 4 fighter has 10 AS and 3 def. I'm assuming lck is 0 (not like it'll really make a difference in hit), so Cord has 58 hit (65.14 real) and 13 damage while Draug is 88 hit (97.24 real) and 9.6 damage. Cord's average damage is 8.47 while Draug's is 9.34. I wouldn't get very excited over averaging 1 point more damage at 2-range.

And that's pretty much Draug's only advantage at the moment. Cord will win against hunters/horsemen/archers, who make up 6/18 enemies in ch 4, because he can simply attack them at 1-range and avoid their counter. He can also 1-range with steel axe for 18 att, and he won't get doubled by anything other than the 2 thieves and the 2 horsemen, who double him anyway, along with Draug (note that thieves have 13 att and horsement have 14-15 att, so Draug might get ORKO'd while Cord shouldn't).

Even when Draug reaches D bows for steel, Cord should be fairly close (if not already at) C axes, which gives him 5 hit, but more importantly opens up hammers, which is pretty badass as even when weighed down he doubles knights with the hammer and gets WTA on them to fix up the hammer's low 60 hit.

Speaking of WTA, axes are badass. Tons of enemies use lances for WTA, which helps his hit if he uses steel or hand axe and also eliminates the enemies' extra att/hit boost from weapon rank (and Cord also gets avoid, but, w/e @ earlygame avoid lolz), and if it's not using a lance, there's a good chance it's a 2-range or 1-2 range weapon which means Draug loses his advantage of avoiding counters (and in the case of bow enemies, Cord's now the one not taking a counter). Chapter 6 has 8 lances out of 20 enemies (6 of those 8 are armors btw. Of the remaining 12, 6 are archers which Draug eats a counter from, and 2 are mages which both eat a counter from). Chapter 8 has 9 lances/17 enemies, 3 of them being armors, and every remaining enemy is either a horseman or archer. Occasionally we'll see a map where axes aren't a clear advantage (like chapter 11. 6 lance enemies, but 7 mercs and 1 thief), but overall axes rule.

So yeah. Raw stats aside, Cord flat out wins flexibility. He can chuck a hand axe and 2-range just like Draug, or he can 1-range. This can help him maximize his damage and/or avoid counters even better than Draug can. Since enemy lances dominate the 1-range enemy types, Cord's WTA helps fix hit too. Draug would need a pretty overwhelming stat lead to compensate. SO let's take a quick look at growths and see if this ever changes for the better for Draug.

Cord

80% HP, 50% str, 40% spd, 10% def

Draug (as hunter)

40% HP, 25% str, 65% spd, 5% def

Cord obviously wins durability growths while Draug doesn't even clearly win offensive growths (25 str vs 25 spd). I don't see hwo this is a clear lead for Draug in growths. And yes, the durability will matter. Draug may end up taking a stray hit, or eat a counter from a 1-2 range or 2-range enemy.

So Cord looks like the winner, at least up until promotion.

Now when do people promote? I'm not sure what is the acceptable time period, but in my H5 run, when I had Marth/Abel/ridiculously def blessedCain/Ogma/Barst/Cord/Caeda/Merric/Lena/Wolf/SedGAR, my tier 1s were promoting a bit before chapter 19, since I remember thinking I wasn't going to have enough master seals to finish promoting everyone when I realized an enemy drops one and thus everyone would be able to get one >_>. However, I never went to any of the gaiden chapters, since I have a bad habit of leaving everyone alive rather than killing off the people I don't want. I'll just assume chapter 17 is promotion time for these guys.

So after Cord goes Hero and Draug goes general, we get this...

20/1 Cord

36.4 HP, 17 str, 21.2 spd, 10.8 def, 12.2 lck

20/1 Draug

38.2 HP, 13.6 str, 17.4 spd, 16.7 def, 6.7 lck

And here are their growths as Hero and General respectively...

Cord

60% HP, 30% str, 50% spd, 15% def, 40% lck

Draug

60% HP, 20% str, 40% spd, 30% def, 30% lck

So Cord has a clear offense lead and also has 2 move.

Draug has a defensively lead, sure. However, Cord has some things to alleviate the lead.

- Easier time OHKOing mages. Those guys in chapter 19 have like 24-25 HP/3-4 def. Cord has 31 att with silver axe, which means he OHKO's fairly easily, and also outranges them 8 to 5 move. Draug has 27.6 att with silver bow, so he's got issues. And it's very nice to OHKO these guys because they have like 26 att, which means they're doing 23 damage to our guys (I think they both have 3 res? Too lazy to double check).

- Since the enemies with brave weapons, who start showing up in chapter 20, have rather low hit (it's not triple digits!), Cord's got a decent change of dodging, especially with WTA and supports with two other good units in Ogma and Barst. We're talking ~57 avo with those two in range + WTA.

Draug is not nearly as good a dodger. He only has Marth as a viable supporter (lolgordin, norne isn't even in h5), and Marth is generally off looting chests with his fire emblem or something, he has less spd/lck (which generates a grand total of 7 less avo, lol), and can't even get WTA on lances. So we can generally expect Draug to have liek 21 avo, 31 if Marth is in range. This is pretty significant as these brave weapon guys in ch 20 have ~26 att, which means even after they level up a few times in the meantime, Draug is probably 5HKO'd while Cord is 3HKO'd, but against a 95 hit paladin in ch 20 (I'm assuming it's a brave lance, since the enemy stats don't specify), Cord is facing liek 38 displayed hit (~29 real) and Draug is facing liek 74 displayed (~87 real), 64 if Marth is in range (~74). So Draug can safely take twice as many hits ad Cord before dying, but he's facing 3 times the hit rate.

- ENemy stats don't list crit, but I know at least Thoron mages had crit rates on most of my units. Cord's a lot less likely to face any crit from them thanks to lck + supports. Draug probably faces crit from everything that has crit on its weapon.

So yeah, Draug's durability lead looks much less promising than Cord's offense lead, which he dominates easily. His att with hand axe is 25 vs Draug's 27.6 with a silver bow, or liek 21.6 with a javelin or something (he's at D or C lances for awhile), and then as said earlier 31 att with silver axe. More frequent doubling means he has a better shot at getting random crits (supports give 10, so that helps too), and he has access to hammer. He's even got a mobility lead to top it all off.