FE4 Gen 1 Ranking Topic

[Paperblade]

The other one hasn't been updated in like two months, and I kinda wanted to do this one anyway.

Unlike other ranking topics, however, I'm going to be using intervals of 1 rather than 0.5, as Gen 1's cast is really small. With only 24 units and 20 possible scores it would end up looking more like a tier list than anything else, and I'd like to avoid that. This does mean there is no "median" score (as 5.5 is gone). Sucks, doesn't it, but them's the breaks.

So, without further ado

10: Sigurd

9:

8: Cuan, Ethlin

7: Fin

6:

5: Alec

4:

3: Noish

2:

1: Ardan

We'll start off with the initial group of four units.

Sigurd

Ah, Sigurd. The indisputable best lord in the history of the series. Other lords wish that they were half as broken as Sigurd, as to obtain greatness. But why is Sigurd awesome, you ask? Well, let's look at the facts.

Sigurd comes prepromoted in a game where your level doesn't reset to "20/1" upon promotion, and is thus a low level with boosted stats, yet gains EXP like the rest of your Prologue team, albeit slightly slower since his base level is 5 against their 1-4, depending on the unit. He has the best offense, the best mobility, and the best durability of your entire team for the first 2 chapters with ease, and the only unit who comes close after that is Lex, and then in Chapter 5, Sigurd upgrades to the Tyrfing, and just stomps everything with his godly Defense, godly Res, and godly everything. He can use any sword in Gen 1, a nice trait to have considering that Swords are probably the third best weapon type in the game (behind Wind and Light). He has Pursuit, and on the off chance you gave his Silver Sword to Holyn or Ayra for shits and giggles, he can use Cuan's Steel Lance after the guy upgrades to Silver, which actually has more attack than the Silver Sword and only hurts him against Sword users, which are pretty damn rare anyway. So even going out of your way to weaken the guy, he's still ridiculous.

Sigurd has ridiculous bases, ridiculous growths, ridiculous move, ridiculous everything. He's an unstoppable killing machine. He's his own jeigan, but in the Titania or Seth kind of way, where he continues make to everyone else look bad for the entire game. Honestly, his only flaw is that he trusted a 5 year old to take care of his wife so that she could be kidnapped, brainwashed, and father the Antichrist, but considering that kid is freaking Shanan, it's hard to blame him too much. Also trusting Alvis, but the man has the Charisma skill, so I imagine he has an 18 in his Charisma stat.

Verdict: 11/10 10/10

Alec

And then we have Alec, who either sucks at turbans or is wearing a diaper on his head, I'm not sure which. Alec has the misfortune of promoting to Paladin, which doesn't get A Swords. This really blows for our friend Alec, because his skillset is mediocre. Pursuit is awesome, but Nihil's sole purpose is so to be used as bait for Zain (who with his swarm probably kills Alec anyway) and Ayra (who, again, probably 2RKOs him anyway). Alec is pretty good for the first 2 chapters, since he 2RKOs and has the best durability this side of Sigurd. Unfortunately, things go downhill from there. Being locked to B Swords and Lances blows, since it means that if Alec wants to double anything, he has to use the crappy 10 might Steel Sword, which does piddling damage to the ridiculous amounts of armors in Ch. 2 and 3, and he has doubling issues with Swordfighters anyway. Lances weigh him a lot, making him unable to double Sword users, and he only gains 2 attack with Iron.

The Hero Sword is tough luck, everyone with B Swords wants that, which happens to be about a third of the cast (seriously, there are 9 people that reach B Swords or higher, nine). However, Alec's offense still isn't terrible. Even with the Steel Sword he can manage a 2RKO, and with an effective weapon (he can use all 3 of them, and the enemy types are all things he has issues killing) he's pretty well off. That plus his good early game and horse (horses in Gen 1 are imba) gets Alec an average score. He doesn't stomp the game, but he's not awful.

Verdict: 5/10

Noish

Noish is kind of like Alec. Only without Pursuit, and with 2 skills that don't fit him at all. Noish has bad Skill and bad Speed, but IS thought it would be funny if they gave him one that worked off of his Skill and another off of his Current HP and Spd, which is funny since Noish probably won't be doubling a hell of a lot, although his HP and Defense are good. Noish's main problem is that he has the worst offense on the team up until Dew shows up, and even then he's still only second worst, and at least Dew throws money at your staff users, whereas Noish just kind of blows.

Sure, he has a horse, but that only does so much for you. His attack isn't significantly higher than Alec's, and certainly not high enough to make up for Alec doubling basically everything while Noish has like 10% Crit and 10% Charge or whatever he's got. He's better against Ballista I guess, but there's like 5 and it's not really a big deal. Even with the Pursuit Ring (which both Levin and Cuan also want), he's still usually failing to double because he's so damn slow or failing to kill without something else special (such as Hero or an effective weapon), which is pretty bad.

His durability isn't even notably better than Alec's (he actually loses against magic users because of avoid), and probably does so in low enemy hit situations as well.

Basically, Noish's sole purpose in life is to make Fee not a Magic Sword using loser or make children inferior to Lex. What a loser.

Verdict: 3/10

Ardan

Ardan is a joke. Such a joke that even IS doesn't try to hide it. Fun fact: In every storyline convo that Ardan is in, here's either being made fun of or wishing people wouldn't pick on him.

Ardan's growths make an FE2 character look good, and his base stats make FE7 Bartre swell in pride. He has 5 move which doesn't improve when he promotes, meaning that even if he were somehow able to get his shitty self to the front lines, he wouldn't do anything there anyway, especially since he's locked to B Swords.

Basically, Ardan is Sigurd's opposite in every way. Whereas Sigurd has awesome move, awesome bases, and awesome growths, Ardan has shit move, shit bases (outside of Str/Def, but with lolB Swords and lolavoid, it's not doing him any favors), and shit growths. Even if you somehow get him to promote, the General class blows chunks as well, and he still has shit move and thus never gets anywhere because FE4 faps to Move more often than the average college fratboy to Megan Fox. Ardan sucks, and alongside joke units like Wendy and FEDS Arran, is in the running for worst unit in FE history.

Verdict: 1/10

Edited December 1, 2009 by Paperblade

[Vykan12]

And then we have Alec, who either sucks at turbans or is wearing a diaper on his head

So true.

[CT075]

Remind me, who's Zain?

[Paperblade]

Duke Knight boss in Ch. 2 with the Knight Killer

[Narga_Rocks]

Also trusting Alvis, but the man has the Charisma skill, so I imagine he has an 18 in his Charisma stat.

And I suppose max ranks for his level in bluff and possibly skill focus as well?

[CT075]

Could've sworn his name is Zane...

Oh well, it's probably just the patch.

[Paperblade]

Also trusting Alvis, but the man has the Charisma skill, so I imagine he has an 18 in his Charisma stat.

And I suppose max ranks for his level in bluff and possibly skill focus as well?

Yes.

[Dat Nick]

He also has 15 points in Rape and has a weird glitch where his Bad Karma slowly deteriorates throughout the game, shifting his alignment to Chaotic Good by C11.

[Narga_Rocks]

He also has 15 points in Rape and has a weird glitch where his Bad Karma slowly deteriorates throughout the game, shifting his alignment to Chaotic Good by C11.

Now that makes me think of a potentially fun waste of time. Or possibly not fun. Assigning one of the 9 alignments to each character that has enough conversations to display enough of a personality that we wouldn't just be making it up.

[Mekkah]

Not all lines make fun of Ardan...

Heh... I got married and got a kid! My family's gotta come first, so I best not be dyin'.

What's dis ole book sittin' here. Hmph... Dis is all gibber gabber.

Eerrrr... mmmmnugh! What da... Wow! I feel all my senses done renovated!

[Icon of Sin]

Also trusting Alvis, but the man has the Charisma skill, so I imagine he has an 18 in his Charisma stat.

Minor nitpick: He doesn't have Charisma until Gen. 2. It's a class skill to Emperor and his only personal skill is Awareness.

Carry on, though. You're doing good.

[Colonel M]

Alec should get a 5.5 just for epic lines.

Agreed with Ardan though. Lorenz vs. Arran is difficult though.

[Paperblade]

moar!

Cuan

Cuan is kind of like Sigurd, if Sigurd had 33% less availability, no Pursuit, and no Swords, but could use any Lance and had Continue. Basically, if IS cared about balance. He's also banging Sigurd's sister, which means he has Sigurd's Seal of Approval. So he can't be that bad, right?

Cuan 2HKOs pretty much everything forever, and with awesomesauce Continue gives him about a 1/5 chance to instablick it, meaning he only really loses against stuff that Sigurd ORKOs (read: everything in the first 2 chapters). With the Pursuit Ring, he can remove that RNG for the last chapter of his performance, which is sweet. He gets the Gae Bolg for about 2 seconds, but for those 2 seconds he's the best character on the team, which is longer than anyone else that isn't named Sigurd, Lachesis, or Lex can say.

Cuan hits like a truck, takes hits like a champ, and is only held back by leaving after Ch. 3, which isn't even that big a deal considering how hard he stomps most units.

Verdict: 8/10

Ethlin

Ethlin's blood, growths, and skill set are misleading. IS wants you to believe she's a combat unit with secondary healing capabilities, as she's got Baldo blood and Critical while being locked to C Staves with a 5% magic growth. This is pure bullshit.

Ethlin's base Strength is awful, comparable to that of your average early game Archer, and her defenses aren't significantly better than Azel's. Additionally, healing staves in this game are wtfbroken. Live is equal to Heal, but Relive is the same rank, and is twice as effective as Live (20+Mag*2? Even at base, Ethlin is healing 36HP with that puppy). Adean heals pretty much just as well with Live (read: rarely, since her move sucks), meanwhile Ethlin sees this massive jump in awesomeness.

Ethlin also has the nice ability to stand next to Sigurd and Cuan and give them Critical thanks to Sibling and Lover bonus, which gives us yet another reason for her to be standing behind people and not diagonally attacking the same thing. If you REALLY want Ethlin to be a combat unit, she gets the Light Sword at the start of Ch. 2, which uses her higher Mag stat, unless she's like Level 13 or whenever her Str ties her Mag. But that doesn't even matter, since the Def/Res gap is wtfmassive in this game, ranging from like 8 on horses and swordfighters to like 12-13 on armors. I'm pretty sure Ethlin could have capped Str and still do more with the magic damage with that sword, especially since Lightning at 2 range has 20 more hit and 2 more attack. Oh and not taking counters (or forcing them to counter with loljav or lolhand axe, both of which have godawful hit).

Basically, Ethlin is the best healer you've got while she's around thanks to her horse, and if you really want makes an alright combat unit with the Light Sword. Unfortunately, she's also held back by her availability, as well as being locked to C making her reliant on Relive.

Verdict: 8/10

Edited November 25, 2009 by Paperblade

[Mekkah]

Let's not forget Ethlin has awesome utility with the Return staff in Ch2 and Ch3, because there's like two occasions where you want your fighters back to the home castle after seizing (Anphony, Madino), and one occasion where home is quicker than your current position (Silvail).

[Paperblade]

~_~

Fin

Fin's a pretty cool guy, eh seduces Lachesis and doesn't afraid of anything.

What to say about Fin... Fin's got pretty good offense throughout the game, two rounding the myriad of axe users in the first 2 chapters (struggles a bit with the bow users though). Unfortunately, WTD makes his durability arguably the worst on the team, which really sucks for our man Fin. Pursuit is awesome as usual, and Prayer is hilarious if your HP gets dropped low enough.

Fin would probably be a bit lower than Alec, considering he leaves after Chapter 3... Except for one thing.

The Hero Lance.

The Hero Lance is awesome. With it, Fin turns into a quad attacking, one rounding god. For reference, his offense is on par with (if not better than) Sigurd's, considering that "half as good" as Sigurd is probably the median. Heck, some of the crap that Sigurd doubles that Fin doesn't quad, Sigurd can't one round anyway because he doesn't have enough of an attack lead.

In Chapter 3, Fin gets minor competition for the God Lance in the form of Fury, but Fury also has less Move than him (due to not getting Road benefit), so it's kind of questionable whether I want to give the lance to her when Fin does the same thing but effectively has like 50% more move.

I would give Fin a much higher score, but sucking in P and 1 then not existing for 4 and 5 really hurts, even if he is running around making Sigurd look bad elsewhere.

Verdict: 7/10

[CrashGordon94]

Fin's a pretty cool guy, eh seduces Lachesis and doesn't afraid of anything.

That's not hard.....

Also, nice ratings!

[Paperblade]

So I started up a game of FE4 today to check stuff for tiers. Apparently Lex and Azel join before Cuan and friends. Whoops. Anyway.

Lex

At first glance, Lex is pretty bad. Locked to Axes when Axes are as bad as they've ever been, no Pursuit. Not even Charge or Continue or Critical.

But Lex has a couple things going for him, other than the fact that he's probably Hector's father and making Ayra tsundere for him.

First off is Elite, which doubles EXP gain. Which is pretty sweet, considering he has the best Defense growth in Gen 1, giving him pretty awesome durability. But Noish has pretty good durability and he sucks, so what's so special about Lex?

Well, one of the nice things about being an Axe user pre-FE5 is that there aren't a whole lot of Axe users, giving Lex an effective monopoly. Ardan is unlikely to see promotion, and promoted Lachesis can use just about any weapon, including lampposts, so she doesn't need shitty weapons like Axes (especially when everything she fights post-promotion is either weak to Bows, a mage, or slow as sin).

And even a monopoly on a shitty weapon type is still a monopoly, and it helps that the best weapon comes at the end of Chapter 1. That's right, I'm talking about the Hero Axe. The Hero Axe propels Lex to Sigurd-tier offense with his "I double everything and have godly attack", with the added bonus of "If I kill it, it doesn't even counter" on player phase (and enemy phase if he's half dead, sup Ambush). Basically, Lex is Sigurd 2.0 for half his existence (Sigurd stomps again once he gets Tyrfing), which is probably the longest time that any unit can seriously compare to Sigurd (Lex likely promotes at the beginning of Ch. 3 thanks to Elite), having only 4 less Str and 10% less growth but a weapon with 2 more might and Elite to close the gap gives them similar offense, and then actually wins Defense thanks to Neir blood...

If it weren't for the fact that he's barely better than Noish in offense and Fin in durability pre-Hero Axe, he'd probably be god tier with Sigurd.

Verdict: 9/10

Azel

And then we have Azel, who's like the opposite. You'd think Azel would be good. He has a kickass 40% Magic growth in a game where the Def-Res gap is wtfmassive (ranging from ~8 on most units to like 12 on armors) as well as the best Speed growth on a unit that's not Levin. To top it off, he has Pursuit and gets a horse when he promotes.

You'd think Azel would be awesome. You'd think that. Unfortunately, Azel is a victim of IS's wonky balance...

Azel suffers from 5 move, which was enough to drop Ardan from "below average" (he and Noish have similar stats, but Noish has 3-4 more move) to utterly worthless. But that's okay, his stats don't blow, so he can arena and actually kill a few enemies per chapter, and then hit 20 and rapestomp, right?

Haha, wrong. Azel has serious issues using the arena because his Skill growth is godawful (Both units in the arena get +20 Avoid, and with no Sigurd aura or Charisma, hit and WTA actually matter), and he's a unit with shit durability was locked to a weapon type as heavy as Lances and then its only advantage (not taking counters) was removed in the arena. In other words, Azel gets stomped by the Swordfighter, whereas at least Lances have WTA and Lex doesn't need to stinking arena (although he has a better shot than Azel because loldefense). He gets Thunder in Ch. 2, but it's not enough of an improvement to get him anymore since at this point he's already underleveled.

By the time Wind actually shows up, it's Chapter 4 and Azel is already so far behind the rest of the pack that he's not even worth the effort, plus the Ch. 4 arena is a serious jump in difficulty. Sure, the guy actually beats Sigurd in offense (with the Magic Ring, he one rounds everything he doubles in Ch. 2, which is everything that's not a Mackily Swordfighter), but he's never around to do shit.

I hope the inevitable FE4 remake actually catches FE4 up to newer FE's mechanics (rather than the way of FEDS with no skills no rescue no shove no split and a poor excuse for a weapon triangle), that way I can have Alec and Noish make themselves useful by ferrying Azel to the frontlines until he promotes. But as it stands, Azel doesn't do much outside of kill those bandits near him and Lex in the Prologue and then feebly attempt to catch up to everyone else for the rest of the game.

Verdict: 3/10

Edited December 6, 2009 by Paperblade