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

[Etrurian emperor]

It's more than what Shanan can do can be mostly replicated by a mounted unit, who can also do it faster. Celice and friends can deal with the same enemies, and get there faster too. There has to be a benchmark for a 10 somewhere! If gen 2 were significantly harder, Shanan's combat ability would be more highly valued. However, since the game's not terribly difficult relative to the units you get, there's a point where combat ability becomes superfluous.

That makes sense but I think its not merely combat ability but continuous combat ability that should be taken into account. Eventually Celice and Leif can kick ass on a pony but they need to work towards that. This would go for Arthur as well and Ares seems a bit more dependent on his holy weapon that the other wielders, at least with me he was.

Shanan seems like pent in that he's an extremely solid unit the that's given away without any effort or training required on your part. Sety has this as well but Shanan joins earlier than he does.

[Shin]

It's worth remembering a 6 or a 7 isn't a bad score, as much as game reviews would suggest! Celice can be made entirely self sufficient and it's common practice to load him with stuff so he can promote at the start of chapter 7. Aless has no competition for the Mystletainn, and his access to it is essentially part of him as a unit. Arthur is unlikely to get a 10, but I'm sure the fact that he's the most mobile Holsety user will help contribute to his score.

[Dayni]

Well, we now get the swordmaster Shanam! Shanan, that kid from G1! And he's certainly grown up.

Shanan from his bases and growths is an obvious prepromote swordmaster: so he'll at least be decent. But he's footlocked, and the 5 ranged swords are also highly contested throughout G2. And as for his growths, they're about as expected, with the exceptions of high HP and Skill (Fitting for the major Odo unit), compared with a speed growth of 30% (with a 20% luck, don't expect a great improvement in dodging). As is, he's fine as a prepromote, but he won't be great for lategame and he won't take hits well. He also has Continue and Pursuit (classlocked), which are obviously important and he also has Astra for really making things dead if it procs. However, he has one neat trick to make enemies disappear: the Balmung! 3 weight, a good 90 hit, 30 might (par for the course) and the same boosts as Holsety! If it wasn't for being locked to 1 range, it would be a top 3 weapon for sure. In his hands it makes pretty much any opponent foolhardy enough to attack him regret their decision, being that 1, never mind possibly 10 attacks with the Balmung will hurt massively (Not even counting Continue (Should confirm if Astra can proc off of a Continue attack)). On top of this, the speed and skill boost make Continue and Astra more likely to proc. And to finish, dodge tanking can work unless the opponent's packing a holy weapon. Even against G2 Lanceland (Thracia), these boosts help him stay relevant.

Weapon wise, he'll have the Balmung, so the Thief Sword will be nice if you're using the Balmung more regularly for getting money, while he'd also like a Barrier and Shield ring to help if he does get hit. He has a Steel blade to start, so he does some damage as is, at least. He is one of the few choices for taking out Blume that might do well, and even later on can hold enemies off fine.

It's a bit odd how easy it is for him to pair up with some of the kids (I mean, he gets love growth from taking Balmung off Patty! What.) That, and he can possibly pair with his younger cousin Lakche, or Patty paired with Holyn (Or any of the other daughters with Holyn as their dad, though we don't know how closely related Holyn was in the first place). Also, if you paired Ayra/Holyn, you can use the Balmung glitch to make him irrelevant and one of the two other swordies extraordinary.

I'll rate him 6.5/10. Not exceptional without the Balmung, but he can do some serious damage with, and he's essential for Yied, one of the more frustrating castles in G2. And in a substitutes run he'll be highly relevant for it unless you ban him. But on the other hand, he's footlocked, swordlocked (but in FE4, that's not as bad) and is likely limited to 1 range (which matters for some formations). He's also surprisingly unnecessary when you have good kids to work with, and can just sort of exist in the background.

Edited January 14, 2017 by Dayni

[qwernst]

He has Balmung, and he has great base stats and skills. The only flaw I have with him is that he rarely gets speed going up in my runs. So I pair him up for the Final Chapter so he gets the convo that will cap his speed guaranteed. He is a keeper in your army. 8/10.

[Yojinbo]

Very solid unit whose great combat abilities are mainly limited by his lack of a horse. But both his offense and his defense are very reliable and being able to distribute shittons of money among the team via becoming lovers with Patty/Daisy is something I give him some solid credit for and puts him somewhat beyond the realm of being just a mere footlocked combat machine like the swordtwins are.

5/10 in regular runs, 6/10 in substitute runs adds up to an overall 5.5 rating.

[Peppy]

Yet another unit that can help out your team in a jam without much investment thanks to Balmung.

5.5/10 (+0.5 bias included, since he lived through most of this game with guilt because of Manfroy kidnapping Deirdre, even though it wasn't his fault)

[Vaximillian]

He has Balmung, and he has great base stats and skills. The only flaw I have with him is that he rarely gets speed going up in my runs. So I pair him up for the Final Chapter so he gets the convo that will cap his speed guaranteed. He is a keeper in your army. 8/10.

He didn't cap speed in my playthrough even paired with Patty. 29 speed at level 30, a disgrace to the class. Stupid sexy Shanan!

[Darrman]

After being an NPC for the first generation of the game, Shanan finally comes onto the scene! And he's positively ridiculous! He turns blue at the start of Chapter 7, running away from a horde of enemy shamans... ...except he can take them down with ease with that fancy sword of his! The Balmung isn't as good as Holsety, but it is Holsety in sword form. In other words; almost as good as Holsety. Suddenly the prepromoted swordmaster with good bases becomes the prepromoted swordmaster that can smash the endgame to pieces at base. Helping him in his gamebreaking performance are his skills. He has Pursuit, so he'll be doubling without any problems. Continue will help him finish any enemies still standing, and it's gonna go off a lot with all that speed. Astra's around too, for that sweet overkill. If it activates, the enemy will die. Simple as. His growths are pretty bad in most departments... but his bases are good enough to make up for it. He doesn't drop off at all. Maybe he does if you steal the Balmung off him, but it's his sword, not Lakche's, so shut up. Sure he has six move, but meh.

If he touches something, it dies. 8-bias since he got killed turn 1 when I ironmanned the game and I'm salty at him for getting all those Jormungs in the face with the Balmung. Altogether, he gets a 7.5/10.

[Ansem]

p good bases and balmung allows him to proc astra reliably, however he will have trouble keeping up with your mounts. i usually leave him behind to defend castles. in the final chapter i let him stay home and defend against the gruen ritter. didnt even have a shot at hitting him

[General Horace]

The thing about units like Shanan and Holsety!Sety is they kill enemies like 8 times over, where most of your units do a fine job of killing enemies without holy weapons. Having overkill offence doesn't actually help Shanan kill many units that other units like Delmud and Oifaye can't.

[Jedi]

The thing about units like Shanan and Holsety!Sety is they kill enemies like 8 times over, where most of your units do a fine job of killing enemies without holy weapons. Having overkill offence doesn't actually help Shanan kill many units that other units like Delmud and Oifaye can't.

Would be nice if maybe we had something like Final Fantasy X where you got bonus items or exp if you overkilled someone haha.

[OliKad]

Would be nice if maybe we had something like Final Fantasy X where you got bonus items or exp if you overkilled someone haha.

I'd second that, actually. They would make unnecessary criticals actually important xD

[Excellen Browning]

Shaman is the first or second holy weapon user in gen 2 and his notable contributions are reliably offing Blume in ch7 and Ishtar in ch8. In the rest of gen 2 he doesn't have the movement and res to be useful. 6/10

[Refa]

Can't Celice do both of those things with a Crit Hero Sword?

[CappnRob]

Shanan does it without having to abuse a single sword over the last third of G1 :P

[General Horace]

there's very little reason why you wouldn't want to build kill on the best non holy weapon sword in the game. Even if you give it to someone else Celice can easily tangle with Blume with the hero sword he gets from Patty earlier in the map, and Ishtar doesn't have a prayer against him in chapter 8.

[CappnRob]

There isn't but 50 kills is still a tall order and it can't be freely traded without dropping by towns. Shanan is canned woopass off the store shelf.

[General Horace]

if you kill the pirates with it in chapter 3 + the axe knights in chapter 5 alone that's already almost 30 kills in two turns, and giving someone who needs to promote (Beowulf or something) the hero sword to kill all the pirates is pretty standard fare. Then Sigurd's gonna be leading the pack to get the Vylon with the hero sword in chapter 5, so it's not a tall order if you think about things or plan ahead a bit - it's also something that makes life easier both during the period you're building kills on it or later on when it has 50 kills.

Shanan also has a very real chance of being oneshotted by Blume (at decent hit too). You also get Aless in the same map who can get there faster and doesn't get oneshotted if you're all about reliability or w/e.

[FionordeQuester]

if you kill the pirates with it in chapter 3 + the axe knights in chapter 5 alone that's already almost 30 kills in two turns, and giving someone who needs to promote (Beowulf or something) the hero sword to kill all the pirates is pretty standard fare. Then Sigurd's gonna be leading the pack to get the Vylon with the hero sword in chapter 5, so it's not a tall order if you think about things or plan ahead a bit - it's also something that makes life easier both during the period you're building kills on it or later on when it has 50 kills.

And if that doesn't work, you can always just grind off the Chapter 5 reinforcements like I do here...

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=146222

[Valkama]

Seliph can deal with Blume and Ishtar without critical although he needs the power ring for Blume. Shanan can just grab the barrier ring and avoid getting 1 shot by Blume if you decide to use him.

[Excellen Browning]

Can't Celice do both of those things with a Crit Hero Sword?

Yes, and so can holsety Arthur and now I think about it, Aless. And Faval in Ishtar's case. It doesn't make him unique but the potential is there. Though in Blume's case I don't see how Aless or Celice get to him when they're busy rescuing Leen.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Excellen Browning

[Flee Fleet!]

And if that doesn't work, you can always just grind off the Chapter 5 reinforcements like I do here...

http://lpix.org/sslptest/index.php?id=146222

You have a full playthrough? Cool

Can you by any chance give a link for the whole playthrough?

[CappnRob]

Huh, I had no idea Slayder could grab reinforcements. I always just smoked his ass because he picked fights he couldn't win, lol.

And Faval I think has to be recruited after you deal with Ishtar? I forget.

[Vaximillian]

And Faval I think has to be recruited after you deal with Ishtar? I forget.

Faval comes right before Ishtar, actually.

[Yojinbo]

Shanan's honestly not even a good bosskiller. Ch.7 Blume just straight up oneshots him, Ishtar can oneshot him depending on how much / little magic bulk Shanan gained and Alvis will also always oneshot him. He gets murdered by Arion and even Ridale can just walk up to him and destroy him with a Hero Sword crit so odds are actually stacked against him against all of the tough bosses that show up before Endgame.

There isn't but 50 kills is still a tall order [...]

It's easy to get 50 kills on a number of important weapons quite easily and without any logistical problems. That includes Sigurd's default Steel Sword, the Light Sword and the Hero Lance. The Hero Sword is also notoriously easy to get 50 kills on - even if you don't pull it off entirely in gen 1 you can just pass it down to Celice and have him solo the first half of Ch.6 with it.

And that's not even the end of the line once you know how to maximize the kill count of specific weapons efficiently. Even if you focus on getting kills on the Light Sword and the Hero Weapons there's still plenty of room to set up weapons to make it past the 50 kill mark by the time Ch.8 is done - a Slim Sword, a Javelin and especially the Thunder Sword are strong contenders.