Surprisingly Powerful/Weak Units (Character Spoilers)

[Fuzzlekins]

To anyone who's started playing for themselves or watched other people play, did you have any units you underestimated/overestimated? Now this will definitely vary from run to run depending on various factors like RNG, playstyle, and how you build the characters, so this isn't to talk about characters as a whole, it's more about personal experiences.

For me I'm currently doing a Hoshido playthrough, and one of the units I underestimated was Midoriko, because let's face it, she is the opposite of threatening. However, both her and her brother Shigure are EASILY the most powerful child units I have. I think currently she has the third highest strength stat out of all my units, after my unit and Ryouma, but I have no doubt she'll surpass him since I mostly use the child units now. She hasn't even gotten Extravagance yet, and with how much Easy Life triggers because of her personal skill, I know she'll be even more of a monster once she reaches Level 15. Also, both her and her brother are experts at unnecessary Lethalities.

As for an underwhelming unit, I would have to say Rinkah. Even though I had high hopes for her, she was just not strong a powerful unit. I'm sure with time and better level ups she could have been great, but I ended up benching her because she was getting outclassed by almost everyone. Plus, she ended up being the odd woman out for mothering, which made her even less relevant. I'm sorry Rinkah... I still love her design and personality though.

[Thane]

Rinkah's definitely a disappointment, sadly. Please don't kill me, Thor Odinson

I was genuinely surprised by Takumi and Xander. I did expect the oldest brothers to be powerful, but Xander just doesn't take physical damage; if you give him Aegis and Tomebreaker, the enemy will need Snake Poison to wear him down. Takumi just tears everything to shreds, but he needs some speedwings for maximum efficiency.

[KaceytronIRL]

Hinata is one as well. He could get quite tanky but the low resistance hurts.

[Thor Odinson]

Nah I'm not killing anyone over thinking Rinka's underwhelming unitwise, if I'm going to punch anyone in the face it's IS

I am similarly disappointed at what IS did for Rinka's statlines after seeing them on Hama's stream and later with confirmed growths

like, she's designed to be buff

she's meant to be very strong according to the Kagerou supports

but what the fuck is up with her hp/strength urrrgh

I just like her enough (second favorite, after Ryouma, but I'm p sure Ryouma doesn't exactly need fixing) to make plans to shove all of my resource to try to fix all her issues haha

Edited July 15, 2015 by Thor Odinson

[Sunwoo]

From what I can remember, uh …

Hinata has massive speed issues that hurt him a lot. He has a lot of HP and defense, but his speed is so bad it still hurts.

Rinka's strength really sucks.

Kagerou seems to be on the frail side (or maybe that's because I waited until Ryouma joined to start using her?) even if she has good speed and strength.

Belka, I can't tell if I got screwed with her or not, but she feels to be on the frail and slow side. I should see what she's like after another go.

Oboro and Takumi are both really good at killing things and not dying in return (provided that Takumi isn't near a bow or at least has bowbreaker).

Leon had speed issues when I used him, but other than that does really well.

Ryouma is great -- wait, this one isn't a surprise.

I'm sure there are others for both, but I can't really think right now because I'm tired.

[XeKr]

Better than expected: Zero, Kaze (Nohr), Velour. Bow and fast. Supersuperfast. Just solid stats (high Hp/Str/Def and usually fast enough to Guard Beaststone and still double, etc)

Worse than expected: Hinoka, Takumi, Kinu. Felt weak. Felt slow. why are your stats worse than Nishiki’s. :\

Note this is relative to expectations, not overall rating or relative to the cast.

[gayserbeam]

Kagerou, Effie, Oboro, Zero, and Pieri really stepped up to the plate when I wasn't expecting them to.

Odin and Rinka were a little disappointing, but I shoved all the kills and skills I could down Odin's throat and he ended up a not-totally-awful unit.

Oh yeah, and your Hoshido brothers are absolute gods. Takumi and Ryoma are immediately your best units when they join.

Edited July 15, 2015 by gayserbeam

[Azz]

While I do not own the game myself, I have played through my friends and:

Rinka is a huge dissapointment

Takumi and Oboro are way better then I thought(So is Setsuna but I did not use her much)

Ryoma is wow

Nishiki is way better, a much needed improvement on the Taguels

Sakura is amazing as a War Priestess and Exorcist IMO

Hinata was meh

Mozume was a based goddess who no one could kill(Maybe it was because my friend gave her all the dracosheilds so he could grind her without fear)

[nordopolica]

On Nohr, Effie is great, Kaze became very useful in late midgame onwards, as did Zero and Velour. Charlotte has amazing strength, but unfortunately is let down by Res and Hit rate (still she's part of my main party.) I never really got the appeal of Leon other than having way more Def than Elise but unfortunately much less Mag and Res. Overall on Nohr I never really *used* anyone who disappointed me. Maybe Joker later on in the game, as I started to use Flora or Kaze + healer.

[Ayra]

I was expecting Effie to be very good, but she defied my expectations and turned out to be utterly amazing and was probably my MPV on Nohr.

Kagerou also exceeded my expectations. Amazing offense at 1-2 range against pretty much everything, good at mage tanking and durable enough (Barely) to survive one hit from physical attacks. She was my MVP on both my Hoshido playthrough.

Elise is the other amazing character that I was not expecting. There's other mages that pack a punch like Orochi or Nyx; however there's none other that is completely immune to magic, doubles everything and has utterly insane magic stats. Yes, she dies in one physical hit, but she overkills EVERYTHING including other mages and is immune to them.

On the negative side, Hinoka is my biggest disapointment. Pegasus Knight is my favorite Fire Emblem class, and Hinoka seemed to be amazing on paper. In practice, while she's well-rounded and has surprising defense for a pegasus knight, well-rounded is not too useful in Fire Emblem Fates. Specialists are much more useful in this game unlike most others.

"Decent defense" translate to dying in 3 hits instead of 2. "Ok offense" translate to your team getting swarmed since you need to deal 3 attacks to kill anything but a mage. Even on Hoshido, the enemy loves to have overlapping bow coverage so "backstab attacks" on the enemy forces are usually dangerous.

Kinu was also disapointing. She's fast, sure, but her damage is low. Even against cavalry, her damage was not anything to write home about. She's basically immune to magic, but she's locked to 1 range, so while she can safely pull and tank enemy mages, she can't kill them during enemy phase. Kagerou will both tank them (she'll take a bit of damage but survive quite a few mage attack) and kill them on their turn. Elise will obliterate them and take 0 damage. Hinoka or Matoi as a Golden Kite Warrior will do the same if at max range.

Finally, Hana is a liability. I thought she'd be amazing: Finally a sword master with good strength! And as mentionned earlier, specialists are generally better in this game... Except that her durability is just too poor. She can't even attack axes users safely: She usually still has 20% or so to be hit even on offense and at equivalent level to the enemy, she dies in one hit. So if you attack an axe user, you have basically a 15% to have to reset the game (adjusting for astra/crit). If she gets attacked on the enemy phase, odds are she's dead. She gets sliiightly better due to increased evasion later on, but she's still more hindrance than help. This held true so far in two Hoshido playthrough (kicked her out at level 15 on first playthrough, used her for entire second playthough) as well as my current third path playthrough.

Quick note about Rinkah. I did kick her out pretty early in my first playthrough; on my second I gave her an Angelic Robe. It turns out that this is the only thing she needed to be usesable on Hard. After promotion, she has enough magic to deal a little bit of damage, but her main use is as a partner for Orochi. Rinkah pulls enemies or initiate fights with whatever damage type does the best, inflicts the -res debuff, and have Orochi finish off the enemy. It's an efficient combo against pretty much everything. That does not make Rinkah good, but the robe and having Orochi stick with her made them worth a spot in my party. I'm also using her on the Third Path also, and as of chapter 15, she's actually still 2nd tankiest member of my army (after Camilla).

Edited July 16, 2015 by Ayra

[Thor Odinson]

Quick note about Rinkah. I did kick her out pretty early in my first playthrough; on my second I gave her an Angelic Robe. It turns out that this is the only thing she needed to be usesable on Hard. After promotion, she has enough magic to deal a little bit of damage, but her main use is as a partner for Orochi. Rinkah pulls enemies or initiate fights with whatever damage type does the best, inflicts the -res debuff, and have Orochi finish off the enemy. It's an efficient combo against pretty much everything. That does not make Rinkah good, but the robe and having Orochi stick with her made them worth a spot in my party. I'm also using her on the Third Path also, and as of chapter 15, she's actually still 2nd tankiest member of my army (after Camilla).

How many robes do you get? If one robe is enough to make her useful, I was wondering if I can shove her more like 3.

[Minischew]

Quick note about Rinkah. I did kick her out pretty early in my first playthrough; on my second I gave her an Angelic Robe. It turns out that this is the only thing she needed to be usesable on Hard. After promotion, she has enough magic to deal a little bit of damage, but her main use is as a partner for Orochi. Rinkah pulls enemies or initiate fights with whatever damage type does the best, inflicts the -res debuff, and have Orochi finish off the enemy. It's an efficient combo against pretty much everything. That does not make Rinkah good, but the robe and having Orochi stick with her made them worth a spot in my party. I'm also using her on the Third Path also, and as of chapter 15, she's actually still 2nd tankiest member of my army (after Camilla).

I hate to intrude upon this post, but since you mentioned Camilla... may I ask if she lives up to expectations or not?

Edited July 16, 2015 by Minischew

[astrophys]

Reflecting on the comment on how even a stat booster of investment could really help out certain characters, like the Pegasus Warriors Hinoka and Matoi….

Would investing something like an Energy Drop (to secure more 2-hit kills where you're getting 3-hit kills), or a Dracoshield (more survivability), or an Angelic Robe (more survivability) have made a substantial difference in their usefulness, like you found it did for Rinkah?

[Arkine]

Pretty sure I was just ridiculously RNG blessed, but my Tsubaki has not missed a single speed gain for 4 straight level ups and is so far doing better than I expected.

[crimsonology]

I've only played Hoshido so far but Oboro is a definite stand-out for me. It feels like she's able to make a critical hit every third turn.

[XeKr]

I hate to intrude upon this post, but since you mentioned Camilla... may I ask if she lives up to expectations or not?

fwiw I almost put Camilla in "better than expected" which is saying a lot considering my expectations for a prepromoted Wyvern with great growths.

[Ayra]

I hate to intrude upon this post, but since you mentioned Camilla... may I ask if she lives up to expectations or not?

She totally does. Example from my Nohr playthrough at level 17:

37 HP, 30 Str, 18 Mag, 25 Skill, 28 Speed (cap), 23 Luck (capped), 25 Res, 28 Def

That's pretty god-darn amazing. She's the one single unit in my entire army that's able to tank both Physical and Magic damage (she's not immune to either but she's actually able to survive multiple hits, especially when using the +3 Speed +3 Def + 3 Res tome to tank), she flies, has one of the best skill in the game (deadly breath and she has the durability to throw herself in a pile of enemies) and deals good damage. Her personal skill is also very handy since she tends to be in the middle of the fray and is usually my first unit to move on my turn. She's been utterly amazing from start to end, and has been critical to completing my playthrough.

Regarding angelic robes, I'm not sure. There's definitively at least two in all playthrough but I never noted how many stat boosters I got per route. You do get a lot of them overall though (especially on the third path so far), so I'm sure Rinkah would be pretty amazing if you fed her everything.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Ayra

[Hatsuoki]

I've only played Hoshido so I can't comment on the Nohr characters yet but Hinata...why is Hinata so weak?! I pushed to use him because I liked him but come on. No matter how much I grinded him on mooks, he could never kill anything on his own. Is he just a terrible weapons master?

[Leif]

Wow, Zero is actually good? Who would have thought. All the more reason to marry him!

Odin isn't that good? That's a pity because I like his design. At least Ophelia is a good unit, right? RIGHT?!

Speaking of children, who are among the best? I imaging Ignis and Foleo being garbage. I'm surprised Kinu isn't up to snuff...

[CocoaGalaxy]

Just speaking in general, but it might depend on expectations as well, mostly in regards to the children characters anyway.

As in, a physical and magic parent will probably result in having middle of the road growths, where skewed growths would probably be better.

So the children related things might be due to (cough) pairings instead, but who knows.

I don't think there are any really bad units in this game, the only really outstanding bad ones...are those with the poor speed, because speed is the one stat to rule them all. Mostly anyway....the poor defense units (E.G. Hana) really get bad rep for this.

[Frelia]

While I was watching Hama's 3rd route stream I was surprised at how strong Takumi was. He was tearing enemy units to shreds, he was doubling without fail, would 1KO flying units no issue, and was criting in almost every battle. It got to the point where people started calling him "Critkumi" and "Killkumi". I was surprised with Camilla, Effie, Leon, Marx, Mozume, Ryoma and Zero as well. They were really good throughout the run and stayed useful.

With the units I was disappointed with I was surprised with how weak Rinkah, Hinata, Hinoka, and Odin. Rinkah's strength was surprisingly low (poor rinkah), Hinata for a samurai seems to be as slow as molasses, and Odin never really seemed to hit hard. With Hinoka she looked like she was rng screwed so I will not be so hard on her.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Frelia

[Aquaze]

Honestly i'm finding that anyone can be good if you know how to grind them. I'm doing my second playthrough of the 3rd path and after heavily relying on the older royals last run(Marx, Ryouma, Leon, Takumi) I decided to focus on other characters this run. The trick is you just need to win alot of my castle battles vs enemy Ai opponents and get skills of enemies. With the right skills and weapons any character can be strong.

Right now i'm on chapter 22 and my heavy hitters are Felicia(Found her Ice tray weapon that scales off mag, gave her Sol, axe breaker, Kunai breaker, kunaifaire, and pavise) she doubles and ORKOs anything atm, also Sakura, bought her the bow that scales off mag from the Nohr shop and while frail shes a very powerful war priestess, Hinoka and Setsuna, are both my fliers and after getting Hinoka breaking sky it offsets her mediocre str, and she has bowbreaker and pavise and renewal so shes hard to kill. Setsuna is squishier but with Bowfaire she hits like a truck.

If you are playing the 3rd path or Hoshido and you want to use any unit, just do my castle battles and buy skills, it makes literally anyone strong.

[nocturnal YL]

You can buy skills in Nohr too. You'll get weapons and gold slowly through various means, so money isn't that huge of a problem.

A surprisingly powerful unit to me would be Aqua. In a team where people have a hard time doubling, mid-game 30-speed Aqua is very helpful.

[astrophys]

It is a bit disappoint to read that the Pegasus Knights are a bit lackluster, as I was hoping to have my Avatar marry one of them (Matoi) and have said wife herself be from the union of two other Pegasus Knights (Tsubaki and Hinoka).

That said, I'm willing to show them a bit of favoritism where I can to make them turn out well….

[Fuzzlekins]

I wouldn't say the Pegasus Knights are lackluster. They're just not the stand out units. Mine are pretty strong, they're just not the strongest.

Also, any unit that I've upgraded/reclassed into Golden-kite Warrior has been a powerful asset. Aqua who was 100% support as a Dancer suddenly became a huge offensive threat as GKW.