Rolf VS Shinon

[Lilmik11]

So,I always use Rolf as my sniper,but lately I've seen Shinon Growth rates and wow,they are pretty incredible!I am wondering:Which one of these two is better?

[Deliriyum]

Rolf is better...If you can train him, which is really hard in HM. Shinon is instantly usable(but bad when he returns)

[Zynac]

Ya shinon's stats are too low because he is such a pre-premote. Rolf needs some babying but its relatively do able. Also Rolf has the possibilty of triangle attack going for him...

[Soren37]

Astrid wins the archer spot.

Anywho, Rolf joins with Mist and Marcia, both of which are clamouring for BEXP as Mist is your better healer and Marcia is just invincible. Plus, almost all of Rolf's growth rates are under 50%, making it extremely hard to have him become a decent character. Shinon has amazing growths, but his no EXP early-game and a difficult late-game make's him hard to use.

And then in steps Astrid. Mounted, 2-range, Paragon, Knight Ward, and gets Axes. She's essentially rape in a cute body on a horse. You can also throw the KW around to give other units the +30% SPD growth, such as Mak, Oscar, Neph, Kieran, and Titan.

Edited August 16, 2010 by Soren37

[Tables]

Really, both are pretty terrible and if you really, REALLY want a bow user, Astrid is a better choice, or Boyd, Oscar, Kieran or Makalov.

In terms of overall contributions to your team, Shinon helps early on, while Rolf is being trained for about 10 chapters then is moderately useful for 10 chapters, and thus doesn't really have any net 'profit' to his use. Still, if you want a Sniper in your team throughout the game, then Rolf is better. Shinon's growths mean nothing when he's worse than Rolf from the moment he rejoins to the end of the game, unless he happens to have more supports in your team (ergo, you're using Gatrie and Janaff and probably none of Rolf's supports), and even then, I'd probably take Rolf.

[Junkhead]

Rolf, but only because of avaibility.

Shinon's earlygame is undoubtly good. He walls and does pretty decent damage there.

But he's crap when he returns. If only IS gave him WTFBASES, too. (He already has WTFGROWTHS)

[Smiley Jim]

My answer can only be Rolf. Why? He's easier to raise(granted, that is still an understatement since he's still weak as all hell at first.), has pretty good growths(by good, I mean his growths, other than his speed and skill are average.), and use the triangle attack with his older half-brothers(Granted Oscar has to go bows, but I don't have a problem with that.) Shinon looks good, with his WTFGROWTHS and whatnot, but his stats are just crap for his base level, and likely won't survive when he does come back(compared to Rolf, who has 8 chapters to get out of his hole.)

People are going to argue that Astrid is the best unpromoted bow-user in this game, and their evidence is actually quite strong(Elite, being mounted, can get axes on promotion, and comes with an item that adds 30% to spd growth.), but I prefer Rolf due to the fact that I only use two paladins at most(IMO, having better caps outweighs having a mount). And to those that say that Rolf is hard to train in HM, my playthrough log basically proves that wrong. PEMN, but still, I made raising Rolf look like a joke(and was able to get sufficient EXP for Marcia, too). Note: If he didn't disappear for 10 chapters straight, I'd use Shinon over Rolf any day.

On my tier list for my still-under-construction character rating for this game, I have Rolf, Astrid, and Shinon all in lower mid(because they are a PITA to raise, but can become good.)

Edited August 17, 2010 by DA125

[Parrhesia]

Shinon, purely on strength of personality. He may be a blithe racist, but regardless he's a Working-Class Hero. But if both are crap, why would you take the whining eight-year old?

[Anouleth]

So,I always use Rolf as my sniper,but lately I've seen Shinon Growth rates and wow,they are pretty incredible!I am wondering:Which one of these two is better?

Shinon is better, since he's somewhat useful in earlygame and he only holds you back for 12 chapters instead of 20. Shinon also joins at a good time when useful Bows are starting to become available like the Brave Bow and Killer Bow, so he can use them as crutches.

However, Shinon is a pain to recruit since you not only have to deploy Rolf (ugh) but you have to get him 3/4s away across the map before you kill Rolf. Not worth it, especially when you can just harvest his Brave Bow from his cold, dead hands.

[Lilmik11]

I don't really care if he is hard to recruit,I always recuit all the characters.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

They're both pretty bad but if I had to choose, Shinon is the better archer. Why?

Well, before Shinon ditches your team he contributes a lot by being able to 1RKO from the get-go and can even tank for your weaker units if necessary. Definitely a nice thing to have earlygame. Although when he returns he is very underlevelled and will be very hard to get him back to his former glory.

Rolf, has such a terrible beginning. He can't even chip damage decently and joins during a time where competition for BEXP is heavy and there are definitely much more units who could benefit more from the BEXP rather than a unit with a poor start who turns up to be average at best despite going through the trouble of feeding him kills and BEXP.

So basically, Shinon's earlygame that requires no resources whatsoever blows the shit out of Rolf's lategame that requires a shitton of BEXP and having to feed him kills for a while along with him being a waste of a deployment slot for a while.

[whase]

I say Rolf, I never use Mist and/or Marcia so that means enough experience for Rolf.

and I like an army of younger people more, so Rolf fits right in.

Astrid would fit in good enough too, but I'm not a fan of horses.

Shinon is a prepromote, I like prepromotes even less than cavaliers (yeah, paladins work even less for me. so no Titania, Seth, Marcus etc. for me...)

[Narga_Rocks]

I say Rolf, I never use Mist and/or Marcia so that means enough experience for Rolf.

and I like an army of younger people more, so Rolf fits right in.

Astrid would fit in good enough too, but I'm not a fan of horses.

Shinon is a prepromote, I like prepromotes even less than cavaliers (yeah, paladins work even less for me. so no Titania, Seth, Marcus etc. for me...)

Wow. You must hate the beginning of fe6. Do you play the first chapter with just Roy, Wolt, and Bors?

[whase]

Wow. You must hate the beginning of fe6. Do you play the first chapter with just Roy, Wolt, and Bors?

first chapter is usually a Roy solo for me

I don't like armor knights either :P

I usually go for myrmidons, archers, fighters, soldiers and mages. always the same classes.

lately, I've been doing PT's forcing me to use units I don't like. all those units I don't like or not bad at all, I just don't like them...

[Shadow Mir]

I say Shinon, purely on the weight of his earlygame performance, since honestly speaking, he and Rolf are both awful, so I might as well go with the one who's useful early on.

[El Rey León]

PEMN, I know, but I like using Rolf. He always turn out decent for me. Plus I like the idea of a child soldier sniping enemies left and right. Am I weird for that? RD's a different story though. Shinon all the way.

[DebonairDarkling]

i used to love using rolf, just milk the boss on the chapter he joins for a buttload of exp. then, when i was running my last radiant dawn transfer, i used shinon. i must say he can put those large growths to use capping 4 stats. haven't played PoR since, but i know that that 1 shinon beat rolf everytime for statistics at least. he may be a pain to use and level, but he can pay for it if you are running a RD transfer.

[Mercakete]

I always choose the lowest-tier, lowest-level characters because you can grow them up more and have chances for better stats. On my first playthrough of FE9, Rolf was a sniper by the time I got Shinon back and by the end of the game, he had better stats in most areas. So, if you want my opinion, go with Rolf.

[riariadne]

Rolf. Now, I'm incredibly biased, but it really depends on what mode you're playing. Astrid's obviously better, but Snipers do get the niche Longbow (and if you really hate counters, there's the Double Bow but it's stupidly weak) and for the most part better caps and shit like that. If you're using a Sniper long-term, it might as well be Rolf, because he'll be actually useful if he's trained. Granted, it's a pain in the ass to train him, but it shows if you put some effort into it. Shinon may have wtf crazy growths, but his bases are utter trash when he rejoins and he doesn't even ORKO half the guys earlygame. Plus, triangle attack can make Rolf much easier to train. I don't see why everyone thinks its difficult to train him- a few mooch kills will get him going pretty quickly.

[Florete]

Meh, both are pretty bad. Shinon is generally better in the tier sense of things, though if you wanted to seriously use one, either for fun or whatever, Rolf would probably be a better pick. I like to use Rolf on occasion myself.

[Smiley Jim]

As a response to my own post, both archers/snipers got 3/10 or less on my character rating(Astrid got a 7), so obviously, neither aren't that good. I'm still going to defend Rolf for being easier to use overall. Let's face it; being 1/0 in C9 is far more forgivable than being --/1 with shitty stats in C19. Shinon does have points for his earlygame utility, not to mention that he has the highest total growths out of any beorc in this game. But his growths really can't save him from the cesspit of mediocrity, since his bases are piss for a --/1 sniper(32HP/9Str is comparable to 5/0 Boyd, 13Spd/9Def is comparable to 9/0 Marcia). At least, by the time guys start promoting(around C16 at the earliest), Rolf really doesn't need help surviving. Of course, I'm going to say that Boyd and (insert pally here) are better bow users since they have another weapon type to call upon. Now if only Generals could use bows(and axes) in FE9...

Gawd; it's like comparing Erk to Pent(I'll save that for the Blazing Sword forum).

Edited October 15, 2010 by DA125

[Narga_Rocks]

Gawd; it's like comparing Erk to Pent(I'll save that for the Blazing Sword forum).

Except Pent is awesome. Don't know about Erk. Neither Rolf nor Shinon would meet that description.

[Shadow Mir]

Rolf. Now, I'm incredibly biased, but it really depends on what mode you're playing. Astrid's obviously better, but Snipers do get the niche Longbow (and if you really hate counters, there's the Double Bow but it's stupidly weak) and for the most part better caps and shit like that. If you're using a Sniper long-term, it might as well be Rolf, because he'll be actually useful if he's trained. Granted, it's a pain in the ass to train him, but it shows if you put some effort into it. Shinon may have wtf crazy growths, but his bases are utter trash when he rejoins and he doesn't even ORKO half the guys earlygame. Plus, triangle attack can make Rolf much easier to train. I don't see why everyone thinks its difficult to train him- a few mooch kills will get him going pretty quickly.

I'm not seeing how snipers have better caps than paladins, really. All they have is 4 extra skill and 1 more speed than pallies, which is insignificant. They either tie or lose out everywhere else. As for why people think it's hard to train Rolf, I'd say it's because he doesn't even do decent chip damage. And joining around the same time as a bunch of other underleveled characters doesn't help either...

[Loki Laufeyson]

Neither. Use Astrid. Thats what i do! Well, that is when i include an archer type in my team. Sometimes i dont even bother with any of them. Shinon has good early game use and it is a crying shame he disappears only to return as bullshit. :/

[Shadow Mir]

Neither. Use Astrid. Thats what i do! Well, that is when i include an archer type in my team. Sometimes i dont even bother with any of them. Shinon has good early game use and it is a crying shame he disappears only to return as bullshit. :/

I just use Astrid for my archer as well.