Rate the Unit, Day 92: Brave Ephraim & Brave Veronica

[DehNutCase]

Tailtiu:

BST: 39/32/35/17/25

Not much to say. -Blade tomes gives every tome unit close to armor BST, so their combats will always be stellar. Starting with one just means she's the best budget choice if you need a blue offensive tome that isn't Reinhardt, who's also very good on a budget.

 

Combat stats are a little bit below her main competition like Linde and Delthea and such, but still excellent, and better bulk both in terms of numbers and distribution (high hp, low but balanced def\res is ideal for an offensive unit, because it makes surviving the counter more reliable) means that her combat won't be that much worse.

All in all a 

7/10

because all the blue offensive infantry tomes are close enough that it would take a Dire Thunder level Prf to distinguish them from each other.

A Prf like Olwen's Thunderhead would also be great, because it doesn't add special charge so you can run something like Glimmer Flashing Blade S-seal.

 

Deirdre:

BST: 36/33/28/16/35

Marginally faster, marginally weaker Julia. (Julia can also access divine Naga.)

Dull Ranged and Dull Close is quite a good combination, and she gets Dragon Effectiveness on top of that in her Prf.

 

Combat will never be bad because she holds a tome, and her Prf being the very rare green Dragon Effectiveness means that she has a fairly unique niche and a strong argument for being on the team if your team has a blue and green dragon weakness. (Reinhardt, for example, will fry Reds on account of being Reinhardt, but dragons are reasonably bulky on the res side and often run DC effects, so Julia\Deirdre makes quite a lot of sense as a partner.)

 

However, her niche is neither strong enough nor wide enough to bump her over the

7/10

I'll be giving to just about every single infantry tome. That's kind of what happens when you give an entire class an overpowered weapon---any individual features are drowned out by access to a 30 MT weapon.

There are other options like -owls and whatnot, of course, but none of them are strong enough to compete with -blade, for very good reason.

[Alexmender]

Tailtiu. Her stat spread focuses on Atk and Spd being mediocre everywhere else. Tailtiu is very middle of the road, her spread is great but falls a bit short of Linde's and due to her semi min-maxed nature she doesn't have other niche than offensive Blade tome. Her main perk is availability but outside of that there's not a lot she can do that Linde can't do better, and her lack of flexibility puts her in a worse spot than other blue mages like Delthea/Lute. Anyways, if you want an easy to build blade tome unit look no further, Tailtiu has a very good performance in this role and will prove to be a very powerful asset to your team with very little investment.

Rating: 6.5/10

Deirdre. Her stats scream "Mage tank" and she does a pretty good job at this. An extremely high Res stat and above average Atk will let her tank quite a few magic hits with ease, just keep in mind that her low Hp will keep her from doing this for more than 3-4 rounds (arena matches usually end faster than this so she'll be fine). Her Prf weapon, Divine Naga, allows her to shut down blade tome users due to it's ability to nullify Hone/Fortify buffs further cementing her niche as a mage tank, while most mages tend to have high Res Deirdre will be able to deal high amounts of damage to them with Iceberg/Glacies so there's not a lot to worry about there. Now, her tome deals effective damage against dragons but Deirdre should not be facing them unless we're talking about some TA Nowi which she can easily one shot. Her below average Spd and pathetic Def will make her an easy pray for almost every physical unit and dragon. Deirdre does her job well but her niche isn't that useful the higher you go in arena, rendering her obsolete very quickly. It doesn't help that Julia's more min-maxed spread and access to the same tome makes it harder to choose Deirdre over her daughter, at least her hair is fabulous.

Rating: 5.5/10

[Troykv]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

There are other options like -owls and whatnot, of course, but none of them are strong enough to compete with -blade, for very good reason.

It's a shame that my favorite non-5 Star Unit is a slow one (Sophia); using a Bladetome with her it's pointless when Lilina just does a better job one shooting stuff.

Nino is good.

Edited July 10, 2018 by Troykv

[LordFrigid]

Tailtiu

• Offense-focused stat line, with good Spd, decent Atk, mediocre Res, and poor Def.
  • Very strong red, strong blue matchups on offense with a basic Blárblade set. Buff-dependent, with sustainability through Desperation.
  • Her defensive matchups are relatively worse, due to her low defensive stat line.
• She can provide basic field/combat buff support.

Overall, I give her 8 for combat (very strong red, strong blue matchups on offense. Buff dependence penalty, sustainability bonus), and .5 for support (basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 7.5/10.

Deirdre

• Magically bulky stat line with good Res, decent Atk, low Spd, and poor Def.
  • Divine Naga (Effective against dragons, negates enemy field buffs) is a powerful weapon that provides Deirdre with a useful combat niche and helps her better check mages (especially -blade mages). It notably allows her to stack field buffs while ignoring those of her enemies.
  • Very strong blue, passable green matchups on offense with a +Spd/Ploy set. Spd Ploy is applied to applicable foes.
  • Very strong matchups against blue and green mages with a Distant Def stacking set.
• She can provide Ploy support with her good Res stat.

Overall, I give her 7.5 for combat (very strong blue, decent green matchups on offense, useful combat niche bonus), and 1 for support (ploy capability), for a total rating of 7/10.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

• Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
  • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
  • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
• Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
• At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.

This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Tailtiu: She's basically the blue version of Nino with very slight stat variations. She comes with one of the best blue tomes in the game, and she can work wonders if you need a blue mage! She's easily accessible as she's available at a lower star rarity so she can fill a role if you're particularly desperate for a blue mage. However, that goes both ways, as she has strong competition in the blue mage department with Reinhardt, Micaiah, and a few others, some of which are available just as easily as she is. Still, though, she's a fine unit. 7/10

Deirdre: Like Tailtiu, Deirdre is a good unit, but has competition in the green mage department from units like Nino and Julia, with Nino being very easy to obtain and very easy to build. But even so, Deirdre has great attack and great resistance, allowing her to ploy very well. She has good synergy with several skills and can double as a good anti-dragon unit. Her defense, however, is absolutely pitiful, it's very likely she'll be defeated by just a single blow from pretty much every single melee unit in the game. But if you can keep her out of harms way, she'll serve you well enough. 7/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Tailtiu - Not the fastest and far from the strongest. Tailtiu's stat spread has much to be desired for a blade build and really what other options are there for such a derivative stat spread? She also lacks a high Res stat for ploys that would aid her offensive capabilities. If she were a different color there would be less comparisons to be made, but blue tomes have the most quality and quantity. When you're hot you're hot, and Tiltyu is not. 4.5 out of 10. She can't even wield Thoron

Deirdre - There isn't a green equivalent to Katarina, Saias, Arvis, that have a personal weapon for ploys, so Deirdre fits the role nicely. Can't say I'd generally accept the trade in Res over Attack from her daughter. Really I can't rate either higher than the other, as they suffer the same weaknesses. 6 out of 10. Dragon killing plus support is great but she has dreadful neutral matchups and few ORKOs other than blue manaketes.

Past Ratings

Spoiler

1. Alfonse - 3
2. Marth - 7
3. Sharena - 3
4. Jagen - 1
5. Anna - 4.5
6. Barst - 3
7. Cain - 4
8. Draug - 7.5
9. Gordin - 5
10. Jeorge - 5.5
11. Abel - 5.5
12. Linde - 9
13. Minerva - Abstain
14. Merric - 3.5
15. Maria - 6
16. Wrys - 3.5
17. Ceada - Abstain
18. Ogma - 4
19. Catria - 4
20. Est - 6
21. Sheena - 6.5
22. Cecilia - 4
23. Clarine - 6.5
24. Matthew - 4
25. Palla - 2.5
26. Roy -7
27. Gwendolyn - 7.5
28. Shanna - 4.5
29. Bartre - 7
30. Fae - 7.5
31. Serra - 4
32. Lissa - 2
33. Y!Tiki - 8
34. Lilina - 7
35. Florina - 1.5
36. M!Robin - 3.5
37. Hector - 8
38. Raven - 8.5
39. Gaius - 4 
40. Virion - 3.5
41. Raigh - 1.5
42. Sophia - 3.5
43. Sully -2.5
44. Cordelia -7
45. Hawkeye - 5.5
46. Nino - 8
47. Felicia - 6.5
48. Jakob - 1
49. Fir - 4
50. Eliwood - 5.5
51. Donnel - 3.5
52. Nowi - 8.5
53. Frederick - 6.5
54. Cherche - 7.5
55. Saizo - 4
56. Kagero - 4.5
57. Lyn - 7
58. Chrom - 5
59. F!Corrin - 7
60. Azura - 6.5
61. Gunter - 3
62. Camilla - 5.5
63. Azama - 6.5
64. Setsuna - 3.5
65. Stahl - 2.5
66. Lonqu - 3
67. Hinoka - 7.5
68. Oboro - 2.5
69. Beruka - 6
70. Arthur - 2
71. Takumi - 5.5
72. Sakura - 3
73. Olivia - 7
74. Henry - 2
75. Subaki - 4.5
76. Peri - 6.5
77. Niles - 1.5
78. Elise - 7.5
79. Tharja - 5
80. A!Tiki - 8
81. Odin - 1 
82. Effie - 7.5
83. Lucina - 7
84. M!Corrin - 6
85. Ryoma - 5.5
86. Hinata - 4.5
87. Hana - 5.5
88. Laslow - 3
89. Selena - 2
90. Leo - 2
91. Eirika - 5
92. Seliph - 5.5
93. Ephraim - 7
94. Julia - 6
95. Eldigan - Abstain
96. Sanaki - 6.5
97. Reinhardt - 8
98. Olwen - 5.5
99. Lachesis - 3
100. Klein - 4
101. Karel - 6.5
102. Ninian - 7
103. Lucius - 4.5
104. Rebecca - 2.5
105. Priscilla - 4
106. Jaffar - 3.5
107. Alm - 9
108. Lukas - 7.5
109. Clair - 7
110. Faye - 5.5
111. Ike - 6
112. Titania - 3.5
113. Soren - 4
114. Mist - 2.5
115. Celica - 7
116. Mae - 6.5
117. Boey - 3.5
118. Genny - 6
119. Luke - 3.5
120. Katarina - 5.5
121. Athena - 3.5
122. Roderick - 6
123. Gray - 5
124. Saber - 3
125. Mathilda - 3
126. Delthea - 6.5
127. Sonya - 4.5
128. Leon - 6
129. Seth - 2
130. Tana - 7
131. Amelia -8
132. Innes - 6
133. Brave Roy - 6.5
134. Brave Lucina - Abstain
135. Brave Ike - 8
136. Brave Lyn - 8.5
137. Elincia - 7.5
138. Osxar - 6
139. Nephenee - 7
140. Sigurd - 7.5
141. Tailtiu - 4.5
142. Deirdre - 6

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3, Cecilia would be a 3.5. Linde would be 7. And I'd drop Matthew and Saizo to 3.5. Beruka would be a 7. Caeda I'd rate a 5.5 now that I've been using her at 5 star. Leo I'd bump up to a 3. Hector is a 7.5 because he's been powercreeped again

 

[Ice Dragon]

10 hours ago, DehNutCase said:

That's kind of what happens when you give an entire class an overpowered weapon---any individual features are drowned out by access to a 30 MT weapon.

It's a pity that still none of them are actually capable of breaking through Fjorm, and only the absolute strongest of green tomes are capable of breaking through Effie or Gwendolyn when they are built to middle finger against magic.

+10 Spring Camilla [+Atk] (Gronnblade+, Death Blow 3, Attack +3) +6/6/6/6 fails to kill +10 Fjorm [+Atk, -Spd] (Leiptr, Ice Mirror, Warding Breath, Shield Pulse 3, Quick Riposte 3) +3/3/3/3 by 2 HP and survives by only 9 HP. +10 Bride Sanaki with the same build (i.e. the green tome user with the highest Atk in the game) leaves Fjorm with 1 HP remaining and dies to the counterattack (due to having horrible physical bulk and Ice Mirror reflecting a massive amount of damage back).

[DehNutCase]

13 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

It's a pity that still none of them are actually capable of breaking through Fjorm, and only the absolute strongest of green tomes are capable of breaking through Effie or Gwendolyn when they are built to middle finger against magic.

+10 Spring Camilla [+Atk] (Gronnblade+, Death Blow 3, Attack +3) +6/6/6/6 fails to kill +10 Fjorm [+Atk, -Spd] (Leiptr, Ice Mirror, Warding Breath, Shield Pulse 3, Quick Riposte 3) +3/3/3/3 by 2 HP and survives by only 9 HP. +10 Bride Sanaki with the same build (i.e. the green tome user with the highest Atk in the game) leaves Fjorm with 1 HP remaining and dies to the counterattack (due to having horrible physical bulk and Ice Mirror reflecting a massive amount of damage back).

Isn't that still a better performance than every other weapon type, though? Considering they're trying to ram headfirst into a unit that dedicated 3 skill-slots into buffing their anti-tome skills.

Edit: Also, doesn't Camilla with CC one-shot Fjorm on defense? I'm honestly not sure if Ice Mirror activates on CC, but Kagero Chart doesn't seem to think it does.

Edited July 11, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Ice Dragon]

31 minutes ago, DehNutCase said:

Isn't that still a better performance than every other weapon type, though? Considering they're trying to ram headfirst into a unit that dedicated 3 skill-slots into buffing their anti-tome skills.

The thing is that there's no equivalent build for giving the middle finger to axes or green dragons as a whole. Axe users shred through her mediocre Def and lackluster Spd, and green dragons enjoy the absurd power of their enemy-phase builds to simply bait Fjorm to her doom. Wary Fighter builds on Effie and Gwendolyn can simply be turned into two-round kills as long as they aren't being sneaky with Wings of Mercy allies.

Fjorm is a common Arena defense unit owing to having one copy be free and being the Legendary Hero with the longest availability. Sure, she likely won't be stacked that heavily against magic in practice (more likely still running Atk/Def Bond or possibly Steady Breath), but considering the sheer amount of firepower still actually necessary to take her down with a green tome (being only achievable reasonably with non-infantry or a Close Counter build), I'd argue that's a huge problem for green tomes and a slight problem for blue tomes.

Anyways, I'm done derailing this thread for the dozenth time or so. (But feel free to take another crack at me anyways if you want.)

 

EDIT: @DehNutCase

Ice Mirror (and the other defensive specials) are based on the actual range of combat and not the weapons involved, so Ice Mirror cannot activate if Fjorm initiates combat.

Essentially, the only green tomes with a shot at safely dealing with Fjorm are the few that have an argument to run a Close Counter build over a purely player-phase build... which is effectively just Camilla, Boey, Robin, and Merric. (And Henry, but I'm not including armors because armors are pretty much free win coupons.)

Edited July 11, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[DehNutCase]

9 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The thing is that there's no equivalent build for giving the middle finger to axes or green dragons as a whole. Axe users shred through her mediocre Def and lackluster Spd, and green dragons enjoy the absurd power of their enemy-phase builds to simply bait Fjorm to her doom. Wary Fighter builds on Effie and Gwendolyn can simply be turned into two-round kills as long as they aren't being sneaky with Wings of Mercy allies.

Fjorm is a common Arena defense unit owing to having one copy be free and being the Legendary Hero with the longest availability. Sure, she likely won't be stacked that heavily against magic in practice (more likely still running Atk/Def Bond or possibly Steady Breath), but considering the sheer amount of firepower still actually necessary to take her down with a green tome (being only achievable reasonably with non-infantry or a Close Counter build), I'd argue that's a huge problem for green tomes and a slight problem for blue tomes.

Anyways, I'm done derailing this thread for the dozenth time or so. (But feel free to take another crack at me anyways if you want.)

Sorry I edited my post from earlier, so you probably didn't see my follow up point:

Do you know if Ice Mirror works on CC? Because if it doesn't, CC Camilla OHKOs Fjorm on defense.

 

Edit: LUL, I fail at reading, just saw your CC thing.

Personally I rate CC capable mages like S!Camilla above people like flying Nino anyway, so...

Edited July 11, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Xenomata]

Tailtiu

Spoiler

As an offensive nuking mage who comes with Blarblade, Tailtiu clearly wasn't told to be unique, because she's about as standard as can come from a Bladetome nuke. Decent Attack, good Speed, somewhat decent HP not at all being supported by horrid Defense and below-average Resistance.

Coming with Blarblade gives Tailtiu some level of nuking prowess, Rally Spd/Res is a neat buffing option on the cheap, and Drive Spd is IMO one of the better Drive skills, so good thing it's available at 4* on Tailtiu. Atk/Res 2 is meh.

Tailtiu has one role going for her: Being a Blarblade nuke, since there's really not much else she could do with her stats besides running with a Fresh Bouquet to improve on her buffing, or Juicy Wave to have Desperation 3 built into her weapon to let her run something else in her B slot.

The negatives all remain true with Tailtiu: Defense is horrid and not worth glancing at, her overall bulk is meh and only becomes good post-buffing, Tailtiu is powerless against foes who run some form of Dull Ranged, and she overall doesn't have a defining role as a Blue Mage. She's good at what she does by default, but she still competes with Cavalry and Fliers as a Bladetome nuke, and the likes of Reinhardt, Bride Ninian, and Linde/Delthea for unique playstyles.

She's good. If you ever manage a [+Spd -something not needed nature] on her, keep her around. She's reliable as a bladetome nuke when needed.

Rating: 7/10 Tailtiu isn't really unique as a Blue Tome, but she at least comes with her most defining weapon by default without being a crummy waste of roster space like... some other units. Good Speed backed by decent Attack will let Tailtiu function as a Bladetome nuke well, albeit not all that unique one.

 

Deirdre

Spoiler

The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree with Deirdre and Julia, though it may be better to say you only learned how similar the apple was to the tree AFTER you ate it.

Compared to Julia, Deirdre is slightly weaker and slightly faster, the latter not really mattering anyways since it's only slightly, slightly more sickly, slightly less bulky, but much more Res gifted. Really, Deirdre is Julia with slightly more Ploy potential.

Divine Naga, the direct upgrade to Naga, ignores all Field buffs on enemies while also being Dragon effective. Most other units can only ignore fields buffs under certain conditions, so Deirdre having such access by default is nifty. Ardent Sacrifice isn't much worth mentioning since it directly affects her default B skill, Quick Riposte, which helps to fix her low Speed in tandem with Spd Ploy. Together, Deirdre lowers the Speed of oncoming enemies and can usually avoid the double so long as she isn't -Spd, and is allowed to double herself on Enemy phase.

Building on her dragon-killing potential would be neat, but building on her Ploy potential and ability to ignore Field Buffs is just as good. Fury is a good skill in that regard, or Death Blow if the extra 3 attack sounds necessary. Iceberg is a very standard Special with her Resistance. Give her Atk Ploy or Res ploy as a SS, and she won't need to worry about taking too much damage/dealing too little damage either.

The bads are simple: If Deirdre doesn't kill a Dragon in one hit, it's over for her, because her Defense will not let her get another chance to kill them. She is overall weak to physical forms of damage, so letting her take on mages exclusively is wisest. Ignoring Field Buffs is good, because it lets her disable Bladetomes, but she can't do much about Combat buffs, and she remains very slow even if the enemy is Spd Ployed. She's also compared to Julia, whose slight edge in Attack makes her dragon-killing potency slightly better.

But overall, I feel Deirdre is worth keeping around. Having as much dragon-killing potential as possible is always a plus in these trying times.

Rating: 7/10 Deirdre has good Attack to take down Dragons and deal general good damage, good Resistance to take on Mages and Ploy a number of enemies, and a personal weapon that kills dragons and disables Field Buffs. She also has no Defense, so she really needs to get those kills on Dragons in one hit, or else.

[Korath88]

Tailtiu

Keeping it short, offensively oriented statline without a prf gives a standard bladetome mage without anything to help her stand out. 6.5/10

Deirdre

Pretty much Julia with more Spd and less Atk. She avoids doubles better and ploys better but doesn't hit back as hard. Still the difference is mostly negligible so she also gets a 7/10

[Usana]

19 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Karla has Wrath. Noire has Atk/Spd 2.

I realized the Karla point sometime after I posted, but that only gets mentioned as fluff and doesn't really factor in to my final score. As such I didn't bother to go back and edit it. Probably should of but I figured these little paragraphs probably aren't where people are looking to when trying to figure out who has what skill and didn't think it was too important.Too used to searching my barracks to figure out who has what. I don't have either of them so they didn't pop up. Now I really wish all those Mia Pity breakers were Karlas. More wrath is good.

 

Tailtiu - Now I am not a big fan of her. As others have said she doesn't really stand out. Amoung the blue tomes 35 spd is the 3rd highest value.  Meaning the only infantry blue tomes quicker than her are Caeda, Ishtar, Linde, and Lucina. Of those four only Ishtar and Linde have a higher attack stat. Though as a speedy blade tome her ATK isn't that important. The buffs will eclipse the 2 or 3 points of atk different. That said her defenses are not well optimized and she lacks a prf to give her any unique role. She is the bread and butter of blue blade tome. Not very exciting, but still quite serviceable. I'll say 7.5/10.

Deirdre - Compared to Julia she trades 2 HP for 3 RES. So a bit more magically bulky, particularly since they are both of middling speed and can expect to be doubled by mages. And she trades 2 attack for 2 speed. Which isn't a great trade. I would probably give her and Julia about the same rating. However, I didn't rate Julia so I can't just copy that. I'll join the 7/10 camp. Seems just about right to me.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Usana

[MacLovin]

Tiltyu

7/10 cheap and easy to build blue bladetome user with good stats and decent built in skills. If you just want infantry blue bladetome on a budget, then she's there. Granted Linde's probably better but at least Tailtiu's easier to merge and whatnot.

[Shiki]

Tailtiu: 6.72
Deirdre: 6.69

Funny how the next round lined up.

Ayra, Astra's Wielder

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
37/41/44
30/33/36
34/37/40
28/31/34
18/21/24

Base Skills:

Ayra's Blade
( - )
Regnal Astra

Swift Sparrow
Desperation
( - )

Mia, Lady of Blades

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
34/38/41
29/32/35
37/40/43
24/28/31
22/25/29

Base Skills:

Resolute Blade
( - )
Luna

Flashing Blade
Vantage
( - )

 

[eclipse]

Ayra - Hopefully, no one will make an entrance like she did.  Her base offensive stats are similar to Lucina (+1 Spd for -1 Atk. . .assuming she's holding a different sword, but why would anyone do that?), but she spent her extra stat points in bulk.  This means she can sort-of take a physical hit, then dish it right back with Desperation active.  Her kit is geared towards initiation with the Swift Sparrow/Desperation combo ensuing doubles on anything less than 40 Speed.  Some back-of-the-napkin math shows that Regnal Astra, triggered on her turn, will deal 17 damage.  IMO this is the best two CD special that Ayra can run.  Walled by bulkier units (as usual), but she's still pretty strong.  8/10

Mia - She's ever-so-slightly weaker than Ayra, at base.  But if we compare weapon effects, Ayra winds up with the same speed as Mia, while Mia is stronger by 2.  Her defenses are more balanced than Ayra's, but neither of her stats is high enough for her to pull a convincing mixed-tank build.  Comparing her base kit to Ayra, she trades +2 Atk and +4 Spd on initiation for +10 damage when her special triggers.  Assuming both ladies double, Mia will most likely out-damage Ayra in the long run, but the odds of their opponent surviving are pretty low.  While Ayra is made for initiation, Mia wants to hit twice and GTFO.  Since their kits and stats are so similar (right down to their weaknesses), they get the same rating.  8/10

Edited July 11, 2018 by eclipse

[Hilda]

The Problem with Ayra isnt the stat allocation or her higher BST, its Regnal Astra which allows for crazy stuff like...  Slaying Edge+ combined with Wrath, or if you want to go more fancy in a Legendary Hector mixed Team: Wo dao + Wrath. yeah Regnal Astra is the problem (just like its a problem with Black Luna on Zelgius and prolly the reason why IS stoped introducing exclusiv Specials for now), her base weapon is good, but Slaying Edger+ is so more powerfull with Regnal Astra allowing her to proc Regnal Astra in every enemy phase, or player phase if she doubles (unless the opponent uses guard) or instantly once she hits below 75% HP.

[Ice Dragon]

Ayra's most deadly build is her mixed-phase build, running

Slaying Edge [+Spd]
Regnal Astra
Distant Counter
Wrath 3
Quickened Pulse / Attack +3 / Speed +3

Her bulk is high enough to avoid dying in a single hit and low enough to reliably activate Wrath after taking a hit on enemy phase or a counterattack. And then you can just go to town with instant Wrath-boosted Regnal Astras.

 

17 minutes ago, eclipse said:

assuming she's holding a different sword, but why would anyone do that?

Slaying Edge actually has a better effect than Ayra's Blade. Ayra's Blade gives +1 charge rate only on her own attacks and only if she's faster than her opponent. Slaying Edge's effect is equivalent to giving +1 charge rate all the time (because Regnal Astra has a cooldown of 2).

Slaying Edge's only detriment is the loss of 2 Atk, but it not only gains a superior Special activation effect, but also a +5 HP boost to bulk.

[Jingle Jangle]

Ayra: 9/10 An experiment to test how powerful can units be that was successful . The way she was introduced into the game a different also tested how players will allow, but that's another story. To this day because of Regnal Astra she can murder most of the cast in a single round. Most of her build involves charging her special to make stars fly. Her few weakness are tanky units or blue mages on their turn. Because of her, there are few characters that have a personal special.

Mia 8/10: Ayra without Regnal Astra is still powerful.

[Karimlan]

46 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Ayra - Hopefully, no one will make an entrance like she did.

I was lucky enough to get her (+spd/-res) on that much-ballyhooed banner. She, in a way, served as the template for how FEH would run myrmidons, having outclassed Karel and Athena. Built for speed and damage, she can leave a dent even in the toughest red characters, but would completely be outlasted by a good lance infantry character/armored knight. 8/10

Haven't got Mia yet, so I'm taking a walk on that vote.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Karimlan

[eclipse]

17 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Slaying Edge actually has a better effect than Ayra's Blade. Ayra's Blade gives +1 charge rate only on her own attacks and only if she's faster than her opponent. Slaying Edge's effect is equivalent to giving +1 charge rate all the time (because Regnal Astra has a cooldown of 2).

Slaying Edge's only detriment is the loss of 2 Atk, but it not only gains a superior Special activation effect, but also a +5 HP boost to bulk.

Assuming she winds up with Brash Atk/Spd (which IMO she should, since she wants to tank a hit), you regularly run into things that can ORKO her/are faster than 47 speed?

[Hilda]

8 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Assuming she winds up with Brash Atk/Spd (which IMO she should, since she wants to tank a hit), you regularly run into things that can ORKO her/are faster than 47 speed?

My Main Teams deal differently from case to case.
Team 1: uses Clair that has tactics buffs or saizo with phantom speed and watersweep + Gunnthra to deal with her
Team 2: uses Elise because Gravity is that good and Elise too
Team 3: Legendary Ephraim or Micaiha
Team 4: Lets CYL Lyn with a firesweep bow and double poison strikes deal with her or Sanaki with attack tacits buffs near spring camilla and drive attack
Team 5: uses either Brave Lance+ Bold fighter Effie or 69 HP Karel with a 1 charge Vengeance (Ostia Pulse + his personal refine) take the massive hit and retaliate or Bride Lyn
Team 6: uses Shield pulse Raven with heavy blade seal in combination withanother unit in that Team.

Or i just throw Lukas at her

[Alexmender]

Today we get two beastly units, I see. How amusing.

Ayra. She has a semi balanced spread with a focus on Spd. If you were to look only at her stats Ayra doesn't seem that impressive compared to other swords like Hana outside of a surprisingly good bulk but that would be a mistake. Ayra can run the generic builds just as well as other units so there's not a lot to say here. What sets her apart is her exclusive special Regnal Astra, which is basically a 2CD Draconic Aura that uses Spd instead of Atk to add damage. This special is simply ridiculous thanks to that low CD. This opens a ton of possibilities for Ayra, she can use a Slaying Edge+Wrath to make a very threatening mixed phase build or she can also use her default kit to be a very potent PP sweeper, she can even go with a Wo Dao+Wrath build to incinerate blue units that she normally shouldn't be facing. Plain and simple, Ayra is a monstrous unit and one that should never be taken lightly, her special is broken to the point that not even TA/Gem weapons blues can realiably tank her. The best counters are Brave weapon users, Guard and skills like Spd Ploy/Spd Smoke which can reduce her damage output considerably. Despite the increase in bulk Ayra still is in the top 5 for best red units in the game. Did I mention that Regnal Astra is a 500 SP skill? Yeah, she also scores extremely well while still having an overwhelming offensive presence.

Rating: 9.5/10

Mia. The second coming of the extremely speedy and incredibly threatening reds. Mia's stat spread focuses on Spd, beating even the likes of Lon'qu, and to make matters worse for him she has a decent Atk base of 32. Mia's job is very straightfoward but deadly thanks to her Prf weapon, Resolute Blade. Her Prf is basically a 19Mt Wo Dao which guarantees that every time Mia triggers her special it's going to hurt. Paired with Wrath this will let Mia deal tons of damage with a simple special like Moonbow. Now, despite this Mia has taken a very strong hit from the release of the weapon refinery as it retroactively nerf her weapon thanks to stuff like Nameless Blade being a better weapon compared to Resolute Blade. This puts Mia on par with units like Karel/Fir and the only advantage she offers over them comes in terms of her stats, which some could argue is not good enogh as their damage is completely focused on their specials. Make no mistake though, if Mia has her special charged it's almost guaranteed that she's going to deal ridiculous damage to anything that looks her funny. Another thing to note is that Mia lacks flexibility which puts her in a worse spot than Ayra and other newer swords so this hurts her potential badly.

Rating:  7/10

[Ice Dragon]

12 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Assuming she winds up with Brash Atk/Spd (which IMO she should, since she wants to tank a hit), you regularly run into things that can ORKO her/are faster than 47 speed?

Brazen Atk/Spd loses out on Distant Counter, which improves her ability to both set up Wrath and nab a kill at the same time.

Without Distant Counter and when faced with a ranged opponent, she'd need to either let it hit her for free to set up Wrath or kill it for free without setting up Wrath, but getting the kill and getting Wrath set up are mutually exclusive to each other in that case.

Additionally, Brazen Atk/Spd isn't active on the first round of combat, which leaves her vulnerable to failing to double the opponent. If the opponent initiates against her, she will fail to activate Regnal Astra because Ayra's Blade's Flashing Blade effect doesn't affect the opponent's attack. It's not the Spd restriction on Flashing Blade that really matters, but the fact that it doesn't work when taking hits from the opponent. With Slaying Edge, she is guaranteed to activate Regnal Astra on her first counterattack (unless the opponent has Guard). The optional Quickened Pulse also extends that to her first attack when initiating combat for the occasion when she is faced with an opponent she cannot double (Wary Fighter, Basilikos, other fast swords, etc.), though it's usually easier to just tack on Attack +3 or Speed +3 and let them hit you first to charge Wrath and counter with Regnal Astra.

[eclipse]

1 hour ago, Hilda said:

My Main Teams deal differently from case to case.
Team 1: uses Clair that has tactics buffs or saizo with phantom speed and watersweep + Gunnthra to deal with her
Team 2: uses Elise because Gravity is that good and Elise too
Team 3: Legendary Ephraim or Micaiha
Team 4: Lets CYL Lyn with a firesweep bow and double poison strikes deal with her or Sanaki with attack tacits buffs near spring camilla and drive attack
Team 5: uses either Brave Lance+ Bold fighter Effie or 69 HP Karel with a 1 charge Vengeance (Ostia Pulse + his personal refine) take the massive hit and retaliate or Bride Lyn
Team 6: uses Shield pulse Raven with heavy blade seal in combination withanother unit in that Team.

Or i just throw Lukas at her

 

23 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Brazen Atk/Spd loses out on Distant Counter, which improves her ability to both set up Wrath and nab a kill at the same time.

Without Distant Counter and when faced with a ranged opponent, she'd need to either let it hit her for free to set up Wrath or kill it for free without setting up Wrath, but getting the kill and getting Wrath set up are mutually exclusive to each other in that case.

Additionally, Brazen Atk/Spd isn't active on the first round of combat, which leaves her vulnerable to failing to double the opponent. If the opponent initiates against her, she will fail to activate Regnal Astra because Ayra's Blade's Flashing Blade effect doesn't affect the opponent's attack. It's not the Spd restriction on Flashing Blade that really matters, but the fact that it doesn't work when taking hits from the opponent. With Slaying Edge, she is guaranteed to activate Regnal Astra on her first counterattack (unless the opponent has Guard). The optional Quickened Pulse also extends that to her first attack when initiating combat for the occasion when she is faced with an opponent she cannot double (Wary Fighter, Basilikos, other fast swords, etc.), though it's usually easier to just tack on Attack +3 or Speed +3 and let them hit you first to charge Wrath and counter with Regnal Astra.

Yet neither of you managed to answer my question.  Nor do either of these have anything to do with ratings.  If you're going to quote me, at least address what I asked.

Edited July 11, 2018 by eclipse