FE14 Fire Emblem If Character Spotlight ~ Week #01: Tsubaki

[HappyHawlucha]

In this weekly thread post, we will be discussing everything possible about a certain character in the latest Fire Emblem game, If or Fates. In these posts, everything from backstory to gameplay optimisation can be discussed here, as long as this rule is in place... NO STORY SPOILERS, as I want to know everything about the characters, but not anything that is to do with the main plot, such as main plot encounters with the character as an enemy. This week, I'll be covering the Fire Emblem series' first ever male Pegasus rider, Tsubaki of the Kingdom of Hoshido.

CLASS OPTIONS:

Base :

Pegasus Warrior > Falcon Warrior /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior

Parallel Seal :

Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master

Marriage Seal:

Azura/Felicia- Rod Knight > Butler /OR/ Strategist

Rinkah- Oni > Shura /OR/ Blacksmith

Sakura- Priest > Mountain Priest /OR/ Exorcist Mage

Orochi- Spellcaster > Exorcist Mage /OR/ Basara

Setsuna/Mozume- Bowman > Holy Bowman /OR/ Golden Kite Warrior

Hinoka & Oboro- Lancer > Holy Lancer /OR/ Basara

Kagerou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer

*Touma Route ONLY*

Nyx- Dark Mage > Sorcerer /OR/ Dark Knight

Luna- Mercenary > Hero /OR/ Bow Knight

Buddy Seal:

Saizou- Ninja > Elite Ninja /OR/ Puppeteer

Asama- Priest > Mountain Priest /OR/ Exorcist Mage

Hinata- Samurai > Trueblade /OR/ Weapons Master

*Touma Route ONLY*

Zero- Thief > Adventurer /OR/ Bow Knight

Skills Lists for these classes:

http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/hoshidan-classes/class-skills/

http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/nohrian-classes/class-skills/

BASE GROWTH RATES:

HP- 55%

Attack- 30%

Magic- 20%

Skill- 50%

Speed- 20%

Luck- 25%

Defence- 45%

Resistance- 5%

BASE CAP MODIFIERS:

Attack- -1

Magic- /

Skill- 2

Speed- -2

Luck- -1

Defence- 3

Resistance- -1

*Support Options are all people he can Marriage or Buddy Seal with, feel free to post about any of his supports and discuss them.

Edited October 18, 2015 by HappyHawlucha

[Morgan]

I wish more people would talk about the fact that he's from a family that drilled him to be perfect. Just discussing his past and how he got to where he is now is what I would love to see from these topics.

Subaki first off is what one could call an 'Expy' of Cordelia. He's a Pegasus warrior (technically a Tenma warrior lol) who's obsessed with perfection while having insecurities underneath. What I like about Subaki is that he worked hard to achieve perfection rather then just being naturally amazing. He trains on secret so he can keep this perfect image of himself in everyone's mind and that can be seen as identifiable. I know in school I try and make it look like school is easy and fine when it's really back breaking and stress worthy. So I see lots of people identifying with Subaki

Subaki also is known to have notable relationships with other members of the army. He knew Hinoka as a child after he was apprenticed (forgot where I read this. Might've been in the Hinoka/Subaki support). He has a notable and quite believable rivalry with Hana as well. I'm sure we could headcanon other past relationships with other characters here as well.

Anyway, I see Subaki's desire for perfection to be very stressful on him and almost lower his insecurities. In his mind, the people love the 'Perfect' Subaki and if he screws up then they won't love him anymore. He cares about everyone's opinions even if he plays it off all cool. We've probably all been there. I can easily identify with this mind set and I'm sure a lot of people can as well.

I think these threads are a cool idea and I can't wait to see what else is contributed :)

[Xenomata]

From a gameplay perspective (coming from someone who can't play the game until the American 2016 release),Tsubaki is weird. Overall he faces competition with Hinoka, who has better Str/Spd/Luk/Res growths/mods, can reclass into Lance Fighter without needing to use a Buddy or Marriage Seal, and doesn't really break any children. She also comes slightly better equipped than Tsubaki by having a Guard Naginata.

Of course Tsubaki has querks of his own, including the Samurai class as a Parallel Seal class, a neutral magic stat for mastery over magical weapons, and a very good Skill mod/growth for hitting, critting, and launching out skills like Astra. Letting him Buddy Seal with Asama for Priest (or Marriage Seal with Sakura) compliments his personal skill well, as he can also utilize Galeforce from Dark Falcon for hitting and retreating to the backlines to let Renewal work it's magic if he ever gets hurt, while also giving him the Onmyoji class if you really want him to go all out with the magic (even comes pre-loaded with Tomefaire).

All in all, if we were to compare Tsubaki to a unit in Awakening, he is very similar to Sumia, not having very good Strength but having mediocre magic and access to magical classes, allowing them to work some wonders. Of course Sumia at least had some Speed to her name, but some of Tsubaki's better end-classes (IMO) have enough speed to not leave him hanging.

My final thoughts...

Final Class: Onmyoji.

Reason: When Buddy Sealing with Asama, Tsubaki gets Priest, which allows for his magical ability to increase while keeping his Speed at a point where he can't exactly double, but can't be doubled. While Trueblade does this better, Tsubaki will not have any offensive ability in this class. This basically makes him a slightly weaker Orochi, but with a Personal Skill that actually does something.

Wife: Rinkah resets the Skill that Tsubaki would give to Matoi, but slightly bolsters Speed and greately capitalizes on Defense.

Setsuna does nothing to increase Matoi's ability to not die, but does increase her speed by a very nice amount while also increasing skill a bit.

Felicia gives Matoi a classline she cannot otherwise get, but doesn't really do much for her modifiers aside from patching up Magic and Speed.

Mozume gives a small boost to Skl, Spd, and Luk and also gives the Aptitude skill, but leaves Matoi with a classline she gets very little from (Great Merchant).

Matoi will become Tsubaki 2.0 with better speed, and because her Magic can become better much easier than her Strength leaving her with the ability to cast magic would be smart. Fortunately she can get Spellcaster and Priestess by Buddy Sealing with Syalla and Mitama respectively, so giving her a mother who gives her one or the other would be a fairly good waste, though giving her Setsuna as a mother and letting her Buddy Seal with Eponine for Adventurer wouldn't be that bad an idea either.

The only real problem is that because Matoi is supposed to be Cordelia, all of her hair color options aide from Hinoka, who is honestly not a good mother for Matoi whatsoever, make her look... weird.

[riolumaster]

I really like the idea of these topics and I hope they continue.

Although I'm not a fan of the whole "perfectionist" aspect (didn't like it with Cordelia either) I'll still be using him since he's the first male Pegasus Warrior.

Also, how would he do as a Lance Fighter?

The only real problem is that because Matoi is supposed to be Cordelia, all of her hair color options aide from Hinoka, who is honestly not a good mother for Matoi whatsoever, make her look... weird.

Really? I've heard that Hinoka is one of the best mothers for Matoi and also gives her Lance Fighter as a better alternate.

[Shephen]

Oh man Baki is the man.

In Hoshido Lunatic he is pretty great. Flight is a pretty great thing for Hoshido and I can think of nearly a dozen chapters were it can be put to use. The stuff he can get from peg line is pretty great as well. It gives him Swallow Strike, Rally Speed, and Falcon Knight. Swallow Strike removes his speed problem for most of the game, and Rally speed lets him function as a good support unit for units like Silas, Saizou and Takumi who are on the slower side of things. Falcon Knight promo bonuses are pretty sweet and specialize in lances which Hoshido has a lot of good equipment for(The Javelin, Shock Sticks, Reverse Lances, Guard Naginatas, the Horse Slayer, and Sword Slayers) so he will have a weapon for any job really. While E-Staves sucks for the most part as a Falcon, he can still use Rescue Staves which is pretty useful for skipping maps, getting a big advancement, or rescuing someone from a bad mistake/bad RNG. Occasional heals are also nice.

Looking at Baki's performance for the game, he is at his best in the early game. With Rinka pair up and tonics he more or less won't die in the early game unless the enemy is a bowman or he's lost good chunk of hp and is attacked by thieves. So he can charge up ahead with a Steel Naginata and put a big dent on a lot of enemies on EP and other units(like Kamui, Hinoka, Silas or Ninjas) can get the kill on PP for some easy exp. Midgame is where things start to get rough for Baki. Enemies start promoting and there is a good chance he won't double them even on player phase. He will start to have a lot of the good weapons at that point however. The Ryoma stomp isn't very kind to him either as exp starts to become more scarce since Ryoma is hogging a good chunk of it so Baki has to start justifying his exp gain more. Late-game Baki is pretty variable. At worst he is a rescue/heal/ferry bot, at best he is a solid combat unit. You need flight to around chapters some chapters efficiently and Baki is one of 4 who can fly without reclassing and kids. There is also some rescue skips that a reclass Strategist Jakob/Felicia can't do(like chapter 17/21) and some other rescue skips that need multiple rescue users(24/27). Granted Hinoka can do these rescue skips as well, but most of the time she is better off routing a different part of the map, or is getting rescued(while Ryoma/Kamui is paired up with her). For Baki's Late-game combat to be pretty solid he needs the Lancer line and some speed wings from earlier in the game. The main thing Baki needs from the Lancer Line is Breaking Sky(which you could also get from SpellCastor as well as Mag +2 for some shockstick Shenanigans even though you can't proc anything with it) which is one of the best procs and Baki's best stat is skill. He can also go the debuff route with Speed and Def Seal and just set up kills for everyone else. Overall Baki is one of the better units in Hoshido. Not on par with the Royals, but he does pretty great.

In-Game Eugenics wise(Not considering post game/PVP), Baki is best paired up with Oboro more or less full stop. That pairing is about as mutually beneficial as it gets for in game use. Oboro's biggest issue is her speed comes up just a bit short pretty often, and Baki is her only way of getting Swallow Strike(ignoring Kamui). Baki's biggest issue is str, since Swallow Strike fixes his speed for the most part, and Oboro fixes that nicely with her pair up bonuses and the Lancer line. Two units' issues are solved with this pairing, and the best part is they both keep their lance rank and don't have to flounder around with E like most reclasses. All Matoi needs is a nice skill inheritance and relatively good growths which Oboro gives. Hinoka also gives more or less the same stuff to Matoi as Oboro and slightly better growths. The problem with pairing Hinoka is she has basically nothing to gain from pairing with Baki since she has everything she needs already(aside from maybe Cav which I'll talk about when we get to Silas or Hinoka). There is also the logistics of it as well since pairing Baki and Hinoka mean that they are probably paired up a lot which means that you are reducing your amount of fliers which is never a good thing. Another alternative to those two is Setsuna, who like Hinoka doesn't benefit from a Baki pairing, but Baki likes Prescient Victory and Matoi likes it as well stacking with Prodigy. Baki doesn't really need to buddy seal at all unless you feel like he needs Renewal/Magic Counter/Rally Luck from Asama's mountain priest(which Baki retains his lance rank which is cool). Saizou and Hinata like Swallow Strike though. Did a write up a little while back on Reddit covering all of Baki's pairing options

IK Lunatic Baki is a different story. He needs some heavy investment to stay relevant and has a pretty rough start having to deal with the IK!9 Savages as his first chapter(or second depending if you saved Mozume's paralog for him, Kaze and Hana). He can put some of the chapter 10 stat boosters to use and be pretty useful and will be able to use the killer lance. Thankfully for Baki the enemies in IK are pretty stagnate until the difficulty spike(Chapter 18) and they stay pretty stagnate again till around chapter 25 I believe. So he gets in a cycle of rough start to solid back to rough. Oboro is still the best pairing for him long term so he can get access to the seals since in IK he will for the most part be relegated to full support for the late game since his growths will have caught up to him and Rally Speed is needed to help some units double some enemies. Pairing him with Nyx can allow for some better Shock Stick shenanigans than he could do in Hoshido since her magical pair up bonuses are pretty great, but it doesn't amount to anything amazing. Flight is still a pretty great thing to have, even more so in the IK with all of its floating islands and trees, so he can always find use ferrying people. Never amounts to anything great though in IK, but he is nice to have around.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Shephen

[OakTree]

Earlygame fliers are always good, you could give them the most terrible stats in the game, and the fact they have availability and can fly would already put them at the top of tier lists.

[Refa]

Are those personal growth rates because they're really fucking awful.

[Morgan]

I like the idea mentioned about making him an Exorcist since his strength is pretty bad mod wise. However in a normal playthrough, since his magic growth is pretty bad, you probably couldn't use Subaki as a viable Exorcist. If you could grind for better magic then maybe, but otherwise if you're just playing through and doing a no grind run then Exorcist is going to be pretty bad.

Then again one could say his strength isn't much better but I mean still. It'll be hard to catch him up in Exorcist at that point in the game IMO :/

[HappyHawlucha]

His -1 Strength Modifier is really shitty for a Pegasus rider, and the idea of marrying him to Orochi or Sakura or A+'ing him with Asama to get him Exorcist is a nice idea looking at his mods. BUT, looking at his base growth rates the Magic ain't that good either, so...my idea is keeping him in his base class and promoting to Falcon Warrior, using his reasonably good Magic mod combined with a meh growth could give him some viability using the Shockstick and being a good secondary healer. I guess you could use Shining Bow/Golden Kite, but he has NO Mag growth in that class, so Falcon Warrior would be optimal. Plus, a 40% Strength growth may also be useful if you wanted to give him physical naginatas.

PS: Just noticed I didn't have Cap Mods in the head post, I'll add them in after I've uploaded this post.

Edited October 18, 2015 by HappyHawlucha

[CrazyFiasco]

Subaki would make an decent Mountain Priest. His growth rates in that class would be:

HP 65% STR 45% MAG 25% SKL 55% SPD 35% LCK 40% DEF 55% RES 15%

Compared to his Holy Lancer growth rates

HP 70% STR 45% MAG 20% SKL 65% SPD 35% LCK 30% DEF 55% RES 10%

He would be better off as a Holy Lancer, but I'm sure there's other classes that can offer Subaki some good uses as well

[Shephen]

The problem with pairing up with Sakura or buddying Asama is that those two need to be spamming staves constantly for them to not be completely outclassed by your first Servant. By the time they do promote and have combat its pretty late in the game and their combat isn't that good since E-ranks so they are back to staff botting, so there is never really a good opportunity to pair them with Baki. Pairing with Orochi works, but Baki only wants Breaking Sky and Mag +2 out of that class line and then goes straight back to Falcon Knight. Orochi pair up though does make shock stick shenanigans pretty great though and lets Baki surpass Hinoka in Mag since he is most of the time 2-3 points behind.

The problem with him reclassing to Mountain Priest and even Holy Lancer is that his speed drops a noticeable amount(-2 from Falcon). Baki already needs every bit of speed he can get for the mid-late game and getting rid of some doesn't help. Sticking around for skills is cool since its only a few levels, but he should just go back to Falcon Knight. There are only two classes that have a higher speed base than Falcon Knight(TrueBlade and Elite Ninja) but he doesn't keep a weapon rank in either class. Baki is best as a Falcon Knight since flight and 8 move is really good.

[astrophys]

Are those personal growth rates because they're really fucking awful.

Yes, those are Personal Growths….

Let's add on the class growths (I'll just do the base tree):

Pegasus:

HP - 55%

Str - 40%

Mag - 20%

Skl: 60%

Spd: 35%

Lck: 45%

Def: 45%

Res: 25%

Falcon:

HP - 55%

Str - 40%

Mag - 30%

Skl: 60%

Spd: 35%

Lck: 45%

Def: 45%

Res: 25%

Golden Kite:

HP - 55%

Str - 35%

Mag - 20%

Skl: 65%

Spd: 35%

Lck: 40%

Def: 45%

Res: 20%

[CrazyFiasco]

You can pair up Subaki with either one of them to gain support points, but I can see how that'll be a hassle since Sakura/Asama would have to keep switching to heal others.

Would Subaki be a good General if you don't want him as a FW? He'd obviously would have to marry an Avatar with it, but it's really tempting me to try it out.

Growths as a General:

HP 80% STR 50% MAG 20% SKL 65% SPD 20% LCK 35% DEF 65% RES 5%

He's able to A+ Zero for movement +1 to fix his move AND gets access to DF to fix his horrible speed. But his RES is a lost cause

Edited October 18, 2015 by CrazyFiasco

[Shephen]

Sakura and Asama don't really give good pair up bonuses to a unit like Baki so they are kinda just dead weight then and Baki's combat doesn't really amount to anything then.

I don't think General Baki would be that great. In Hoshido that much defense is completely overkill and his offense isn't that great. Then you have to start lugging him around which is never a fun thing. He is already one of the bulkiest units on the route and the 8 Move and Staff utility of Falcon is just to good to pass up for more bulk. Him A+ing Zero in IK is kind of a logistical problem since Zero isn't that good of a unit and Baki needs Str in IK and a git of speed.

[astrophys]

One comment I'll make about the Tsubaki x Oboro/Hinoka pairings…

Generally, I think Shephen's reasoning is pretty good and I think I have to concede to his conclusions about in game practicality (Oboro x Tsubaki; Hinoka x Silas).

That said, if for some reason you were going to max out your Birthright characters, there is a possible catch:

Of Sophie's three buddy options, two of them are Nohrians; Matoi is her only Hoshidan option. This means that in Birthright her only available buddy seal class is form Matoi's Pegasus class; going Oboro x Tsubaki & Hinoka x Silas would produce skillsets of:

Oboro!Matoi: Pegasus, Samurai, Lancer

Hinoka!Sophie: Cavalier, Mercenary, Pegasus

So attempting to buddy Sophie with her only Birthirght buddy would be a waste of a buddy for her, as she cannot get Pegasus from Matoi when she already has it; but Matoi can still get Cavalier from Sophie. But this means that Hinoka!Sophie is permanently locked to four class sets (instead of five). This represents a loss of potential. It probably doesn't matter as she still has a bunch of good classes, but if you want her to have a full 5 class set its not going to let you do it.

So if you were interested in maximizing their class set options, Hinoka x Tsubaki & Oboro x Silas might be better for Hinoka & Sophie's capped outcomes.

In game, of course, I agree that Oboro x Tsubaki & Hinoka x Silas will be better as you probably aren't getting the kids to BOTH a marriage class AND a buddy class before the end of the game and even if you do you probably aren't class changing them so much to worry about it.

[CrazyFiasco]

Ok, then maybe he should just go general to get DF and come back as Falcon Warrior

[Tide of Waves]

Or Probably he could maybe go Lodestar to get the Gentle Blade(+3 Speed, and -1) Skill, and Give him Swallow Strike for improving his doubling, and can comeback as Falcon Warrior.!

Edited October 18, 2015 by Tide of Waves

[Dark Sage]

Ok, then maybe he should just go general to get DF and come back as Falcon Warrior

Why would he need Defensive Formation? He doesn't have problems getting doubled, so you'd basically neuter his offense for no real reason.

[Shephen]

For what its worth he does get doubled by the fastest enemies in Late Game IK Lunatic(Elite Ninjas, Trueblades and I believe Beserkers may have a chance to double him) and doesn't really double much aside from the slowest of the enemies even with Swallow Strike. Granted by that point his combat isn't that good(with exception to mag Baki with ShockSticks) and is mostly relegated to full support by that point, but DF could come in handy in a few scenarios for Baki.

[lysander]

Yeah, I'd go so far as to say that for Hoshido nothing really wants DF, not that you could even give it to more than one person anyway sans skill purchases. The speed targets for not getting doubled match the speed growth+bases of any unit you'd actually let take hits on enemy phase (so not Orochi) and, even if they're screwed, in the worst case tonics bridge the gap. And pair-up bonuses for the most extreme cases. The target never really passes the 20-22 AS range and most of Hoshido can reach that at even 20/1 + tonic, not that they wouldn't be higher leveled anyway.

[Shephen]

Adding on to what Iysander said, pretty much everyone and their mother(literally) gives speed as a pair up bonus except a few classes like Priest. So you can really just pick any unit and tie a Samurai or Ninja down to them and their speed isn't an issue anymore. The most threatening enemies in Hosh Lunatic are the Generals, Great Knights and Zerkers. The generals and GK don't have much speed and the Zerkers can't do anything to Ryoma so late game speed isn't to big an issue. What Hosh really lacks though is str pair up which makes Rinka incredibly valuable pair up fodder, but more on that during her week.

[Ownagepuffs]

Love his design. Shephen already covered everything, gameplay wise.

First chapter availability yay.

[HappyHawlucha]

How about we start moving on to Tsubaki's supports and personality, such as the fact he was drilled to be perfect and sees himself as a perfectionist.

[Ownagepuffs]

I much prefer his kind of perfectionism. It's more interesting to me than "baww I'm so good at everything woe is me". It's very similar to Innes, who also worked extremely hard to maintain his standards and I love Innes.

[LoboKD001]

His supports?

I laughed too hard on his support with Zero. SHIP
His support with Matoi is kinda... weird? I don't know.

Tsubaki x Luna is kinda cute.

Edited October 19, 2015 by LoboKD001