How do people determine what makes a character good or bad?

[EphraimFE]

I would hear people say they look up a website to see what growth rates a character has and it would have percentages and that person would look at the percentages to see how good/bad that character is in each stats category (e.g. magic, skill, spd, etc.). I would like to be able to do that, (This probably doesn't make sense. If so, I apologize)

[Magical Glace]

Go to the main site and click on a game in the left sidebar. Then go to "growth rates" under that game's Characters section.

Edited August 12, 2016 by Glaceon Mage

[EphraimFE]

I know that (I should be more specific). I know where to find growth rates. It's just I don't know how to read them. I'll give an example, Silas from Fire Emblem Fates. His growth rates are HP: 50 Str:60 Magic:5 Skl:60 Spd:50 Lck:55 Def:50 Res:30 and people would look at them and say he's good in one stat. But why is he good in one stat is what I want to know. Is it the percentages?

[Topaz Light]

Growth rates represent the percent chance the stat has of going up by one when a character levels up.

If a character has 60% HP growth, for example, that means that their HP has a 60% chance of going up with each level up, which can be simplified down to a three-in-five chance. Stat increases upon level up are never guaranteed unless a character's growth rate in that stat is 100% or higher; you could theoretically have a character with 99% HP growth who never gains a single point of HP, even by level 20/20. To say that it's extremely unlikely is a massive understatement, but theoretically it's possible.

If a growth rate exceeds 100% (which is very rare), the stat will always go up by one upon level up, and the remaining number after the 100 is the chance of it going up by two. For example, a character with a 130% Skill growth rate would always gain a point of Skill upon leveling up, but they would have a 30% chance of gaining two points in Skill, instead. An easy way to remember it is that the hundreds digit represents how many points in that stat the character is guaranteed to get upon leveling up, while the tens and ones digits represent the odds of getting one more than that number.

The hundreds digit is almost always zero.

What constitutes a "good" or "bad" growth rate in a given stat largely depends on the game, since a lot of times things like average growth rates, how much a point in each stat is worth, etc. etc. varies a bit from game to game. As a general rule, though, usually HP growths are higher than the others, and usually the growths for Resistance and whichever out of Strength and Magic the unit doesn't use in their class will be lower. Obviously nix the second one for physical/magical hybrid classes, but that's generally how it goes. Not always, but generally.

That said, there's a good deal more that goes into determining how good or bad a character is than just their growth rates.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Topaz Light

[EphraimFE]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I'll do some research now that I understand.