Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War 2017 Tier List - Day 39: The support kids (Corple, Lene, Sharlow and Laylea)

[Yojinbo]

[...] she still has her pairing problems [...]

Sylvia is the mother unit with the least amount of trouble finding a good pairing. It literally doesn't matter whom you pair her up with, her children will always be what they are - a dancer and a staffbot. Even pairing her up with nobody at all is a totally legit option.

[General Horace]

dancer

9/10

kids don't matter when we're rating their performance as a unit in gen 1, and even if we were, she produces another dancer and they're even better in gen 2.

[Caster]

I'm too lazy to rate everyone else I missed so
Sylvia
Dancer

refreshes 4 units
Fantastic with leg or knight ring

or both

9.5/10 with +.5 bias
so 10/10

one of my favorite characters in gen 1.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Sophie

[Jedi]

9/10, she dances, also rating people based off how good of parents they are is kind of silly.

[The Draco Knight]

I know of the debate on Levin!Sety vs Levin!Arthur and, as someone with the opposite opinion, may I ask you how you can have any Arthur incarnation contribute anything in Ch6? He starts off in the worst place I can possibly think, bandit hunting is up to Fee and he's a foot unit. I understand if you give him the Leg Ring, but isn't it best passed down to Seliph or Leen? (I did once have fun with Elite/Pursuit/Leg Ring on Holsety!Arthur but it's not something I would recommend )

Well, I always find Levin!Arthur extremely useful against the Great Knight Boss and his Axe knights, since the first one is quite tanky and Forseti can defeat him easily and the second ones all possess 1-2 range, so Arthur can deal with them with little difficulty in this regard.

To be fair tough, Arthur appears when your units have yet to show their potential, while Ced starts to become playable in a point of the game where all of your units are capable to handle a lot of enemy units al by themselves. Plus, It doesn't help that Ced is forced to stay with a 6 mov, while Arthur can promote and obtain a Mount, being able to keep up with Seliph and the other mounted units.

It has been quite some time since the last I've played this game tough, so there may be some details that aren't coming in my mind right now.

But anyway, Sylvia: she can refresh 4 units at the same time, making her a very useful unit. Her combat is bad, but Dancers's main purpose isn't fightning, so It doesn't matter much. She may need a leg ring to reach her "full potential" tough.

8.0 with some negative bias because I find her very annoying tbh

[Dayni]

So, one of the more polarising characters. But what do I think?

Sylvia is... certainly not considered a particularly good character. And in combat, she's atrocious, with low caps, bad bases, no promotion, 6 movement and C swords. Well, what can redeem this? Well, she has swords, Prayer (to help durability) and Continue (so she can multihit) and FE4 Dance. Refreshing adjacent units. All adjacent units. That is useful at all times: grinding exp, getting units from place to place, allowing units to fight again, etc. She's still got her issues, but if she had canto and movement more like horses, she'd be amazing. 10/10 amazing. And as a matter of fact that is possible. For 80,000 gold. And that's needed because the Knight Ring's given to Lachesis and lol at her killing the guy with the Leg ring (not impossible but....). I've indicated I can't really account for units needing items from other units in my scoring, so really, I'll have to ignore Sylvia's best form here. And as is, she's got a good role for refreshing, but otherwise is stuck with bad combat.

Also, I'm surprised with the lack of mentioning the other things linked to Sylvia. Like the possible (though imo unlikely) incest with Claude, or the "whoops" with Alec. It's kinda impressive that there's a lot potentially wrong there, and the execution.... Whew, I am not getting involved.

As a parent, you can certainly argue that she doesn't really need to worry about pairings, as her kids are a staffbot and a dancer. This would be the point where you could argue for the substitutes, but I'm ignoring that here as this is about the results of pairings. One thing of note is that Leen can have sword skills (Luna/Sol), though I'd argue she is the lowest priority for this. Either way, the son is a priest who shows up in Chapter 9, so he can be considered a really low priority as well. The recommendations will be on balance of the two here (though Dew is an interesting choice with Bargain, I didn't put him here).

Levin (lolCorple is good for magic (when he promotes) and can inherit any staff from him, while Leen is pretty good on dodging here and can use magic swords (same with Claude/Azel). Both get just Critical as skills.)

Claude (Corple can take the Valkyrie staff and has full inheritance of staves, Leen gets Major blood too so is good at magic tanking and has better dodging as a result. No new skills.)

Azel (Corple gets boosted fire rank when he promotes (not like it matters) and great magic and speed, Leen gets some alright boots and both have Pursuit.)

Lex (This is here because of tanking growths and Paragon on these two, and that's about it. Vantage is a nice bonus, but no inheritance and Corple has poor magic.)

Alec (Really, he's here because of the love growth boost, and his skills (Pursuit for obvious reasons, and Awareness is at least useful). No inheritance, nothing exceptional growth wise. Honestly, replace this with most other pairings, and you'll be fine as well. About as fine as this would be.)

I'm going to rate her an 8/10. Like I said, this is mostly because of dancing, not really because of anything else. If she had even staves she'd be more useful, and like I said, with Leg and Knight ring is amazing, but I didn't count this.

[Ansem]

9/10 she needs about 60000 in money dump to function her best but like yojinbo said definetely a worth. she also has a terrible tendency to pair with levin if you keep them together for too long. shes better not being paired too since laylea has charisma

[FionordeQuester]

Owch...those stats. Rather too bad that Sylvia likes it rough, because with these stats, she's about as fragile as they come. And even with Prayer and the Uber Slime Sword, getting her through the Arena is one of the most tedious things you can do. No, instead, she's to be used for her primary function, which is allowing other units to move again. Yes, that right, she has the Dance skill, which is a command that you can actually use to do THIS!

Looks pretty handy, right? But wait, there's more! As Marty here will demonstrate (most of these rankings are copied and pasted from my LP, with minor adjustments), dancers are good on their own...but when you add in the Rescue Staff, that's when things get REALLY crazy. Isn't that right Marty?

If you've watched any efficiency run before, you'll probably know that dancers are incredibly important. Their ability to let units move again can be useful in so many different ways, from getting extra experience to completing objectives faster. However, FE4 has the best dancers in the series. Though they're pitifully weak (why do they even have swords? at least it lets them get exp in the arena...) they refresh EVERY unit adjacent to them. Though a transformed heron/rafael can technically do this in FE9/10, in no other game do you have such a powerful ability with such huge availability. With the ability to refresh four units, Sylvia's squishiness becomes less of a drawback because if Sigurd, Cuan, Lex, and some other juggernaut can move twice...

...there probably won't be any enemies left. Even though Sylvia can't always keep pace with your leading units, there's always something useful for her to do. Dancing helps allocate kills to weak units who really need the help by letting them move twice, and can speed up side objectives immensely. Furthermore, the use of the warp staff allows Sylvia to be relevant in the few turns after a a castle has been seized. This utility coupled with the lax turn count requirements of an AAAA rank means that Sylvia can do useful dances every single turn.

However, Sylvia can [also] do some very flashy things. Later on in the game, you get an item called the rescue staff that allows the user to bring any unit within ten squares adjacent to them (the game tries to put the unit above the rescuer, then left/right, then down). So far most staff users have either been really slow (Aideen) or have a low weapon rank, but each generation gives you a master knight, [a class that has] A rank staves. There are also two items called the leg ring and the knight ring. The leg ring boosts movement by three, and the knight ring allows the user to move like mounts do. With all these items properly allocated (it seems like a lot, but it's completely worth it), a formation of a dancer, a master knight, and three other promoted mounts can move 18 squares a turn if there is no terrain in the way. 18 squares.

If you want to use rescue on a unit other than the dancer, you can boost your lord 27 squares to quickly seize a gate.

With this immense power, you can skip huge portions of the game. In my 0% growths play through I used the power of rescue/dancers to trivialize some of the worst parts of the game. It is incredible

Other than that, yeah, not really much to say about her, other than that I don't like her character that much. She pretty much IS your stereotypical Japanese under-aged but promiscuously dressed girl, and doesn't really have much of a character beyond that, so...yeah. Not as bad as Nowi... or, maybe she is. That whole thing with Claude certainly doesn't do her any favors, especially since that's pretty much the canon pairing. Here's to hoping that Kaga was telling the truth when he said that they aren't actually full siblings, and that he just set that up for the sake of comedy...

10/10. Because no one else can do what she does.

Edited December 27, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Valkama]

Also, yes, I guess giving her a low rating due to her kids shouldn't really be a thing, but she still has her pairing problems (and being annoying). So yeah, my score doesn't change.

Leen regardless of who her dad is will be in the top 3 units of Gen 2 or top 5 at the very least. There is no reason for you to be docking Sylvia for her kids. I don't see how you are accidentally pairing people with Sylvia considering she has the easiest time staying away from people because she gives them an extra turn to move away from her. It takes well over 100 turns for Sylvia to pair with Lewyn with natural growth and you might as well add another 50 turns to that for Alec unless you are intentionally getting their love conversation.

[CappnRob]

Sylvia is a mixed case. She's super useful as a utility but made of paper and doesn't get much better than that. She needs rings to reach full potential and even with them can get absolutely annihilated if targeted by an enemy. She's also the only mother in the game with an argument to be made for NOT pairing her up, as her children's subs can actually do better than the kids themselves short of a Claude pairing. 5/10 for me, super useful when properly utilized (FE4 dancers need to make a comeback) but absolutely must be kept out of combat. Also she can fudge up your Levin pairing if you don't pay attention yo. I do like her personality, she's hilarious, especially with Alec (I wish Alec was mechanically viable a good dad for her ech).

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

A dancer who can refresh four units everytime is always great.

Give her knight and leg ring and she'll be super useful.

9 / 10

[Levin's Scarf]

Sylvia can refresh 4 units at once. What more needs to be said? 9/10 (-1 point for requiring a king's ransom to give her the leg ring and the knight ring).

[Flee Fleet!]

Ok, I guess I shouldn't have given her a low rating because of her kids or pairings. I would have to rate the other mothers like this too, and it's not like I face any problem with pairing up the others. So I guess I should renew my rating for her. 7/10.

yeah yeah that's the highest I can give her with negative bias. Like I said before I usually have footies catch up with the horses, so it's not like I need Sylvia to dance for them unless I want units like Ayra or Lewyn to hurry up. Or have units low on HP escape from danger as quick as possible (although Ethlyn, Lachesis or even Aideen could heal them right away).

So yeah, her dance is most useful in a LTC run to have the footies catch up with mounts or to have Sigurd seize the castle he couldn't reach, but not as much useful in a casual run, where footies and mounts are closer to each other.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Flee Fleet!

[Vaximillian]

Even in casual runs four units doing stuff twice is usually four more enemies dead and/or four units free to do stuff elsewhere. Sylvia is not only useful for making infantry catch up with cavalry, y'know.

[Flee Fleet!]

^Yeah, after some time of thinking, I was actually going to edit my post and mention this. It's especially helpful in the case of making healers move again.

My rating is still the same, though. I'll be honest, I never really found dancers to be too useful. Especially in the other games, where after getting them to level 20/20 I bench them for the rest of the chapters. In this case, every unit is deployed and so is Sylvia, so she helps by having some characters move again in a casual run.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Flee Fleet!

[Koumal8]

My rating is still the same, though. I'll be honest, I never really found dancers to be too useful. Especially in the other games, where after getting them to level 20/20 I bench them.

I... don't think that's the way you're supposed to use them. They're pretty much the only units whose level has no effect whatsoever on their performance. Still, I understand that (especially in other games) an actual fighting unit is better suited to some playstyles than a dancer.

Question: how do people usually get the Leg and/or Knight Ring on Sylvia? Is making extensive use of Dew the only choice? In my first playthrough I remember pairing her with Alec for no particular reason which meant he could win some fights in the arena and pass her the money, though it's not something you can do if you pair her with Claud or leave her unpaired.

[Vaximillian]

I fed her villages.

[Flee Fleet!]

I... don't think that's the way you're supposed to use them. They're pretty much the only units whose level has no effect whatsoever on their performance. Still, I understand that (especially in other games) an actual fighting unit is better suited to some playstyles than a dancer.

Question: how do people usually get the Leg and/or Knight Ring on Sylvia? Is making extensive use of Dew the only choice? In my first playthrough I remember pairing her with Alec for no particular reason which meant he could win some fights in the arena and pass her the money, though it's not something you can do if you pair her with Claud or leave her unpaired.

I meant that I use them till they get to level 20 (just for fun, not for higher stats or anything), so that they won't have to be used again for the rest of the game, which in turn would mean that they will not take a spot of the units chosen for a chapter. Instead, some fighting unit or healer could take that spot to level up and become stronger.

As for your question:

As Vaximillian said, feed her villages. Or have Dew give her money. You could also make her fight in the arena to gain money, although she will most likely just clear two or three levels.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Flee Fleet!

[CappnRob]

Sylvia has prayer which DOES let her cheese arena fights lel. Just get her to drop below 10 HP in a fight and watch he dodge forever while chipping away 1HP at a time. Fun times.

[Shin]

She saves a bunch of turns and has some pretty swanky utility. Her combat blows but you're a FOOL if you actually need to her to fight. She's probably not doing a huge amount in chapter 2, but for the rest of her existence she's really helping you getting your chumps moving. My only criticism is that she's a foot unit and doesn't appear fantastically early. It'd have been crazy if she came on a horse in the prologue though!

8.5/10

[Jedi]

She saves a bunch of turns and has some pretty swanky utility. Her combat blows but you're a FOOL if you actually need to her to fight. She's probably not doing a huge amount in chapter 2, but for the rest of her existence she's really helping you getting your chumps moving. My only criticism is that she's a foot unit and doesn't appear fantastically early. It'd have been crazy if she came on a horse in the prologue though!

8.5/10

A horse dancer, like a banner bearer would be kind of a cool idea in future games.

[FionordeQuester]

To answer people's questions about getting Sylvia through the Arena; Prayer. Use that, and also memorize the Castle HP are overly formula and the Live + Relive Staff formulas; Sylvia WILL eventually get through all seven levels so long as you manipulate her HP diligently.

Also, if you want to make the fights faster, use Gandold's Chapter 1 reinforcements to grind up an Uber Slim Sword with 100 Kills on it. Such an item is obviously not worth it for just one unit, BUT...it will also make it immensely easier for all your other sword users to get through the Arena. Dew, for example, great appreciates it; as do Noish, Alec, and Beowulf.

So those are all options you can consider if you don't want to have a Dew dump money on them.

Edited December 27, 2016 by FionordeQuester

[Valkama]

Sylvia doesn't really need the leg ring and the only time giving it to her would do anything that special would be Thove castle where it saves like 1 turn if you didn't train up Dew. She does just fine with only the knight ring. Having Sylvia pick up the bargain ring and then prayer abuse an arena gets her 40k pretty easily.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Valkama

[Refa]

Grinding a 100 kill Slim Sword sounds like the most tedious shit of all time.

[Jedi]

Grinding a 100 kill Slim Sword sounds like the most tedious shit of all time.

Agreed, thats way too much effort for little payoff.