Silas in Revelation

[InchZer0]

Hello there. I am getting ready to do some analysis covering all of the units in Fates, and I wanted to start with Silas. Silas, in my research, is a versatile unit in both Birthright and Conquest, who can tank and deal damage effectively while joining at an early chapter. However, I don't know how to evaluate him in Revelation, considering his mid-game recruitment. The "Why use X when you can use Xander" argument is weak, and I don't want to use that at all in the series. If I had to guess, Silas has good bases, but his lower resistance would be a problem once you reach Chapters 20+.

What are your thoughts on Silas in Revelation?

[Espinosa]

Silas exists for a little while longer than Xander, and has better resistance and slightly better HP. If you play slowly enough to allow characters to catch up to others in level, Silas will catch up to Xander in the stats he's behind (basically all of them). His personal skill is more situational and harder to trigger.

Though Silas lacks a 1-2 range weapon he can double with (there's no way you can afford to go through bronze shuriken rank now, unless you have an arms scroll to waste), he compensates for it by having a higher base lance rank than Xander, granting him access to weapons (including effective weaponry) that Xander has no immediate access to (and probably never will since he will mostly be using Siegfried for 1-2 range).

You want all the proficient mounted units you can get, and Silas fits that description perfectly. The lack of Siegfried places additional demands on the player, as Silas will need to be used more intelligently.

[Ownagepuffs]

12 base spd is really bad and speedwings has competition as only 1 is free, but he has perfect everything else.

[Water Mage]

Other than his speed, Revelations is the path where Silas is at his strongest.

[Ownagepuffs]

I would argue that is Birthrout. From a raw statistical sense, yes he is strongest in RV but in Birthrout he has more options to boost his speed, has high availability and stands out more relative to everyone.

[Espinosa]

tbqh

It's not like you can't buy a Practice Katana in Revelation.

[Water Mage]

I would argue that is Birthrout. From a raw statistical sense, yes he is strongest in RV but in Birthrout he has more options to boost his speed, has high availability and stands out more relative to everyone.

True, but then again, he doesn't have other Cavaliers to compete with him in Birthright,

Speaking if which, other than Siegfried, what does Xander has that would make him better than Silas?

If we remove Siegfried from Xander, would he still be a better unit than Silas?

I think the answer is no, but I would like to hear a second opinion.

[Etrurian emperor]

True, but then again, he doesn't have other Cavaliers to compete with him in Birthright,

Speaking if which, other than Siegfried, what does Xander has that would make him better than Silas?

If we remove Siegfried from Xander, would he still be a better unit than Silas?

I think the answer is no, but I would like to hear a second opinion.

I think so. Xander benefits from Siegfried but I never felt he particular needed it. He kicked ass with plenty of other weapons. To me Xander was permanently useful and in some cases even vital from start to finish.

Silas on the other hand always start out pretty good but in both conquest and birthright I find him to start lagging behind the other characters once promotions kick in.

[Ownagepuffs]

tbqh

It's not like you can't buy a Practice Katana in Revelation.

A 6 mt weapon isn't doing much to 41 HP/21 Def Spearmasters. Or anything after C18 lol.

Edit: No Sieg Xander vs Silas is an interesting question.

In CQ: It'd be like comparing Alance to Percival. Without Sieg, Xander still has a hulking 23 Def, 25 after personal, and access to wyvern Lord for even more bulk. However, Silas has a significant availability gap and a better overall growth spread. He can also marry Beruka in a practical run for Wyvern. Silas would also not deal with the snail crawl exp gain that Xander has to put up with for like 2 chapters. He also has a very slightly higher spd growth. I'd give the nudge to Silas.

In RV: Silas doesn't have enough time to marry into Wyvern, but his higher weapon ranks are a point in his favor and his base stats are pretty huge. Throwing a ton of speed resources at him would be better as an instant promoted Silas has 1 less base spd than Xander as well. But Wyvern Xander is still very strong since RV loves fliers. I'm leaning on Silas, but I'd like another viewpoint.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Ownagepuffs

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

Wish Silas was recruitable in the early chapters though... : [

[mysticalEnchanter]

I use him instead of Xander, and he's given me very good endgame results. Definitely recommend using him.

[Espinosa]

A 6 mt weapon isn't doing much to 41 HP/21 Def Spearmasters. Or anything after C18 lol.

Edit: No Sieg Xander vs Silas is an interesting question.

In CQ: It'd be like comparing Alance to Percival. Without Sieg, Xander still has a hulking 23 Def, 25 after personal, and access to wyvern Lord for even more bulk. However, Silas has a significant availability gap and a better overall growth spread. He can also marry Beruka in a practical run for Wyvern. Silas would also not deal with the snail crawl exp gain that Xander has to put up with for like 2 chapters. He also has a very slightly higher spd growth. I'd give the nudge to Silas.

In RV: Silas doesn't have enough time to marry into Wyvern, but his higher weapon ranks are a point in his favor and his base stats are pretty huge. Throwing a ton of speed resources at him would be better as an instant promoted Silas has 1 less base spd than Xander as well. But Wyvern Xander is still very strong since RV loves fliers. I'm leaning on Silas, but I'd like another viewpoint.

I think both Silas and Xander wouldn't want to lose swords, but they might do just that for LTC. Then again, in LTC, Silas is probably not marrying anybody other than MU for flight anyway.

Reclassing Silas quickly is easy in RV because supports can be ground fast by summoning a weak, cheap enemy party in, say, Bottomless Pit. No encounters in CQ however.

[DragonFlames]

I also would agree with the sentiment that Silas is at his strongest in Revelation.

On my Birthright Hard run, where tanks (and Corrin and Raijinto) were basically everything, Silas wasn't quite tanky enough and would usually fall in two hits. It may be because his HP was atrociously low, thanks to RNG-screwage, which he is especially vulnerable to, I found.

In Conquest, he is necessary/useful for early game, but as soon as you get Camilla and/or Beruka, I'd drop him in favour of one of/both of those two. A mounted unit on a horse or Pegasus/Kinshi is almost a liability in Conquest, except for maybe Xander and that is only because of Siegfried, since many enemies come with Beastkillers and there's still that ludicrous Kitsune-chapter to think about, where it is suicide to bring any unit with beast-weakness (not including Velouria, who will smash everything to pieces).

He makes a very good pair-up partner for Mozu, though, especially in Conquest, if you reclass Mozu to Archer. It helps her a lot in her early levels.

On the debate Silas VS No-Siegfried Xander: After playing all three routes and training all of the units up at least once, I truly stand by the opinion that any of the Royals (male! not female!) would be at least slightly worse than their competition (e.g. Mozu being a better Sniper than Takumi, stat-wise) if not for their personal weapons, so I give the edge to Silas, in both CQ and Rev, since he is around longer and can catch up to/surpass Xander statistically when he reaches the same level as him. Depends on how kind the RNG is, though, since I found that Silas is very easily speed-screwed.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

What about Peri? o3o

[DragonFlames]

What about Peri? o3o

In Revelations, if you're not grinding, it's very hard to find use for her, sadly.

Otherwise, I think she can turn into a decent magic tank with her high Res growth, setting her apart from Xander and Silas, whose Res growths are underwhelming, to say the least.

I had a great time using Peri in my first CQ run and I don't regret using her over Silas or Xander. She needs a few Secret Books or lucky level ups to fix her low skill, though.