Sully, Cherche and Maribelle usability tips?

[Ayra]

From a character standpoint, Sully and Cherche are two of my favorites. Maribelle, well, I'm not a big fan but I love the class.

Here's my problem: I've done three playthrough of Awakening so far. In all three of them, they turned out to be pretty mediocre at best. I know that there's some variance from game to game for each characters, but there's normally a general tendency. We don't have average stats for this game, but I don't feel as if they got massively rng-screwed (except maybe Maribelle). I always dragged them through most of the game, but ended up either benching them exceedingly late in the game or using them as basically liabilities.

What do you guys do to make these characters good? I'm not talking about Apothesis or massive grinding: I'm talking more about a regular playthrough of the game plus one go through the non-Apothesis DLCs on Hard, with no grinding except for maybe the very occasional random risen spawn.

Sully: I always made her a Paladin in each playthrough. She always ends up with nicely averaged stats, but the problem is that these averaged stats end up being not useful for anything. She can survive two hits from most things but that's about it. She can't 1-round anything, and a lot of things she can't 2-round. She has mobility, but not as much as the fliers. She's there, but doesn't serve much purpose.

Maribelle: She's the only character that gets either 1-shot (or doubled) by every single units of the enemy team. Yes, I know that healers are not supposed to be hit and ect, but there's a huge usability difference between being barely able to survive one hit and die to absolutely everything. Both Lissa and Anna always offered me far more usability than Maribelle every single game.

Cherche: She does good at the start and fair in the middle, but later she suffers a lot. She has good defense, but her resistance is always still in the single digit at 20/20, and mages are more common later on. Archers still hurt. She can't double most enemy units. If she had General or Great Knight she'd be fine for that role but as a flyer she always fell off. At comparable levels gained, Wyvern Knight Panne drastically outpaced out in every single category, and Wyvern Knight Nowi was better overall. Cordelia was always infinitively more useful with her much higher speed, resistance and staff utility. I tried Cherche once as a War Cleric once (after Wyvern Lord) but that didn't exactly turn out too well...

I'm thinking maybe trying a fourth playthrough and I'd like to be using those three without feeling like I'm shooting myself in the foot. Are there any class progression or tips you can suggest that does not involve grinding?

[Xanaxian]

Some units don't shine unless they grind. It's a sad truth, but grinding is oftentimes worth it.

Unfortunately, Sully will almost always have average stats, but she's a pretty good unit regardless. She usually ends up being one of my best Paladins due to having access to Swordfaire, Luna, Lancebreaker, Aegis, and other useful skills. I tend to recommend these four, however, since they're worth having on a unit that primarily wields swords. She also makes a viable pair-up support unit with access to Deliverer, Defender, and Dual Guard+. While Sully may not always be the best fighter, she's versatile in overall usage.

Cherche bears the curse of being a decent unit with awful reclass options. The only skill worth picking up if you plan on using a front-lines Cherche is Renewal from the War Monk line, which helps to mitigate her atrocious resistance. That way, if she's hit with a spell, she can replenish some HP on the next turn. You could also opt for Dual Support+ and Deliverer from the Valkyrie and Griffon Rider classes respectively if you want her to be a good pair-up escort.

I don't tend to use Maribelle, so I don't have any information on her.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Xanaxian

[Czar_Yoshi]

Of course Panne is going to outperform Cherche as a Wyvern Rider, the former has about +20% growths across the board on the latter or something. Cherche's primary role is meant to be drop-in utility for killing Knights and then be a tankier flyer than an untrained Sumia/Cordelia- not as a real long-term unit.

If you want to see her to endgame, I'd strongly recommend a Hero support, as well as going through War Cleric for a small boost in Res. She's not going to be an EP sweeper without a lot of favoritism, but she can still be a durable offensive unit.

Sully is best fixed with a Chrom suppport (fast supports and high DS gives good KOing power, and Chrom gives a lot of Spd) and possible Wyvern reclass. Otherwise she can be a strong contributor earlygame with a +Str/Def support like Vaike or Virion, but will drop off around midgame and can have her spot filled by a child.

Maribelle takes a lot of staff spam to get her stats going. A +Def pairup is very good for her (retiring Fred onto her is a possibility for extra Mov, Kellam is serviceable too), and a War Cleric promotion can sometimes help. Ideally you would get her Def to be just higher than whoever she's trying to heal (use a Def tonic if necessary) so she can stand on the front lines with them and won't be targetted (the AI prioritizes squishiness over whether or not a weapon is being held). Anyway Paralogues 1 and 2 are exceptionally good for staff training.

[Thor Odinson]

Sully has early unit syndrome where she's the most reliant on the RNG. In my runs, she's simply naturally good, but I just get good rolls with her. Usually I run Paladin->GK/Wyvern Lord if I don't have enough second seals earlygame, but going Wyvern Knight->Wyvern Lord->Paladin or GK(if you have the speed) if you can spare the second seal since unpromoted exp gain is nice and flight is also nice. Wyvern Knight is the highest strength class growth-wise, and it provides a +10% over her native cavalier.

You could roll a REALLY good Sully (Cav->Pal->GK) and have her carry the entirety of Lunatic for you, but I'm aware that one is definitely not representative of pretty much any unit with the amount of stats she gained.

There's twice I've used Maribelle and they're drastically different from each other. Once I was going Dark Flier Lucina Mom with Galeforce, so what I did is I healspammed to 10 then reclassed, picked up my Chrom C on the way and took Fred as the support. Fred is the magical support that makes Pegasus Knights amazing--she was able to contribute even though her 10/1 stats are equivalent to base Sumia's at a far later chapter. I saved Paralogues for her, and since I was rushing Galeforce I promoted her at 10/10 PK. As Dark Flier she simply just had to spam tomes.

The other time she ran War Cleric and it was not good on her, unfortunately. The constraints of that run was all-axes, though, but she was relegated to being support for Lissa later on because unlike Lissa she lacked the strength to make use of axes. Lissa actually pulled off WC well.

Cherche suffers the most from having 2 heal-based tier 1 reclasses when she's there to hit things in the face really hard. Paralogue-saving is also an option for her, though if you want to use her and Maribelle on the same run it might be a conflict of interest there. She could just promote straight up after hitting level 20 unpromoted, though, but she was not particularly good on my all female all axes run unfortunately, joining too late and reclasses hurting too much. That was the only time I used her in actual combat; usually I have her instapromote to Griffon Rider and run utility role.

TBH I'm a fan of Sully x Sumia since I do a lot of runs where S ranks aren't really an option or Chrom is simply unused. They cover each other's needs nicely. A ranks aren't quite S ranks in terms of support bonuses or DS power, but at least it gives the same stat bonuses.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Thor Odinson

[eclipse]

Hmmm. . .

- Sully will either have the stats, or she won't. I'll shove one of Sumia/Lon'qu onto her, so she'll double for as long as possible.

- Maribelle is a nuke, full stop. Unfortunately, getting her to nuke levels is really, REALLY hard without grinding. Have her pair with Ricken if you want a true nuke, or someone like Gregor if you want a bit more utility. If you need a magical tank, pair her with Lissa. I'd burn Rescue staves on her, if you have the resources.

- Cherche wants someone fast on her, and the sooner the better. You can either have her tank as a Wyvern Lord, or promote her to Griffon Rider and pair her with a Bow Knight for hilarious movement. You'll have to sacrifice one of speed/defense, though.

[Florete]

What do you do with Sully such that she's just mediocre? Sully is easily one of the most solid units in the game. A +Str support can be helpful, but anyone who gets her doubling and dual strikes with her should make easy work for 99% of the game's enemies on hard. For best results, go Wyvern Lord, but Paladin and Great Knight should still work out nicely.

Cherche and Maribelle are tougher to work with, though. Honestly, Maribelle doesn't really have much of anything over other healers. You just have to staff spam and keep her back until she has a high enough support level to reasonably frontline, and even then it can still be risky. Cherche's issue is her late arrival and mediocre stats, especially Speed. She'll take some work to get up, but a +Spd support will probably be the most helpful for her in the long run.

[eclipse]

For Sully. . .not gain Strength for five levels straight. Or wind up with defenses that make Maribelle look sturdy.

While specific personal examples mean very little, the fact that she's really reliant on her growths is a bit of a problem. Probably moreso than Maribelle.

[bookwormbabe29]

I love Sully, and tend to give her some favoritism (see: grinding/reclassing) in my games. One game was a blast with her as an assassin, using Lethality, Luna, and Astra and a Brave Bow. Overkill, but she never failed to fell a foe. If you just want her on your roster without the grind, you could try making her a great knight and let her be the support in a pair up, say Sumia. Sumia has speed and resistance, Sully brings STR and DEF with some extra movement. Dual Guard+ and she's a fine support, even if her stats are not kind.

Maribelle without solid investment could be quite rough. She wants magic, and gale force will help her avoid trouble (hit and run tactic). So Troubadour > Valkyrie > Dark Flier, perhaps? Lets her use her magic stat to attack sooner, and keep her viable if you're not going to grind. Dual support+ could provide a (minor) boost if her skill or something doesn't work out. Renewal is nice, but those levels could be tough without babying and could get her benched before she reaches her potential.

Cherche was amazing! ... on my first run. On easy mode. On harder modes without a little extra care, your fate is with the RNG gods. Everything she has can be done better by others. Without a lot of luck and/or reclassing, I'd take a gamble on going Griffon rider, and then Wyvern Lord. Hopefully the more 'balanced' nature of the Griffon will help her stats, and Deliverer could let her have extra utility as a sort of long rang nuke. If nothing else? You could keep her a griffon rider and let her be the backup in a pair up, letting the extra movement from a griffon rider give someone an edge.