Class Situational Comparison

[Takeo]

People tend to pick a character they like (mia) and stick with that character in most if not all new play runs, we often ignore other characters of the same class (lucia). I wanted to see how these forgotten characters fared in comparison with the others in their class. Some of this might be useful to people deciding to mix it up a little in their next game, or not. Just some notes. Remember, stats are not everything, timing and usability is important as well.

Swordmaster, Sniper and Warrior

(all characters are level 20/20, Sothe, Reyson, Giffca and Nasir are obviously 20)

(all characters with exception of Ike were given 3 levels worth of Bexp, no abuse, Mist was given 15 levels and Sothe was given all 20 levels)

(stat boosters were used to cover up weakness in stats, example. Ashera Icons were given to Stefan)

(normal mode, random mode with bands equipped, Ike was given Priest Band, the rest were distributed randomly, however, a character did not receive the band that boosted that characters 'dominant' stats, example. Boyd received Archer Band and not the Fighter Band)

The Stats

Ike - Hp 60 Str 26 Mag 16 Skill 27 Sp 28 Lck 26 Def 29 Res 22 Miracle/Aether

Nasir - Hp 60 Str 22 Mag 11 Skill 24 Sp 23 Lck 18 Def 26 Res 27 Nihil/Boon

Reyson - Hp 35 Str 2 Mag 18 Skill 17 Sp 25 Lck 26 Def 4 Res 30 Canto/Blessing

Gifca - Hp 68 Str 40 Mag 10 Skill 32 Sp 28 Lck 22 Def 30 Res 19 Roar

Mist - Hp 39 Str 14 Mag 26 Skill 15 Sp 24 Lck 32 Def 12 Res 29 Savior/Guard/Miracle

Sothe - Hp 37 Str 20 Mag 8 Skill 20 Sp 20 Lck 23 Def 20 Res 14 Blossom

Mia - Hp 43 Str 20 Mag 10 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 20 Def 22 Res 13 Vantage/Adept

Zihark - Hp 48 Str 24 Mag 6 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 19 Def 18 Res 10 Vantage/Adept

Stefan - Hp 45 Str 24 Mag 10 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 12 Def 18 Res 16 Astra

Lucia - Hp 40 Str 21 Mag 16 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 23 Def 15 Res 11 Astra

Rolf - Hp 48 Str 20 Mag 9 Skill 30 Sp 28 Lck 20 Def 17 Res 10 Deadeye

Shinon - Hp 48 Str 25 Mag 12 Skill 30 Sp 25 Lck 17 Def 18 Res 14 Resolve/Wrath

Boyd - Hp 57 Str 30 Mag 1 Skill 25 Sp 23 Lck 20 Def 16 Res 11 Colossus

Swordmaster

In actual battle all of the swordmasters were very similar, their dodge/critical/skill activation rates (the stuff a swordmaster relies on) were interestingly the same. Mia is.... difficult to use at first, however she becomes important as the chapters roll by. Before Zihark she does a good amount of damage, however, this damage stabilizes and becomes.... lackluster after Lucia. She ties with Stefan for second place, an excellent swordmaster but I would have liked her to be the best statwise, considering that I had to use her in some tough chapters early on. Her abnormal defense did not really help her as she avoided almost half of attacks and her skills made that stat even more useless.

Zihark is the best swordmaster in my personal opinion. He is recruited at a perfect time and quickly overtakes Mia. By chapter 17 he is the best unit that I have and continues to be the best for a while longer. The enemies kept away from him like he was the plague. Number one place goes to him. He is a must in any new game run.

Stefan is not that bad. Compared to the other two he is horrible at first true, however, he can hold his own for the rest of the game. His stats do improve and become equal to the other two. The lack of luck never really bothered me as his avoid and skill activation rates were the same as the others. I would go with Mia over him, however, if the player is too lazy to make Mia decent or has too many other early chapter character to level and still in need of a swordmaster then Stefan is a viable choice. Second place, just because of Astra.

Oh boy, Lucia was in fact everything they said she was, at first. She is an effective combatant in the chapter you get her, which is more then I can say for Mia and Zihark, however, compared with the others she fell short in everything. From the moment I got her she became the number one target for enemies. But, like I said: strangely enough she dished out critical attacks at the same rate as the others and dodged about the same number of attacks. Still she must get the third and last place just because of those annoying starting stats and the lateness of her arrival. Not a recommended character but still USABLE as her 20/20 stats show. If you are wondering I just gave her a speedwing to cap speed, nothing else.

The swormaster class is the most entertaining to play as they rely on critical hits for damage and dodging ability for defense, a unique trait in the game. Hence they do not have a large base damage output and are kind of fragile especially in the early levels. If your feeling lucky then this class is for you. Call me crazy but Astra looks much better with animation off....

Sniper

The comparison between the two snipers goes up and down. At first Shinon is Shinon, a pre-promoted unit that has terrible starting stats and goes away for most of the game. After beating him down I found him to be amazingly competent. At level six he was nothing compared to Rolf, however, he held his own and caught up very quickly. Two chapter of careful raising was all it took for Shinon to be a valued member of my team. Then he proceeded to smoke Rolf in stats and ended up with the Double Bow. Second place for him, just because that we miss out on his awesomeness for so long.

Not much to say about Rolf. He starts with a clean slate and follows the path of the generic archer, slowly getting better with time. He become better then Shinon but sadly not for the Endgame. The number one of the two just because he is available for the majority of the game.

The Sniper class is surprisingly disappointing. I thought that it would be like having swordmasters with range attacks but it felt more like having two broken warriors with screwed str and hp and slightly blessed def and spd with an increased critical hit. Has anyone actually made an enemy sleep with deadeye?

Warrior

Sitting on the pedestal with 160 kills Boyd was the backbone of my team. Without him (screwed as he was) this run would have been a lot more difficult. I realized that he is in fact a better archer then both Rolf and Shinon, sad as this fact is. If he was in Brawl then he would be without a doubt banned from all tournies.

Too bad this class is sort of fragile. Luckily my Boyd avoided most if not all magic attacks that were sent his way. Sad that there is only one of them. I would say colossus is the coolest looking master skill, anyone who has seen Boyd use it with bow equipped would probably agree.

Edited June 23, 2011 by Takeo

[Excellen Browning]

Stefan - Hp 45 Str 24 Mag 10 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 12 Def 18 Res 26 Astra

Did you consider sowrdmaster class caps res at 22?

If you want to compare characters, go with fixed mode. Everyone and their mother can just scream PEMN when you're showing random mode stats.

[Takeo]

Stefan - Hp 45 Str 24 Mag 10 Skill 29 Sp 30 Lck 12 Def 18 Res 26 Astra

Did you consider sowrdmaster class caps res at 22?

If you want to compare characters, go with fixed mode. Everyone and their mother can just scream PEMN when you're showing random mode stats.

An error which I corrected. Thank you for pointing it out. Now, the point of this 'review' of mine was to compare the units potential and availability against others in their class. I used their final stats as a VERY BROAD indicator of what they MIGHT become. I had to do this in order to give Lucia the status she deserves. I am sorry if my point is not very clear. That is simply my failure as a writer, I am sorry. I really do not care if people believe that those final stats are true or not, however, if my notes encourages at least one person to try something new then I will be happier then Largo with two tiger pinned under him.

[Life]

To be honest, I couldn't give a flying fuck about what 20/20 stats are.

Stefan is not "horrible at first". In fact, Stefan is statistically better than both Mia and Zihark. He kills stuff without needing something fancier than an Iron Blade. He doubles everything. Mia and Zihark only do item number 2 on that list. Oh and Stefan is much stronger defensively than both Mia and Zihark when he joins.

[Quintessence]

First of all, the last thing I would do is to give a swordmaster a secret book or a speedwing, I think it's a disrespect to the class since their outstanding stats are supposed to be both skill and speed.

In the other hand I don't think Stefan is stronger defensively since Mia and Zihark have up to 21 and 17 levels, respectively, to gain better defenses. It's ok about Stefan's bases but the two myrmidons have more chances to raise def and res; keep in mind their promotion gain for def and res are +2.

In my opinion, both Mia and Zihark are fine as Myrmidon/Swordmaster, however, I always go for Zihark because of his Earth affinity that comes somehow handy for Ilyana.

Regarding Rolf and Shinon, both of them have a decent outcome, however, their availability is what marks them ferociously.

Shinon starts excellent, he's almost on par with Titania. His bases makes me sad, his growths are fairly good, his early role in the game is really of vital importance but his "retirement" pushes him down to an abyss. Nonetheless, a blessed training may adjust things.

Rolf's availability may be early but his bases aren't adequate for the chapters he makes appearance. He's a little pain in th....(for the first chapters), never mind; but his training may turn in a positive outcome. However, his training is really stressful when dragon riders and ravens come to the battlefield.

Besides that, nice stats for Ike. Anyhow, I would've dedicated more work for Boyd's skill and speed. In my playthroughs he always capped skill and speed, have in mind that I gave him one speedwing in Ch. 5.

[Takeo]

First of all, the last thing I would do is to give a swordmaster a secret book or a speedwing, I think it's a disrespect to the class since their outstanding stats are supposed to be both skill and speed.

In the other hand I don't think Stefan is stronger defensively since Mia and Zihark have up to 21 and 17 levels, respectively, to gain better defenses. It's ok about Stefan's bases but the two myrmidons have more chances to raise def and res; keep in mind their promotion gain for def and res are +2.

In my opinion, both Mia and Zihark are fine as Myrmidon/Swordmaster, however, I always go for Zihark because of his Earth affinity that comes somehow handy for Ilyana.

Regarding Rolf and Shinon, both of them have a decent outcome, however, their availability is what marks them ferociously.

Shinon starts excellent, he's almost on par with Titania. His bases makes me sad, his growths are fairly good, his early role in the game is really of vital importance but his "retirement" pushes him down to an abyss. Nonetheless, a blessed training may adjust things.

Rolf's availability may be early but his bases aren't adequate for the chapters he makes appearance. He's a little pain in th....(for the first chapters), never mind; but his training may turn in a positive outcome. However, his training is really stressful when dragon riders and ravens come to the battlefield.

Besides that, nice stats for Ike. Anyhow, I would've dedicated more work for Boyd's skill and speed. In my playthroughs he always capped skill and speed, have in mind that I gave him one speedwing in Ch. 5.

Ok, first of all I gave Lucia a speedwing cause this file is going to be transferred and she capped her speed at 28... No other swordmaster received speedwings or secret books.

Defense and resistance did not really matter much in my run as the swordmasters dodged a lot, any damage taken was healed up quickly and I don't think any of them went lower then 20% health.

Mia is great at first, however, considering that you must funnel 11 then 20 levels of battle/bonus exp down her throat you would think that she would be in another league of her own. I saw the average stats before doing my run and she should have had little more str and little less def during the run. I thought that it would not matter since she has the best availability but the reality is I hardly used her more then I had to since she did so little damage compared to Zihark and Stefan. It that sense she is only 'available' (to me at least) until chapter 15 then gets replaced as Zihark becomes a one man army and Stefan does decent damage TO START WITH.

What "marks them ferociously" is the fact that they cannot one hit kill anything but mages and priest as high level snipers and they can survive while being completely surrounded by enemies yet cannot for the life of them counter-attack, the whole while I was screaming INVENT THE FREAKING CROSSBOW!!!!

I was lucky with Ike and unlucky with Boyd, that is what makes random mode so fun.....

[StinDuh]

Essentially all this did was reinforce my pre-promote-phobia.

[Snarf]

So this is based off your stats and not averages, right?

[Esaka]

*Facepalm* anyone can screw the RNG and give their results. Granted it's kinda fun doing that, but never do it for serious buiz.

[I.M. Gei]

What's the point of transferring Speed Lucia? She's not getting any more doubles in 2-2 than normal Lucia IIRC and she'll still suck horribly when she returns in Part 4.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Chiki's Pet Pikachu