Rate the Unit: Day 45 - Shinon

[Ema Skye]

Dat Rules (borrowed/stolen from Integrity)

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard Mode (JP Maniac). And only 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 when the next RTU thread is posted (at this point, it's hard to tell).

- 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.

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

- Assume that the character in question is being recruited.

- Similar to the "Recruits X" rule, do not use "she brings a Savior to the team" as an argument.

- BEXP is free to be used in any quantity on any character.

- Skills can be reassigned freely.

- No transfers.

- 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. I will not throw your vote out if I do not support your opinion. Possible reasons for a tossed vote include: your vote is higher/lower than the vast majority to "balance the score" and failure to justify a radically different score.

Averages:

Fiona: 1.20

Meg: 1.34

Astrid: 2.10

Lethe: 2.21

Vika: 2.40

Leonardo: 2.53

Lucia: 3.06

Danved: 3.11

Mist: 3.11

Tormod: 3.28

Rolf: 3.36

Brom: 3.56

Ilyana: 3.75

Makalov: 4.00

Nealuchi: 4.41

Tauroneo: 4.50

Geoffery: 4.50

Black Knight: 4.60

Maurim: 4.72

Kieran: 4.82

Aran: 4.92

Laura: 5.13

Heather: 5.29

Soren: 5.45

Edward: 6.31

Micaiah: 6.50

Calill: 6.59

Boyd: 6.85

Mordecai: 7.17

Marcia: 7.31

Zihark: 7.44

Nephenee: 7.74

Oscar: 8.11

Elincia: 8.21

Leanne: 8.38

Rafiel: 8.45

Jill: 8.46

Volug: 8.87

Sothe: 8.93

Nailah: 9.00

Nolan: 9.06

Ike: 9.28

Titania: 9.76

Haar: 9.91

[Non-Existent Member]

Has awesome bases, 43-HP, 21-Str, 28-Skl, 24-Spd, and 20-Def? Yes! and he joins at a high level, meaning he's 7 levels away to promotion.

After he promotes to Marksman, he'll learn the Deadeye skill and attacks at 3-range without the use of Longbows,

and that's not all, when he gets the Double Bow he'll have 1~3 attack range. It's too bad the Double Bow is acquired at the endgame.

still, Shinon is awesomely hardcore~! Dodges alot, Can take hits.

Shinon's one of my top favorites, so he gets 1+ bias point from me. 8.5/10

[BBM]

Shinon. ORKOs mostly everything from the get go. Unfortunately, he can't do it at EP until quite late. I mean, he has Crossbows, but those have good Mt for only a small little time. His STR growth is a bit low, but he caps SKL, HP, and SPD pretty quickly, and then he can BEXP it up to cap. It's not difficult at all for him to cap everything but Luck in Tier 2. And 3-range is great for taking no counters at all. 8.0/10

[Colonel M]

The one thing that's always hilarious about Shinon is how fucking durable this guy is. 43 HP | 20 Def for a Sniper is ludicrous!

The great things about Shinon are his Bow rank is pretty solid, he has the sweet AS number of 24, a respectable Str stat of 21, and best of all his growths don't completely suck. 40% Str growth is tolerable enough, 50% HP growth with his awesome base is solid enough, 65% Spd growth is great, 70% Skl growth is lolwtf, and the guy somehow can boast a 45% Def growth. The man is nuts, I tell you. Fucking. Nuts. Oh yeah, and Thunder affinity is pretty nice to make him that much more capable of "tanking". Weird that he has Provoke for it too...

The best parts? Oh man, I haven't even broken to the best parts yet! First, he's 2 stats away from capping HP, Spd, and Skl. This is pretty significant, since it allows him to use BEXP a little easier. Now Def and Str falls as his highest growths, which leaves 30% Luck and 20% Res. And then there's his promoted class - Marksmen. You thought his Sniper class was pretty awesome? Now he gets 2-3 range, and just decides to be classy and continue his awesome path.

Unfortunately, this awesome path has consequences.

The first is the lack of 1-range. Okay, that's not completely true - he has 1-range, but it's mediocre. Crossbows have 28 Atk built into them, and they only gain a boost if you have a +Atk support. Enemies don't quite sport 20 Def all the time, but they have about 17 as the minimum, barring Sages. The funny thing is, though, is that Shinon actually can ORKO the Sages with Crossbows. Well, sometimes. In 3-3 anyway. Still, this doesn't really solve itself often, and it either requires gimping Shinon's Player Phase action or having a unit stand near Shinon and trade with him. This can be pretty annoying.

With the lack of 1 range, this means that Shinon's Enemy Phase is a little "non-existent", thus hindering his CEXP gains even further. It doesn't help that Shinon will likely require the assistance of Adept up until Silencer is able to be bought, and even then it's rocky on ORKOes. Also, the lack of Enemy Phase will definitely hurt Shinon in Part 4, since a lot of the action happens in that phase. This means that, despite Shinon's awesome Spd cap of 34, it might be a little difficult to reach with the gimped CEXP gain. Best to invest Paragon if you want it to happen.

Still, despite Shinon's downfalls, he's a pretty solid character. He comes with weaknesses that are difficult to fix and, in turn, can hurt him, but at least he has some pretty significant advantages to help outweigh it a bit.

7.5/10.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Colonel M

[Ema Skye]

No real 1-2 range is a serious problem for Snipers, and Shinon is no exception. Crossbows are only useful for a few maps and then they start tinking things. Makes for a terrible at best Enemy phase. Solid 1-2 range comes far too late for Shinon, and avoiding counters means enemies target him on the EP, which is baaaaad. 3 range is nice for some quick defeat boss missions though, as he'll be able to hit enemies Titania and Oscar can't right away (but their movement will make up for it). Titania, Oscar and Haar pretty much eliminate any challenge in Part 3 due to forged 1-2 range and 9 movement. Shinon will quickly fall behind.

6.5/10 - the best Archer in the game, but it's like being the best of the worst. It doesn't hold much weight.

Edited June 16, 2012 by Lucina

[Samias]

Shinon I think deserves a medal for Biggest Improvement between games.

Pros:

+Those bases

+Those growths

+That starting level

+Nice crit and mastery procs

+WTF at that defence stat... he tanks better than like 90% of the cast...

+He can get the Silencer from the shop in 3-4 to give him some major offence

+Marksman gives him perma 2-3 range, high crit rate, high caps

+The best Double Bow user by a long run

Cons:

-All the crossbows kind of suck but it's his only 1-2 option until the Double Bow, which doesn't appear until 4-E-1

-His personality?

In Path of Radiance, Shinon was pretty bad. He does some good in the first few chapters with his forced deployment, and then he vanishes forever. And you have to field Rolf to get him back, when Rolf will either 1. suck because you never used him or 2. be better than Shinon because you trained him. Either way, Shinon was basically doomed to the bench, or never recruited at all. Now, IS finally shows us why Shinon's the master. At first, he's stuck with a killer bow and a steel bow. The killer bow is kind of unreliable and the steel bow likely won't land KOs against anything other than sages, but when 3-4 rolls around, you can buy Shinon the Silencer. It's money well spent, even though the GMs are a little tight on funds, but Shinon will land a lot more KOs with it. Shinon doesn't really have an EP, but he's got a solid player phase where he rarely takes a counter (as if he wouldn't dodge it, or laugh in his enemy's face as they barely scratch him...), and he has an excellent endgame. I'd say as an endgame unit, Shinon ends up in the top 5, easily.

Shinon's also got amazing trolling skills. Would watch him troll Lyre again A+++

8/10 with a +1 bias for the best lines in the game for 9/10

Edited June 16, 2012 by Samias

[nano]

Amazing bases to work with, naturally doubles and works wonders with killer bow + adept and silencer later on. His lack of strong melee offense is actually a lot less serious than a normal FE game would usually entail, as there are plenty of spots where he can put them to good use. 3-P has ballista, 3-1 has the fence, 3-2 has him being one of the best (if not the best) unit for 2-turn. In 3-3 he can one round the sages and can take out the boss across the fence. Fences are also everywhere and easily sets up enemy phase actions. 3-4 requires attacking up ledges which he does so much better than the others due to high accuracy. 3-5 has tons of ledges and he can one-turn it with a crown. He is not particularly great in 3-8 or 3-10, but he is useful for 3-11 again due to having 3-range access to snipe enemies across pitfalls. He is not that great in part 4, but at least he has high adept chances and crit to work with.

7.5/10+0.5 bias

Edited June 16, 2012 by nano

[Vorena]

Stuff has been said above. Gets early access to the strongest weapon in the game in endgame (22 mt +3 str) and can wield it at 1-3 range. A very solid unit on any run I imagine. 8/10

[charlie_]

A solid Sniper. His problem is he's a Sniper. Mind you, anything he crits with the Killer Bow is almost guaranteed to be dead, except for Generals.

7/10

Edited June 16, 2012 by Serious Bananas

[Quirino]

Best Archer/Sniper in the series IMHO. He hits hard and is surprisingly durable, plus he has 1-3 range. One of my favourite units to use in this game.

8/10 + 0.5 bias for saving me so many times makes 8.5/10

[Shadow Mir]

7.5/10. Solid unit with great bases, though his main fault is more of a class wide one (sure, crossbows exist, but 28 Mt is only good for a very short time).

Edited June 16, 2012 by Golden Cucco

[fuzz94]

Ridiculously great unit. Some really good bases and pretty good growths. He is more than likely going to critical/deadeye every round. His speed removes the danger of bow lock just a little bit because he dodges so many damn attacks

8/10 +1 bias because I actually love this dude

9/10

Edited June 16, 2012 by fuzz94

[Starwave]

Shinon: "One beat down coming!"

Shinon is cool. He's really cool. C_M nails it with that assessment of his defenses... he's so fucking sturdy, and he's an SNIPER no less. I love how he draws fire with provoke and dodge/and or tanks hit at opportune times. His bases are fantastic and his growths (were it counts) are impeccable. I find it hard for him to achieve kills early on without boosts (or silencer) but once he gets going he's one of your top combat units. No 1-2 ranged weapon until double bow (outside of shitty crossbows) sucks hard, but it's a weakness he lives and deals with.

Shinon gets a 7.5/10 + 0.5 bias

8/10

Edited June 16, 2012 by Starwave

[Ciarre]

Is a tank, great bases and good growths, PP sniping offense, this:

Nuff said.

7/10

[I don't play for turns]

His only major weakness is the weakness shared by all bow-locked units, and that's it, because whatever weak growth rates he has, his bases fix them. Best archer in the game. 8/10

[riariadne]

Best Archer/Sniper in the series IMHO.

You haven't played FE2.

Anyway what Colonel M said -1 because fuck this guy

so 6.5

[Loki Laufeyson]

Shinon, lord of the assholes of the GMs.

Pros:

Great base level.

Great bases.

Promoted Class is awesome.

Defense. O_o

Cons:

Bow/crossbow lock.

Is a major asshole.

Shinon is probably the only guy in this game that came from being one of the most pointless units in PoR to being like, one of the best guys in the game. (yeah hes better than Sothe. You know it.) This guy kicks ass a lot. Shinon doesnt have super high strength in the beginning but hes got a mad crit bonus (and a killer bow to start with) so hes gonna be sniping fuckers all over there. His defense is stupid wrong considering his class. Its like the growths and junk dont jive with a lot of units' classes, but in Shinon's case, this is quite the boon. Hes doubling everything to start with and hes just...good. Marksmen are wrong. Being about to 3-range is amazing and hes making the best use of the Silencer. He can use crossbows because Provoke is making him get attacked a lot. But crossbows arent that awesome. (well, at lease its something right?) Shinon, along with Titania is probably promoting first on your team. Yeah, hes almost Haar level good overall cuz he never really sucks.

Too bad hes a total rear end in a top hat and i dont like him very much as a character. As a unit, hes getting a 9/10. 8/10 bias because asshole.

[bottlegnomes]

The one thing that's always hilarious about Shinon is how fucking durable this guy is. 43 HP | 20 Def for a Sniper is ludicrous!

The great things about Shinon are his Bow rank is pretty solid, he has the sweet AS number of 24, a respectable Str stat of 21, and best of all his growths don't completely suck. 40% Str growth is tolerable enough, 50% HP growth with his awesome base is solid enough, 65% Spd growth is great, 70% Skl growth is lolwtf, and the guy somehow can boast a 45% Def growth. The man is nuts, I tell you. Fucking. Nuts. Oh yeah, and Thunder affinity is pretty nice to make him that much more capable of "tanking". Weird that he has Provoke for it too...

The best parts? Oh man, I haven't even broken to the best parts yet! First, he's 2 stats away from capping HP, Spd, and Skl. This is pretty significant, since it allows him to use BEXP a little easier. Now Def and Str falls as his highest growths, which leaves 30% Luck and 20% Res. And then there's his promoted class - Marksmen. You thought his Sniper class was pretty awesome? Now he gets 2-3 range, and just decides to be classy and continue his awesome path.

Unfortunately, this awesome path has consequences.

The first is the lack of 1-range. Okay, that's not completely true - he has 1-range, but it's mediocre. Crossbows have 28 Atk built into them, and they only gain a boost if you have a +Atk support. Enemies don't quite sport 20 Def all the time, but they have about 17 as the minimum, barring Sages. The funny thing is, though, is that Shinon actually can ORKO the Sages with Crossbows. Well, sometimes. In 3-3 anyway. Still, this doesn't really solve itself often, and it either requires gimping Shinon's Player Phase action or having a unit stand near Shinon and trade with him. This can be pretty annoying.

With the lack of 1 range, this means that Shinon's Enemy Phase is a little "non-existent", thus hindering his CEXP gains even further. It doesn't help that Shinon will likely require the assistance of Adept up until Silencer is able to be bought, and even then it's rocky on ORKOes. Also, the lack of Enemy Phase will definitely hurt Shinon in Part 4, since a lot of the action happens in that phase. This means that, despite Shinon's awesome Spd cap of 34, it might be a little difficult to reach with the gimped CEXP gain. Best to invest Paragon if you want it to happen.

Still, despite Shinon's downfalls, he's a pretty solid character. He comes with weaknesses that are difficult to fix and, in turn, can hurt him, but at least he has some pretty significant advantages to help outweigh it a bit.

8.5/10 +1 bias because he's one of my favorite characters in the series.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

Snipes the fuck out of everything, no reliable EP (lolcrossbows), but he's pretty cool.

7.75/10

[Ema Skye]

tallying

[MacLovin]

Late, but wanna do this for fun.

8/10

How to be an asshole of a unit and get away with being awesome.

WTFBases

WTFGrowths

lolEP.

But he's got everything else a unit could want, but EP