Top 30 Fire Emblem Characters of ALL TIME Countdown

[bottlegnomes]

I don't remember this "dissertation" thing and considering how Arthur has an unpleasant start efficiency-wise while folks like Othin and Felgus are good from the get-go and didn't end up in the top 10, yes I do find it surprising.

It's the link Mekkah provided in his Arthur ranking. There's that and the fact that he has very possibly referenced Arthur and how great he is in half of his rating. Anyway, all I'm saying is Mekkah pretty clearly loves Arthur, and not completely unreasonably so.

EDIT: technically, he called it a thesis, but same thing.

Edited December 29, 2011 by bottlegnomes

[Dr. Tarrasque]

It's the link Mekkah provided in his Arthur ranking. There's that and the fact that he has very possibly referenced Arthur and how great he is in half of his rating. Anyway, all I'm saying is Mekkah pretty clearly loves Arthur, and not completely unreasonably so.

EDIT: technically, he called it a thesis, but same thing.

After reading that I can see why you said it's not surprising. Was the link added after the edit? I don't recall seeing it the first time I read his post.

[Othin]

I don't remember this "dissertation" thing and considering how Arthur has an unpleasant start efficiency-wise while folks like Othin and Felgus are good from the get-go and didn't end up in the top 10, yes I do find it surprising.

Arthur moves slow at the start, but as Mekkah showed in his link, he's still damn effective during that time. Having low Move doesn't matter much when you start near the enemies in one chapter, Celice is off seizing other things for most of the next chapter, and by the third, he's promoted.

[bottlegnomes]

After reading that I can see why you said it's not surprising. Was the link added after the edit? I don't recall seeing it the first time I read his post.

Coulda been. I read it for the first time after the edit, according to the time stamp.

[Rewjeo]

In the newer games, I'm pretty sure hatched Pokemon come out at level 1 instead of level 5. To explain all those level 2-4 wild ones.

[Dark Sage]

Arthur, like a lot of the kids, is kind of like one of those freshly hatched Pokemon from the Day Care. You know, they inherit all the strong moves and genes, but their stats have yet to develop. It's kind of adorable in a way. Arthur is kind of different. What kind of L1 Pokemon has stats equivalent to a L50 Pokemon? Well, if Arthur was a Pokemon, that would be what he has. Of course, it would require you to breed a male Levin with a female Tiltyu.

As opposed to a female Levin and a male Tiltyu right?

[Renall]

I hate Arthur. He's like Haar to Sety's Ike(T). Sety is just so invincible and such a killing machine that it makes me sad that a guy with worse stats (aside from move) and worse skills manages to be significantly better.

That's the problem with Sety though, even disregarding the (incredibly important) move difference: He's overkill. Not just for a Holsety user, but for Sety himself. Try another Sety sometime, one with a neato dad like Noish or Claude or hell, anyone really. Fury kicks in Pursuit, so you can go hog wild with those dads that don't have it. And the dirty little secret here? Every Sety produced is fucking great. It's super hard to make Sety bad and super easy to make him good. Arthur... not so much. Plus you look at the advantages for Fee when you look at pairings for Sety, as while Tinny really isn't very useful for anything, Fee certainly can be as your only flying unit for most of Gen 2 (not that flying is that relatively useful in FE4, but it's still pretty damn handy). Something like Noish or Claude is great for Fee, and Sety doesn't give a flying fuck if he's got Holsety. Lightning's in his hands, he's good to go.

Meanwhile, you get your Celice/Arthur/Leaf early promotion thing going and suddenly chapters 9 through Epilogue are nothing but a rapetrain of Aless and Arthur murdering everyone, Celice capping at warp speed, and Leaf/Leen doing so many Rescue/Dance bullshit combos that Alvis didn't even have time to get dressed before you rolled up on his ass. And Sety still doesn't give a fuck, because he's already capped on experience and dicking around cleaning up leftovers with effortless ease.

You have to be pretty insane to look at a choice between "one godlike, one okay" and "one godlike, one exceptional" and pick the first option. Even in casual play, isn't it more fun to have Holsety in Chapter 6?

[Dark Sage]

I hate Arthur. He's like Haar to Sety's Ike(T). Sety is just so invincible and such a killing machine that it makes me sad that a guy with worse stats (aside from move) and worse skills manages to be significantly better.

wat.

Ok, Arthur has worse caps and Pursuit. Nobody really cares though because the bonuses from Holsety are so overkill that the statistical differences between Sety and Arthur end up as miniscule. Lack of Pursuit also barely hurts. Not only does Arthur have a ridiculous chance of activating Continue (so he can often ORKO), he also has an absurd chance of activating Critical. Sety does have the advantage of Pursuit I guess, but Arthur can take a Pursuit Ring (not that he needs it, the absurd chances of his skills activating make the lack of Pursuit a nonissue for him).

[Mekkah]

Guys, guys, I appreciate it, but contrary to most people who start their post like that, Narga does realize Arthur is better. Read closely.

[Baldrick]

As opposed to a female Levin and a male Tiltyu right?

That would give you Holsety Tinny, which could be interesting.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

That would give you Holsety Tinny, which could be interesting.

Not really, it'd be like a getting a weaker Sety just a bit earlier with the complaints of Levin!Arthur (OMG CAPS AREN'T 30) and Levin!Sety (No mount in a game where mounts dominate, more avoid than Arthur = more enemies that don't want to attack) packaged in 1 unit.

[Narga_Rocks]

Guys, guys, I appreciate it, but contrary to most people who start their post like that, Narga does realize Arthur is better. Read closely.

Thank you. I thought I was clear enough with the last sentence there, but maybe I wasn't.

wat.

Ok, Arthur has worse caps and Pursuit. Nobody really cares though because the bonuses from Holsety are so overkill that the statistical differences between Sety and Arthur end up as miniscule. Lack of Pursuit also barely hurts. Not only does Arthur have a ridiculous chance of activating Continue (so he can often ORKO), he also has an absurd chance of activating Critical. Sety does have the advantage of Pursuit I guess, but Arthur can take a Pursuit Ring (not that he needs it, the absurd chances of his skills activating make the lack of Pursuit a nonissue for him).

I like giving Pursuit Ring to other units, thanks. If I ever try to get low turns, I'll angrily play with Arthur!Levin. For fun, though, it's Sety!Levin all the way because I actually enjoy using Tinny and Patty and want them to have pursuit. Further, I happen to like seeing <10% hits and know my unit is almost certainly not going to die (If I'm going to depend on dodging rather than facing no more than a unit can take if every or nearly every attack hits). Using Arthur (or Shanan not on a tree) and seeing 10 to 30 % hit rates may make the rest of you happy, but I hate reseting, personally, and those 10 to 30s hit me way too often. It's why I don't have Shanan solo his starting area and instead wait for my libro user to show up. Maybe you guys just have better luck than I do, but Shanan gets hit way too often for my taste. For offence, without Pursuit Arthur has, what, 46% continue and 20% critical at base, which is good for around 57% ORKO. That's around Mia-levels in RD. That's fine if it's like RD HM where only Ike and Shinon have better KO percentages until Titania and Haar get their speedwings and enough levels to proc some speed, but considering how many killing machines are there in fe4 it's more like RD NM. Mia is really not so good there. Even Neph has an argument of being > Mia in NM (2-E bonus exp to near promotion then in part 3 she's better than Ike).

Besides all of that, I just happen to like walking (or riding) gods. Sety qualifies. To me, Arthur does not. Arthur being much better for efficiency just pisses me off all the more.

[Baldrick]

Not really, it'd be like a getting a weaker Sety just a bit earlier with the complaints of Levin!Arthur (OMG CAPS AREN'T 30) and Levin!Sety (No mount in a game where mounts dominate, more avoid than Arthur = more enemies that don't want to attack) packaged in 1 unit.

I wasn't saying she'd be the best unit to use it, but that it would be unusual.

[Mekkah]

For offence, without Pursuit Arthur has, what, 46% continue and 20% critical at base, which is good for around 57% ORKO

But then with the Mag Ring he OHKOs things, and his base lasts all of ten seconds, with that Continue rate going up by 1% every level, and Critical by .85%...

[CrashGordon94]

Shin's patch actually let you have Holsetinny, it was one of the things he advertised.

Also, she seems to promote into the female Sage class there.

[Renall]

Holsety Patty or go home, IMO.

[Narga_Rocks]

But then with the Mag Ring he OHKOs things, and his base lasts all of ten seconds, with that Continue rate going up by 1% every level, and Critical by .85%...

True, but at max skl/spd he's still got, what, 57% continue and 32% critical? ~71% ORKO. Also, don't forget I'm complaining about casual play. In efficiency sure the ring lets him OHKO some stuff for a little bit and then in chapter 7 Celice has to catch up so it doesn't really matter if he takes an extra round to kill a few things. More exp for Yuria or someone on player phase, anyway. Then when he promotes him and the other mounts are so far ahead that it doesn't really matter anymore.

But why should I give him the mage ring when I could do something more fun? I can't think of what that could be at the moment, but I remember using it elsewhere. I think I remember it being easier to sleep/silence a couple annoying units with it. Though I felt bad about silencing Blume so I didn't and just used my overlevled Lakche who could actually take a hit. But even if I let him have the ring, I'm still going to complain about that 71% ORKO after enemy hp gets too high when I could've had HolSety. He's simply more fun to have around because he's at 100%. And he's less likely to get hit by bosses.

[Bluedoom]

I do kinda feel what Narga feels. I like having a walking god rather than a very god yet not godly holsety user on a horse. Because I like looking at huge stats and wiping out my enemy.

[Thor Odinson]

It's just FE4 efficiency is terribly skewed in favor of riders. I like my overkill offense units as well, but they just can't get to the kills on time in efficient mode ; n; And those maps are huuuuuge.

fuck that I still give Lakche Leg Knight because I can and I don't even attempt any semblance of efficient play outside of that draft I did anyway for FE4

[Lord Raven]

Holsety Arthur is broken.

Holsety Sety is broken AND cool.

Summary of this entire page.

[tiff]

I do kinda feel what Narga feels. I like having a walking god rather than a very god yet not godly holsety user on a horse. Because I like looking at huge stats and wiping out my enemy.

It's fun just having Sety park up somewhere and have him destroy all who dare oppose him.

Never used Levin!Arthur but it sounds like he only destroys most who stand against him.

[Mekkah]

That's only without Pursuit Ring, obv. Narga is going under the assumption that Arthur is not getting the Pursuit Ring because some scrub like Tinny or Patty or Jamka!Lester is getting it, because casual play.

6. Marcus, from FE7

Finally! The first earlyjoining Paladin! Marcus is probably the most balanced of them all...and by that I mean FE6 Marcus. FE7 Marcus is seriously overpowered, but nobody knew that because hey, he hogs soooo much EXP!

Anyway, he has the usual godly stuff. 2HKOs and doubles almost everything, can OHKO with Silver Lance, often even ORKO bosses with that. Defensively, he just refuses to die, with full weapon triangle control, including the ability to attack and counter ranged enemies. At least, early on. He slows down later, right?

Well, yes and no. He does have a pitful 25% Spd growth, and "only" an 11 Spd base (this is as much as Matthew has at base, so not slow by any means). However, it just so happens that this base 11 Spd is capable of doubling most scrub enemies until mid/lategame, as sad as that is. There may be some short period of time where he doesn't double (when enemies have grown a little, but are still holding Iron weapons), but soon enough they make the switch to Steel and Marcus doubles just fine. Even though his EXP gain per normal battle is very low (around 5 EXP regarldess of kill or non-kill, iirc), he can expose himself so much that he gets quite a few chances at those low-ish growths to proc. And every Spd proc he gets is worth its weight in gold. Speedwings don't really exist in this game (or might as well not), except for the last few chapters, but as long as you keep dedicating kills, mostly bosskills, to Marcus, he'll stay afloat. He can also just equip Killer weapons to get a shot at OHKOing with a crit without doubling, or use the Brave Lance or Brave Axe even with his base weapon levels. Speaking of those, Marcus will easily hit S lances very quickly and gain 5% hit/crt from that.

Marcus does "suck exp" in the sense that if you dominate map after map with him, you kind of need to keep that playstyle going all the way until you get more prepromotes. Thankfully, this isn't too difficult, and after Kinship's Bond they just keep on hitting you with decent to great prepromotes. Isadora, Hawkeye, probably not Geitz but he's good anyway, Farina kind of, Pent, Louise, Harken, Jaffar...so yes, even though Marcus is not "an Oifaye", he is a much better unit than Oifaye, despite the growth disadvantage.

Even if you somehow find Marcus's combat insufficient, he can assist in rescue/drops very well thanks to his 8 mov, and of course he can move after doing those fancy things or trading just fine too.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Mekkah

[Narga_Rocks]

That's only without Pursuit Ring, obv. Narga is going under the assumption that Arthur is not getting the Pursuit Ring because some scrub like Tinny or Patty or Jamka!Lester is getting it, because casual play.

Mostly Patty for kicks. I forget who I gave it to after Patty promotes. With Tinny having Azel as a father she obv doesn't need it, and if I'm not using Levin!Arthur then who else would be a father? Maybe Lex, because that's funny, but then she doesn't really need pursuit anyway. And I never have and never will create Jamka!Lester. I guess Leaf, though I don't remember if he gathered enough money for it before I promoted him anyway. Esp since Elite comes before Pursuit as far as my priorities go for Leaf.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Narga_Rocks

[Mekkah]

It's almost like there are no other good candidates for Pursuit Ring!

[bottlegnomes]

I'm curious, since when isn't Marcus considered "an Oifey"?