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

[Silverly]

Clair: As many people said, she’s essentially a blue Caeda. Rhomphaia makes her extraordinarily more useful than before, but I hold that Caeda is better suited for the task due to having a better color. Clair misses out on those prevalent axe armors in favor of being effective against lance armors, who aside from Effie  (who can trip her up with wary fighter) aren’t always as guaranteed as their green brethren. In favorable matchups however, she excels decently well. The refinement is also quite useful. 7/10

Faye: The lone wielder of the Firesweep bow, which she makes terrible use out of! Faye is very defensively built with craptacular speed, so she’s best used with a guard bow. She can even make decent use of close counter, though her potential melee matches tend to fare worse than her ranged ones. Shame she only has average attack, and that her only “great” stat overall is her Res. She’s a pretty inflexible unit and expensive to build optimally, but she can do something, I guess. 5/10

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Clair: As many others have said, Clair is basically just like Caeda, except a blue unit and not a red one. Everything I said about Caeda applies to Clair, and I'd give Clair the same rating. 7/10

Abstain from Faye, I haven't summoned her yet.

[Shiki]

Clair: 7.2
Faye: 5.08

Moving on to Tellius.

Ike, Young Mercenary

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
39/42/45
32/35/38
28/31/34
29/32/35
14/18/21

Base Skills:

Ragnell ( Unit can counterattack regardless of foe's range. )
( - )
Aether

Heavy Blade
Swordbreaker
( - )

Titania, Mighty Mercenary

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
34/37/41
24/28/31
31/34/37
22/25/29
26/30/33

Base Skills:

Emerald Axe+
Reciprocal Aid
( - )

Armored Blow
Guard
( - )

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by The Priest

[Etrurian emperor]

Ike is definitely a solid 9. He's a unit with good stats that can usually tank blows and he can heal himself. 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ike - Similar to Ryoma, Ike has been totally powercrept in terms of stats and even his aether skill by his legendary alt. That version of Ike scores higher in Arena and can apply an earth boost as well, so there isn't a compelling reason at all to field this guy over his better counterpart. 6 out of 10. Good on his own merits, but you can't just cruise through life on your DC weapon anymore.

Titania - Still the fastest axe cav if you consider Bride!Marth's low merge level. But it would be very questionable to pick Titania over Spring Alfonse. Alfonse also scores an entire BST tier higher than her as neither the HP nor Def superboon is sensible for her. Titania reaches a very high speed tier for avoiding doubles, and that's crucial for surviving as an anti mage with only 30 Res. She's also packing mild Ploy potential. Might as well make it def ploy, because depending on build, Titania may fail to one shot blue mages if you swapped her emerald axe for something refineable. Titania is probably hurt the most of any character by it being impossible to refine gem weapons since her stat spread doesn't favor any particular weapon choice. 3.5 out of 10.

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

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3.5, 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. And Leo I'd bump up to a 3.

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Glennstavos

[Simpsons138]

Forgive me if I fanboy a little here:

• Ike: HE'S FRIGGING AWESOME!!!!!!, nuff said. But in all honest, comparing him with fellow DC user Ryoma, he has a higher Attack, HP and Defense than him, a powerful special in Aether (can't be Ike without it) and a stronger base kit, even with SI, Ike and Ryoma are tied to be a powerful DC user, only thing Ike lacks aside from a decent speed stat, his resistance is pretty pathetic that even green mages can KO him if they have a special or are in the Desperation range, unless he has Quick Riposte he won't be able to double anything at all, he's a more defense oriented than Ryoma, taking hits and dealing as much as possible, magic units are his only bane, so he's powerful, he didn't got the title "Strongest of All Heroes" for nothing *looks at Brave Ike and Vanguard Ike*, 8/10 but not because of being a fanboy

Gonna abstain from Titania, hadn't got the time to use her much

[Alexmender]

Ike. He has a semi balanced spread with a focus on physical matchups while dumping his Res completely. Ike seen better days for sure. At his release he was one of the best units thanks to his pretty high Atk, above average Spd and Def and Ragnell being a DC weapon. Nowadays that isn't enough to make a unit relevant, his stats have come from great to meh, his Atk is still high and his Def is still above average but his Spd has become troublesome as it is too low to double and yet is too high to use as a dump stat. The rise of dragons also make his awful Res more glaring and the release of L!Ike which is a straight up better version has left PoR!Ike in the dust as he has no niche to offer compared to his RD counterpart. He still works well as a physical tank but Hinata is more min-maxed in this aspect. He really needs some help to become relevant because DC in-built isn't doing him any favors with that craptastic Res. Ike isn't without merits however, he can make good use of skills like Steady Breath and become a solid physical tank (although he is still outclassed by RD Ike in this...). 

Rating: 3.5/10. I'd rate Ike higher but he really is in that "Desperately needs help" tier. His Steady Breath build alone would put him at a 5.5 but being outclassed to the point of "why bother when better Ike exists" hurts him badly.

Titania. Out of all the axe cavaliers she's the one with the best Res and also the one with the worst Atk. This means that she'll fare better against mages but will falter everywhere else (she can tank dragons but those tend to be too bulky making Titania just a wall until they Bonfire her). With the right investment she'll be able to easily dispatch every blue mage and fragile lancer in the game but that's about it. The other cavs are also able to do the same in the PP with a Brave Axe+ and considering that horses prefer to be on the offensive most of the time this puts Titania in a rough spot. She's decent but her playstyle isn't that useful in the current meta.

Rating: 4/10

[kirauza343]

Ike: Oh how the mighty have fallen. He's not a bad unit by any means (lord knows I got a lot of mileage out of him since he was one of my first 5*s), but at this point he's a bit outclassed. 35 atk is good, but that 31 speed isn't doing him any favors with all the strong and fast swords around. Inherent distant counter is nice, but his resistance means it doesn't really help much against mages. Add in the fact that his own alt completely outclasses him and you have a character who is good, just not great anymore. Rating: 6.5/10

Titania: Titania's a weird one for me. On paper, she's a bit lackluster: low attack, decent speed, lowish defense and hp, and pretty good resistance wrapped up in horse bst. She could be a decent mage counter if you have a spare Hector for distant counter (and is the only axe cavalry capable of it...after her 30 resistance the next highest is 20, and that's from Groom!Marth). In practice though I've found her to be very useful when combined with horse buffs and/or a refinable weapon. She has the advantage of being one of only 3 axe cavaliers in the general pool and easily fits into a role of her own instead of trying to beat them at theirs. Rating: 6.5/10 (okay, I know it's weird giving her the same rating as Ike but I do feel like the lack of competition for her role helps her a lot (while infantry swords are a dime a dozen). I can go back and revise it though if it seems too off).

[Xenomata]

Ike

Spoiler

Oh Ike, how times have changed, in most cases not exactly for the best...

The good must come first. Overall, Ike's a pretty good unit. Good Attack, average enough Speed that some units can't double him, good Defense, useless Resistance typical on pretty much all units now, and HP that's high enough to enable Infantry Rush on more glass cannon-y allies, but not high enough that it enables him to trigger Panic Ploy on many others.

His base kit is at least workable from the start. Ragnell enabling counterattacks regardless of distance is not to be underestimated, and Swordbreaker means Ike will more than likely kill any swords that try to attack him. Heavy Blade, while not exactly a common A passive, is still notable and worth considering in some cases. Aether, the signature of Ike, is potentially deadly and a solid Special to bring, though Ike comes with Luna as the per-requisite, which is just as solid an option as any.

Replacing Swordbreaker with Quick Riposte or Vantage are both solid options, as Ike has the raw power to potentially kill on retaliation regardless of which he triggers. Most other A passives can replace Heavy Blade, such as Fury or Steady Breath. Ragnell is solid enough of a weapon that Ike may actually prefer keeping it over taking something with more potential.

What hits Ike the worst, even besides having low Resistance that means he won't last long against mages, being just slow enough that many common threats will be able to outspeed him, and Aether taking a long time to charge for how often Ike is allowed to attack outside of Heavy Blade, is that Ike has been powercreeped... by growing a little older. Yep, Legendary Ike is better in just about every way, at the minor cost of being a little slower and being a little less HP gifted, but he even has a faster charging version of Aether as his personal skill. If you are forced to pick between the two Ikes, normal Ike has very few advantages over the Vanguard Legend.

But Ike is still a solid unit. Outdone yes, but he is still good.

Rating: 7/10 Ike has many of the advantages of a solid DC weapon unit. Good Attack and Defense, solid enough Speed, only offset by bad Resistance. But Ike is in direct, very one-sided competition with his Legendary counterpart, and his default Aether doesn't synergize well with his more defensive statspread, weapon, unit type, and default A Passive. Heck no, none of those are reasons not to use him, even if his superior version is... free to... get...

 

Titania

Spoiler

Titania is her own Axe Cavalry unit.

Relatively decent Speed and Resistance, below-average Attack, not that great Defense, and average HP all go somewhat uniquely with her default Emerald Axe, letting her take on Blue Manaketes and deal with Lances somewhat decently. Armored Blow means she won't be taking damage from them on player phase, while Guard means they can't charge their specials (doesn't stop special triggers, just special charges).

Titania's decent Res can actually be used to counter Blue Mages, including the likes of Reinhardt, if she is given Distant Counter. This makes her a pretty valuable, if expensive, unit to have around for those cases, as the majority of actual Blue Mage counters don't exactly have the Res potential that Titania has.

Titania, like I said, is her own unit, as such she doesn't exactly directly compare to other Axe Cavalry, of which the only (real) rival was Frederick. Still, her below average attack and shoddy defense means she isn't built to take on neutral encounters that well, and her Res isn't high enough to consider letting her be a full-on mage counter.

A decent unit when built right, overall.

Rating: 6.5/10 Titania fulfills a unique niche, with the Resistance and default weapon to counter Blue Mages pretty well. Her Attack and Defense both don't let her dual melee units all that well, but she can still dual lances perfectly fine. Overall, not the most spectacular of units, but still worthy of any praise she does get given.

[Rafiel's Aria]

(You can feel free to disregard my rating for Ike if you think it's too biased. I'm not entirely sure I trust myself to be unbiased, especially in regards to Ike. But I figured I'd go ahead and write this up anyway.)

Ike - He was top-notch when he first came out. And then both of his alts ended up being better than him. One of his alts is basically just "better Ike." With decent bulk and attack as well as built in DC, he does well with an enemy phase build and some Quick Riposte. Vantage is also a perfectly fine skill to inherit. There was a time in the meta where if you didn't kill the DC+Vantage unit the first time around, you were screwed. But with more Firesweep Weapons and Razzle Dazzle healers, there are more ways around that problem. Even his SPD is in an area where you can patch it up with the right skills. With +ATK and Heavy Blade, he can proc Aether quicker but at the cost of running a better A skill like Steady/Warding Breath or even something like Fury. (He can still run Heavy Blade in his S-Slot however.) Unfortunately, his terrible RES makes countering even green mages difficult for him, especially if he takes a RES bane. I'm going to give him a 6.5/10. He's relatively easy to build, especially since his base kit isn't that bad and skills like Vantage aren't expensive. He doesn't have access to theme team buffs or special movement. He can run several different natures pretty well. But when one of his alts is completely free, and another is potentially free, it's hard to justify rating him much higher, especially since his better builds require him to use skills from his alts.

 

Titania - She benefits from not having much competition in terms of her color/class. While a lot of axe cavs lean towards slow, bulky builds, she leans towards the other end of the spectrum. With great RES and decent SPD, she wants to run more effective player phase builds, but she unfortunately suffers from mediocre ATK and DEF. With her native Emerald Axe, her blue match-ups aren't too bad, but she would much rather be tanking magical hits than physical hits. With DC, she's a monster, taking very little damage from common blue threats like the Reinhardt himself. Unfortunately, her low ATK means she has trouble running a good Brave Build, but the Slaying Axe is still an option to help her proc a RES based special sooner. Horse buffs help to patch up some of her stats, and the extra movement is always valuable. (But once again, there are still many maps with dangerous terrain for horses.) I'll give her a 7/10. Her DC build is expensive, but she runs it well. She thrives on horse teams, and not having a lot of competition helps her out a bit. Her builds aren't as flexible since we're still lacking a lot of axe resources in the current pool. 

[LordFrigid]

Ike

• Stat line focused on physical aspects, with good Atk, decent Def, ok Spd, and poor Res.
  • Ragnell (built-in Distant Counter) is a solid defensive weapon.
  • Mediocre matchups on the offense, as he does not have a very good Spd stat.
  • Very strong green, passable red matchups on the enemy phase with a standard Steady Breath set. He usually takes pretty low damage from axes, but his low Res stat means he will take a lot of damage from mages and dragons.
• He has some Panic ploy capability with his HP stat, but can otherwise only provide basic field/combat buff support with his C/seal slots.

Overall, I give him 7 for combat (very strong green, passable red matchups on the enemy phase), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, some Panic ploy capability), for a total rating of 6.5/10.

Titania

• Magically bulky stat line with good Spd, decent Res, and low Atk and Def.
  • Strong blue, mediocre green matchups on offense with either a Giant Spoon+/Moonbow or Beach Banner+ set when Hone Cavalry is active.
  • Strong blue, mediocre green matchups on defense with a Slaying Axe+/DC set with full Cavalry buffs. She's probably better off just checking blues with her default Emerald Axe+, I was not really a fan of some of the damage numbers I saw coming out of Lance units.
• As a cavalry unit, she can provide cavalry field/combat buffs to her allies. She has some stat ploy capability with her decent Res.

Overall, I give her 6 for combat (strong blue, mediocre green matchups on either phase), and 1.5 for support (cavalry field/combat buff, stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 6/10.

~

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]

Ike: Even though he's been power-crept by his two better versions, he's still a good unit in his own right. He's not limited like Legendary Ike, and he'll fulfill a different color need than Brave Ike. He comes with some good skills, or you can edit him however you want! I don't think he's the BEST sword-user, but he's pretty good. 7/10

Titania: She's okay. Not amazing, but okay. She has good speed and resistance, but doesn't really have much bulk and doesn't seem to hit as hard as other axe units. She's a great counter for blue units, though, and she can make an excellent blue mage killer! 5/10

[MacLovin]

Ike-I literally just pulled him and like

Haven't raised him, but he seems to be solid as fuck. Easily investable for the future and whatnot with a wide variety of builds from breaths to DC, to whatever you want.

8/10 totally solid unit.

Titania gets a 7/10. There's not a lotta axe-cavalry and she at least serves a more unique role than the other two non-limited ones in mage-killing. Let her have her emerald axe+ or give her a slaying axe+ with refinement and then slap DC on her (if you're lucky enough) and watch her eat all the blue mages alive.

She's also the sexiest damn Oifaye/Jeigan in the game and is really easy to pull for a merge project.  The only bad thing about her is the mediocre attack stat. 

there's about half a point of bias here too

[eclipse]

Ike - 35 Atk on a DC unit is pretty good.  32 Def means that he can bait a good number of bows and get away with it (a Brave Bow unit needs 53 Atk to OHKO him. . .or 46 Atk without the bow. . .40 sans Death Blow, 36/34 depending on the attack buff. . .yeah, this is why I gave so many archers crap about their Atk).  Alternately, if said Brave Bow user can get up to 36 speed, they'll quad attack. . .but again, that's 41 base speed before Brave Bow (or they can just run Swordbreaker).  Theorycrafting aside, his speed's a bit on the low side, and his Res is something that shouldn't be invoked if possible.  He can run the ultra-cheesy Vantage/QR combo, and make it work thanks to innate Aether.  IMO still pretty solid, and Heavy Blade is just icing on the cake.  I know his legendary version is free, but I use him for slightly different things.  8.5/10

Titania - 28 base Atk is rather worrying, but she has 34 speed to back it up.  Her 30 neutral Res is surprisingly good, and the highest among green cavalry.  Combine that with the Emerald Axe she gets, and she can safely swat blue mages away with DC.  Other than a blue counter, there isn't much else she can do (though her innate Guard screams "troll Reinhardt").  She really wants to be +Atk.  6.5/10

EDIT: Right, the QR seal.  Derp.

Edited June 26, 2018 by eclipse

[Shiki]

Titania 7.5/10
What I said about Anna pretty much applies to Titania. The big advantage she has over her is being a Cavalier which gives her access to class buffs and being more mobile still has its perks. She is more than serviceable as a mage killer and unlike Anna she can be built with mixed bulk in mind.

[Karimlan]

• Ike - slow, packs a punch, allows for options on B and S slots (Vantage/QR, as @eclipse mentioned). DC built in weapon, freeing A slot up for other things. Can heal self with Special. Laughs at archers who pack piddly attack and/or not have Brave Bow. Can still serve a purpose on one's team, even if RD!Ike is readily available. 7/10
• Titania - Good res, pitiful attack. Guard will frustrate Special-happy characters. Readily available for merges. 6/10

[Shiki]

Ike: 6.96
Titania: 5.95

I want to remind everyone that having a better base kit or needing expensive SI should not affect your unit rating. In some posts it isn't necessarily clear if you are taking this into account.

Soren, Shrewd Strategist

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
33/36/40
30/33/36
30/33/36
13/17/20
25/29/32

Base Skills:

Wind's Brand ( At start of turn, inflicts Atk-7 on foe on the enemy team with the highest Atk through its next action. )
( - )
Growing Wind

( - )
Watersweep
Fortify Res

Mist, Helpful Sister

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
35/39/42
24/27/31
24/28/31
17/20/23
31/34/37

Base Skills:

Slow+
Recover+
Miracle

( - )
( - )
Spur Def/Res

 

[eclipse]

Soren - Unlike Alm, he can make a case for Watersweep.  But he'd rather double his opponent anyway.  Innate Chill Atk on Wind's Brand is excellent.  He won't be quite as blast-happy as Nino, but that's okay.  33/33 is still workable, since he hits Res (and a Speed boon just makes it sweeter).  Lower Res than Titania (how), but can still duel blue mages (along with most green mages) and get away with it.  A rather amusing mage bait troll build is +Spd, Darting Stance, and Dull Ranged, which allows him to survive every vanilla blue/green mage.  Without Darting Stance, Pega-Nino doubles.  Without Dull Ranged, Ishtar can kill him if she's under her own buff.  8/10, because Chill Atk is amazing.

Mist - Take Wrys, sacrifice a wee bit of magical tankiness, and make his offensive stats better, and that's Mist.  Slow is great for taking enemies down a few notches, and Miracle's better off being replaced by Imbue.  Maria has the same Atk stat, but makes up for it with a really good Spd stat.  Mist is liable to be doubled.  She can work as a mass-debuffing bot with dual Ploys and her default staff. . .but that takes some careful positioning.  Can be situationally hilarious, but IMO there's better options.  4/10

Edited June 26, 2018 by eclipse

[MacLovin]

Soren gets a 7/10

He's solid, his weapon is solid, and he can serve as fodder for a rare-ish skill or as a decent green mage on a budget. (If you somehow hate Nino, you monster)

chill att is good to.

Mist is like a shitty lachesis but with a niche staff in slow+. But then she's like a fucking 5* lock so why the fuck is she not in the bronze pool?

3/10

[Alexmender]

Soren. He has a semi balanced spread with above average Atk/Spd/Res and terrible Def. Soren used to be outclassed by Nino and Julia as his spread is one of an offensive unit with enough Res to tank magic hits but he was totally middle of the road compared to the other two. Thankfully the weapon refinery granted him a unique niche as a Chill debuffer thanks to his new Weapon Wind Brand having Chill Atk in-built. This can be further refined to get an Owl tome effect, which is pretty good but not so much with Soren stat spread. In any case, Soren has chosen to take the role of an offensive support and he is quite good at this, he may not be at the level of Nino or Deirdre but he is pretty good at what he does.

Rating: 5/10

Mist. She has high Res and....that's it. She is less min-maxed than Wrys and although she has a salvageable Atk stat it isn't enough to make her good as she's both slow and physically frail. As a healer she can use the ever reliable Dazzling Pain+ with double Savage Blow to do massive amounts of chip damage but her stats hinder her from using other types of staves that require an Atk stat to work. Guess her main job nowadays is to be the worst pity breaker one can find if one decided to summon on colorless stones.

Rating: 2/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Soren - Green tomes are a pretty cutthroat arena. If you don't have a niche, then you better hope your stats are competitive. Soren's got a very typically average stat line for this class. But they did give him a personal weapon. That's great since he's barely competitive with any other weapon choice. Wind's Brand has Chill Attack and the Owl effect upon refinement. Neither of these are incredible, and his Def is too low to be a close counter tank like Boey. You don't decide who gets debuffed when it comes to chill skills, it can potentiall be a guy in the back rather than the enemies in front. 4 out of 10. Fun to use, but questionably viable over other picks.

Mist - Wrys with a bit more speed is still pretty terrible. And I'd rather use Wrys when I know any self-respecting mage will double me since his magical bulk is quite high. Mist will not survive any engagements with any variety of enemy in high tier arena settings. Though I will rank her higher than Lissa just because of the higher than average ploy potential. 2.5 out of 10. A walking reminder that we need 5 star demotions.

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

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3.5, 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. And Leo I'd bump up to a 3.

 

[Hilda]

Soren: his new weapon... hmm depending of the Team composition. Its like Boey on speed crack and with high enough attack. Its not excellent but with the right Team behind it it can work wonders. On stand alone though he kinda suffers without a Corrin/Marth etc and Res/def spurs. especially against Armor units because speed doesnt matter to them. 7/10

[Ice Dragon]

With only one stack of Wind's Brand, Soren has only 1 less Spd than Nino, but 5 more Res (and the same Def), and one stack isn't hard to set up on player phase.

I don't see how his low Def matters when using Litrowl's effect. People seem to forget that Litrowl also boosts Atk, Spd, and Res.

He's not as good as Nino is in general, but he's at least better at baiting blue tomes than she is, and he can actually activate Moonbow in one round of combat (if he doesn't die to a physical counterattack, but he has more physical bulk than Nino).

[Xenomata]

Soren

Spoiler

The similarities to Nino are quite noticable. In exchange for lower Speed and Defense, Soren boasts slightly better Resistance and HP than his young Elibian counterpart. As a result, Soren is able to do decent damage, outspeed a decent number of enemies, and take a decent number of magical hits.

Before his update, his base kit wasn't among the best, but it could still be usable on the cheap. Rexcalibur+ is just a Silver Weapon+, but Growing Wind has a good range of AoE and damage. Watersweep isn't a very stellar skill, and unlike Alm it doesn't synergize at all with his update. Fortify Res is just Fortify Res, extra Res not complaining here.

Using him with a Gronnblade set as you would Nino was typically all it took for him to be good, since the two are practically the same unit. You know, Fury Desperation Glimmer/Moonbow, the typical with a Bladetome set.

Now though, Wind's Brand grants Chill Atk to Soren, nerfing the strongest enemy unit by -7 atk. And it can be upgraded into a legendary Owl tome if so desired.

Soren may not have the Defense to take... well, any hits even after getting boosted by the Owltome effect, but his other stats become much better as a result of being near allies. It may not be as offensive a set as Gronnblade, and for some may not even replace it at all, but it makes Soren into a more Magic tanking unit, reaching a potential 40 neutral nature Res if he runs with Atk/Res Bond, while still being quite fast at 36 with a +Speed boon that becomes 42 with full Owl support. That's not even getting into any Spurs/Drives/Ally Support bonuses he can also receive.

The negatives, in review, are not that uncommon for his kind, being low on Defense and running into trouble dualing DC Berkut Lance units. A side effect of going with Wind's Brand is that his Player Phase ability is much weaker than if he went with Gronnblade, and his Resistance/Defense means even if he does run with as much Res as he can, he is still taking a solid chunk of damage if his target wasn't nerfed by Chill Atk.

As a side note, while Soren CAN run a separate Chill B passive along with Wind's Brand's Chill Atk effect, it's not likely he will target the same unit with both Chills.

So while being the same as Nino, Soren can run his own game quite well. He may not have the same defensive potential as other Owltome users, but he can certainly match them in Resistance.

Rating: 7.5/10 Soren can run one of two ways: A Gronnblade set that is weaker than Nino but still a Gronnblade set, or a Wind's Brand set that focuses more on absorbing hits while near his allies. Either one works with Soren's statline, but he needs to still keep an eye on if there are Physical enemies nearby, as his Defense remains a problem on all ends.

 

Mist

Spoiler

Mist is... hard to say good things about.

Ignoring that she is a 5* unit, her statspread is downright painful to look at. The same below-average attack as some other healers, but with the speed equal to +Spd Lachesis. Her Defense is unusable, and her Resistance is... decent, but without many ways to increase it enough to mean anything. Her HP is needlessly average.

Her base kit is kinda bad, which in my opinion matters because staff units only have 3 staves they could ever want to use, and Mist has none of them in favor of Slow+. While it's not necessarily a bad support staff, it seems to be trying to fix the issue of Mist's low Speed when this doesn't do anything to solve the problem. Miracle isn't fast charging enough on Mist's low Speed to make enough difference for her, though it does at least let her survive one strong hit, which she WILL need. Spur Def/Res is a decent Spur skill, and the first dual-Spur skill we ever had, and Recover+ is the strongest source of healing in the game, which are the only good things about her kit, and neither of them actually help Mist.

Building her is hard, because bother her Attack and Speed are too low to go for a nuking set, and her Res is wasted when she can never achieve color advantage. The problems that Healers face are especially bad here, because Mist can't learn many skills that will help her survive attacks or improve her attacking ability, perhaps beyond Distant Defense letting her take Magic better.

Mist is, despite all the above, one of the more ready supportive units in the game. Recover+ and Spur Def/Res both help her team survive much better than most other healers can boast, and Slow+ actually enables her team to double the enemy. Her Damage output remains not that great, but on the other hand she doesn't have to run the expensive Wrathful Staff, and can run Guard instead, slowing the enemy down without enabling their Doubles (assuming no Steady Breath/Vengeful Fighter). Going the expensive Pain route can also offset her low direct damage output, going instead for Chip damage, though others can run the same set with much better DDO.

Overall, I do not feel Mist deserves to be a 5* unit. She can be a good support unit, but this doesn't help herself directly and enables her team more than it does herself.

Rating: 5/10 Mist's direct combat ability is shoddy, with bad Attack and Speed leaving her many steps behind other healers. She is able to enable her team to sweep the enemy however, with Slow nerfing the enemy overall, but I don't find this a point in Mist's favor when she has to get so close to the enemy with her shoddy defensive ability (that's her physical defense, her Resistance is decent enough). Miracle helps this, but it doesn't charge fast enough on her bad Speed. Overall, she's support and a lot little of much else.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I'll have to abstain. I haven't promoted Soren so I don't know how his refinement changes him, and I haven't summoned Mist.