FE10 Tierlist 2017

[Samias]

18 base AS is pretty unfortunate for Boyd yeah- though with a speed transfer 20 AS is workable. People didn't seem to bring up how slow Soren is though (same base speed as Boyd with 10% lower growth and Boyd's speed caps are much better).

Soren has an only slightly higher rating than Boyd, despite the utility he brings to the table when he promotes that all sages get and plentiful siege tomes (2 meteors, 2 blizzards, potentially bolting if you abuse Disarm). Also, Soren is a mere 2 skill and res away from capping both stats, so he can easily fix his defense and speed. With transfers, Soren has already capped skill and res and is on the cusp of capping magic and speed. At level 5, no less. But of course Soren is in a way worse class for combat, so he needs the promotion to become a hybrid support/offense unit faster. Even with transfers, Boyd has a ways to go to work his way out of a rut although it does mean he ORKOs significantly more enemies.

That said I think Boyd's final potential is crazy high but he has a harder time getting there compared to Nolan.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Boyd's potential without favoritism (i.e. Speedwings or a greatly disproportionate amount of Exp) doesn't really impress me. He doesn't even hit 30 speed until 20/12, let alone the 34 that I want for any unmounted non-staff user in endgame. I guess there are transfers but I've never seen the merit in considering transfers in these discussions myself.

18 base AS is pretty unfortunate for Boyd yeah- though with a speed transfer 20 AS is workable. People didn't seem to bring up how slow Soren is though (same base speed as Boyd with 10% lower growth and Boyd's speed caps are much better).

I can't speak for everyone else but I gave Soren only a slightly higher score than Boyd, and that's mostly because of the utility of targetting high-Def/low-Res units, picking up staves on promotion, and being a candidate for an early Master Crown/BExp due to hitting caps. Soren's base speed is absolutely still a problem (though being 3 levels lower offsets any advantage Boyd has in speed growth; Boyd won't actually pull ahead until around the time they hit tier 3).

[Radiant head]

i ranked boyd higher than soren, though i think i'm convinced by the posts saying the opposite now.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Radiant head

[Shadow Mir]

18 base AS is pretty unfortunate for Boyd yeah- though with a speed transfer 20 AS is workable. People didn't seem to bring up how slow Soren is though (same base speed as Boyd with 10% lower growth and Boyd's speed caps are much better).

Soren does have the advantage of not needing to eat counters when attacking, and is good against low Res enemies, in addition to being better able to use Bexp.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Sorry, I have to call this out. It's extremely unlikely for Brom to be better than Gatrie upon join. On average, Brom needs to be...

Level 12 to match Gatrie's base HP

Level 17 to match Gatrie's base Str

Level 16 to match Gatrie's base Spd

Level 7 to match Gatrie's base Def

Level 10 to match Gatrie's base Res

It takes significant favouritism for Brom to reach any of these thresholds except the one for Def and maaaybe Res. So at most he will have better luck, skill (offset by Gatrie having secondary weapon rank above E), and maybe slightly better Def, and will lose everything else, especially since Gatrie has two maps to gain levels in before Brom joins, too.

I like Brom the character better than Gatrie the character too, and I wish he was the better unit, but in RD he's rather clearly not.

It...really doesn't take much favoritism at all, and it's more likely than it's given credit for. It's just the way I position him on the map. I'm not going to argue this, though. All I'm going to do right now (since I already argued for Brom earlier and don't have the energy to do it again) is describe how I always do it, without favoring him over the other Part 2 units. (Just going to emphasis this again...how *I* always do it.)

There are five units I generally concentrate on in Part 2. Elincia, Marcia, Haar, Brom, and Nephenee. Elincia and Haar are only in 2-P and 2-E, they don't get much time for experience growth or much BEXP because of it. Marcia is never in the same chapter as Brom and Nephenee until 2-E. In 2-3. So, in 2-1 and 2-2 Brom and Nephenee get the bulk of experience. The other characters in their chapters aren't used much, because Lethe is bad, Lucia and Nealuchi are also bad and only used as crutches, and Leanne is only really getting experience from revitalizing. Mordecai is decent but I only ever really invest in him if I reeeaaally wanna use a non-royal laguz, and Heather doesn't really help much at all.

In 2-1, Brom is taking the bulk of attacks and he's the one taking out the boss, since he can just take the most out of the three characters in this chapter. The only other character here who can really help with fighting is Nephenee. And she is, so she's also getting experience.

In 2-2, Lucia and Nealuchi usually hang back as crutches. Heather, Lethe and Leanne are placed in the middle of the group. Brom, Nephenee, and Mordecai are at the front, with Mordecai and the Brom/Nephenee duo once again taking the blunt of the attacks and going at the boss.

In 2-3, it doesn't matter because Brom isn't there. The bulk of experience goes to Geoffrey, Kieran, and Marcia. Astrid ain't great, Makalov can help chip and maybe take out someone here and there, and Danved is just...there.

In 2-E, I position Brom, Nephenee, and Mordecai on the right side of the map, plugging up the stairway and the ledge (Brom by the stairs, Mordecai by the ledge). I don't hardly move them around the map at all. Bu, since Brom is stationed there, and with Nephenee up on that little high nook boosting Brom's (and Brom boosting her's) stats with their supports, all the enemies that flock in that direction are completely walled by Brom, who is barely hurt by anything at all and racks up TONS of experience, along with Nephenee who I still have fighting with javelins and coming down if needed. I have the other units on the map pushing forward, or plugging up the left side of your little defended area.

As for the BEXP, I spread it out as much as I can. There is no BEXP to give in 2-P or 2-1. In 2-2, Brom, Nephenee, and Leanne get the bulk. In 2-3, it's Marcia, Geoffrey, and Kieran. In 2-E, Brom, Nephenee, Haar, and Elincia get the bulk of it, with Haar usually getting the least amount because he needs it the least. Geoffrey and his knights get none because they aren't there to get it. I don't waste it on Lethe, or Calill who just joined and won't really be helping all that much since this is a very defensive map.

With the experience gained during 2-1 and 2-2, Brom will have already gained some levels. In 2-E, he gains TONS because of where I place him, the enemies alone without any BEXP allow him to grow a greater deal than 99% of people give him credit before. By the end of the chapter (2-E), even if I give him no BEXP whatsoever, he's already only a couple levels away from being ready to promote to third tier.

Gatrie only has two chapters to catch up to that, and with Ike, Titania, Oscar, Shinon, Soren, and Mia getting the bulk of kills and experience, Gatrie isn't left with much to grab. So by the time Brom rejoins, he'll fill my knight slot, and Gatrie is left further behind.

Again, that's just how I do it.

[-Cynthia-]

Soren has an only slightly higher rating than Boyd, despite the utility he brings to the table when he promotes that all sages get and plentiful siege tomes (2 meteors, 2 blizzards, potentially bolting if you abuse Disarm). Also, Soren is a mere 2 skill and res away from capping both stats, so he can easily fix his defense and speed. With transfers, Soren has already capped skill and res and is on the cusp of capping magic and speed. At level 5, no less. But of course Soren is in a way worse class for combat, so he needs the promotion to become a hybrid support/offense unit faster. Even with transfers, Boyd has a ways to go to work his way out of a rut although it does mean he ORKOs significantly more enemies.

That said I think Boyd's final potential is crazy high but he has a harder time getting there compared to Nolan.

I don't think BEXP really helps Soren's durability issues- 28 HP/9 DEF is bad enough that a few levels of BEXP aren't moving him out of 2HKO range for most enemy types. His best bet is probably supporting with Ike/Oscar and hoping to dodge- I guess the Seraph Robe could lead to some 3HKOs maybe. Soren's staff use seems pretty situational because of how staff equipping works in RD- you don't want to do it unless there's no chance of Soren being attacked,

Not sure targeting high Def/low Res enemies is necessarily that great either considering Boyd can Hammer Generals (though there are other GMs who can use the Hammer) and generally has the Str to muscle through Dracoknights with a forged Steel Axe. Unlike Soren, he can also be useful on EP against them because Boyd's physical durability is decent (17 HP and 6 Def over Soren at base).

I agree Boyd has a bit of a rut and isn't a great unit without favoritism- but Soren doesn't seem like a very good unit even with favoritism tbh.

Edited January 3, 2017 by -Cynthia-

[Shadow Mir]

I don't think BEXP really helps Soren's durability issues- 28 HP/9 DEF is bad enough that a few levels of BEXP aren't moving him out of 2HKO range for most enemy types. His best bet is probably supporting with Ike/Oscar and hoping to dodge- I guess the Seraph Robe could lead to some 3HKOs maybe. Soren's staff use seems pretty situational because of how staff equipping works in RD- you don't want to do it unless there's no chance of Soren being attacked,

Not sure targeting high Def/low Res enemies is necessarily that great either considering Boyd can Hammer Generals (though there are other GMs who can use the Hammer) and generally has the Str to muscle through Dracoknights with a forged Steel Axe. Unlike Soren, he can also be useful on EP against them because Boyd's physical durability is decent (17 HP and 6 Def over Soren at base).

I agree Boyd has a bit of a rut and isn't a great unit without favoritism- but Soren doesn't seem like a very good unit even with favoritism tbh.

Mayhaps, but between biorhythm effects and his biorhythm wave, I find it hard to rely on Boyd for much of anything. I mean, sure, he can Hammer Generals, but with the Hammer's accuracy being what it is, I wouldn't rely on him for it for the aforementioned reasons.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Updated the list.

Only needed to update my new rating of Volug and Brom because the others were already done yesterday.

As for Soren I normally try to fix his HP and defense problem by giving him a support with Ike and resolve in part 4. It works very well, even with poor biorhythm. One hit will bring him down to resolve and then he'll be pretty much invincible.

However he can be oneshotted by a crit with his low luck.

In general his fragility doesn't really bother me because thankfully he's no close combat unit and with speed he normally won't get doubled except by swordmasters.

i don't think rolf is even competing with shinon, at least anymore than any other unit. ignoring rolf is perfectly valid because the game gives you more than enough units including shinon who don't need babying, but that would be the case even if shinon didn't exist, and you had some non-archer with similar stats.

if anything, having two marksman is kind of a more the merrier kind of thing, especially if you put one of them in tibarn's team.

Part 3 gives you two silencers (3-4 and 3-F).
At the latest in part 4 you'll be happy to have both because both can use their own silencer.

When you get the silencer in 3-4, you can use the other sniper with killer bow.

In terms of growths both will be absolute equal by giving bexp.

I have used Rolf often enough in HM runs to confirm he'll become Shinon II. He only needs fast levels.

yep, unless you count vague katti as a stefan contribution

In term of average stats Stefan beats Lucia, but he never is really needed unlike her.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Eleanor Hume

[eclipse]

Rolf - While those growths are nice, they aren't going to kick in unless I feed him BEXP/kills, and when they don't kick in, he gets left behind. The only reason why he's getting a half-decent rating is because he gets his own bow. 4.5/10

Boyd - I'm sure he's a wonderful unit, but like Nepheenee, he's never turned out to be anything worth using (except that one time I really wanted the triangle attack, and I regretted it). 3.5/10

Oscar - He will sometimes cooperate, which results in lance machine on wheels. . .hooves. . .whatever. What usually happens is that Titania cleans up everything, and then he gets some nonsense like HP/Skill, which earns him a nice, solid boot. 5.5/10

Shinon - Provoke on a unit that can't retaliate at melee is weird. His bases allow him to keep up with everyone, which is a lot more than his student can say. Oddly enough, both he and Rolf want BEXP once they hit level 17 on average, but Shinon only needs four levels to get there, while Rolf needs 16, hence the higher rating for Shinon. 8.5/10

Gatrie - Good bases? Check. Great growths? Check. In a class that can't take advantage of those. . .check. If Gatrie was in a slightly more offense-oriented class (like, he swapped classes with Aran), he'd be unstoppable. Not that he's awful as-is, but I feel like he's got a lot of wasted potential. . .but out of the armors, he's got the most potential of them all. 7.5/10, with negative bias aimed at IS for making a great unit with awful caps

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Get hyped for rating the *cough* worst unit in this game tommorow.

I'm still unsure about some ratings:

• Edward might get a bit lower: from 7.5 to 7 because he's not as usable in part 3 as I wished to be.
• Leonardo... Idk. I think I overrestimate part 3 a little bit, but somehow he's appreciated in the DB since you don't have any real range units in part 3. I still find a 5 seems to be fair.
• Not sure about Shinon and Rolf yet. Giving Shinon the same rating as Ike is kinda unfair towards Ike because he has better 1-2 range weapon. However if I lower Shinon to 8.5 and give him the same rating as Titania and Volug, it'd be kinda unfair towards Shinon, because he's much better endgame material than Titania and Shinon. Alternatively I could give Ike a 9.5. This is what he absolutely deserves when he gets Ragnell, but not before...
• I have seriously issues to rate all the healers because they're so slow, but still so helpful. Giving Laura a 5 is a bit unfair because she's absolutely appreciated in part 3. In lower modes, however, you don't need her. As for Rhys he's not needed when you can't bring all your units. Your units are so strong that they don't even need a healer.
• I will definitely give Boyd not more than a 5 because he's more or less only a filler unit.

Will update eventual changes when the next voting starts.

Rolf - The only reason why he's getting a half-decent rating is because he gets his own bow. 4.5/10

Idk if it was some kind of joke. If so, then I'm too awkward to get it. Don't pay attention on my comment. :P


If not, he doesn't get a personal bow in FE10. Rolf's bow can be used by everyone in this game unlike in FE9.

And if you meant the silencer you get by the base conversation with Shinon in 3-E, same as with Rolf's bow.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Eleanor Hume

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

My voting changes:

Edward: From 7.5 to 7. Giving him the same rating as Nephenee seems to be fair.

Nolan: From 8 to 7.5 because he can be really screwed in HM, if his speed doesn't grow well.

Laura: From 5 to 5.5. Definitely more appreciated than Rhys so she deserves a better rating than him. But still worse than Micaiah.

Rafiel: From 8.5 to 9 to give Reyson a better rating.

Mia

Growthrates (%)

HP: 70

Strength: 45

Magic: 15

Skill: 60

Speed: 65

Luck: 35

Defense: 40

Resistance: 25

Skill: vantage

Affinity: fire

Mia is the easiest swordmaster to train because she comes with great bases and grwoths. She’s basically a hero with her good strength and defense growth.

The main reason why Mia is way easier to train than Edward is because of her higher evasion thanks to Ike’s authority stars. She’ll dodge quite a lot.

And with her good HP and defense growth she’ll be able to take more than one hit later on.

She’s a bit squishy in earlygame, but after a few levels she’ll turn into a beast.

The best contender for Alondite / Vague Katti.

8.5 / 10

Kyze

Growthrates (%):

HP: 85

Strength: 40

Magic: 5

Skill: 45

Speed: 35

Luck: 50

Defense: 40

Resistance: 15

Skill: quickclaw

Affinity: light

Seriously I never ever used this guy so I can’t say all that much.

After seeing his bases and growths I can say that he doesn’t really fulfill the purpose of his class. He’s a tiger with low strength but therefore decent speed.

You want a tanky and powerful tiger with Mordecai and not one similar to a cat. However a plus for him is that his transformation gauge falls slower than Lethe’s.

I think he’s not the worst unit, but he joins at a time and party you absolutely don’t need him.

3 / 10

Lyre

Growthrates (%)

HP: 50

Strength: 35

Magic: 10

Skill: 65

Speed: 70

Luck: 50

Defense: 20

Resistance: 30

Skill: -

Affinity: thunder

Lyre is the worst unit in FE10. She joins with abysmal bases for her level, is a cat and gets like no experience. So she has no potential to turn into something.

Honestly her only purpose is to use her as wall in 3-1.

PS: I watched someone’s rising her in 4-5 on normal mode by giving her paragon and letting her attack untransformed. She became actually decent, not great. It’s just a waste of time and effort…

1 / 10

Ranulf

Growthrates (%)

HP: 70

Strength: 30

Magic: 15

Skill: 40

Speed: 35

Luck: 55

Defense: 15

Resistance: 10

Affinity: wind

Skill: -

Ranulf is the best cat but it doesn’t say all that much.

In part 3 he’s excellent to weak the enemies. You can use him as wall since he’ll dodge most of the attacks. H

owever again: He’s a cat, so his transformation gauge goes down fast.

In part 4 when he’s not used anymore he can barely do anything. He can double most of the enemies, but if his strike level didn’t rise, he can do barely damage to them.

Furthermore he has no real potential because of his awful growths.

He’s great in part 3, but after that not anymore.

6 / 10

Reyson

Growthrates (%)

HP: 65

Strength: 5

Magic: 30

Skill: 20

Speed: 20

Luck: 60

Defense: 20

Resistance: 20

Skill: -

Affinity: fire

Reyson has the best mobility of all herons, but nontheless he’s only the second best heron because he needs to use laguz stone / gem to refresh four units. The reason why Rafiel is minimal better than Reyson.

He has the best bases and growths of all the herons. He’s the only one who doesn’t get doubled by everyone when he’s transformed.

9 / 10

Edited January 7, 2017 by Eleanor Hume

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Mia:

Best swordmaster in the game! Mia is simply the easiest to train, and the payoff is excellent! She dodges pretty much everything, and supporting her with Ike makes her even beastlier!

9/10

Kyze:

Second-worse laguz, but maaaaybe a tad bit better than Fiona?.

2.5/10

Lyre:

Oh hey a unit that may actually be worse than Fiona.

1/10

Ranulf:

Meh...he's one of the better laguz, but still not great. The royals annihilate him, and Mordecai has potential to be better. He's still useful enough and not all that bad, though.

6/10

Reyson:

Best heron, in my opinion. It really doesn't hurt you to use a gem to keep him transformed for maximum potential.

9/10

[Caster]

Mia - 9/10
I admit I'll give some bias, as I really like her, but she performs very well, and very easy to get her stats up with bexp.

Kyza - Mediocre, not the worst unit ever, not really useful at all, so.

3/10

Lyre - Just because I trained her in 4-5 out of memes doesn't mean she's gooood!

0.5/10

Ranulf - Useful when he comes in, falls off a bit later.

6.5/10

Reyson - One of the best herons with Rafiel, solid 9/10, very useful.

[Shadow Mir]

Lyre - 0/10. For starters, her bases suck for her level. Second, she's a laguz, with all the problems that entails. Third, she's a cat, the worst laguz class in the game, and probably the worst class in Radiant Dawn period. Fourth, you're forced to use Ranulf for whatever half-assed reason. It's as if IS went out of their way to make a joke character, and went above and beyond. FFS, her base attack is the same as that of freaking Mist! Worst unit in the game.

Ranulf - 3/10. He's the best cat, but with his "competition" being two of the worst units in the game, and cat being a godawful class, that ain't saying much. Unlike the other two, though, he actually has workable bases. Not that this makes up for him being a cat, or being mandatory deployment in Ike's part 3 chapters, because it doesn't.

Kyza -1/10. He's a tiger... whose stats fall more in line with what you'd expect a cat to have.

Reyson - 9/10. The best heron, between high mobility and the ability to refresh up to 4 units when transformed. For what it's worth, he's also durable enough to occasionally survive getting attacked.

Mia -7.5/10. The easiest to work with of the swordmasters, and able to double enemies other units can't, but her start is not so hot.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Dark Holy Elf]

Mia: 7.5/10. She doubles things that most people don't, which is nice, and her Str isn't bad either. Thanks to being on a path with authority she can get reasonably dodgy if she can snag Ike or Oscar for support. Suffers from comparison to the strongest Greil Mercs, though; her str/durability aren't so hot out of the gate and she doesn't have canto or forgeable 1-2.

Kyza: 2/10. Decidedly mediocre, with only 22 speed and not-so-hot other stats. He's worse than Lethe or Mordecai in Part 3, and doesn't have their Part 2.

Lyre: 1/10. Not even that fast at base, and her other stats are wretched. Cat gauge remains overhated but even if she had a dragon gauge she'd be worthless, though at least the "+4 Str from Energy Drops" would be worth more then...

Ranulf: 6.5/10. He's got great stats (Mia but with much better str/def/HP) but has the usual laguz drawbacks of a gauge to watch and no 2 range. He has Mordecai's Str with ridiculously more speed, so even if you spend the odd extra turn on grass he has more offence. One neat thing you can do with him that not everyone seems to know about is that he (along with Janaff and Ulki) are great choices for Blossom since they barely gain combat exp anyway; just BExp them to 90+ when you have some to spare and watch them get excellent levels.

Reyson: 9.5/10. The best heron IMO, he can fly and refresh four people when you really need him to (laguz stones exist), and is generally super-mobile when transformed. He can also occasionally survive hits the others can't, so that's something.

[Radiant head]

mia- by far the most impressive swordmaster in the game, though zihark is arguably the most valuable. has a frustrating start, but it's not any worse than the rest of the mercs, who either can't double or can't 2hko with the exceptions of ike. once the merchants come she's on fire. steel forge or even a blade fixed her str base, and her high spd/skl also means her str will fix itself fairly quickly and she's an unhittable monster and Ike's best support partner. her limitations are like ike's in that no mount and axelocked so giving her the same rating 9/10

kyza - ehhh he's ok actually. better gauge than the other three cats on the current poll, but he needs speed that's not coming naturally. if he gets it he's one of the best laguz but really not much incentive for that. 5/10

lyre - lol literally nothing good about her. the usual laguz limitations with no potential whatsoever. 1/10

ranulf - gauge is the only thing keeping him from being flawless, but it's a pretty massive thing. resolve will make him ok as an untransformed unit but that's a contested scroll. pretty great endgame unit with rend and laguz stones. 7/10

reyson- awesome. transformed he's the best "dancer" in the series. part 3 maps make it easy to keep him safe which means he'll contribute a ton. neck to neck with rafiel as far as who the best endgame unit is. 9/10

[Samias]

Mia: A bit fragile to start but her speed and her offensive prowess is not to be underestimated. She's able to absolutely decimate virtually any non-general, especially with Adept given to her. Thankfully her speed gives her a standout presense in the GMs. She could use a little more strength in the beginning but honestly, she deletes people by the end and is the easiest swordmaster to train who has meaningful availability. There are so many SS rank swords so she even gets to pick between Vague Katti and Alondite to bless.

Kyza: A tiger without tiger stats. That could be OK, but he's also underleveled and his bases are overall too poor to really contribute by the time he joins. He can hit a few things for OK damage and not die instantly but he's just not setting the world on fire. Considering he also has to deal with gauge yet doesn't actually do anything meaningful during it, he's pretty bad.

Lyre: Mist tier offense, except she can't even use a staff. Has to contend with cat gauge. Astrid, Fiona and Meg are positively godly in comparison.

Ranulf: Actually has great bases and he's forced, only his gauge is annoying to deal with for how fast it depletes. Still, he pulls his weight and takes big chunks out of the enemy forces when he can mobilize. 28 str and 30 speed while transformed is incredibly powerful. His other major downfall is lack of 2 range and that he starts at A strike, which is pretty bad for cats, but Ranulf is good enough to deal with it.

Reyson: The most mobile refresher and the best one when the maps are wide open affairs thanks to canto and having the longest movement of the herons. He's also the most durable, though you still really don't want to expose your herons to danger ever. He's the best refresher for most of the game, and an extremely good choice for all situations where he's available.

[eclipse]

That bow has Rolf's name on it, so it's his bow.

Ahem. . .

Mia - I think she's overhyped. Is she fast and dodgy? Totally. Is 17 Strength acceptable as a starting unit? I sure as hell didn't give Rolf any leeway on his start, and I sure as hell ain't giving Mia any, either. She'll definitely be fast, and she'll be fairly accurate (well. . .better than Ike with Wind Edges, assuming she does damage to the enemy), but if she can't deal enough damage to matter, or have the physical durability to attempt some EP tanking so her growths can kick in, she's out of luck (and no, she doesn't get BEXP just to make her not suck, I'd rather give it to Rolf). She's a lot better with transfers, though. 6/10, with negative bias because she's literally in the same boat as Zihark, except he showed up in Part 1

Kyza - It's another tiger! But he doesn't have Smite. His growths are surprisingly even for a tiger, but that's assuming that he can do anything to the enemies! 2.5/10

Lyre - Her bases depress me. Her growths remind me of Nepheenee. Difference is that Neph doesn't have to deal with cat gauge. 1/10

Ranulf - With bases like those, who needs growths? Being the best cat isn't something worth bragging about, but he's required, and unlike the ladies, he can handle himself if he's out of gauge. He's not quite Volug in terms of breaking the game, but he shows that cats aren't totally garbage. 7/10 with bias because he's one of my favorite characters.

Reyson - He's got the dubious title of being the physically bulkiest of the herons, as well as the fastest. He flies when transformed, and his singing pattern behaves exactly like it did in PoR. He won't do quite as much damage with magic cards as his siblings, but that's not his job. He refreshes people, and he does it very well! 9.5/10

[ping]

Mia - I don't really see how she's better than Zihark. At jointime, she's a good unit among many other good units, while Zihark is good unit among scrubs. Well, not only scrubs, but he's still one of the best combat units in the DB. And when endgame rolls in, Zihark is arguably still slightly better thanks to his caps (+1 Str, +5 HP vs. +5 Lck). Don't get me wrong, Mia is by no means a bad unit, but she isn't exceptional, either. 7/10

Kyza - Unexpected growths for a tiger, but that not necessarily a bad thing. But neither his base stats nor his caps are that impressive (30 speed when transformed is a bummer), so there isn't really a point in the game where he can perform better than just average. He's usable, sure, but that's about it. 2/10

Lyre - terrible. She's worse than Lethe and she joins at a point where Lethe herself isn't good anymore, too. I think I'll actually give her a lower score than Fiona and Meg, even though I suppose it's easier to feed Lyre some XP than Fiona and Meg. 0.5/10

Ranulf - amazing base stats, even though A strike at this point of the game is rather underwhelming. I haven't tried if it's feasible to grind him up to SS, but even if it isn't, he's still decent enough to field, just not really prime tower material. 6/10

Reyson - I prefer Rafiel for the tower, so I probably would rather have Rafiel before that too, if I had a choice. I just prefer the quadruple refresh on turn one to Reyson's better transformed mobility (and defenses, I guess). Still, I'll go with the same score for both herons, because I can definitely Reyson's appeal, too. 9/10

[Amiratasiru]

Mia - 10/10. All of my playthroughs she caps all of the important stats and then some. Give her Alondite and she just straight wrecks shit in the final stages kind of close to the royal laguz, except she doesn't have any elemental or physical weaknesses. For her class, she does everything she needs to.

Kyza - 5/10 (I accidentally rated him 7, could that be fixed?). He's alright if you put some effort into him. In the long run, better than Mordecai imo but only if you're willing to put the effort in. You get plenty of olivi grass from the point he is recruited onward so you can manage that issue.

Lyre - 6/10 (Same applies to what I did with Kyza but I rated her 6.5). Some people seem to have a word or two to say about her, eh? I'd certainly not bring her in endgame but in the long run she'll out-do Ranulf from my experience. She needs to be babysat a little to get enough exp sure, but if you're willing to she can get pretty strong. Like Kyza, she's one of the only laguz in RD that has human-tier growths.

Ranulf - 7/10. He's still better than Lyre for the obvious reason that he starts out stronger. However, his growths are a little worse, just easier to work with so it'll pass. IMO he's still not as useful as say Volug in the chapters he's required or available and unlike him, it'll take a huge amount of effort to attain SS strike.

Reyson - 6/10. I'm not really a heron tribe user so my opinion isn't the best. Out of all of them, I'd say Reyson is best for the endgame and the easiest to use, but Rafiel has more potential because of his improved galdr. I still use him over Rafiel but like I said I've never really been that good at making proper use of the heron tribe.

I might change my opinions later cause I feel I'm being a tad lazy about these ratings.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Rhayader

[Shadow Mir]

Mia - 10/10. All of my playthroughs she caps all of the important stats and then some. Give her Alondite and she just straight wrecks shit in the final stages kind of close to the royal laguz, except she doesn't have any elemental or physical weaknesses. For her class, she does everything she needs to.

Kyza - 5/10 (I accidentally rated him 7, could that be fixed?). He's alright if you put some effort into him. In the long run, better than Mordecai imo but only if you're willing to put the effort in. You get plenty of olivi grass from the point he is recruited onward so you can manage that issue.

Lyre - 6/10 (Same applies to what I did with Kyza but I rated her 6.5). Some people seem to have a word or two to say about her, eh? I'd certainly not bring her in endgame but in the long run she'll out-do Ranulf from my experience. She needs to be babysat a little to get enough exp sure, but if you're willing to she can get pretty strong. Like Kyza, she's one of the only laguz in RD that has human-tier growths.

Ranulf - 7/10. He's still better than Lyre for the obvious reason that he starts out stronger. However, his growths are a little worse, just easier to work with so it'll pass. IMO he's still not as useful as say Volug in the chapters he's required or available and unlike him, it'll take a huge amount of effort to attain SS strike.

Reyson - 6/10. I'm not really a heron tribe user so my opinion isn't the best. Out of all of them, I'd say Reyson is best for the endgame and the easiest to use, but Rafiel has more potential because of his improved galdr. I still use him over Rafiel but like I said I've never really been that good at making proper use of the heron tribe.

I might change my opinions later cause I feel I'm being a tad lazy about these ratings.

I don't know what this stuff about Kyza and Lyre having human-tier growths is, but even if it were true, which it isn't, with their leveling speed, they'd still take boatloads of effort to make usable. Also, Olivi grass is pretty expensive... And I ain't seeing what's with that comment about Ranulf needing a huge amount of effort to attain SS strike while Volug won't. Edited January 4, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Kyza - 5/10 (I accidentally rated him 7, could that be fixed?)

Sure, I can.

However you could fix it for yourself too by deleting your vote at bottom of the poll and enter all your votes in the poll again.

[Anacybele]

Mia - Wow is she bad. She wasn't great in PoR either, but she's just bad here and doesn't even really have much use when you already have Ike on the same team and you can later add Zihark by having the laguz talk to him. Mia is just weak and all she has going for her is speed. She's fragile, lowish level, and doesn't have much strength. I might also have some bad luck with her, but in none of my playthroughs has she proven any use. If it wasn't for Lucia, she'd easily be the worst swordmaster in this game. I'd rather give Alondite to Zihark if I wanted to give it to someone (I usually don't because I never bring Swordmasters/Trueblades to the endgame. I actually don't think any of them, even Zihark, are particularly useful for it because of their low def and res). 3/10

Kyza: It's Kyza, not Kyze, people... Kyza is the worst tiger in the game. For a tiger, he's surprisingly weak. :/ I just could not use him over Mordecai and even Muarim is a little better when you finally get him back. He has some durability like all tigers though. 4/10

Lyre: I wanted to use her so bad. I like Lyre more than her sister and her arguments with Kyza are amusing. But she's. so. weak. Why is she so much weaker than her sister? She can't even damage some units at all. She has some speed though, I have to admit. 2/10

Ranulf: The laguz nerf hurts him as much as it hurts any laguz in this game, but Ranulf is the best non-royal laguz in the game anyway. He's strong, fast, and comes in at a good level. It's not hard to get him to be able to use the Satori Sign either. 8/10

Reyson: Like his brother and sister, he has nothing going for him but refreshing units. Can't fight, is super fragile and not fast. 1/10

Edited January 4, 2017 by Anacybele

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

How are Mia's bases bad exactly?

17 strength and 13 defense are worse than some of GM's, sure, but therefore she's one of the lower leveled units.

For comparison: Oscar has only three strength more than her for being five levels higher.

As for a swordmaster she has a pretty good defense growth - the highest of all myrmidons / swordmasters - and 45% strength growth isn't too bad either.

Swordmasters / trueblades aren't known to have a high defense / resistance (btw Mia always caps defense) but for their evasion.

I have to admit she's not too great in the first two maps because of her equipment. She can only oneround sages with the steel sword. Otherwise she needs a crit.

But at the point when you can buy steel blades and forge, then she'll deal pretty good damage.

Bringing Ranulf to level 30 is only really managable in easy mode because in higher difficulties he doesn't gain serious experience.

Even if you give him all the bosskills in part 3, it wouldn't be enough.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Eleanor Hume

[Anacybele]

I never said her bases were bad. I said she's a bad unit overall.

I never liked Oscar's strength in this game either, btw.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Anacybele