Lyn vs. Heath

[Colonel M]

Let's face the facts, folks. Heath is from the 80s. Just look at that atrocious hair style. So useless. Then there's Lyn, the sexy goat demon swordmaster from the plains. Okay, stupid opener done.

One of Lyn's biggest advantages is her availability. Lyn joins in Chapter 16 to Heath's 22. Oh, and to pull a GreatEclipse, Lyn can recruit Heath. Nah just kidding, that's not an advantage. So we have Chapter 16, 17, 17X, 18, 19, 19X, 20, and 21. That's 8 chapters, 9 if we include Chapter 19XX (though if we're playing Lyn Mode efficiently we can deduce that chapter to never be in play).

Lyn joins at Level 10 in Chapter 16. Let's see the stats, shall we?

22.3 HP | 7.6 Str | 12.4 Skl | 14.4 Spd | 9.95 Luck | 3.8 Def | 2.7 Res

Mani Katti - 15 Atk, 26 Crit, 14 AS

The other weapons are none of our concern at the moment. Mani Katti should be the main weapon we're pulling out. Iron should only be used if she's comboing an enemy, which likely happens in Chapter 16. Sain can't ORKO stuff, sorry to say. Most enemies are still wielding Iron, which means they have relevant AS. Cavaliers have about 7 Spd, Mercenaries have 11, etc. Lyndis after a level up can double the Mercenaries, which means she has the best "offense" within her small group. Defensively, she's looking at 3HKOes by said Mercenaries. The Cavaliers are likely rushing north, so they are of no concern. This leaves the Pegasus Knights which should probably be picked off by Wil. They both wield Javelins, so it's easy to gimp them to attack Wil on the Enemy Phase and suicide themselves. They can be picked off by anyone in the group. So Lyn dying is of little concern so long as you know how to play this chapter correctly. She, along with her Cavalier tirade, can snag the bottom village to prevent detering from the main forces up above.

So now we hit Chapter 17. Granted, movement is what counts here, but offense also does too. She's one of your best units to take on Cavaliers and Nomads. Cavaliers drop to 6 AS with the Steel Sword. There's another with a Steel Lance, but he's burning time all the way in the back of the map. She's also one of your best units to kill Nomads next to Marcus and possibly someone with Horseslayer. Nomads need 29 Atk to OHKO. Marcus just nabs this with a Silver Axe (or Lance). Horseslayer would require 15 Str. So, in other words, Marcus is likely the only unit OHKOing these things. Oswin becomes close, but he needs to be about Level 14. Further proof that you can't OHKO Cavaliers as easily is that they have about the same HP as the Nomad's total HP + Def, so one must resort to attacking them. Lyn ORKOes the Cavaliers easily. In order to ORKO them you would need about 21 Atk. Sain is the closest of your unpromoted units to reach that mark, and even then you'd likely resort to Marcus or possibly Wolf Beil Hector to ORKO them. Aside from that, Lyn can attack the Archers without taking a counterattack whatsoever. The Fighter with the Hammer has low Hit on her. 65 Hit vs. 38+15 due to WTA. We're talking 12 Displayed, 3% True.

So while she does not have a pony and her durability is "ehh", she is contributing offensively to help clear a path for us. This is still very important when you consider that your offense is not prominent this early on. You have Marcus and possibly Oswin and Hector for offense. Dorcas comes close with his Str + Axes, but is shy on doubling for a good portion of the enemies.

17X is pretty straightforward that Lyndis is just going to attack Pirates. At the worst, this would help guarantee her at Level 12. She's semi-optimal for deployment due to her wielding Swords. As for dying, the Pirates would have to get rather lucky on her. With WTA, Lyn has 55 Avoid. Iron Axe Pirates have 85 Hit. Hand Axe has 70. First one has a 30% chance to hit or 18.30% True, admittedly. The Hand Axe Pirate has 15% displayed, or 4.65% True. You have about a .8% chance of death here, nothing that huge.

Now we hit Chapter 18 where Lyndis is likely Level 12. She could also nab the Florina support since you could have Florina carry Lyn upwards.

23.7 HP | 8.4 Str | 13.6 Skl | 15.6 Spd | 11.05 Luck | 4.2 Def | 3.3 Res

Lyndis doubles all of the Mercenaries. With Iron Sword, she has 13 Atk, 14 with Florina. She can 2RKO the Mercenaries that have 28 HP | 5 Def. 2 range also doesn't save you from Shamans anyway, so her taking a counterattack from these things is just as likely as anyone else. She can survive 1 Mercenary + 1 Shaman attack as well. It's not much, but it's enough to expose some of her offense on here. With Florina, she breaks 16 CEV. This deters the boss's crit rate down to 6%. Unfortunate to say, no one is surviving a critical from Zoldam anyway, so standing with only 6% chance of dying in one hit is still substantial when you consider everyone else having more. With a Spd proc, Lyn can double Zoldam with the Steel Sword. This brings her offense up to 17 Atk, which means she does 18 damage in one round vs. Zoldam. From there, it requires 26 Atk to OHKO him, which can be finished thanks to Marcus.

Chapter 19 is a FoW map. It has Pirates, Nomads, and Cavaliers. The Cavaliers do often carry Steel Lance, but they are often hidden. They can still carry Swords as well. She can also sit on a forest tile if necessary for durability. Now she faces 27% Displayed, 14.85% True from the Steel Sword Cavalier. She can still ORKO them with Mani Katti too. The Pirates have shitty hit on her too. The Steel Axe Pirates have a laughing 18% Displayed, 6.6% True. She's also one of your best units to take on Uhai. Uhai has 50 Avoid thanks to the Forest tile. She can chuck up 61% Displayed with Mani Katti.

Best thing she can do in 19X is cockblock the Axereaver Pegasus Knights from killing Merlinus. Will concede there.

Chapter 20 has a bunch of Cavaliers and many goals. With the Mani Katti, the Cavalier issue becomes a relative thing of the past. She's also forced to be deployed, so she is not taking up a unit slot. Speaking of that, she is free in 16, 20, 22, 26, 31, and Final. She's at least guaranteed a slot in those chapters, and rightfully so as long as you're training her (which... we obviously are, especially for Geitz), then she will at least be a positive in most of those chapters.

The only type of chapters where her durability should seriously get in the way are those that are Defend maps. Some of these, like Pirate Ship, also have a bosskill option anyway. Offense helps contribute to efficiency since clearing the enemies is the main goal of the game. Even in the clear all enemy type of chapters she can be useful in certain areas. With regards to her durability, it isn't much of a problem once Chapter 24 is ended. Thanks to Lancereaver, it makes her practically immune to her biggest threats: Lance-type users. Chapter 24 also has a lot of Pirates. Chapter 25 also has many Pirates. The game has a fair amount of Axes to also help her durability. This leaves Sword-type users to gimp her durability after Chapter 24.

When she promotes, she can also wield bows. The only real important one here is LongBow, to be honest. This allows Lyn to bypass all counterattacks from enemies aside from LongBowmen themselves.

That's about it. There isn't much to really discuss of Heath. Sure, he flies, but he's also kind of crappy. He joins in Chapter 22 with a bunch of units holding reavers. Lyn has better durability vs. the Wyvern Riders and Armor Knights than Heath does thanks to double WTA. The Axereaver is only effective against the Fighters here, which are likely on the other side of the map. He's not contributing much here. In Chapter 23, his 9 base Spd barely allows him to double the Wyvern Riders on the map. Then there's the clusterfuck of Archers and Mages that really tredge his durability. While Lyn isn't soaring the skies here, Heath has some restrictions on his flight. Both are trashy in Genesis, though I'd elect Lyn a bit better since she can double the promoted enemies in the map a lot easier than Heath does. Then there's Chapter 24. Yes, there's a lot of Mercenaries that can't double him, but the Hero actually can. Heath still takes around 5 damage per round vs. the Mercenaries too, so it's not like he's nigh invincible. He might take 4 at this point, pending on how generous we are with levels.

It takes about Chapter 25 when we finally see that Heath is "okay" because we're sending him on the side with the Pirates with an Axereaver. He can't really kill the Warrior either without a lot of help. This thing has 50 HP | 12 Def | 12 AS. Heath needs 16 Spd to double, which isn't happening anytime soon. Aside from that, Heath still needs to be able to overcome Lyn's major availability lead and what she can contribute to the team overall. It may not seem like much on paper, but apply it to the battlefield and you'll realize that Mani Katti is a sweet deal when you're using Lyn. Units like Marcus start to wear out on doubling prowess eventually. Iron wielding Cavaliers can sometimes escape death from Marcus. This is what makes Lyn so useful; offense, not defense. Her durability issues are minor when you're playing efficiently. She requires protection, but she can also bite a bullet if necessary, two under "some" circumstances.