Starting Radiant Dawn... again!

[Dark Holy Elf]

5 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

The best advice you can give to a new RD player is to skip Paladins, they're trash between trash.

This is awful advice. Titania is one of the very best units in the game. You talk about her def growth being poor but her base is good and female units get a higher def boost on promotion for some reason, so it's not as if she lacks defensively. In fact thanks to actually having res and luck on top of her solid def she's one of the most reliable frontliners of the Greil Mercs.

[mangasdeouf]

Why are the paladins trash? Let's recap this game from part 3:

Spoiler

Greil mercenaries don't need any paladin. Why? 1st map, in 3-4 turns you have finished it, the Laguz will stomp with their no brain rush that takes 1 hour. Chapter 1, just use all you need to clear the map in the time count.

Chapter 2, if I remind correctly you already have your part 2 characters back, Haar to the right side (alone OFC, just make him a Dragon Lord and he will clean all the right part of the map without any help, because Haar is a cheat) and you need a frontline with few mobility to taunt ennemies for Heather to steal all you want to steal. Titania won't double most of the ennemies, neither will she tank too much (just put Ike or Gatrie he'll do it much better). Taunt the boss with Gatrie and bring him out of range for him not to be able to attack other GMs. Then steal all you want and finish the boss.

Chapter 3, Haar takes Heather inside the camp turn 1, the others stomp it, absolutely no need for a paladin.

Chapter 4, paladins can't climb, GG you wasted all your Exp points on useless units for one whole chapter.

Chapter 5, just defend, there's no need to go all in, the chapter can be finished with only static units + Haar to go for the kill where you can get useful items, nothing really important to steal. Avoid mages with Haar, they hit hard (or benefit from the height of the castle to defend then rush to the boss, avoid is easier when higher than your opponent).

Chapter 3-7 Haar takes the river side, GMs through the swamp, paladins hardly move. Useless paladins again, 2 full chapters without any use for them, it's starting to be a lot.

3-8, doesn't matter who you play, just avoid the lava. I don't know if paladins loose movement or not since it is an inside location like prison and castle.

3-9 Marcia is the only viable unit here, paladins are slowed like hell by the grass everywhere and can't climb, Calill is too squishy to survive if let alone on a part of the level (ORKO or 2RKO). Use the paladins to stop the fire and block the soldiers, that's about it. Danved is bad anyway so don't use him at all.

3-10 finally a chapter where paladins can be used. But they aren't needed either (I never use them and I don't have any difficulties cleaning those chapters).

3-11 overuse flying units, use Haar to kill the anti-pegasus and pegasus/birds to kill the mages. Protect your fragile units (defence guys can also be injured, there are lots of mages). Paladins are totally useless and vulnerable on this unstable bridge, if they fall they can be ORKO because of their low bulk compared with more solid units like generals (who have both def AND res).

3-E you can use paladins if you want, even if they're absolutely not needed, just kill veryone untill the chapter ends. You will have to bring the count to 70 or more (maybe 80 I can't remember exactly).

4-P paladins can be useful on the upper side (but not as much as flying units who can rush through the trees).

4-1 stand still most of the chapter, you must defend until no more ennemies come then rush with Ike to the boss and rout. So paladins are outshone by generals and other tanks (real tanks, not fake ones with less than 20% chance to activate a draining skill on normal biorythm to recover from the insane injuries they have taken if they were beside a tankier unit, especially on harder modes).

4-2 paladins are useless, there's grass everywhere, just use flying units and foot units.

4-3 desert>paladins can barely move, send the flying units to do all the chapter.

4-4 inside a castle>paladins loose 2 movement, foot units have better caps nearly everywhere (depending on their class) so paladins are outshone.

4-5 swamp, paladins can't even move.

4-E-1 little map and inside

4-E-2 same

4-E-3 same

4-E-4 if paladins have all their movement they're useful to rush the boss, if not they're completely useless (in this case foot/flying units are more useful because of their better stats).

4-E-Final paladins are totally useless. Use Nihil wielders, because the damage reflection is really awful.

Part 3 Dawn's Brigade chapters are swamp and then defence (so stand still) chapters, most of them restricting to suppressing paladin's movement, and AGAIN paladins's caps are trash (same speed as generals, less def less res, less strength, well, only 1-3 more movement depending on the map, not even useful here).

[mangasdeouf]

Now for Nephenee: good unit for endgame in easy mode. Why dis I tell she was bad? Because on normal mode+, there are more ennemies, and they have more accuracy AND more damage, so she won't be able to avoid everything, especially when her biorythm is low. So she will be KOed in 1 or 2 turns even with all her stats capped (and it would be amazing if she capped her strength and def naturally, and BEXP isn't inifnite so don't tell me you can use BEXP, everyone can be levelled up with BEXP but there is a limit to how much you can get, especially if you want to use units who need all the exp they can get from every chapter they're in).

Generals are slow (speed and movement) but they have chapters where you can hardly keep everyone alive without them on frontline (especially on defence chapters) on normal and harder modes (OFC on easy mode you can keep Laura alive lv1 with an A-earth support in the middle of the battlefield).

Reavers are wasted potential IMO, I rarely use them past the 1st chapters (or part 3 for Nolan since he's still 1 of the tanks we get and tanks are absolutely needed in the 3rd part for the Dawn's Brigade). Their skill is so basic, even Marshalls who are supposed to be tanks have a way better skill, with the same activation rate and much more hit absorption. But outside from TSS, I rarely like warriors in Fire Emblem (so much wasted potential here...). And even in TSS there are berserkers so why bother using warriors? Except for roleplay...

Dragonlords rule, that's it, nothing to add for them.

Laguz are absolutely optionnal (sadly) but if you want one who is always useful, bring Ulki. His skill is god-tier for avoid even in human form, plus he will hardly get double in human form.

Mages can be useful, but, sincerely, you can finish the game without using any. They're completely optionnal. Like healers (but at least healers are useful and Elincia and Micayah can count as healers).

Dragons: Kurth has immense potential, but you need to grind to see his stats reach acceptable levels (especially speed). The other dragons are a waste of Exp. You can still use white dragons with spectre cards, but well...why would you do that in the 1st place?

Herons: strategical units, I personnally nearly never used any and I've been fine through tens of playthroughs.

Trueblades: Lucia is the worst, Stephan is probably coming too late to use him at full potential (and he lacks too much luck without bonus exp if you don't have god's luck on level ups, but woth the blessing it's fine I think). All of the others can be useful, Mia having good growths in hp, strength, skill, speed and def, Zihark having high speed skill and a good affinity and Edward having the highest growth potential since you get him so early with the lowest starting class (he benefits from 2 class changes stats boosts and often reaches Zihark's level with more hp, strength, def and luck if I remember). Alondite on them and enjoy. Or blessed killer sword, 50+ crit rate, enjoy 1RKO ANYTHING (except dragons)

Nihil: The best skill for the Tower of Guidance, ensure using people with it against endgame bosses (especially the annoying Sentinel in 4-E-2 if you don't want to get impaled). I lost a character in my last easy mode playthrough because of Impale (even though he had low chance to activate it and not much damage on a normal hit either).

 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

7 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Now for Nephenee: good unit for endgame in easy mode. Why dis I tell she was bad? Because on normal mode+, there are more ennemies, and they have more accuracy AND more damage, so she won't be able to avoid everything, especially when her biorythm is low. So she will be KOed in 1 or 2 turns even with all her stats capped (and it would be amazing if she capped her strength and def naturally, and BEXP isn't inifnite so don't tell me you can use BEXP, everyone can be levelled up with BEXP but there is a limit to how much you can get, especially if you want to use units who need all the exp they can get from every chapter they're in).
Nephenee is good in endgame in all modes. She has the magical 34 speed cap which allows her to double the auras. She can technically double everything aside of the swordmasters in E-2.
She's only bad in 2-1 in normal / hard mode without strength and speed boost because her steel great lance weighs her down.
She caps speed, skill and res fast so you can use the bexp. to improve her strength. She doesn't need too much of exp. normally.
 

Generals are slow (speed and movement) but they have chapters where you can hardly keep everyone alive without them on frontline (especially on defence chapters) on normal and harder modes (OFC on easy mode you can keep Laura alive lv1 with an A-earth support in the middle of the battlefield).
Brom is the only general who fits to this example in part 2 mainly to save Nephenee's ass in 2-1.
Meg has no base speed, will get doubled by tigers in HM and the GM's have enough other tanky units like Ike or even Shinon.

Reavers are wasted potential IMO, I rarely use them past the 1st chapters (or part 3 for Nolan since he's still 1 of the tanks we get and tanks are absolutely needed in the 3rd part for the Dawn's Brigade). Their skill is so basic, even Marshalls who are supposed to be tanks have a way better skill, with the same activation rate and much more hit absorption. But outside from TSS, I rarely like warriors in Fire Emblem (so much wasted potential here...). And even in TSS there are berserkers so why bother using warriors? Except for roleplay...
Honestly Nolan and Boyd are kinda weird.
Boyd is the classical fighter with high HP and strength growth but his speed growth and especially base speed leave to be desired. He can hardly double through the entire game, swordmasters will usually double him. He's your worst axe user of the GM's.
Nolan on the other hand is like a myrm with excellent skill and speed (same speed growth as Edward) but bad strength. It's actually really hard to cap his strength with bexp. And it's also hard to give him levels since he's member of the DB. However if you can level him, he'll become a great dodgetank. Earth affinity + high speed growth is sexy for the endgame. I will agree in this point that you need neither because dragonlords are the best axe users. 

 

Dragons: Kurth has immense potential, but you need to grind to see his stats reach acceptable levels (especially speed). The other dragons are a waste of Exp. You can still use white dragons with spectre cards, but well...why would you do that in the 1st place?
Yeah, the dragons only fulfill the purpose as support. Kurth, if you don't train him, is the least useful one because you never really need a defense boost.
 

Trueblades: Lucia is the worst, Stephan is probably coming too late to use him at full potential (and he lacks too much luck without bonus exp if you don't have god's luck on level ups, but woth the blessing it's fine I think). All of the others can be useful, Mia having good growths in hp, strength, skill, speed and def, Zihark having high speed skill and a good affinity and Edward having the highest growth potential since you get him so early with the lowest starting class (he benefits from 2 class changes stats boosts and often reaches Zihark's level with more hp, strength, def and luck if I remember). Alondite on them and enjoy. Or blessed killer sword, 50+ crit rate, enjoy 1RKO ANYTHING (except dragons)
Each trueblade is usable except for Lucia.
Edward is kinda hard to train.
Stefan joins late but his bases and growths are absolutely fine for the endgame.
Mia is like a merc with good strength and defense growth. It's hard to fail with her since she's member of the party where's the easiest to get trained.
Zihark is more the classical myrm with high skill and speed but only mediocre strength and bad defense growth. Therefore his res is good. He also has adept and earth-affinity which make him automatically useful.

It's recommended to bring two sword locked users to the endgame. You'll see why.
Blessing weak weapons is a bad idea.
Only bless SS or forged weapons.

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by はたの 秦 こころ

[Shadow Mir]

10 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Why are the paladins trash? Let's recap this game from part 3:

  Hide contents

Greil mercenaries don't need any paladin. Why? 1st map, in 3-4 turns you have finished it, the Laguz will stomp with their no brain rush that takes 1 hour. Chapter 1, just use all you need to clear the map in the time count.

Chapter 2, if I remind correctly you already have your part 2 characters back, Haar to the right side (alone OFC, just make him a Dragon Lord and he will clean all the right part of the map without any help, because Haar is a cheat) and you need a frontline with few mobility to taunt ennemies for Heather to steal all you want to steal. Titania won't double most of the ennemies, neither will she tank too much (just put Ike or Gatrie he'll do it much better). Taunt the boss with Gatrie and bring him out of range for him not to be able to attack other GMs. Then steal all you want and finish the boss.

Chapter 3, Haar takes Heather inside the camp turn 1, the others stomp it, absolutely no need for a paladin.

Chapter 4, paladins can't climb, GG you wasted all your Exp points on useless units for one whole chapter.

Chapter 5, just defend, there's no need to go all in, the chapter can be finished with only static units + Haar to go for the kill where you can get useful items, nothing really important to steal. Avoid mages with Haar, they hit hard (or benefit from the height of the castle to defend then rush to the boss, avoid is easier when higher than your opponent).

Chapter 3-7 Haar takes the river side, GMs through the swamp, paladins hardly move. Useless paladins again, 2 full chapters without any use for them, it's starting to be a lot.

3-8, doesn't matter who you play, just avoid the lava. I don't know if paladins loose movement or not since it is an inside location like prison and castle.

3-9 Marcia is the only viable unit here, paladins are slowed like hell by the grass everywhere and can't climb, Calill is too squishy to survive if let alone on a part of the level (ORKO or 2RKO). Use the paladins to stop the fire and block the soldiers, that's about it. Danved is bad anyway so don't use him at all.

3-10 finally a chapter where paladins can be used. But they aren't needed either (I never use them and I don't have any difficulties cleaning those chapters).

3-11 overuse flying units, use Haar to kill the anti-pegasus and pegasus/birds to kill the mages. Protect your fragile units (defence guys can also be injured, there are lots of mages). Paladins are totally useless and vulnerable on this unstable bridge, if they fall they can be ORKO because of their low bulk compared with more solid units like generals (who have both def AND res).

3-E you can use paladins if you want, even if they're absolutely not needed, just kill veryone untill the chapter ends. You will have to bring the count to 70 or more (maybe 80 I can't remember exactly).

4-P paladins can be useful on the upper side (but not as much as flying units who can rush through the trees).

4-1 stand still most of the chapter, you must defend until no more ennemies come then rush with Ike to the boss and rout. So paladins are outshone by generals and other tanks (real tanks, not fake ones with less than 20% chance to activate a draining skill on normal biorythm to recover from the insane injuries they have taken if they were beside a tankier unit, especially on harder modes).

4-2 paladins are useless, there's grass everywhere, just use flying units and foot units.

4-3 desert>paladins can barely move, send the flying units to do all the chapter.

4-4 inside a castle>paladins loose 2 movement, foot units have better caps nearly everywhere (depending on their class) so paladins are outshone.

4-5 swamp, paladins can't even move.

4-E-1 little map and inside

4-E-2 same

4-E-3 same

4-E-4 if paladins have all their movement they're useful to rush the boss, if not they're completely useless (in this case foot/flying units are more useful because of their better stats).

4-E-Final paladins are totally useless. Use Nihil wielders, because the damage reflection is really awful.

Part 3 Dawn's Brigade chapters are swamp and then defence (so stand still) chapters, most of them restricting to suppressing paladin's movement, and AGAIN paladins's caps are trash (same speed as generals, less def less res, less strength, well, only 1-3 more movement depending on the map, not even useful here).

3-P: You mean the laguz rush that needs support because a mission critical NPC is among them? Because Ranulf's dead meat if he reverts and anyone gets to him. Also, this so-called "3-4 turn map" is more like double that because the NPCs have some of the most braindead AI in the series.

3-2: Unless you're playing on easy mode, there's no way in hell Haar could possibly be a Dragonlord in 3-2, given that he only has two maps, and both of them have him with a massive level advantage over the enemy, thus limiting his exp gain.

3-3: Haar can't be everywhere at once. This should go without saying.

3-4: Last I checked, Paladins are actually capable of contributing until the end portion.

3-5: I don't know what universe you live in where the Energy Drop held by the boss is "nothing really important to steal". 

3-7: They can't cross the water, sure, but they can still help with the opening rush.

3-8: Rout.

3-9: The only grass there is is in between two houses, and you're better off not going that route anyway.

3-10: A very good stage for paladins because the AI is just braindead.

3-11: I don't know what game you're playing where paladins get ORKOed, because I don't have it.

3-E: You need 80 kills before you can move on.

4-P: They might be useful here, but I'd generally send my paladins to Ike or Tibarn for reasons.

4-1: You only have two Generals that can qualify as "real tanks" - Gatrie and Brom. Needless to say, they can't be everywhere at once.

4-2: There are only so many fliers to go around, especially since Micaiah might have a greater demand for fliers.

4-3: They're pretty much useless here, and thus this is why I'd send them to Ike or Tibarn instead.

4-4: Sure, they might not be able to climb ledges, but this is a rout, and one of the spawn points for enemies happens to be on the route horses are forced to take anyway. Also, I fail to see what's with the mention of caps, because I wouldn't expect them to become relevant until very late, if at all.

4-5: They can go through the reeds.

4-E-1: Paladins don't lose movement in 4-Endgame.

4-E-2: See above. Also, Canto allows them to strike at enemies and then go back to a defensive formation.

4-E-3: See above. 

4-E-4: See above. 

4-E-5: How about one last shoutout for Canto, which allows multiple attackers to benefit from the dragons' support abilities?

10 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Now for Nephenee: good unit for endgame in easy mode. Why dis I tell she was bad? Because on normal mode+, there are more ennemies, and they have more accuracy AND more damage, so she won't be able to avoid everything, especially when her biorythm is low. So she will be KOed in 1 or 2 turns even with all her stats capped (and it would be amazing if she capped her strength and def naturally, and BEXP isn't inifnite so don't tell me you can use BEXP, everyone can be levelled up with BEXP but there is a limit to how much you can get, especially if you want to use units who need all the exp they can get from every chapter they're in).

Generals are slow (speed and movement) but they have chapters where you can hardly keep everyone alive without them on frontline (especially on defence chapters) on normal and harder modes (OFC on easy mode you can keep Laura alive lv1 with an A-earth support in the middle of the battlefield).

Reavers are wasted potential IMO, I rarely use them past the 1st chapters (or part 3 for Nolan since he's still 1 of the tanks we get and tanks are absolutely needed in the 3rd part for the Dawn's Brigade). Their skill is so basic, even Marshalls who are supposed to be tanks have a way better skill, with the same activation rate and much more hit absorption. But outside from TSS, I rarely like warriors in Fire Emblem (so much wasted potential here...). And even in TSS there are berserkers so why bother using warriors? Except for roleplay...

Dragonlords rule, that's it, nothing to add for them.

Laguz are absolutely optionnal (sadly) but if you want one who is always useful, bring Ulki. His skill is god-tier for avoid even in human form, plus he will hardly get double in human form.

Mages can be useful, but, sincerely, you can finish the game without using any. They're completely optionnal. Like healers (but at least healers are useful and Elincia and Micayah can count as healers).

Dragons: Kurth has immense potential, but you need to grind to see his stats reach acceptable levels (especially speed). The other dragons are a waste of Exp. You can still use white dragons with spectre cards, but well...why would you do that in the 1st place?

Herons: strategical units, I personnally nearly never used any and I've been fine through tens of playthroughs.

Trueblades: Lucia is the worst, Stephan is probably coming too late to use him at full potential (and he lacks too much luck without bonus exp if you don't have god's luck on level ups, but woth the blessing it's fine I think). All of the others can be useful, Mia having good growths in hp, strength, skill, speed and def, Zihark having high speed skill and a good affinity and Edward having the highest growth potential since you get him so early with the lowest starting class (he benefits from 2 class changes stats boosts and often reaches Zihark's level with more hp, strength, def and luck if I remember). Alondite on them and enjoy. Or blessed killer sword, 50+ crit rate, enjoy 1RKO ANYTHING (except dragons)

Nihil: The best skill for the Tower of Guidance, ensure using people with it against endgame bosses (especially the annoying Sentinel in 4-E-2 if you don't want to get impaled). I lost a character in my last easy mode playthrough because of Impale (even though he had low chance to activate it and not much damage on a normal hit either).

 

You make it sound like enemies take 1001 levels in badass in Normal mode. Which just isn't the case. Also, BEXP can be used on capped characters to improve their weaker stats. And about the only thing that can 2HKO a capped Nephenee is... Dheginsea. Who's only one unit in the entire game.

I don't know how you can make such obvious BS statements like "you can leave level 1 Laura with an earth support on the middle of the battlefield and she'll survive" with such a straight face. What do you think this is, Sacred Stones? FFS, this is the same FE game people complained about being hard on easy mode years ago. Anyways, Brom and Gatrie are the only Generals who can claim to be these iron walls - Tauroneo starts to falter when he comes back for part 3, and he isn't looking so good any more in part 4, and lol Meg.

I generally see Nolan as useful; Boyd, not so much. Anyways, I don't really see what about Marshalls makes their skill better when (like is the case with pretty much every other mastery) it's practically a Lethality copypasta. And going back to Sacred Stones, the one Berserker you get isn't very good, and there's only one Ocean Seal, which the one thief you get also happens to need to promote, I case you want to make Ross one.

Haar starts to falter in endgame (he also can have speed issues), and Jill needs to grow.

Most non-royal laguz aren't very good, tbf - the hawks, Skrimir, and Mordecai, to an extent, are the only good ones, pretty much. Though that last one wouldn't be very good in the tower.

As for mages, they're not as good as they were in prior titles, but I like using them anyways just because. Special mention to Ilyana, whose SS tome is effective against the nastiest boss in the game.

Dragons are largely support units. Nasir in particular has a very good skill (White Pool). Also, spectre cards are useless, especially at that point, since Nasir's breath outdamages them.

Not much to say about herons.

I really don't see why you recommend blessing a Killing Edge, which is a pathetic weapon (only 8 Mt, and no, the high crit doesn't make up for it, especially in this game, thanks to sky high enemy luck; as an extra nail in the coffin, the final bosses, the ones you need blessed weapons for, negate critical hits anyway). That's terrible "advice" if I can even call it that, which I can't because it's just that awful. Anyways, I don't see Edward as all that useful because Zihark joins up early and outclasses him handily, putting him in a corner VERY early.

Nihil's good against the final bosses, sure. But why in the seven hells would you engage Levail, who's on a cover tile, at 1-range, where his skill can activate???

Edited July 7, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Xanaxian]

Seeing as I just played through the game once again, here's my two cents. Feel free to disagree:

You really could do worse than Micaiah, both character-wise and stat-wise.

Nolan and Boyd are about even for me, with the former being more balanced. 

Don't bother with Laura, Meg, or Fiona. The latter two should go without saying.

Gatrie is probably the better marshall out there, since his speed usually seems to be somewhat passable once the endgame rolls around. I agree with the low usefulness of Tauroneo, and I haven't really cared to use Brom. 

Mounted units. Titania, Oscar, Kieran, and Geoffrey have all been pretty good for me, as has Makalov. Astrid's not that great and Fiona is garbage. 

Nephenee... hoo boy. I know the consensus seems to be to not use her, but she's honestly pretty incredible if you want a sentinel that functions more like a trueblade. She's solid on normal mode, though you'll need to be sure she can avoid more than she can tank, since she doesn't do the latter very well. That being said, I have had a defense-blessed Neph to great results. Moreover, she comes with Wrath straight out of the box, which is a useful failsafe if she's ever out of healing range. Sadly, Vantage + Wrath isn't quite what it was in Path of Radiance, since the former skill procs at a percentage equal to your speed stat. This roughly translates to one in three fights where Neph is defending as opposed to all the time. Aran's good, but his speed causes him far too many issues near the endgame. Haven't used Danved.

Speaking of trueblades, Zihark and Mia have given me the best results. Lucia is trash, Edward's too glass cannon-y for my taste. His speed doesn't come through as well, either. Stefan's alright but that luck really hurts him, plus his availability is low. 

Haar's an aerial warship. Slow, but bulky. He's usable in the endgame, but Jill will trounce him in speed, and speed is useful to have in the Tower.

I would say that Soren is objectively the best archsage, but personal bias usually has me using Ilyana. She's incredibly useful against the dragon laguz in the Tower. Tormod is only decent in Part 1, but when you get him back in Part 4 he's so vastly underleveled that it's not worth trying to salvage him at all. I don't typically use Calill. Bastian is lulz bad and should change his name to Badstian. 

I agree with the above on laguz. The royals, Skrimir, maybe Mordecai. I've had a pretty solid run with Ranulf too but that's about it. The hawks are very hit or miss for me. Mordy's a total tank, but that speed is torturous. 

A personal intrigue of mine is to use at least one marksman even though they suffer from can't-retaliate-while-defending syndrome and don't have the best stats or class skill. Nevertheless, I like their offensive capability - being able to attack from three spaces away essentially gives you a free kill (stats permitting) unless the foe is using a longbow. Shinon is definitely the best marksman, though I had a solid Rolf one playthrough. Leonardo is a joke.

Don't use the dragons for combat; use them for their innate skills. White Pool and Blood Tide are both very useful to have, as is Night Tide if your defenses are lacking.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Xanaxian

[mangasdeouf]

For part 2, I use Haar, Marcia and Brom, that's it. Nephenee needs god's luck to turn out good in normal mode with an uggly start. I were not blessed with such luck when I was born. She is one of my favourites though, but she's not good enough without transfers. And I don't have POR (I play on Dolphin because it's better on PC than in the living room on TV). I wonder if I can still transfer from the POR run on emu.

Brom can really slowly take out every ennemy of each level barely touched, he just needs a little more resist. His defence will raise like 100% of the time, so feed him with the Exp and he'll do the blockhaus in every chapter of part 2 he's in. I like Heather but only on easy mode. Normal mode makes her so unable to fight at any level that it doesn't give me the will to level her up.

Edward has a trash affinity but his defence is really better than Zihark's: his 16 levels before promotion give hi the time to reach the same 13 number in defence, but then he get the promotion bonus plus 2 more levels. If you reset when the level ups are trash, you can easily bring him to 15-17 def at level 3 swordsmaster, 2 to 4 points above Zihark, and you can still have a decent res, but the DB doesn't even need res during their own parts since there are few magic users in all their chapters and Edward can dodge everything easy, capping speed around level 11-13 as a myrmidon. But Zihark has the legendary class earth affinity. Leonardo is the same as Edward, but he needs more luck to see good growths. On my last playthrough in normal mode he turned out with 18 speed or more at level 20 tier 1, that's really above average for him.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Xanaxian said:

Stefan's alright but that luck really hurts him

Uh what? Stefan's Luck is garbage in PoR yes, but in RD it's boosted to a very respectable 20 base (the male Trueblade cap is 30), though his growth is still crap. Yes the 10 he misses might be significant in a 2RN system with P4 Final actually giving the enemies decent hit rates, but it's not that important.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, mangasdeouf said:

For part 2, I use Haar, Marcia and Brom, that's it. Nephenee needs god's luck to turn out good in normal mode with an uggly start. I were not blessed with such luck when I was born. She is one of my favourites though, but she's not good enough without transfers. And I don't have POR (I play on Dolphin because it's better on PC than in the living room on TV). I wonder if I can still transfer from the POR run on emu.

Brom can really slowly take out every ennemy of each level barely touched, he just needs a little more resist. His defence will raise like 100% of the time, so feed him with the Exp and he'll do the blockhaus in every chapter of part 2 he's in. I like Heather but only on easy mode. Normal mode makes her so unable to fight at any level that it doesn't give me the will to level her up.

Edward has a trash affinity but his defence is really better than Zihark's: his 16 levels before promotion give hi the time to reach the same 13 number in defence, but then he get the promotion bonus plus 2 more levels. If you reset when the level ups are trash, you can easily bring him to 15-17 def at level 3 swordsmaster, 2 to 4 points above Zihark, and you can still have a decent res, but the DB doesn't even need res during their own parts since there are few magic users in all their chapters and Edward can dodge everything easy, capping speed around level 11-13 as a myrmidon. But Zihark has the legendary class earth affinity. Leonardo is the same as Edward, but he needs more luck to see good growths. On my last playthrough in normal mode he turned out with 18 speed or more at level 20 tier 1, that's really above average for him.

I see you failed to address even a single point I made. Anyways, Brom can tank through out part 2, but as you yourself stated, he needs to look out for mages, and in 2-E, there's a Hammer General. As for Edward, I can savescum with anyone else for good level ups, so what's your point? That doesn't address his problem, which is that Zihark renders him obsolete, in addition to the fact that Edward is the exact type of unit the DB doesn't need.

Edited July 8, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Quote

Edward has a trash affinity but his defence is really better than Zihark's: his 16 levels before promotion give hi the time to reach the same 13 number in defence, but then he get the promotion bonus plus 2 more levels. If you reset when the level ups are trash, you can easily bring him to 15-17 def at level 3 swordsmaster, 2 to 4 points above Zihark, and you can still have a decent res, but the DB doesn't even need res during their own parts since there are few magic users in all their chapters and Edward can dodge everything easy, capping speed around level 11-13 as a myrmidon. But Zihark has the legendary class earth affinity. Leonardo is the same as Edward, but he needs more luck to see good growths. On my last playthrough in normal mode he turned out with 18 speed or more at level 20 tier 1, that's really above average for him.

This is not even true for the most time in the game. Zihark has a better defense than Edward will have when he reaches Zihark's level.
https://serenesforest.net/radiant-dawn/characters/average-stats/edward/
https://serenesforest.net/radiant-dawn/characters/average-stats/zihark/
Edward will surpass Zihark's defense when he's already benched.


As for Edward's defense you can help so much to give him a support with Leonardo or Aran to give him +3 defense. If his defense is average, he might take to steel lances in his face. If you're really lucky, then maybe even two steel bows. But it's not the standard case, only possible with powerleveling and blessed defense growth.
Anyways Edward's affinity will screw him at the latest in part 3 because two tigers or tiger + cat will kill him. The best strategy is to bring him down unequipped to wrath-zone and let him attack with wind edges / storm swords for the rest of the chapter to get some free kills maybe.

Zihark's defense doesn't really matter since he shall become your dodger anyways. Just support him with Nolan or Volug. And give him resolve to become almost invincible if he still should be hit.
PS: Resolve might not work on him, if he gets attacked by a cat first which can't bring his HP downto <50%. So a tiger still has the chance to kill him.

[mangasdeouf]

I've read a hard mode guide just to see. No battle saves, so no level up reset in battle. I understand a little more the choices that are made. I've always considered Nolan as a tank, mainly because of his initial def stat and his class, but I finally get that Boyd fits more this role, while Nolan is more of an axe wielding swordmaster with a bit less speed and skill but much more strength and defence, so I won't use him the same way anymore.

Edward's growths: 85% HP, 60% strength, 65% skill, 60% speed, 50% luck, 35% def, 20% res. Stats lv 4: 19 HP (low but excellent growth), 7 strength (same thing), 11 skill (good), 12 speed (good), 8 luck (very good with good growth), 5 def (low base but 1/3 chance to get 1 point each level shouldn't be looked down at for a swordsman), 0 res (true trash with low growth yes). Bonus from class change: +2 HP, +1 everywhere, +2 magic and res. LV 1 swordaster bases without any level up from lv 4: 21 HP, 8 strength, 12 skill, 11 speed, 8 luck, 6 def, 2 res. Now add 16/2 so 8 strength, 8 skill, 8 speed, 7-8 luck, 16/3 so 5 def, 1 or 2 res and . With very bad level ups (under average), he would already come lv 1 swordmaster with 16 strength, 20 skill, 21 speed, 15-16 luck, 11 def and 3-4 res, and 32 HP, then he has still 2 levels to go. He will easily have more strength than Zihark even on a bad roll, the same speed and skill, much more HP (nearly 1 per level against 1 per 2 levels) so he will cap HP earlier withou BEXP, strength, he has 10% more def growth, same with luck. His only down point over Zihark is his resistance. Zihark may be better for the ending chapters, but Edward is better for any other part of the game. Zihark's adept may also kill him against cats or crit on tigers. Zihark only benefits from his affinity against Edward's very good growths. But if you have the transfers, OFC any transfer unit will be better than any non-transfer unit. Jill gains 3 strength only with strength transfer, so You can guess that she won't need many boosters while if she doesn't benefit from transfer she starts very bad, especially for her class (like Nephenee she doesn't have exactly the growths of her class). It's the same for every character with and without transfers (Ike starts with more speed, helping him a lot, same for Boyd, Neph better everywhere or close, ...).

Anyway DB doesn't really have a pure tank unit except Aran who's hard to level up in HM so any dodger is welcome and Edward is one the best ones stat-based, but his affinity is bad, sad to say. Caladbolg gives him 8 luck (so 8 avoid to close in with earth affinity), if well used you can make it to nearly the same dodge than Zihark's, with better HP early on and better defence over time. But Zihark comes overlevelled so no need to train him when you get him. In HM I'd only level up Nolan, Jill, Micayah as much as possible with sacrifice, Laura with heal abuse on sacrificing Micayah, then later on Sothe, Zihark, Tauroneo and Volug for later chapters.

[ping]

Zihark's big advantage over Eddie is his XP lead, especially since XP is rather limited for the Dawn Brigade. If you use both of them, Edward will most likely be a bit better towards the endgame, but in my experience, the later DB chapters are easier if you focus your attention on Jill and Nolan instead and bench Edward when he stops being useful.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

Edward's growths: 85% HP, 60% strength, 65% skill, 60% speed, 50% luck, 35% def, 20% res. Stats lv 4: 19 HP (low but excellent growth), 7 strength (same thing), 11 skill (good), 12 speed (good), 8 luck (very good with good growth), 5 def (low base but 1/3 chance to get 1 point each level shouldn't be looked down at for a swordsman), 0 res (true trash with low growth yes). Bonus from class change: +2 HP, +1 everywhere, +2 magic and res. LV 1 swordaster bases without any level up from lv 4: 21 HP, 8 strength, 12 skill, 11 speed, 8 luck, 6 def, 2 res. Now add 16/2 so 8 strength, 8 skill, 8 speed, 7-8 luck, 16/3 so 5 def, 1 or 2 res and . With very bad level ups (under average), he would already come lv 1 swordmaster with 16 strength, 20 skill, 21 speed, 15-16 luck, 11 def and 3-4 res, and 32 HP, then he has still 2 levels to go. He will easily have more strength than Zihark even on a bad roll, the same speed and skill, much more HP (nearly 1 per level against 1 per 2 levels) so he will cap HP earlier withou BEXP, strength, he has 10% more def growth, same with luck. His only down point over Zihark is his resistance. Zihark may be better for the ending chapters, but Edward is better for any other part of the game. Zihark's adept may also kill him against cats or crit on tigers. Zihark only benefits from his affinity against Edward's very good growths. But if you have the transfers, OFC any transfer unit will be better than any non-transfer unit. Jill gains 3 strength only with strength transfer, so You can guess that she won't need many boosters while if she doesn't benefit from transfer she starts very bad, especially for her class (like Nephenee she doesn't have exactly the growths of her class). It's the same for every character with and without transfers (Ike starts with more speed, helping him a lot, same for Boyd, Neph better everywhere or close, ...).

Anyway DB doesn't really have a pure tank unit except Aran who's hard to level up in HM so any dodger is welcome and Edward is one the best ones stat-based, but his affinity is bad, sad to say. Caladbolg gives him 8 luck (so 8 avoid to close in with earth affinity), if well used you can make it to nearly the same dodge than Zihark's, with better HP early on and better defence over time. But Zihark comes overlevelled so no need to train him when you get him. In HM I'd only level up Nolan, Jill, Micayah as much as possible with sacrifice, Laura with heal abuse on sacrificing Micayah, then later on Sothe, Zihark, Tauroneo and Volug for later chapters.

I fail to see how Edward can be better during "any other part of the game" when Edward spends most all of part 1 playing catch-up... during which it takes two good hits to kill him. Also, hard mode removes the weapon triangle, meaning he can't rely as much on evading axe users any more. And transfers only give 2 to any stats that were capped in PoR.

See above point on Edward. Also, Caladbolg doesn't do him any favours, and he's liable to self-destruct if he crits a laguz. Or if he ends up in Wrath range and crits whoever attacks him.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[mangasdeouf]

wrath is to be removed anyway from him, this skill just causes death in this game. For sure catching up is a loss of Exp. But there's no such "waste of Exp" that's so painful for the DB. because you only have 2 units tio level up in all the DB, so a 3rd one isn't a real problem. Micayah won't fight anyway. I think 10 chapters are enough for Nolan to grow to warrior lv 2 or more even in hard mode (in easy mode he would be tier 2 level 10 or so in the end).

From transfers: 2 points everywhere that was capped is godlike. Jill with 2 more strength and 2 more speed, 2 more def and resist, 2 more hp, 2 more skill, 2 more luck...just enjoy rolling on the ennemies.She's gonna ap stats so fast that BEXP will make her god tier (if she wasn't already). She will shine from the beginning. Zihark with +2 strength means 19 str, +2 def means 15 def.

I just got surprized. My Alondite wielding Zihark talked to Mordecai in 3-6 and he joined the ennemy team! WTF!? Since when can YOUR units join the ennemy side? I'm grateful I'm using movement refill to finish normal mode quickly, because if not I would have had to kill Zihark before he killed my units. My goal being hard mode, normal mode doesn't interest me anymore. That's why I cheat, making a 30 hours run to a 10 hours run (counting the time to find locations on Cheat Engine, that was the longest part). BTW, my Zihark was a trueblade, that's why he was dangerous for my other units even if everyone is lv1 tier 3 (promoted from level 1 since i put their level to 20 just to play cooler units, so they had their lv 1 tier 2 stats + class change bonus).

[Shadow Mir]

58 minutes ago, mangasdeouf said:

wrath is to be removed anyway from him, this skill just causes death in this game. For sure catching up is a loss of Exp. But there's no such "waste of Exp" that's so painful for the DB. because you only have 2 units tio level up in all the DB, so a 3rd one isn't a real problem. Micayah won't fight anyway. I think 10 chapters are enough for Nolan to grow to warrior lv 2 or more even in hard mode (in easy mode he would be tier 2 level 10 or so in the end).

From transfers: 2 points everywhere that was capped is godlike. Jill with 2 more strength and 2 more speed, 2 more def and resist, 2 more hp, 2 more skill, 2 more luck...just enjoy rolling on the ennemies.She's gonna ap stats so fast that BEXP will make her god tier (if she wasn't already). She will shine from the beginning. Zihark with +2 strength means 19 str, +2 def means 15 def.

I just got surprized. My Alondite wielding Zihark talked to Mordecai in 3-6 and he joined the ennemy team! WTF!? Since when can YOUR units join the ennemy side? I'm grateful I'm using movement refill to finish normal mode quickly, because if not I would have had to kill Zihark before he killed my units. My goal being hard mode, normal mode doesn't interest me anymore. That's why I cheat, making a 30 hours run to a 10 hours run (counting the time to find locations on Cheat Engine, that was the longest part). BTW, my Zihark was a trueblade, that's why he was dangerous for my other units even if everyone is lv1 tier 3 (promoted from level 1 since i put their level to 20 just to play cooler units, so they had their lv 1 tier 2 stats + class change bonus).

I don't lowman, because it's as exciting as watching paint dry. Also, if Edward doesn't get very good levels early, he's going to be a liability. Hence the "waste of exp".

Except realistically, one, transfers require being blessed in stats to varying degrees, and two, there's no way in hell you can get someone to cap that many stats without cheating. And this is ignoring that they also need to get to level 20 to benefit. Also, HP is a 5 point boost with a transfer - not that anyone other than Boyd or Largo has a realistic chance to cap it.

Considering that recruiting him in PoR involved using a laguz, and that he doesn't like fighting laguz... Yeah. Also, it was possible for Jill to wind up joining the enemy if she talked to her father in chapter 20.

Edited July 10, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Ah, Edward!
Easily my favorite unit to talk about.
First of all Edward is underrated by most people, simply for the fact he can do lots of stuff in part 1.
He's Micaiah's babysitter in the first map. After that you have Nolan, yes. Edward begins to struggle because he requires strength and speed (36% to get both) to become useful in 1-1. He needs strength to finish off the weaken fighters by Nolan and speed to double them. Furthermore each physical unit aside of bronze weapons will 2RKO him. He's an awful unit for the frontline in the beginning. His strengths are his possible double attacks and his attack power. He has the highest strength growth of all myms / swordmasters and deals more output damage than Nolan in the longrun. He can ORKO by far more than Nolan.
Wrath is shit in close combat for sure, but with range swords a welcome skill to get free kills. It's great in all the chapters against laguz. Just unequip him and one tiger will bring him down to wrath-zone unless he has unusual high defense. 
Speaking of his defense, it's bad for being a DB member who fights enemies who tend to outlevel the party, but 35% is respectable for his class. With a Leo / Aran / Jill support he can get +3 defense which might let him take two steel lances in his face. 
Edward's affinity is easily the worst for his class but at least the extra defense can make him less shaky in combat.
As for HM a levelscrewed Edward doesn't hurt as much as levelscrewed Nolan. I had often enough Nolans who turned out shit and even useless (doubled by tigers in part 3). Edward's speed- and leveladvantage prevent this. In the longrun a standard Nolan is better because of his affinity but Nolan can get screwed by far easier than Edward.
The result is that in most cases Edward got by far more kills than Nolan not because of the one chapter more joining time. He's the better killer while Nolan is the better tank.

As for Edward vs. Zihark, Zihark has decent bases for his level, but it's not that Edward won't reach them. It's only he won't do it when Zihark joins. That's the big pro for Zihark. Another pros are free adept and of course earth affinity. With resolve, A in earth and best biorhythm he's untouchable. However I personally don't like his growths. His strength leaves to be desired. His defense is poor too but doesn't matter because of his affinity. I used him a few times but strengthwise he was outclassed by Mia and Edward. His lack of offense was equaled by his dodging abilities.

[mangasdeouf]

Quote

Ah, Edward!
Easily my favorite unit to talk about.
First of all Edward is underrated by most people, simply for the fact he can do lots of stuff in part 1.
He's Micaiah's babysitter in the first map. After that you have Nolan, yes. Edward begins to struggle because he requires strength and speed (36% to get both) to become useful in 1-1. He needs strength to finish off the weaken fighters by Nolan and speed to double them. Furthermore each physical unit aside of bronze weapons will 2RKO him. He's an awful unit for the frontline in the beginning. His strengths are his possible double attacks and his attack power. He has the highest strength growth of all myms / swordmasters and deals more output damage than Nolan in the longrun. He can ORKO by far more than Nolan.
Wrath is shit in close combat for sure, but with range swords a welcome skill to get free kills. It's great in all the chapters against laguz. Just unequip him and one tiger will bring him down to wrath-zone unless he has unusual high defense. 
Speaking of his defense, it's bad for being a DB member who fights enemies who tend to outlevel the party, but 35% is respectable for his class. With a Leo / Aran / Jill support he can get +3 defense which might let him take two steel lances in his face. 
Edward's affinity is easily the worst for his class but at least the extra defense can make him less shaky in combat.
As for HM a levelscrewed Edward doesn't hurt as much as levelscrewed Nolan. I had often enough Nolans who turned out shit and even useless (doubled by tigers in part 3). Edward's speed- and leveladvantage prevent this. In the longrun a standard Nolan is better because of his affinity but Nolan can get screwed by far easier than Edward.
The result is that in most cases Edward got by far more kills than Nolan not because of the one chapter more joining time. He's the better killer while Nolan is the better tank.

As for Edward vs. Zihark, Zihark has decent bases for his level, but it's not that Edward won't reach them. It's only he won't do it when Zihark joins. That's the big pro for Zihark. Another pros are free adept and of course earth affinity. With resolve, A in earth and best biorhythm he's untouchable. However I personally don't like his growths. His strength leaves to be desired. His defense is poor too but doesn't matter because of his affinity. I used him a few times but strengthwise he was outclassed by Mia and Edward. His lack of offense was equaled by his dodging abilities.

I completely agree with everything here. Edward's the biggest hitter from DB while Zihark joins with correct bases (especially in speed, skill and resist) but in the long run he's not gonna hit hard and HE'S GONNA WASTE SO MANY WEAPON USES that in hard mode, I don't know if it's really fine using him if his strength level ups are bad. Generally Edward will benefit a lot faster and more from BEXP (capping HP, speed and skill very early and having a good strength growth, just put him close to level up and finish with BEXP to get strength, luck and defence, plus in base you can always reset if the level up is bad, like magic on Edward that's useless because he's not gonna get enough anyway to use imbue).

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Edward with poor strength still should be able to ORKO fighters with the brave sword and ORKO mages without taking counter damage.

Good that you mentioned the bexp., I forgot. Edward benefits the most from it besides Micaiah because he can cap three stats on his own (HP, skill, speed) so you can improve his strength and defense.
However same goes for Zihark. He can max skill, speed and res. quickly so you can fix these stats as well.
The worst unit for bexp. is Nolan. With his balanced as untypical growths for his class he normally can't cap anything.
Even Leonardo is sort of managable with bexp. because he can max skill and res. rather fast.
 

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, はたの 秦 こころ said:

Ah, Edward!
Easily my favorite unit to talk about.
First of all Edward is underrated by most people, simply for the fact he can do lots of stuff in part 1.
He's Micaiah's babysitter in the first map. After that you have Nolan, yes. Edward begins to struggle because he requires strength and speed (36% to get both) to become useful in 1-1. He needs strength to finish off the weaken fighters by Nolan and speed to double them. Furthermore each physical unit aside of bronze weapons will 2RKO him. He's an awful unit for the frontline in the beginning. His strengths are his possible double attacks and his attack power. He has the highest strength growth of all myms / swordmasters and deals more output damage than Nolan in the longrun. He can ORKO by far more than Nolan.
Wrath is shit in close combat for sure, but with range swords a welcome skill to get free kills. It's great in all the chapters against laguz. Just unequip him and one tiger will bring him down to wrath-zone unless he has unusual high defense. 
Speaking of his defense, it's bad for being a DB member who fights enemies who tend to outlevel the party, but 35% is respectable for his class. With a Leo / Aran / Jill support he can get +3 defense which might let him take two steel lances in his face. 
Edward's affinity is easily the worst for his class but at least the extra defense can make him less shaky in combat.
As for HM a levelscrewed Edward doesn't hurt as much as levelscrewed Nolan. I had often enough Nolans who turned out shit and even useless (doubled by tigers in part 3). Edward's speed- and leveladvantage prevent this. In the longrun a standard Nolan is better because of his affinity but Nolan can get screwed by far easier than Edward.
The result is that in most cases Edward got by far more kills than Nolan not because of the one chapter more joining time. He's the better killer while Nolan is the better tank.

As for Edward vs. Zihark, Zihark has decent bases for his level, but it's not that Edward won't reach them. It's only he won't do it when Zihark joins. That's the big pro for Zihark. Another pros are free adept and of course earth affinity. With resolve, A in earth and best biorhythm he's untouchable. However I personally don't like his growths. His strength leaves to be desired. His defense is poor too but doesn't matter because of his affinity. I used him a few times but strengthwise he was outclassed by Mia and Edward. His lack of offense was equaled by his dodging abilities.

I honestly fail to see Edward as underrated, considering he's exactly the type of unit that the DB doesn't have any need for. The DB chapters are already hard enough as is, and having to baby him does nothing but make them harder. Also, I would hesitate to use Wrath on someone whose ranged options have crap for accuracy.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Quote

I honestly fail to see Edward as underrated, considering he's exactly the type of unit that the DB doesn't have any need for.

What about Meg, Fiona and HM Aran?

Edward is still a very decent PP unit. Of course you have better ones in form or Sothe and Volug (in the beginning) and Jill later, but he does his job well in terms of killing stuff.
 

[mangasdeouf]

Edward's avoid might surpass Sothe's very quickly. His luck advantage on Zihark isn't to look down at. and his supports with water (Leonardo) and thunder affinities make him better at receiving hits than Zihark. If you can't dodge, it's better to tank more, and he still has very good dodge. Seeing that he can cap his strength like 5 to 10 levels before Zihark, depending on your luck in level ups, it's not something you should forget when comparing these 2.

[Shadow Mir]

7 hours ago, はたの 秦 こころ said:

What about Meg, Fiona and HM Aran?

Edward is still a very decent PP unit. Of course you have better ones in form or Sothe and Volug (in the beginning) and Jill later, but he does his job well in terms of killing stuff.

And he's still a fragile melee unit, which was what I was getting at.

57 minutes ago, mangasdeouf said:

Edward's avoid might surpass Sothe's very quickly. His luck advantage on Zihark isn't to look down at. and his supports with water (Leonardo) and thunder affinities make him better at receiving hits than Zihark. If you can't dodge, it's better to tank more, and he still has very good dodge. Seeing that he can cap his strength like 5 to 10 levels before Zihark, depending on your luck in level ups, it's not something you should forget when comparing these 2.

What luck advantage? Because Edward's luck growth is all of a whopping 10% higher than Zihark's. Also, Leonardo's a pretty suspect unit... that manages to be more useful than Edward anyway. Also, in the context of part 3, Edward being a harder hitter is NOT a good thing. Unless you like playing Russian Roulette, that is.

[mangasdeouf]

If Edward isn't good for part 3, then why would Zihark be better? same evasion with less luck (yes 10% make a HUGE difference when it is from 50% to 40% since 1/2 isn't the same as 2/5 especially when evasion is your ONLY good point, like I stated before, Edward might easily have 16 luck lv 1 swordmaster, maybe 17 lv 3, so it's already much higher than Zihark, and he will cap it like lv3-5 trueblade, allowing even more BEXP abuse) so high cit rate units have higher crit rate on the squishier Zihark, Edward comes earlier, he plays an important role until you get Zihark, so you can easily have a well trained Edward when you get Zihark, like already maxed speed and skill, more luck and nearly capped HP before lv 15, allowing 5 BEXP level ups, so easily 12 def before promoting.

Your point is that Zihark does better what Edward does, my point is that Edward needs more initial Exp but can shine much more than Zihark for his class. Zihark is the same as Meg, his growths are only good for pegasus knights, but among the 4 (or 5) trueblades, he is one of the hardest to make cap his strength, defence and luck. Mia has less max strength, but she has +5 max luck and like Eddie she'll cap strength, speed and skill (and even defence) so fast she'll have many BEXP benefits if you use the slow BEXP way to train your units (close to 99% then BEXP level up etc.)

The only point in comparing Zihark and Edward is their original team. But finally Zihark should rather be compared with Lucia and Edward with Mia. Because they're closer than Zihark/Edward and Mia/Lucia. And you don't even need any of those, because there's an excellent trueblade you can recruit in part 4 who is about the same as Volke (3rd tier with godly bases and so good growths except medium luck) so you can even put all your given myrms/swordmasters out to enjoy the last one you can get who doesn't need the Exp from tier 1 or 2 and his already good overall stats as a trueblade, with like 4 points before he caps everything or close.

Edited July 11, 2017 by mangasdeouf

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

You forgot one little but important thing: Zihark's affinity
With having earth he can have +22% more evasion than Edward can have at max. That's what makes Zihark a much better frontunit than Edward. His low luck and lower defense don't matter at all when he has the support.
Tbf Idk how good resolve + earth support is useful for Edward because I don't like to give earth unit a support which doesn't increase the evasion.
If you compare Zihark with Lucia because of their same affinity, then you're right. Otherwsie big no. Sure they have similarities in their growthrates (res > def) but Lucia starts 11 levels higher with only slightly better bases than him. Furthermore her growthrates suck. And her biggest issue is her terrible availibility. She's the only myrmidon / swordmaster who's really not worth for the endgame. 
Edward is similar to Mia growthwise, but still, Mia doesn't need any effort and babying to get the levels unlike Edward.
 

Quote

And he's still a fragile melee unit, which was what I was getting at.

Same goes to everyone in HM in part 1 whose name is not Sothe and Volug excluding the "guest" characters.
Even Nolan has problems to take two steel axes.
 

[Shadow Mir]

5 hours ago, mangasdeouf said:

If Edward isn't good for part 3, then why would Zihark be better? same evasion with less luck (yes 10% make a HUGE difference when it is from 50% to 40% since 1/2 isn't the same as 2/5 especially when evasion is your ONLY good point, like I stated before, Edward might easily have 16 luck lv 1 swordmaster, maybe 17 lv 3, so it's already much higher than Zihark, and he will cap it like lv3-5 trueblade, allowing even more BEXP abuse) so high cit rate units have higher crit rate on the squishier Zihark, Edward comes earlier, he plays an important role until you get Zihark, so you can easily have a well trained Edward when you get Zihark, like already maxed speed and skill, more luck and nearly capped HP before lv 15, allowing 5 BEXP level ups, so easily 12 def before promoting.

Your point is that Zihark does better what Edward does, my point is that Edward needs more initial Exp but can shine much more than Zihark for his class. Zihark is the same as Meg, his growths are only good for pegasus knights, but among the 4 (or 5) trueblades, he is one of the hardest to make cap his strength, defence and luck. Mia has less max strength, but she has +5 max luck and like Eddie she'll cap strength, speed and skill (and even defence) so fast she'll have many BEXP benefits if you use the slow BEXP way to train your units (close to 99% then BEXP level up etc.)

The only point in comparing Zihark and Edward is their original team. But finally Zihark should rather be compared with Lucia and Edward with Mia. Because they're closer than Zihark/Edward and Mia/Lucia. And you don't even need any of those, because there's an excellent trueblade you can recruit in part 4 who is about the same as Volke (3rd tier with godly bases and so good growths except medium luck) so you can even put all your given myrms/swordmasters out to enjoy the last one you can get who doesn't need the Exp from tier 1 or 2 and his already good overall stats as a trueblade, with like 4 points before he caps everything or close.

Because of his affinity, duh. 

You think Edward can be promoted by the time Zihark joins? Hah! Don't make me laugh! There's no way that can happen unless you're playing on easy mode, AND abusing (I mentioned it earlier, but I'll mention it again, just to make sure it sinks in: not everyone has the patience for abuse and grinding strategies.). It's not like Edward's catching up THAT fast...

Comparing Edward to Mia and Zihark to Lucia? Really now? Once again, you show that you have no clue what you're talking about. At all. As stated earlier, Zihark's around for longer than Lucia is. And Mia starts out powerful and doesn't need any of the babying Edward does.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia