Rate the Unit, Day 46: Zeiss

[Integrity]

Dat Rules

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard Mode.

- Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted. If somebody else said what you want to already, quote them explicitly.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is encouraged, but no more. If you exercise your bias privileges, please do so explicitly.

- Numerical votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Make it easy to calculate for my sake.

- Every ranking phase ends whenever I get out of bed, between 0800 and 0900 EST. Do the math for your timezone, Brits.

- I will insist you do not use the "Not X" reason on any character, where X is another unit. If you do, your vote will be thrown out.

- Characters should be rated for their performance on all possible routes (A/B / Sacae/Ilia) but should not be penalized for routes they physically cannot exist on (z.B Juno in Sacae).

- "Recruits X" or "takes you to X chapter" arguments are explicitly banned. C'mon, people, this shouldn't need to be a rule. That's not gameplay performance.

- I withhold the privilege to tell you your rating is bogus and demand you revise it if it breaks any of the above. I will not throw out votes anonymously, you will be informed and given a chance to revise.

AVERAGES

WENDY!: 0.19

Sophia: 0.45

Bors: 1.14

Cath: 1.48

Barth: 2.07

Wolt: 2.16

Ward: 2.61

Fa: 3.02

Dorothy: 3.17

Garret: 3.36

Lilina: 3.53

Merlinus: 3.53

Roy: 3.54

Geese: 3.70

Ray: 4.04

Hugh: 4.15

Treck: 4.66

Oujay: 4.80

Fir: 5.08

Lot: 5.40

Gonzales: 5.45

Cecilia: 5.61

Sue: 5.64

Igrene: 5.73

Ellen: 5.73

Lugh: 5.98

Bartre: 6.00

Noah: 6.13

Chad: 6.42

Klein: 6.53

Astohl: 7.17

Saul: 7.18

Echidna: 7.27

Shin: 7.42

Zealot: 7.56

Clarine: 7.78

Tate: 7.89

Dieck: 7.94

Thany: 8.01

Alan: 8.52

Lance: 8.59

Marcus: 8.77

Lalam: 8.78

Elphin: 9.00

Percival: 9.60

Rutger: 9.61

Miredy: 9.88

aaaaah sorry lateness

[MacLovin]

WTF Growths

Awesome Class.

And, can be ROys armoured car!

10/1 and bam.

Roy's got an armoured Ferrybot.

4.5/10, because he is useable, and can ferry Roy with that 14 base def, and 19 base str.

[Renall]

A good class (flying is always nice) and not bad at what he does, but he comes so late. That's really what's wrong with him... and it's kind of a big thing, I think. Thany's had all game to taxi people, and Miredy and Tate are already out and about potentially doing combat stuff. Zeiss does make a sturdier air chariot than Thany for Roy though, and is close enough to an early promotion.

Supports are bad but at least his best is Miredy who matches his movement and will probably be used. His second-best is Ellen. Seriously?

5/10

[DarthMikey]

When you're a LV7 Wyvern Rider (excuse me FE6, Dragon Knight), it's hard to deny the beastliness of having a STR base of 19, accompanied by a growth of 60%. Zeiss is just plain manly, pure and simple. Use him and he will almost certainly cap STR as a Wyvern Lord (excuse me FE6, Dragon Lord). He's not as good as his sister, though.

To go with that Norris-like STR, Zeiss has a decent SKL base of 13 and a growth of 50%, meaning he should be getting off accurate hits with a Steel Lance. But that doesn't really matter, since not only does Zeiss lose 3 AS to steel (and there are better, earlier Body Ring candidates; Miledy, Echidna), but AS loss is particularly painful since his SPD isn't very good in the first place, and doesn't get much better. I know he's LV7, but 11 SPD was bad when Garret was recruited, and we used this joke about Bartre when rating Garret. Oh, but he's a low-level Tier 1 unit this late on! He's totally an Est with good bases to boot, he'll make up for it! But no, sadly, Zeiss' SPD growth is 35%. This isn't horribly bad, but it's very unreliable for sure. Hopefully you have a Speedwings on hand if you plan to use Zeiss, because odds are it won't take long for him to go from "not doubling" to "being doubled."

His LCK is meh and his RES, like every wyvern unit, is horrid. At least, like his sister, he has a nice DEF base of 15 to make up for his weak 20% growth. He has fantastic STR, but a disappointing cap of 26. This isn't too low, but he could easily do with a cap of 30 and still reach it if you promote him quickly. Unfortunately, unlike his sister, his SPD is below-average, and he'll likely need a stat booster merely to keep up. He's okay, and he has a lot of power packed behind his attacks, but he's kind of a risk and not highly recommended.

5.5/10 + .5 for late-game flying = 6/10

[Onmi]

It's too bad he comes so la- is that 19 Strength at base?

Zeiss is another case of "Hard Mode Bonus Balance? Pssh" The Elysian Whip is never in fucking contention in this game, he can promote early with nearly no problems on how he'll turn out or he can stick it out and still be a fucking murder machine because god DAMN he has 15 fucking defense at Level 7. His biggest fault is D-Lances so he can't immediately start raping the world with the Killer Lance, if the Gant Lance has survived this far he'll ride that crotch extender like a fucking rocket.

Fears mages, comes a little late, but still fucking destroys shit. And he flies.

6.5/10 and with a bias point 7.5/10

Edited April 18, 2012 by Onmi

[Shadow Mir]

4/10. 19 base Str and flying utility is great, but that doesn't change the fact that he's more-or-less a case of "day late and a dollar short".

Edited April 18, 2012 by Metal King Slime

[Thor Odinson]

Zeiss is an example of a usable late-joining growth unit.

...By way of his bases.

Thanks to his HM bonuses he gets ridiculous STR/DEF right off the bat (and a fucking 60% growth too in STR! Whoa). His speed is incredibly ass, however, and it's best if you promote him at first chance aka level 10 since the promotion bonuses for speed is more important than getting him several more levels and hope he gets speed. In Ilia, his performance is workable since Ballistae are fairly spaced out, and he has the durability to take on most other enemy types, and if enemies do double him, they likely won't matter on his manly-ass defenses.

However even with the high str/def, unless you take that precious Delphi shield of TINK away from his utterly hax sister, he will be destroyed in Sacae since doubled by bows so...that's some points off there.

He can also act as Roy's armoured car.

5/10.

[Biabarr]

He is usable but comes in too late. He has a good class and good strength and defense. Still comes in late though.

6.5/10

[Raven]

Come on guys, it's not Zeis' fault he joins late.

Despite his join time, he is most definitely useable and very much able to be raised to Lv.10 for promotion . Those bases allow him to survive some abuse as well as dish it back out in return. Since he is at such a low level, you can easily raise him to Lv10 and already have his Str capped, allowing him to promote and gain those promo gains. Good Skill, too - both in base and growth.

However... D lance weapon rank. That is Slim, Iron, Steel, Javelin, Horseslayer, and Gant's Lances. The sooner he gets to Lv.10 and promotes, the sooner he can unlock the ability to use Killer Lances, which he will use to dominate with his acceptable skill.

Well, if he's not seeing combat, he's definitely seeing Roy to the thrones.

As opposed to seeing him as only "Roy's armoured ride", I see him as a miltirole unit. Want him to fight? He'll do that shit. Want to use him just to ferry Roy about? No problem. It's not like others can't multirole, but others who can do what he does (eg. Miledy) are normally off doing other things, but if you don't bother raising Zeis then he definitely has another useful role to take.

75%.

[PuffPuff]

He is usable but comes in too late. He has a good class and good strength and defense. Still comes in late though.

6.5/10

^This.

[Shadow Mir]

Come on guys, it's not Zeis' fault he joins late.

Despite his join time, he is most definitely useable and very much able to be raised to Lv.10 for promotion . Those bases allow him to survive some abuse as well as dish it back out in return. Since he is at such a low level, you can easily raise him to Lv10 and already have his Str capped, allowing him to promote and gain those promo gains. Good Skill, too - both in base and growth.

However... D lance weapon rank. That is Slim, Iron, Steel, Javelin, Horseslayer, and Gant's Lances. The sooner he gets to Lv.10 and promotes, the sooner he can unlock the ability to use Killer Lances, which he will use to dominate with his acceptable skill.

Well, if he's not seeing combat, he's definitely seeing Roy to the thrones.

As opposed to seeing him as only "Roy's armoured ride", I see him as a miltirole unit. Want him to fight? He'll do that shit. Want to use him just to ferry Roy about? No problem. It's not like others can't multirole, but others who can do what he does (eg. Miledy) are normally off doing other things, but if you don't bother raising Zeis then he definitely has another useful role to take.

75%.

Maybe, but there's only so much credit I can give to a unit who comes late and underleveled.

[Duff Ostrich]

11 AS, D lances, and he cannot autopromote, though he would still be too slow even if he could. Zeiss has never been good for combat without significant babying. He can fly people around, and that's something I guess.

4.0

[dondon151]

getting zeiss to promote is easy

2 kills in chapter 16x (warp skip), 2 kills in chapter 17I, and 2 rounds in the arena

[FabledTome]

A cut above what usually passes for an Est-ish unit because he has a good class and joins with strong bases apart from speed which is just standard-issue for chapter 16. I personally wouldn't lump him into that sorry Est-ish category to begin with.

~6

Edited April 18, 2012 by FabledTome

[Baldrick]

Zeiss is like Miledy, with the speed issues magnified. His strength growth is pretty much overkill, too. (He caps at 10/5, ffs). He'd be a lot better with switched growths for str and spd. He's tanky enough to hang around Miledy, so getting that support up is fairly easy. His weapon rank also kind of sucks.

5/10

[ZemZem]

Zeiss is an example of a usable late-joining growth unit.

...By way of his bases.

Thanks to his HM bonuses he gets ridiculous STR/DEF right off the bat (and a fucking 60% growth too in STR! Whoa). His speed is incredibly ass, however, and it's best if you promote him at first chance aka level 10 since the promotion bonuses for speed is more important than getting him several more levels and hope he gets speed. In Ilia, his performance is workable since Ballistae are fairly spaced out, and he has the durability to take on most other enemy types, and if enemies do double him, they likely won't matter on his manly-ass defenses.

However even with the high str/def, unless you take that precious Delphi shield of TINK away from his utterly hax sister, he will be destroyed in Sacae since doubled by bows so...that's some points off there.

He can also act as Roy's armoured car.

5/10.

[eclipse]

Zeiss is VERY sexy~! He's also a total sweetie, and--I'll stop fangirling.

He's somewhat reminiscent of what a Knight should be, if his Strength and Defense were flipped. His Speed is meh, but I think he can outspeed a pegasus knight with a Steel Lance? His damage output will forever be insane, and if you can be arsed to support him with Miledy and Shin (two people who can keep up with him), he'll take even less damage.

7/10 (threw in my bias point because I'm quite fond of him)

[dondon151]

also zeiss rapes in ilia as expected of a flying unit 6/10

[Integrity]

"Air chariot" was the best turn of phrase in this thread.

Tallying, turning over.