Best Trueblade?

[bottlegnomes]

I didn't think Tempest Blade used magic.

[Baldrick]

It doesn't, the second part of my post is unrelated to the first.

[PK Gaming]

Dang, some of you are seriously biased for Eddie, :lol

[Augestein]

In that case, I'm talking about Vantage/Cancel, not Resolve. Ranged swords lacking accuracy is actually a problem, since if you can't hit, you can't prevent a counter which was the point of equipping a ranged sword in the first place.

Edward's magic would actually be fairly difficult to cap unless he gets blessed/statboosters, or you are on Easy and have plenty of BEXP to burn. But it doesn't matter that much anyway unless you want him to have a full set of green numbers.

Probably. The accuracy really isn't a problem. Trueblade's have 40 skill. Capping skill with Edward, like most Trueblades, is incredibly reliable, common, and with BEXP, you could force a couple of luck levels as well. I'd honestly say passed about 30 skill, any skill over that is more for criticals than actual chances to reliably hit. Perhaps not with the Tempest Blade, but considering that 30 is pretty much what you need, it just goes to show how little this actually matters in the main scheme of things outside of say... Bosses in the endgame, which aren't a huge deal because you have Alondite as an option. Also, light affinity gives Edward +9 hit as well, which helps. Vantage/Cancel I wouldn't go for anyways because that's relying off of TWO procs to happen back to back, which even before you consider the Tempest Blade's hit factored into Edward's hit is risky business. Mia nor Edward would want to be doing this.

But why do we care about Edward's magic?

[MacLovin]

because using he can totally kill things with those cards.

[Lion Branded]

Mia is always my best Trueblade since I don't think I've ever seen her get hit, but my favorite has got to be Stefan.

[RadiantDragon]

Tie between Mia and Eddy. The RNG really hates Zihark so he never turns out great for me.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

Tie between Mia and Eddy. The RNG really hates Zihark so he never turns out great for me.

i really wanna know why Zihawk's growths never cooperate for me either.

i mean they aren't bad right, like around Mia's if i remember?

[Just call me AL]

Zihark's Growths: Health: 55%, Strength: 35%, Magic: 10%, Skill: 75%, Speed: 70%, Luck: 40%, Defense: 25%, Resistance: 35%

Mia's Growths: Health: 70%, Strength: 45%, Magic: 15%, Skill: 60%, Speed: 65%, Luck: 35%, Defense: 40%, Resistance: 25%

Worse in everything sans Skl, Spd, Lck, and Res. Fixable with BEXP, though.

[SSbardock84]

Edward is my favorite one and my favorite character in the whole game. I love how the game starts off with him in the beginning so it was easy for him to grow on my right away when I first played the game and myrmidoms are usually my favorite characters. My second favorite one though was definitely Stefan, I remember how awesome it was when I got him for the first time.

[Rust]

I've voted Edward. It's mostly out of slight bias, but I have a real soft spot for the Dawn Brigade. Plus, Edward was really useful in my playthroughs. He carried me through the Endgame (granted, I did dump a TON of bexp on him early on). Plus I just like his as a character, as well. He's my second favorite.

[SSbardock84]

This is how I rate them as my favorites.

1. Edward

2. Stefan

3. Mia

4. Zihark and Lucia

Depending on how I play the game my favorites change, Edward is always my favorite but sometimes Mia is my second favorite. Just because she's more useable. I go back and forth with Zihark and Lucia all the time, I don't really favor one over the other with those two.

[ClLoulD]

Eh I feel like joining in on the conversation here so why not.

Now there are a few things I want to address here the first being that a characters contributions throughout the game far exceed their output at the end of the game. Now what I mean by this we can't just compare characters to how they perform at the end of the game because at that point your team is a lot more capable to deal with the challenges that the game throws at you by having access to a lot more weaponry, BEXP, gold and unit skills.

The second thing I want to address is the difficulty mode that you are using these units on. In easy mode we can essentially get away with anything and Mia probably will end up as the best trueblade, however this is partly due to the difficulty being scaled down so far we can get away without any real preparation. In hard mode you really aren't going to see much progression with Edward due to how ruthless the enemy AI is on this game, much harsher than Path of Radiance or Sacred Stones.

I'll briefly go into one of each Edward, Mia and Zihark for a character analysis and explain my thoughts on each of the three and which I feel contributes the most to their respective camp both on NM and HM.

Edward~

Edward is the unit that's likeable and useful but nonetheless, outshined by another. The issue here is absolutely nothing to do with his stats or growths but the rest of the team. I personally use Edward for the first few chapters and then leave him on the bench. Micaiaih, Jill, Nolan, Sothe and Volug all need EXP (Or strike levels in Volug's case) which usually means Edward has to bite the bullet and sit those maps out.

Edward is redeemable somewhat through his growths and inept Wrath skill if you truely want to make things work. Edward can have Resolve/Vantage/Wrath at swordsmaster level if you truly desire, however this does require you getting knocked down to quite a low hitpoints level which can spell disaster in later chapters; the cats in 3-6 IIRC are fairly accurate as well so you are putting all your faith into the RNG goddess. I personally believe this to be a bit too much favouring on a single unit and don't recommend it, however it's worth noting this is one of the perks Edward has over his peers.

Mia~

Firstly I'd like to quote something I saw on a RTU thread which was how people suffer from Overrated Swordsmaster Syndrome. Mia was getting 9s and 10s which frankly is just...shocking there is no way any Swordsmaster unable to use 1-2 range weaponry for the majority of chapters without hitting like crap is worth such a rating. Mia isn't exactly Dieck who shows up ORKO'ing enemy soldiers on sight. She also has slightly lower strength and defense caps than Zihark and Edward but that isn't too much of a big deal.

Let's talk about what Mia can do right, Mia has decent growths going for her which is a great start and she has plenty of time to level up with a wide array of supports to go with; Ike would probably be the most beneficial as they have the same movement and same weapon type they should have no problem moving at the same speed for the majority of maps. Out of the three swordmasters we're referring to here, Mia is most likely going to be the first to promote which gives her the Astra ability which is going to really amp up her ability to one shot enemies and that is something she is in desperate need of. Unlike Edward, Mia can also have PoR transfers passed over from the previous game which start her off with 19 strength which is still...lacking somewhat but decent nonetheless.

Now let's talk about the problems Mia faces which are fixable at a cost. Straight off the bat she needs a forged Steel sword and some batting practice which I can understand, she definitly deserves this more than anyone else in the GM at this time. The support with Ike I can also see sense in too, it's very logical. Some people also choose to give her an energy drop which is optional, I prefer to give this to Tanith but that's my choice. Ontop of transfers and a support with Ike I feel she's had her fair share. Now the enemies Mia faces such as halberdiers and generals are a bit too beefy for her to be able to ORKO, even with criticals for the generals. We also have to consider that many of the opposition at this stage of the game favour lances (Wyverns, halberdiers and generals) whereas in Micaiah's campaign we saw a lot more axe wielders in the earlier chapters. This makes Mia a lot more vulnerable overall due to the weapon triangle.

Mia also suffers much worse from the effects of 1-2 range. Her damage output will go from average to below par if we stick her with a wind edge, we had to give her forged weaponry to solve that issue and tempest blades are a long way away. The enemies that Zihark encounters in the Dawn Brigade are both of a lower level and lower defense stat than in Ike's campaign and Zihark also starts at level 3 with the same strength level as Mia at level 7. Mia is never going to be the star until part 4, during Ike's campaign that honour will go to units like Titania and Haar. Mia takes a long time to get going but once she promotes and gets her hands on Alondite she is nigh unstoppable.

Zihark~

Zihark is in my opinion my favourite swordsmaster/trueblade in Radiant Dawn because of his contributions to the Dawn Brigade. Out of the three characters in question he undoubtedly has the best bases and is very self sufficient requiring nothing more than a Steel Sword and his Killing edge for certain situations. Ziharks biggest strength is his supports. Being able to support with Nolan not only fixes his durability issues but Nolan's aswell; I believe both can be at +45 avoid by 3-6 if you put the effort into raising their supports as quickly as possible. You could argue that Volug needs it more but he can just as easily support any other character and still get a great amount of avoid bonus, he'll also benefit from any strength or defense bonus too. Another issue that Zihark suffers from is on average he won't cap on his strength or defense by two levels, this is easily fixable in Path of Radiance transfers which I've managed to do and have even posted the file on Serenes Forest forums. We cannot give Mia points for a transfer fix and then not do the same for Zihark.

Finally, I understand Edward can't contribute as much but Zihark provides a lot of damage with very little requests in a small team that definitly need him. The Dawn Brigade definitly find his contributions refreshing with so few actual fighters available, meanwhile the Greil Mercenaries have Haar, Nephenee, Ike, Boyd, Shinon, Titania, Ulki and Janaff to help out. Not to mention that after 1-E the majority of the fights that the DB get in are against 1 range enemy laguz aside for the annoying boulder map which is essentially just free exp, this means Zihark doesn't have to worry so much about using a pesky Wind Edge and also improves Nolan's durability which is very much needed on higher difficulty playthroughs.

TL;DR

Mia wins in stats by part IV but by that point who cares, you have laguz royals

Ziharks early game contributions exceed any other swordmasters

Edward seems to be everyones favourite on easy mode but that's about it.

Edited October 9, 2015 by ClLoulD

[Snowy_One]

Firstly, it's actually the other way around. Zihark gets Overrated while Mia gets underrated, especially in PoR where people are willing to treat her like crap while gushing over Zihark's supports. So if anyone is overrated it's Zihark. More to the point...

The problem is that the majority of the arguments you are using against Mia can be, likewise, flipped around back at Zihark. Mia is with the GM's who are strong? Okay, but Zihark is also stuck dealing with units like Volug, Jill, Sothe, and the like. Sure, some of the DB is sub-par, but quite a few are above-par as well. Endgame the Laguz Kings are going to be strong, not to mention the super-weapons, so him being stronger doesn't matter.

I'm not saying 'Mia > Zihark' (Well, I believe Mia > Zihark, but that's not what I'm saying here), I'm saying to be careful in your arguments. Especially since you risk falling into a logic hole in which none of the GM's are good because every other GM is good, meaning all the GM's are worthless. I.E. since the GM's are strong, but have units like Ike, Shinon, and Mia, Titania's contribution is pointless since other people are super-strong as well.

Also, this really miffs me, but why are people always so ready to dismiss Zihark's flaws? In PoR his Muarim support takes 9 chapters to A-rank despite Muarim joining at the end of chapter 15 (does it count towards the total since he was a boss?) so he wouldn't be able to A-rank till 24 (or is it 25?), but Mia A-ranks Rhys on 19, yet I've seen people whine about how long Mia's support takes while praising how fast Muarim's is (He can't even C till 18/19). Not trying to start a debate so much as expressing how... annoyed... I am when this happens.

Edited October 14, 2015 by Snowy_One

[Baldrick]

You should change your name to Frozen_One.

[Radiant head]

Wtf, I thought this thread was about RD.

[ClLoulD]

I understand Snowy, the trueblade topic seems to come up every now and again no matter how often it gets answered. For the record, I've benched Zihark for Mia in my current PoR run as he just can't keep up but again that's a different story; here we're talking about Radiant Dawn. I also don't believe Zihark is the best trueblade in terms of raw stats but I think he provides more to his team, unlike PoR we now have multiple perspectives which is a game changer for things like this.

Now I do believe Mia is the best trueblade out of the three, however I feel she gets a much tougher ride as well. The enemies Ziharks face with the Dawn Brigade are pretty much a free ride and they won't hit often or very much on him all things considered so his durability isn't too much of a factor early game. He's also not too bad at getting off a bunch of ORKO's at this stage of the game, requiring maybe a forge and not much more. When things get uglier like in 3-6 Zihark can have a support with Nolan that kills 2 birds with 1 stone, that's two durable characters fixed here. These two can hold off a front together with their avoid support and rake in the EXP (Something the DB desperately needs) and not do it through the hogging of a Paragon scroll.

With all this considered, Zihark isn't better than Mia as a trueblade; he's just more handy and in the right place at the right time.

Once Mia gets going there is no stopping her, she won't need to heal and she won't get hit very often; not to mention shell be proccing left, right and center. Mia is the strongest trueblade but unfortunately the most challenged swordsmaster. Mia will find it a bit annoying for the first few chapters due to having a low strength and facing off against enemies with high defense which will no doubt give her a bit of heart ache; but she is a solid investment nonetheless. Shell be solid before the end of Ike's campaign and even better afterwards, but in part IV Zihark will be able to do almost as well (Fixable with BEXP which you are swimming in at this point anyway) in whatever team he's in and niether is necessary for the Tower of Guidance.

I think all trueblades are over rated anyway, Reavers #1

Edited October 13, 2015 by ClLoulD

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I don't think they're overrated.

Many people just overrestimate their dodging abilities especially in the early game.

Trueblades can become broken because of astra and the high skill activation.

However this game features Jill, who's a flying axe myrmidon. She becomes an awesome dodger too, only with higher strength and defense.

Her lower speed cap of 35 actually doesn't matter, because she still can double each of the endgame bosses.

[Augestein]

Firstly, it's actually the other way around. Zihark gets Overrated while Mia gets underrated, especially in PoR where people are willing to treat her like crap while gushing over Zihark's supports. So if anyone is overrated it's Zihark. More to the point...

The problem is that the majority of the arguments you are using against Mia can be, likewise, flipped around back at Zihark. Mia is with the GM's who are strong? Okay, but Zihark is also stuck dealing with units like Volug, Jill, Sothe, and the like. Sure, some of the DB is sub-par, but quite a few are above-par as well. Endgame the Laguz Kings are going to be strong, not to mention the super-weapons, so him being stronger doesn't matter.

I'm not saying 'Mia > Zihark' (Well, I believe Mia > Zihark, but that's not what I'm saying here), I'm saying to be careful in your arguments. Especially since you risk falling into a logic hole in which none of the GM's are good because every other GM is good, meaning all the GM's are worthless. I.E. since the GM's are strong, but have units like Ike, Shinon, and Mia, Titania's contribution is pointless since other people are super-strong as well.

Also, this really miffs me, but why are people always so ready to dismiss Zihark's flaws? In PoR his Muarim support takes 9 chapters to A-rank despite Muarim joining at the end of chapter 15 (does it count towards the total since he was a boss?) so he wouldn't be able to A-rank till 24 (or is it 25?), but Mia A-ranks Rhys on 19, yet I've seen people whine about how long Mia's support takes while praising how fast Muarim's is (He can't even C till 18/19). Not trying to start a debate so much as expressing how... annoyed... I am when this happens.

No. Mia is pretty terrible in PoR. Zihark isn't great either, but the strength leads he has is far better than anything Mia has over him-- because she has to get like 4 levels to be on part with him. Mia starts out lame in her first and then Zihark comes along and has like the same exact stats that Mia does. Even if you argue with support bonuses, Zihark's makes him crush her because Earth affinity is just silly. Also, Adept is a better skill than Vantage. Zihark is mediocre and has his supports and adept as a saving grace to leave him as decent. Mia is in the range of being kinda of bad but in the still usable range. In RD, it's kinda flipped. Mia has better strength growth and has all of the highlight stats over Zihark, and with support customization, Zihark can have overkill avoid and Mia can have earth affinity. Adept is better than Vantage still, but if you aren't using Soren, you can have Adept on her easily from the get go. In addition to that, Mia is in more chapters than Zihark and her chapters have more EXP to go around. And you forgot about Ilyana or Brom or as well. All of Zihark's supports give him concrete durability in addition to evasion. Mia's give her... Uh... Strength to help her edge out a bit more damage than Zihark at moments? Lame.

Mia > Zihark in RD and Zihark > Mia in PoR.

I don't think it's that people ignore it, they just notice that Zihark's advantages in PoR are far greater than Mia's.

[Radiant head]

Aside from maybe Rolf and Shinon, no one is really terrible in PoR.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Radiant head

[Tragonight]

Aside from maybe Rolf and Shinon, no one is really terrible in PoR.

I'm curious as to why you'd think that. PoR is a relatively easy game so I wouldn't even consider Rolf or Shinon bad.

[Radiant head]

Yeah, I mean you could argue that even they aren't bad. For me, it's because while any unit can become good by grinding, Rolf and Shinon can't overcome the core problem archers have in this series. Plus, Rolf, for how difficult he is to train, never becomes anything where you feel he was worth the effort, and Shinon is irrelevant by the time he joins you. On the other hand, while Myrmidons have it rough in this game, their speed and crit rate, and the abundant money for forges means they're all very easy to use.

[Shadow Mir]

I'm curious as to why you'd think that. PoR is a relatively easy game so I wouldn't even consider Rolf or Shinon bad.

I actually agree with Radiant head - Shinon's passed over because either you've trained Rolf, who went and surpassed him, or he's passed over because you didn't bother training Rolf and his bases stink. He's in a lose-lose situation. And Rolf... takes way too much effort to justify what you get out of him. And that's ignoring the part where PoR isn't exactly kind to archers.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[Augestein]

Aside from maybe Rolf and Shinon, no one is really terrible in PoR.

That's why I said "kinda" terrible. Mia certainly isn't good. That's for sure. She's in that "there's no real reason to deploy her ever unless your team doesn't have enough units."

[Radiant head]

I don't agree with that either.