FE4 Draft Unit Discussion

[Shin]

Yo! There have been a good good number of FE4 drafts, and I was just wondering how everyone else saw each unit. I don't want to make a tier list, but it would be interesting to discuss various units. The following are ones I think are worth mention;

Edain

Warp saves so many turns in both generations. Having a staff-user never hurts either. Her kids aren't really suited for mega-combat, Lester's never amazing, but they don't do too badly. Nobody else really wants Midale anyway, so it's a safe pairing which produces usable kids.

Alec

His growths are pretty lackluster and his offense is suspect, but he manages to contribute greatly to the first two chapters. He can help Sigurd 5-turn Jungby as well as help recruit Ayra before she goes mad and kills everyone. Admittedly, he's not a great father and he becomes redundant during chapter 4, but his early game contributions are pretty nice. He also has the advantage of being a horsie and not dying against Thracia's knights in one hit.

Holyn

His offense is pretty cool, but his movement means he falls behind a bit. If you're not pairing him with Ayra, his pairings are pretty slow. Brigid's his next best option but I've always found that I'm waiting turns at the end of chapter 5 for him.

Tristan

He's not doing much during chapter 6, but he does have some claim to the Pursuit Ring and the second Hero Sword. Once he promotes, he becomes a better version of Oifaye, due to his ridiculous HP growth and skill cap. His events do blow however.

[Darros]

I'll bite.

Ethlin

The only really bad thing is her disappearance in Gen 1. All she really does on the field is heal, which is OK, since the Relive staff heals pretty much everythin anyway, but there's more then that to her overall preformance.

Her kids are amazing. Altenna may be tricky to recruit, but flying Gae Bolg with 8 mov is wonderful. Leaf is a MASTER KNIGHT, which means Rescue Staff on a horse. Which is ridiculous. She doesn't even need a husband drafted for her, which means you can draft one father and a whole bunch of second gen units (Laylea, Shanan, and Aless come to mind).

Tiltyu

If Tiltyu's not fourth pick, she's.... well... terribad. However, sometimes you'll want to draft her before the fourth drafter to avoid one thing. Holsety on a horse. Holsety Arthur is fantastic. He can stay caught up with Celice, and we all know how powerful Holsety is.

[General Horace]

I when most people think of Aideen, they think "Oh, she has low movement, so she's useless" but I've had Aideen a few times now, and she can catch up to Sigurd in Chapter 2 due to the large hoard of armours and and pain in the ass boss to warp him back to Nodion/the other, farther away castle, she's your second best unit without leaving the castle in Chapter 3, then she's pretty useless, but regardless, she shaves a ton of turns in those chapters, and allows Julia to get Resire easily when playing quickly in second gen (I don't know how you would get it otherwise, actually.)

Lana also shaves turns in Chapter 8 by warping Celice to Lenster, and can warp others to help out once he seizes the north castle there.

Alec is pretty good with the Hero Sword once you get it (providing you don't give it to Sigurd), and is one of five units (Noish, Beowulf, Fury, and Cuan are the others) that can plow through the pirates with the Hero Sword (or in Cuan's case, Lance) and canto back to pass off the Leg Ring to Sigurd in time in Chapter 3.

Never used Holyn, can't say anything about him.

Tristan, I do disagree with you on though, his offensive growths blow, and once he promotes, all he is is Oifaye with more HP that requires a pursuit ring. He has issues getting money, as he's bad in the first few arenas as well.

I seem to be a minority in thinking Oifaye is awesome in FE4 drafts though, so maybe somebody who's less biased could help out here.

And I never get that other Hero Sword, because Daisy always glitch marries Celice

[Integrity]

EDIT: ASDF THE WORLD JUST ATE MY POST FFFFFFFF

I'll type a lot tomorrow.

[Darros]

And I never get that other Hero Sword, because Daisy always glitch marries Celice

Integ told me that resetting in Chapter6 prevents the glitchmarriage.

It also nets you an extra leadership star!

[General Horace]

Integ told me that resetting in Chapter6 prevents the glitchmarriage.

It also nets you an extra leadership star!

Well, damn.

Oh well, it's not like a leadership star is a huge loss anyhow. I can live without the hero sword too, but that hurts more.

[Integrity]

Yeah, saving + resetting in C6 prevents the marriage. If you do it in C7, it's already too late and Daisy will marry Celice on time.

ANYWAY I WANNA TYPE UP THAT SHIT WHAT GOT EATEN

ETHLIN, LEAF, ALTENNA

PACKAGE DEAL: Fucking amazing.

Ethlin is, to be honest, only a dependable unit. She's dodgy enough, healy enough, sorta poor on the damage and really hurt by her availability. On the other hand, she's there where it really counts.

LEAF IS A GOD.

Altenna is pretty much balls. Gae Bolg never impressed me, it comes on a mediocre platform, it takes turns to recruit (like five of them too), and really the only thing Altenna can lay claim to is making Arion fuck off and leave you alone in the Final.

AIDEEN, LANA, LESTER

PACKAGE DEAL: Pretty solid.

Aideen is Ethlin except she's around for the last two chapters and she doesn't move as fast. The only turn-saving shenanigans she can really pull is Warping Sigurd in C3 (and that, my friends, is a boon) but she mostly exists to set up

Lana is Aideen except with availability, inheritance, and maps that conform to her better. There's a lot more moving to be done via Warp to save time, she might get the Rescue staff (chances are good Aideen won't. thanks CLAUDE.) and she can inherit those delicious 10 range sticks that Aideen Midir had to work his ASS off to make money to give to Aideen to buy. Plus she has an extra map-and-a-half on Aideen for availability.

Lester is Midir again, except he isn't as helpful immediately as Midir. But he does get inheritance, and there are a lot more fliers in Gen 2 for him to ply his trade on later.

AYRA, LAKCHE, SKASAHER

PACKAGE DEAL: Certainly dependable.

Ayra, despite my ramblings in the other thread, is still a decent unit. Her only true downfall is her MOV - which, unfortunately, is pretty hard for a draft. Grabbing Ayra, like Aideen, nets you something more though.

Lakche~! Lakche is Ayra with inheritance, and also with things to do. Last night, I was tabling what chapters I could honestly think of a place for her in my (celice-fueled) strategy and I managed to come up with something everywhere. So yeah, Lakche is pretty good.

Skasaher is basically just Lakche.

LACHESIS, DELMUD, NANNA

PACKAGE DEAL: Eh.

Lachesis is Leaf, except without availability or inheritance or access to the Rescue staff or the Pursuit Ring or a quick promotion or any of the things that make Leaf good. So in closing, Lachesis is Leaf except with Charisma and otherwise shit.

Delmud is a decent unit all the way, nothing more nothing less. Charisma is helpful in the very end, and he's at least manly enough to fight all the way along even if he's never spectacular.

Nanna is Ethlin, except for some reason she never turns out well for me.

SYLVIA, LEEN, CORPLE

PACKAGE DEAL: Dancers!

Sylvia is a dancer!

Leen is a dancer who takes about three turns to recruit!

Fucking Carpool is worthless.

FURY, FEE, SETY

PACKAGE DEAL: A+

Fury is really only a modest unit. Her combat is best early, but by the time 5 rolls around she starts to struggle. However, she heals and has the distinction of being able to fly, which means she can support Sigurd in his rush to Ida while most people are probably dealing with the Thracians. And this is very good.

Fee is just amazing. I would do all sorts of horrible things to her if I could, but I can't. She's the kind of good where she'll take all the fucking Thracians IN THE GAME and win. She'll probably inherit a Hero Lance (because nobody else can anyway) and even, should shit go somewhere she can't fight for some reason (like if Claude's her dad, that hurts a bit) she still has Staves. So she's Fury, except better in every imaginable way and also way hotter.

Sety is absolutely unfuckable. No matter who his dad is, it just sets him at a different high level of bro. He also totally violates Arion in F, thereby invalidating Altenna.

TILTYU, ARTHUR, TINNY

PACKAGE DEAL: Either blah or A++

Tiltyu is essentially unsalvageable. She exists only to give you her kids.

Levin!Arthur is a god among mice. He might even be better than Leaf.

Regular Arthur is a good unit, at least. Basically, Lakche except without supreme durability BUT he does promote into a horse.

Tinny is Arthur except comes a little later and is a little bit shittier for it. And she doesn't get a horse.

BRIGGID, PATTY, FAVAL

PACKAGE DEAL: Meh.

Briggid is a pain in the dick to keep alive. Why? Because, somehow, she has to make it back to Aideen for Ichival or there's no point in having her. That is not fun.

Patches, with the right dad, is a boss-killer without durability (wow that sucks) and Thief utility. Not bad, not great, but

Faval is Briggid, complete with taking turns to recruit. And he isn't even good against Arion. I sorta hate Faval.

DADS TIEM

NOISH

Noish makes a great dad and a mediocre unit. So that makes him a pretty good draft!

ALEC

Alec makes a slightly worse dad than Noish and a slightly better unit than Noish. I'd put him right below!

ARDAN

Ardan is ...uh ...he does something. In the Prologue. And never again. Fuck Ardan.

AZEL

Azel is slow and ...mediocre. I'm fond of him, personally, but not in this scenario.

LEX

Lex is like a better dad than Noish AND a better unit than Alec. Score!

CUAN

Cuan is a pretty solid unit for four chapters, and then he goes POOF. On the other hand, if your dad needs are met, he's better than Noish or Alec for Gen 1 imhotep.

FIN

Fin is ...pretty amazing, thanks to having a record-breaking all-but-three chapters of availability. And then he shows up in Gen 2 promoted and laughs at everybody for a little while, before settling into being a decent unit.

MIDIR

Midir is like ...Alec with bows. I like him, personally, and I can justify it unlike with Azel.

DEW

Thieves mean money. For the right team, he's indispensable. Most of the time, he's just helpful - especially in the inheritance rush as you try to get every ring to its proper owner. Plus, making him attackable in C4 saves heartburn and turns.

JAMKA

Jamka is like Midir without a horse. Or Briggid without Ichival. He's not bad, I guess, but I wouldn't prioritize him.

HOLYN

I don't like Holyn, but he makes a good dad for the right kid. As a fighter, he's Ayra without the good bits.

LEVIN

Levin is slow of foot and sorta shitty, except for one thing:

He can reliably clear the Cross Knights from around Eltshan over one EP.

And that is HUGE in my books. I HATE those fuckers.

BEOWULF

He's like the other cavs except you have to recruit him and he's only around for half the game. Also I hate his stupid face.

CLAUDE

Aideen except he doesn't give you Lana and he shows up later. But he comes with Reserve, which is cool.

He also makes a decent dad for Lana (while fucking Lester) and and pretty great husband for Fury with the right Gen 2 team.

AND THE SUBS/SCRUBS

MANA

Lana without inheritance. This hurts her. A LOT.

RADNEY

Similar to above, Lakche without inheritance. It doesn't hurt her as badly, though, she can still turn out to be a mediocre fighter.

RODOLBAN

As Skasaher to Lakche, so Roddlevan to Radney.

TRISTAN

I hate this stupid fucker. I'd rather take my own subs than him.

DIMNA

I don't hate him as much as I hate Tristan. No wait yeah I do.

FEMINA

Femina actually impressed me. I'd take her over Altenna any day, or any of the subs thus far mentioned. Actually, there are only ...maybe three subs I'd take before her.

AMID

Buttface isn't as bad as I thought. He's Arthur except shittier, though, so don't expect anything. I just expected him to be Dimna-grade fail.

JOHAN

Gen 2's Lex except shittier. Wow, I'm gonna use that turn of phrase a lot. Still, I'd take him over Tristan, even if he takes heartache to recruit (stop suiciding on celice you stupid cocknob).

JOHALVA

Easier to recruit than Johan since he doesn't commit suicide on Celice. He's ...okay, I guess. I'd put him below Rodolban.

SHANAN

I'm not fond of Shanan for a lot of reasons. But, he's not really a bad unit - he can be used in the same way as Lakche, even if he's more prone to dying IME. But you didn't spend a mama draft on him!

DAISY

Dew except with absolutely no hope of fighting anything ever. But she does give money out, which helps.

JANNE

BIAS TALKING HERE, Janne is pretty great. She always accomplishes what I set out to make Nanna do, except she does it without taking a shitty mama draft. She's one of the few subs I'd take over Femina.

ARES

Mistletoe isn't as amazing as people rave, imhotep. But, he's still a pony and he's still a pretty good fighter. Not gamebreaking, but good.

LAYLEA

Leen, but with Charisma. Plus, everything Leen would have inherited except money and vendor trash (which is, admittedly, huge) Celice inherited instead.

LINDA

Tinny, except with Tron from the get-go. Plus, I like her more for some reason. One of the others I would draft over Femina.

ASAELLO

Assholio is a bitch.

HAWK

Sety without a dad. In other words: a low level of amazing but it's still actually a level of amazing. B+, would draft more.

HANNIBAL

Hanniballs never accomplished anything worthwhile in his life. He's like Ardan except he manages to be shittier.

SHARLOW

He has a fat and stupid face.

Edited November 15, 2011 by Integrity

[General Horace]

How is Shanan more prone to dying then Lackche when he's never getting hit? Seriously, he can use Balmunk for every attack and still come out of it alright. Also a note, (according to Darros) if you put an undrafted Shanan on the home castle in the Epilogue with Balmung, Arion and his scrubs won't attack.

I've always found Leaf horrendously overrated, he isn't promoting until chapter 9 or 10, and while the rescue staff can be used to save turns in chapter 10, it's not Leaf exclusive. Anyone with two of Mana/Lana, Tinny/Linda, Hawk/Sety, Sharlow/Corple can warp the other B Staff user to the first Castle Celice conquered, allowing the other to pull off rescue just as well as Leaf. Sure, Leaf has a horse and can help with combat, but we've had Oifaye doing that since chapter 6, and he doesn't really lose his steam till endgame. Again, with two warpers (which isn't unlikeley) Leaf isn't doing something that's exclusive to him in endgame. Levin!Arthur is without a doubt better than Leaf.

[Integrity]

How is Shanan more prone to dying then Lackche when he's never getting hit? Seriously, he can use Balmunk for every attack and still come out of it alright. Also a note, (according to Darros) if you put an undrafted Shanan on the home castle in the Epilogue with Balmung, Arion and his scrubs won't attack.

I honestly don't know, man. In this case personal experience is all I can speak from and Shanan always seems to die when I need him to not.

@Leaf: I've never promoted Leaf in C10, and I've even managed to promote him in C8 - but that doesn't do much good, given that he needs to hike down to the home castle to do it. And Lana/Mana/Claude!Sety are the only other users of Rescue - it's an A-rank stick. Leaf is also distinct in that he's the only one of those three units who has a horse, and therefore has incredible mobility on his own. And the Rescue stick's usefulness is directly proportional to the mobility of its user, most of the time.

The reason I rate Leaf so high is that he's the only unit in the game (besides maybe a well-utilized Laylea) who can actually improve Celice's mobility consistently.

[Shin]

It seems that nobody loves Tristan. Admittedly, he's a situational pick, but if nobody else is taking the pursuit ring, he certainly does well with it. It'll be at least chapter 8 before he sees it but I've found with one of the magic or hero swords, he does pretty well in the arena.

I'm yet to use Rescue!Leaf in a draft, but from regular play, he's pretty handy. There are several instances where he can save turns.

[General Horace]

I honestly don't know, man. In this case personal experience is all I can speak from and Shanan always seems to die when I need him to not.

@Leaf: I've never promoted Leaf in C10, and I've even managed to promote him in C8 - but that doesn't do much good, given that he needs to hike down to the home castle to do it. And Lana/Mana/Claude!Sety are the only other users of Rescue - it's an A-rank stick. Leaf is also distinct in that he's the only one of those three units who has a horse, and therefore has incredible mobility on his own. And the Rescue stick's usefulness is directly proportional to the mobility of its user, most of the time.

The reason I rate Leaf so high is that he's the only unit in the game (besides maybe a well-utilized Laylea) who can actually improve Celice's mobility consistently.

I'm a derp, I thought it was B rank. Ok, him and L/Mana are exclusive in saving turns in Ch. 10 and Epilogue then.

Edited November 16, 2011 by General Horace

[Second Pronoun]

But Mana can only move 5 spaces. Leaf can move nine it's a big difference.

[General Horace]

If you have a warper who isn't Mana/Lana, move becomes almost a non issue.

Now, would Leg Ring Leaf with a 50 kill sword be amazing...

[Darros]

If you make over 50 kills on a Hero Sword, try passing the Silver Sword to Leaf or someone else with A swords and a horse.

[Shin]

If you make over 50 kills on a Hero Sword, try passing the Silver Sword to Leaf or someone else with A swords and a horse.

I've done that a couple of times. Unfortunately, I've never really had anyone to give it to. I suppose Oifaye's an option.

[Refa]

Leaf (and Oifaye, for that matter) doesn't need that because he comes with critical. And it's a rare day that Celice needs to critical with a Hero Sword to kill an enemy, might as well sell off the Silver Sword (or the Hero Sword for Femina, because Fee would already have the Hero Lance) instead of hanging on to both of them.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Refa

[Integrity]

Point made that it's a rare day that Celice needs it, but when Celice needs it it makes a WORLD of difference.

Case in point, C8 Ishtar. Critical is the difference between eating a Thorhammer counter (taking asstons of damage) and not. This is the difference between being able to tank Blume's Bolting in the same turn, and therefore keeping the momentum to Seize a turn or two later. If Celice eats the Thorhammer counter, he HAS to evade the Bolting or die.

Just about any other time Ishtar shows up, a good handful of Baron bosses (Final, ESPECIALLY) not eating a counter IS the difference for Celice, and that's what Critical means.

[General Horace]

Even if Oifaye has Critical, giving him a sword with a higher crit doesn't hurt.

[Refa]

Fair enough. There's not many others who could use it in a draft playthrough, anyways.

Point made that it's a rare day that Celice needs it, but when Celice needs it it makes a WORLD of difference.Case in point, C8 Ishtar. Critical is the difference between eating a Thorhammer counter (taking asstons of damage) and not. This is the difference between being able to tank Blume's Bolting in the same turn, and therefore keeping the momentum to Seize a turn or two later. If Celice eats the Thorhammer counter, he HAS to evade the Bolting or die.Just about any other time Ishtar shows up, a good handful of Baron bosses (Final, ESPECIALLY) not eating a counter IS the difference for Celice, and that's what Critical means.

Maybe have Celice sell his old Hero Sword and use the one from first gen, which may/may not have crit? Point taken, though. I still advocate pawning off the Silver Sword and possibly the Hero Sword for the next chapter.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Refa

[General Horace]

And Lana/Mana/Claude!Sety are the only other users of Rescue - it's an A-rank stick.

I actually just assumed that Corple had a B in staves until today, just recruited Levin!Corple, and he has an A Staves as well. Is this just because I'm stupid and Levin gives a Staff rank, or does Sharlow have it as well.

He's still a useless turd (for the most part) though.

[Darros]

Sylvia has Minor Blaggi blood and passes it to both kids, therefore Corple always has A Staves, while Sharlow goes from B -> A.

[General Horace]

Right, I forgot Sylvia had Holy Blood...

[Integrity]

So did I, to be honest.

[Shin]

I'm putting Holyn!Patty forward. Whilst having super skill, HP, Luna and B-rank swords are all dandy, I don't feel that she has any advantages over a Lex!Patty or a Midale!Patty. Lex gives her defense and lets her sleep sword the arena with Elite, whilst Midale offers natural pursuit and more speed.

[Integrity]

For the Patches I've used, Moonlight > everything else other dads could give her. Elite might give it a run for its money, but the Elite Ring isn't too hotly contested after Chapter 8 or so and Patches has all the money ever. Plus, unless you have Leaf she has exclusive access to the Pursuit Ring until she promotes.