Rate the Unit, Day 15: Ephraim

[Haze]

inb4 Hector

They're tied, in my eyes.

8/10. Lances, growths, remarkably easy to raise for a lord, and with Reginleif he will ambush your sisters, kill their cavaliers, make love to their horses and send a carrier pigeon to them the next day.

...

Wait I think I muddled that up.

[Ein]

No, that sounds about right.

[Non-Existent Member]

a Lord who can use Lances? Yes! He has good base stats and awesome growths.

He starts with a footed unit, which I like. then after promoted he gains a mount.

He's probably the best Lord in the GBA series.

Ephraim gets 9.5/10 from me.

[Shadow Mir]

8.5/10. I'd say something, but all the good stuff was said already. On a side note, why couldn't he, Kyle and Forde have started with Iron Lances and not those craptastic Steel Lances?!?

Edited February 14, 2012 by Metal King Slime

[eclipse]

He'll turn out great, unless you're me in a draft, in which case he'll turn out inexplicably screwed. Reginleif's amazing, but unlike the Rapier, you don't get a second one. Oh, and if he's anywhere near a mage, he dies.

7.5/10, with the extra .5 for Javelins.

EDIT: Speling

Edited February 14, 2012 by eclipse

[arvilino]

Really great combat and comes with the Reginleif which is basically a Horse eraser. Mounted on promotion and has a good weapon type.

8/10

[nabvfgsyeahuwdefgfue7huiwr]

He's one of my favorite characters (to the best of my knowledge he has the only promoted class in the GBA games that can use only lances), I'll give him an 8/10. He'll naturally cap HP, Defense, Strength, and Speed (all of the stats that actually matter), but in a game where there are infinite stat boosters and it is possible to cap all of anyone's stats with a lot of RNG abuse in the ruins, his max stats fall below average. I play primarily to make the strongest team possible by the end of the game (for link arena or whatever).

8/10

Edited February 14, 2012 by FireEmblemReignsSupreme

[OrangeCrush980]

He's a growth unit that doesn't get a horse until after chapter 16. Also he can't warp or dance.

4/10

[Integrity]

He tends to suck for me really bad. Specially If I go eph route, which ive done like 3 times and hes always awful in every stat and gets killed in phantom ship. He also caused the first reset of the no resets draft in 5x...I only give him few points because of that lance. 3/10

I actually missed this earlier. I want more from you than this, PKL, this vote is entirely bias.

@Crush: I'm a little cagey about that justification, but I don't think I'll toss it. I'd appreciate it if you gave me a little more.

[Sasori]

Good bases, good grothes, awesome prf weapons and he's a foot lord who doesn't use swords.

8/10

[Thor Odinson]

@Lumi: I REALLY expected that from Horace, not you. :P

dammit Lumi beat me to it

Heeeeeeee

[Loki Laufeyson]

Ephraim is this dude whos Eirika's brother and Leeroy Jenkins.

Pros:

Beautiful stats, man!

Lances, therefore Javelin use.

Gets a pony on promotion.

Supports with decent units. (One is particularly hilarious.)

Spanks things with Regenleif (i may have butchered that spelling.) Also Seigmund.

Cons:

Has some trouble keeping up before promotion.

Axes hate him.

This guy just doesnt have a lot of cons. (Except not existing in Eirika's route but meh.) Hes pretty spammy and solid. Dem stats balance out so hard after promotion...geezus. He isnt gonna take a lot of damage in late game unless DracoZombies and Lyon happen. Keerist!

9/10. Damn dude. Hes pretty good.

[Rewjeo]

7.5/10. He's solid all around, but I wouldn't mind a horsey before promotion and his availability could be better.

[Sunwoo]

Ephraim and Eirika are kind of polar opposites in terms of unit strengths and weaknesses. Unlike Eirika, who will end up with high skill and speed but may have shaky strength and defense, Ephraim will have very good offense, be more durable, and while his speed and skill growth is not horrible, those caps do him no favors. His preferred weapon, which I don't want to spell out, is effective against cavalry and armors. Plus, he's strong enough and/or the lance has enough might to 1HKO those enemies. He gets a horse on promotion and has immediately 1-2 range.

However, he does have a forced promotion and will probably hit his level cap not long into the game, especially if you go his route. Unless you have him kill literally everything between his promotion and endgame, he's not going to be able to take advantage of his growths and ... be pretty much stuck with his 20/- stats plus promotion bonuses. Magi are NOT his best friends. Axes are a danger to him, too (unless he got super defense blessed).

Incidentally ... he wasn't THAT good on my draft. I think he got screwed. :P

8/10, because he's a more durable lord with a better weapon type who gets a mount upon promotion. But his resistance is terrible and he has a forced promotion. (He and Eirika are promoting five chapters before endgame, aren't they ...)

[Refa]

It's not really a forced promotion...

[Integrity]

It's really nothing more than a late-arriving promotion item.

[Sunwoo]

Okay, it's not a "forced" promotion, but it's fixed in the sense that I can't promote Eirika and Ephraim before I get those items. I feel that's worth docking, because they hit their caps and get stuck at level 20 at a time when the rest of my units are promoting and being able to contribute more. And then, by promoting later than most of your core units, unless you feed Ephraim and Eirika most, if not all, of the kills in the next few chapters, then they're not going to be able to take advantage of their growths and be stuck at the stats they had at 20/- plus promotion gains.

[Loki Laufeyson]

......Arent all the lords in FE pretty much have a storybased promotion?

[Integrity]

Okay, it's not a "forced" promotion, but it's fixed in the sense that I can't promote Eirika and Ephraim before I get those items.

Whether it's worth docking or not, you're talking about the exact wrong reason. Colm's promotion is fixed in the sense that you can't promote him before you get that item (ocean seal). Every promotion is fixed in the sense that you cannot promote the unit until you have the requisite item.

What I think you're getting at here is that the twins have a *late* promotion. The mechanics of it are absolutely no different from any other unit.

EDIT: Florina: yes, to my mind. All the ones who promote except Celice promote due to an event/special item only they can use (heaven seal, lunar brace, w/e).

Edited February 15, 2012 by Integrity

[Lightli]

Lord #2. Lance lock is better than sword lock, if only because javelins exist, and being a lord means he gets a Sacred Twin stronger than Vidofnir. Ridiculous stat-growths that are only held in check by his poor caps (if his strength, speed, and skill had caps of 30, he'd on average cap the first two and still have a good shot at the last one), less terrible durability...only reason most people rate Eirika more highly is because most people take her route all the time.

Sorry, I'll take the route in which I get to invade the empire over the boring diplomatic mission, thank you very much. 8.5/10, since he's somewhat eh if you go the lame path anyways.

hurry up and get to already

[Sunwoo]

Late promotion, then. I suppose that's the word I'm looking for. But yeah, Eirika and Ephraim don't have the potential to promote until there are only about five chapters left in the game. The fact that chapters 17, 19, and 20 at the least can be speeded up using warp and fliers doesn't really help the twins in catching up with levels, either.

I didn't rate the FE7 lords because I wasn't a member at that point. But I'd dock Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector for having late promotions as well.

[Terrador]

Eirika: 6.5/10; requires a LOT of babying before promotion, but he's completely worth the effort (albeit a liability for awhile).

Ephraim: 8.5/10; his lower mobility will be a pain once or twice, and the fact that he can't promote is ever-so-slightly irritating, but he's bulky, hits like a truck, and has a great Enemy Phase... and then his horse happens.

In all honesty, he'd be knocked up about half a point if his caps were higher, but he really doesn't need that much firepower in all honesty; he's still decimating everything. Composite: 7.5

[xblade]

all reasons explained. has funny conversations with l'archel so 7.5/10

[bottlegnomes]

Seth's a better lance user. 8/10

Real reasoning ;p He's a solid unit who has very good stats and uses lances. Axes would have been nice, but you can't have, even if you are Sigurd/Seth. Anyway, lances let him have good EP combat, along side his very solid stats. His only downsides are no horse before promotion and a rather late promotion when he'll probably be sitting at 20 for a decent while in his route. Also, Reigenlief (or however you spell it) is ridonculous.

Edited February 15, 2012 by bottlegnomes

[frat_tastic]

I actually missed this earlier. I want more from you than this, PKL, this vote is entirely bias.

@Crush: I'm a little cagey about that justification, but I don't think I'll toss it. I'd appreciate it if you gave me a little more.

To me, this looks like he justified his score based on Ephraim's lackluster stats. The three points come from being usable because of a good PRF weapon. While you (or anyone else really) may not agree about Ephraim's stats, his justification doesn't seem off to me.