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

[LordFrigid]

Soren

• Offense focused stat line, featuring decent Atk, Spd, and Res, and poor Def.
  • Wind's Brand (built-in Chill Atk 3) is a solid support weapon. Its effect refinement (Atk/Spd/Def/Res+2 per adjacent ally during combat)
  • Capable user of Gronnblade, with very strong blue and strong green matchups on offense. He is, however, buff-dependent with this set. He also has very strong blue, and mediocre green matchups with a Wind's Brand offense set that is not buff dependent. Sustainability with Desperation.
  • He can run a Close Counter set like other -owl tome users on the enemy phase (strong blue, mediocre green matchups), but his Def is not optimized for a defensive set, making it highly unsustainable.
• He has some stat ploy capability with his decent Res stat. If used, Wind's Brand is used, he will also be able to provide debuff support.

Overall, I give him 8 for combat (very strong blue, strong green offense matchups), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, ploy capability), for a total rating of 7.5/10.

Mist

• Magically bulky stat line, featuring good Res, and low Atk, Spd, and Def.
  • Poor KO capability on either phase, but cannot be counterattacked on the player phase, and can take a tome hit or two on the enemy phase.
• She can provide heal, status staff, ploy, and basic field/combat buff support to her allies.

Overall, I give her 2 for combat (poor KO power, but cannot be counterattacked on the player phase), and 3 for support (healing, status staff, ploy, basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 3/10.

~

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.

Edited June 27, 2018 by LordFrigid

[XRay]

Cool, Mist is up. I am hoping my formulas would give her around 4, since I think that is where she belongs. Maybe she will be 3 if her combat performance is really crap.

I abstain my vote on Mist. If I find Mist's scoring to be acceptable, then I think I will stop abstaining and resume voting in the next round.

Her combat performance is absolute crap, so I think she may deserve a 3. I think I will need to adjust the combat formulas a little bit more. Her score is acceptable, but I think I will need a little more fine tuning in my formulas, so I think my formulas will be ready by the next, next round.

Here is how my criteria are rated:

Spoiler

Mobility:
Armor units are 0/10. Infantry units are 5/10. Cavalry units are 8/10. Flying units are 9/10. Units with unique mobility skills will bump up their score.
Range:
Melee units are 0/10. Distant Counter Weapon melee units are 5/10. Ranged units are 10/10.
Player Phase General Performance (Raw):
This is based on the W:L:I ratio. Enemies will have a set up of +5, +Spd, Moonbow, and Fury. The unit will be +0, may not use Breakers, and will not have Chills or Ploys activate. Units may have access to buffs (usually, +4 to any two stats for infantry and armors, and 6/6/0/0 or 0/0/6/6 for cavalry and fliers). I would also list the build used to achieve that ratio. I think the following formula is pretty reasonable:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Raw Performance
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted):
Since most units can get a raw performance score of at least 5, setting 5 as 0 for the weighted performance makes more sense in judging how good a unit is.
(Raw Performance - 5) * 2 = Weighted Performance
Player Phase General Performance (Independence):
This just means how reliant the unit is on buffs. If I take off the buffs and the unit still performs pretty well, they will get a good score. The formula is that same as the raw performance:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Independence
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
This is pretty much the same as general performance, except I take out certain classes of enemies. I will generally take two of the following classes of enemies out: Red, Blue, Green, Colorless, Melee, Ranged, Physical, Magical. Melee units I am testing will generally have ranged enemies taken out and vice versa. Units will also have the color that they are weak against taken out; colorless units usually would not have any color taken out, although they may have physical or magical enemies taken out.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Player Phase Performance:
I consolidate the above scores into one score. If I took more than 2 classes out in the adjusted section, each additional class taken out will reduce the Adjusted Performance by 1 point. Likewise, if I took 1 or 0 classes out, the unit will receive an additional 1 or 2 points.
(Weighted General * 0.8) + (Raw General * 0.1) + (Independence General * 0.1) =  General Performance
(Weighted Adjusted * 0.8) + (Raw Adjusted * 0.1) + (Independence Adjusted * 0.1) - [Classes Taken Out] + [Classes Added In] = Adjusted Performance
(General Performance + Adjusted Performance) * 0.5 = Player Phase Performance
Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Performance:
See Above.
Ease of Use:
This is an average of the mobility and range scores.
Performance:
This is just Player Phase performance or Enemy Phase performance, whichever is higher.
Support:
Most units by default will be 0/10. Units with 30+ Res start from 1/10. Debuffers (dagger, staff, and breath units) start from 1/10. Healers (staff units and units with access to healing skills like Recover Ring) start from 1/10. Buffers start from 3/10. Fliers start from 4/10. Dancers/Singers start from 5/10. Other unique support skills may further boost their score.
Other:
If the unit has some unique application or fun build, it will be noted here.

Familiarity/Experience:
This just means how familiar I am with this particular unit or type of unit in Arena. If it is a low number, that means you should take the following rating number with a grain of salt since I do not have much experience with this particular unit and/or type of unit.
Rating:
The rating is how good I think a unit is. Here is how I weigh each criterion:
Ease of Use 4/10
Performance: 5/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Ease of Use 3/10
Performance: 6/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Ease of Use 2/10
Performance: 7/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Notes:
1. A unit's build in raw performance will not take into account a unit's support build, Raven build, or any other builds. Likewise, a unit's ease of use, support, and other criteria will not take into account the unit's raw performance build.
2. The build used in raw/weighted performance might not be the build with the best score. If there is an alternative build with a slightly less performance but much higher independence, that build will be used instead.
3. Axe and dagger versions of Wo Dao are not available in the regular summoning pool yet, but I think they will be added in the future, so I am using Giant Spoon and Lethal Carrot.

Experimental Stuff:

Revised Ease of Use #1:

Movement

1 Movement = 0
2 Movement = 2
3 Movement = 3
Go on Trenches = +0.5
Unimpeded by Trenches = +0.5
Go on Forests = +0.5
Unimpeded by Forests =+0.5
Go on Obstacles = +0.5
Unimpeded by Obstacles = +0.5
Exclusive Movement Effects = +1

Armor = 2 = 0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5
Infantry = 3.5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5 = 3.5
Cavalry = 3.5 = 3+0.5 = 3.5
Flier = 5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5

Weapon Range:

Melee = 0
Distant Counter = 2
Ranged = 4

Revised Ease of Use #2:

Melee Armor = 0
Ranged Armor = 3
Melee Infantry = 5
Ranged Infantry = 7
Melee Cavalry = 5
Ranged Cavalry = 8
Melee Flier = 7
Ranged Flier = 9

Disclosures:
I have a strong bias for non-armor Player Phase ranged units. My experience with melee and armor units in Arena is pretty minimal, so my rating for them is mostly based on theory. My Arena core consists of BH!Lyn, Reinhardt, and Olivia. I am usually in Tier 20, but I may drop to Tier 19 if I do not fish for points.

Other:

Spoiler

Template

— — — — — — — ◆Red◆ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ◾Blue◾ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ⬟Green⬟ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ●Colorless● — — — — — — —

Mobility: /10
Range: /10
Player Phase Raw Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Weighted Performance: /10
Player Phase Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Raw Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: /10
Enemy Phase Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]

Ease of Use: /10
Performance: /10
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10

Summary:

_______ got bad/okay/good/stellar combat performance.

She/He can the support the team with Ploys.

She/He can support the team with daggers/Light Breath and Dark Breath.

She/He is a great mobility support unit as a flier.

She/He can also run Firesweep-Hit and Run as a flier unit.

She/He can run a Firesweep-Poison Strike-Poison Strike.

She/He can run Wrathful Staff-Dazzling Staff to emulate Firesweep archers.

She/He can run a Raven set.

— — — — — — — ◆Red◆ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ◾Blue◾ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ⬟Green⬟ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ●Colorless● — — — — — — —

Mobility: /10
Range: /10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Performance: /10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Performance: /10

Ease of Use: /10
Ease of Use 1: 2|3.5|5|||4|5.5|7|||6|7.5|9 /10
Ease of Use 2: 0|3|5|7|8|9 /10
Performance: /10
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10
Rating 1: /10
Rating 2: /10

Summary:

_______ got bad/okay/good/stellar combat performance.

She/He can the support the team with Ploys.

She/He can support the team with daggers/Light Breath and Dark Breath.

She/He is a great mobility support unit as a flier.

She/He can also run Firesweep-Hit and Run as a flier unit.

She/He can run a Firesweep-Poison Strike-Poison Strike.

She/He can run Wrathful Staff-Dazzling Staff to emulate Firesweep archers.

She/He can run a Raven set.

 

— — — — — — — ●Mist● — — — — — — —

Mobility: 5/10
Range: 10/10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): 1.25/10 — 33:0:230
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): 0/10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): 0.08/10 — 2:0:261
[+Spd, -Def, Slow [Dazzling Staff], Atk/Spd Push, Wrathful Staff, Speed +3, 4/4/0/0]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw): 1.25/10 — 33:0:230
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted): 0/10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence): 0.08/10 — 2:0:261
[+Spd, -Def, Slow [Dazzling Staff], Atk/Spd Push, Wrathful Staff, Speed +3, 4/4/0/0]
Player Phase Performance: 1.13/10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): 0.16/10 — 48:175:40
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): 0/10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): 0/10 — 23:191:49
[+Atk, -Def, Slow [Wrathful Staff], Atk/Res Bond, Quick Riposte, Attack +3, 4/0/0/4]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Melee/Physical): 5.99/10 — 48:5:25
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Melee/Physical): 1.99/10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Melee/Physical): 2.28/10 — 23:21:34
[+Atk, -Def, Slow [Wrathful Staff], Atk/Res Bond, Quick Riposte, Attack +3, 4/0/0/4]
Enemy Phase Performance: 1.22/10

Ease of Use: 7.5/10
Performance: 1.22/10
Support: 3/10
Other: 0/10

Familiarity/Experience: 0/10
Rating: 4/10

Summary:

She got bad combat performance. She can the support the team with Ploys, staff debuffs, and healing.

[Shiki]

Soren 7/10
Even before his refinement Soren could distinguish himself a bit from Nino by being able to survive a QP!Moonbow Reinhardt with buffs (though just by a hair). Now with his new weapon and refinement he can truly dedicate himself to being a mage tank. Having a glorified -owl tome wouldn't great alone but coupled with an approriate Chill effect and the Bonds skill he can become quite respectable and has the added niche of being a very good debuff bot.

[Shiki]

Soren: 6.63
Mist: 3.75

And back to Valentia.

Celica, Caring Priestess

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
35/39/42
29/32/35
30/33/36
19/22/25
19/22/25

Base Skills:

Ragnarok ( At start of combat, if unit's HP = 100%, grants Atk/Spd+5, but after combat, if unit attacked, deals 5 damage to unit. )
( - )
Blazing Light

Distant Def
( - )
Spur Def

Mae, Bundle of Energy

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
32/35/39
33/36/39
28/31/34
12/16/19
26/30/33

Base Skills:

Blárowl+
Draw Back
( - )

( - )
Desperation
Blue Tome Exp

 

Edited July 1, 2018 by The Priest

[Alexmender]

Celica. Her stat spread focuses on Atk/Spd with above average Hp and terrible Def/Res. Celica was one of the strongest nukes for a long time thanks to her Prf Ragnarok which had a beta Atk/Spd Push built-in making her pretty powerful and fast during her first round of combat. Nowadays Celica suffers a bit thanks to Lilina being better as a nuke and B!Tharja being better as a sweeper, this doesn't mean that Celica is bad as she's still able to deal tons of damage with her Ragnarok. Don't expect Celica to tank hits though, her defenses are bad to the point she'll get 2RKO by almost everything and her middling Spd means that the new faster threats will ORKO her with ease. 

Rating: 7/10

Mae. She has pretty high Atk and Res, middling Spd and Hp and practically no Def. Mae has one of the highest Atk stats for blue mages in the game which makes her one of the few Blárblade+ nukes. Mae also has a pretty good Res which lets her use Ploy skills if she decides to use a skill like Fury to further bolster it, otherwise all she has is her high Atk. And that leads us to the main issue of Mae, she's practically a less Min-maxed Delthea, they share the same Atk but Delthea has higher Spd/Res in exchange of Hp/Def. Mae's main advantage is availability which means she'll be able to match Delthea with a +Spd -Def nature which shouldn't be hard to get. While her Spd is troublesome it can be patched up with skills like L&D, Swift Sparrow, etc, etc. She may not be in the same league as premier mages like Linde/Ishtar but Mae will do a good job covering your blue mage needs if you invest into her.

Rating: 6/10

Edited June 27, 2018 by Alexmender

[eclipse]

Celica - Her base stats are a little deceptive, thanks to Ragnarok.  Her first attack will be at 37/38, which blows everyone not named Katarina out of the water (and Katarina needs to initiate).  After that massive first attack, she goes back down to 32/33, which is base Katarina/Tharja numbers (minus one speed).  If she ever gets back up to full health, she'll be right back to those really high numbers.  It's a silly gimmick, but she has the stats to back it up.  Doesn't really need a team built around her, but would like a staffbot for full giggles.  7.5/10

Mae - WTF, she's tied for the highest attack among blue mages.  +Spd turns her into Delthea with a worse tome.  But unlike Delthea, she's 31 speed at neutral, which is kind of meh.  BUT if she gets that boon, she becomes a very threatening offensive mage, who can also bait things thanks to her good Res.  -owl just makes her bulkier.  Works nicely as a -blade mage, since she really wants to be buffed anyway.  7/10, but only because she's reliant on her boon.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Celica - Now that Ragnarok's effect exists as an improved passive skill (Atk/Spd Push), expect her weapon to get a refinement one day. Possibly soon. Of course combining the effects of these skills I think gives Celica some much needed relevance. +10Atk and +10 Speed for just 6 damage recoil is quite good. And unlike fury the effect stipulates she must attack in order to get recoil damage. Celica is still frail to all forms of attack and has no ploy potential, but I think she's re-earned her place among red tomes. 7 out of 10. Thank god for the recent summer banner, I was gonna get crucified for rating her 5.5.

Mae - very underrated blue mage in the OHKO meta thanks to the 36 attack. Lute and Delthea match it, but they have personal tomes meant to provide extra utility. In that respect, Mae does come up a bit short when damage is all she's great at. 6.5 out of 10. Did you know she can cast Thunder?

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

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 27, 2018 by Glennstavos

[Xenomata]

Celica

Spoiler

A different type of Red Mage nuke, to be sure.

Celica does not have as high an Attack or Speed stat as other nukes, in fact they can be considered quite average by default. Her defensive stats also aren't really high enough to warrant building off of, despite Celica coming with Distant Defense. Blazing Light as her special isn't exactly stellar either.

Ragnarok, on the other hand, is what makes Celica into a Red Mage nuke. Boosting her Attack and Speed by 5 when her HP is 100% and inflicting damage afterwards, it's basically the original form of what we now know as Atk/Spd Push, but this turns an originally somewhat average Attack and Speed stat into a much better of both.

If Celica has enough Speed, she can run with Fury 3 to take enough after-combat damage to immediately enter Desperation territory, or she can run with Life and Death 3 and Renewal to be as fast and powerful as possible as often as possible. Any special works, Glimmer may be the one that grants the most potential damage.

What plagues Celica as a Red Mage Nuke is that without Ragnarok's effect, she'd be quite average. Being able to enter Desperation range is neat, but working off of 33 base Spd is a bit slower than some of the more popular RMNs, even if it can get to be somewhat high with speed stacking.

Overall, a good Red Mage Nuke, but times have brought more and more good RMN's and... well, more Red Mages in general. Celica still has a place among them, thankfully.

Rating: 7.5/10 Celica is deadly in her first battle, and can be a potent force in multiple ways all revolving around Ragnarok. But without the boost from Ragnarok, she may as well be wielding a ranged Silver weapon with average stats. Keeping her nice and healthy is the way to go, or keeping her in Desperation range after just one battle is another way to go.

 

Mae

Spoiler

Mae does not conform to the same rules as other Blue Mage Nukes. First off, she is not that fast. Not saying she is slow, but 31 base speed is really not that high. Second off, her Attack is 36 at base, which can become 39 with a +Atk nature. That's it for differences, her Res is average, her Defense is going to be superbaned anyways, and her HP lets her be triggered by ally infantry rushers.

Desperation is a little odd on her, since her Speed doesn't let her outspeed much, and B.Tome EXP is useless. Draw Back is nice to have on a mage at least, but Blarowl is the interesting thing here, as it boosts her stats by 2 per ally next to her, for a maximum of 6 in standard 4 team matchups. The base power being less than most other tomes is made up for in being able to reach the power of a melee personal weapon, plus getting +1 might after a forge.

Mae can become a REALLY strong counterattacking force if she is able to get the full effect of Blarowl, but she can also run with Blarblade to be a simple BMN. Fresh Bouquet is worth mentioning because it enables Mae a way to fix her lower speed, and Blarserpent enables her to become a Magic tank without the strict need for team support.

There's really no getting around her paper bag in Atlantis levels of Defense. Most melee/Manakete hits will inevitably kill her in one hit, and she already struggles with average Speed problems, all even when considering the potential boosts from Blarowl. One other problem is that Mae, while she CAN run ploy skills, needs her Resistance to be built up a little more to really get the most out of her ploying abilities, as it's just low enough that good ployers can actually trigger ploys on Mae.

Overall, Mae's a pretty decent unit. Blue Mages are generally pretty diverse in the roles they can provide, and Mae clinches the role of BMN solidly, even if not the same as... certain other Blue Mages...

Rating: 7/10 Mae has a high Attack stat that will dent the opponent if not punch holes through them, but cannot take any melee or bow hits for crap. Blarowl is an interesting tome that Mae can put to work, or she can go for a more offensive build with Blarblade. Whatever way you go with Mae, she still has competition, but none are quite as filled with raw power as Mae.

[kirauza343]

Celica: I will admit that I am very biased, but I do think she is one of the best infantry red mages (I'd argue she's the best of the strong and fast ones not counting seasonals). More have been released since her introduction, but Celica has a few traits that have kept her from being truly powercrept. The rebalancing of healers makes it easier to justify running a healer to keep Ragnarok's ability active (or Renewal or a support skill can keep her topped off), her balanced (if low) defenses means the dragon stone refines didn't hurt her like it it did others, and her tome buffing her on its own meant she isn't reliant on a bladetome for damage so the wider usage of panic doesn't really affect her. In theory her tome (which is still among the more offensive oriented red tome prfs) is only really active for the first battle, but in practice as a mage she can more easily hit those that can't counter her, which combined with renewal makes it easy to keep its effect active. Her tome could use a refinement, but it's still perfectly serviceable and can combine well with Atk/Spd push or Swift Sparrow for even more offense. Red might not be the best color for a mage, but if you want one Celica's a great option. Rating: 8/10

[MacLovin]

don't have celica

 

Mae- 8/10

• Easy to pull
• Comes with a bladetome 
• Her desired stats are simple/ +att or +spd
• Goes well with any blue tome. Especially does well with any +spd refine
• Pretty easy merge project too, if you're into that.
•  

[Korath88]

Celica

A unit who really wants a refine soon. Back then she was undeniably the best red mage but now that we have red mages with better offensive stats, and more DC units in the meta, Celica struggles to keep up with the meta. Her gimmick is a large boost to Atk and Spd at full HP, which was good enough to one round most enemies when she released, but now the increased bulk on many units prevents that, and her poor bulk makes her vulnerable to being counter killed by DC units before she can get off her follow up. Attempting to make a OHKO build instead just makes her a worse Lilina. However when the enemies lack distant counter, she still does well enough to warrant a 7/10

Mae

Blue infantry mage with no prf and a statline outclassed by Delthea, Tailtiu and Linde. Ouch. Bladetome gives her good combat performance like bladetomes always do but unlike the aforementioned mages, she relies more on buff stacking to keep up.

7-0.5 for buff reliance for a final 6.5/10

[LordFrigid]

Celica

• Offense-oriented stat line with decent Atk and Spd, and low Def and Res.
  • Ragnarok (Atk/Spd+5 and -5 HP after combat if she attacks, if at 100% HP at the beginning of combat) is a powerful offensive tool, but only when Celica is at 100% HP.
  • Very strong green, decent red matchups on offense with a basic offense set using Atk/Spd Push or Life and Death. Strong green, mediocre matchups without Ragnarok's passive active (Desperation).
  • Decent 2-range performance against non-blues with Distant Def stacking, but cannot counter at 1-range, and her defensive stat line is not optimized for the role.
• She cannot provide much support for her team beyond the standard C passive field/combat buff.

Overall, I give her 7.5 for combat (very strong green, decent red matchups on offense), and .5 for support (basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 7/10.

Celica is hurt a lot by a green cast that has been bulking up, making OHKOs harder (notably, she finds herself in the rough spot of having a losing matchup to Myrrh without buff/debuff support). It's hard to get a lot of use out of her without some flavor of heal support on the team.

Mae

• Magically focused stat line, with high Atk, decent Res, mediocre Spd, and poor Def.
  • Very strong red, decent blue matchups with a Blárblade+ set, depending on buffs.
  • Poor defensive capabilities, though she can take a tome hit or two.
• She has some stat ploy capability with a decent Res stat.

Overall, I give her 7.5 for combat (very strong red, decent blue, buff-dependent matchups with an offense-oriented Blárblade+ set), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, some stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 7/10.

Mae benefits a lot from having reds be her main target, with the most threatening ones generally having either low Res or low Spd. That Atk stat of hers doesn't hurt either.

~

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.

Edited June 28, 2018 by LordFrigid

[XRay]

Did some minor changes for adjusted performance and support.

Ignoring Special Heroes, Celica is second only to SM!Eirika in terms of first round combat performance. SA!Tana and TOD!Nowi have better performance as well, but they require Rauðrblade and 6/6/0/0 like SM!Eirika, whereas Celica just needs a regular 4/4/0/0 buff. WE!Tharja outperforms Celica too, but anyone with Bold Fighter will have insane performance.

I abstain my vote on Celica.

Here is how my criteria are rated:

Spoiler

Mobility:
Armor units are 0/10. Infantry units are 5/10. Cavalry units are 8/10. Flying units are 9/10. Units with unique mobility skills will bump up their score.
Range:
Melee units are 0/10. Distant Counter Weapon melee units are 5/10. Ranged units are 10/10.
Player Phase General Performance (Raw):
This is based on the W:L:I ratio. Enemies will have a set up of +5, +Spd, Moonbow, and Fury. The unit will be +0, may not use Breakers, and will not have Chills or Ploys activate. Units may have access to buffs (usually, +4 to any two stats for infantry and armors, and 6/6/0/0 or 0/0/6/6 for cavalry and fliers). I would also list the build used to achieve that ratio. I think the following formula is pretty reasonable:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Raw Performance
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted):
Since most units can get a raw performance score of at least 5, setting 5 as 0 for the weighted performance makes more sense in judging how good a unit is.
(Raw Performance - 5) * 2 = Weighted Performance
Player Phase General Performance (Independence):
This just means how reliant the unit is on buffs. If I take off the buffs and the unit still performs pretty well, they will get a good score. The formula is that same as the raw performance:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Independence
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
This is pretty much the same as general performance, except I take out certain classes of enemies. I will generally take two of the following classes of enemies out: Red, Blue, Green, Colorless, Melee, Ranged, Physical, Magical. Melee units I am testing will generally have ranged enemies taken out and vice versa. Units will also have the color that they are weak against taken out; colorless units usually would not have any color taken out, although they may have physical or magical enemies taken out.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Player Phase Performance:
I consolidate the above scores into one score. If I took more than 2 classes out in the adjusted section, each additional class taken out will reduce the Adjusted Performance by 1 point. On the other hand, if I took 1 or 0 classes out, the unit will receive an additional 0.5 or 1 point.
(Weighted General * 0.8) + (Raw General * 0.1) + (Independence General * 0.1) =  General Performance
(Weighted Adjusted * 0.8) + (Raw Adjusted * 0.1) + (Independence Adjusted * 0.1) - [Classes Taken Out] + [Classes Added In] = Adjusted Performance
(General Performance + Adjusted Performance) * 0.5 = Player Phase Performance
Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Performance:
See Above.
Ease of Use:
This is an average of the mobility and range scores.
Performance:
This is just Player Phase performance or Enemy Phase performance, whichever is higher.
Support:
Most units by default will be 0/10. Units with 30+ Res start from 1/10. Debuffers (dagger, staff, and breath units) start from 1/10. Healers (staff units and units with access to healing skills like Recover Ring) start from 1/10. Buffers start from 3/10. Fliers start from 4/10. Dancers/Singers start from 5/10. Other unique support skills may further boost their score.
Other:
If the unit has some unique application or fun build, it will be noted here.

Familiarity/Experience:
This just means how familiar I am with this particular unit or type of unit in Arena. If it is a low number, that means you should take the following rating number with a grain of salt since I do not have much experience with this particular unit and/or type of unit.
Rating:
The rating is how good I think a unit is. Here is how I weigh each criterion:
Ease of Use 4/10
Performance: 5/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Ease of Use 3/10
Performance: 6/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Ease of Use 2/10
Performance: 7/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Notes:
1. A unit's build in raw performance will not take into account a unit's support build, Raven build, or any other builds. Likewise, a unit's ease of use, support, and other criteria will not take into account the unit's raw performance build.
2. The build used in raw/weighted performance might not be the build with the best score. If there is an alternative build with a slightly less performance but much higher independence, that build will be used instead.
3. Axe and dagger versions of Wo Dao are not available in the regular summoning pool yet, but I think they will be added in the future, so I am using Giant Spoon and Lethal Carrot.

Experimental Stuff:

Revised Ease of Use:

Movement

1 Movement = 0
2 Movement = 2
3 Movement = 3
Go on Trenches = +0.5
Unimpeded by Trenches = +0.5
Go on Forests = +0.5
Unimpeded by Forests =+0.5
Go on Obstacles = +0.5
Unimpeded by Obstacles = +0.5
Exclusive Movement Effects = +1

Armor = 2 = 0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5
Infantry = 3.5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5 = 3.5
Cavalry = 3.5 = 3+0.5 = 3.5
Flier = 5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5

Weapon Range:

Melee = 0
Distant Counter = 2
Ranged = 4

Disclosures:
I have a strong bias for non-armor Player Phase ranged units. My experience with melee and armor units in Arena is pretty minimal, so my rating for them is mostly based on theory. My Arena core consists of BH!Lyn, Reinhardt, and Olivia. I am usually in Tier 20, but I may drop to Tier 19 if I do not fish for points.

Other:

Spoiler

Template

— — — — — — — ◆Red◆ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ◾Blue◾ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ⬟Green⬟ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ●Colorless● — — — — — — —

Mobility: /10
Range: /10
Player Phase Raw Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Weighted Performance: /10
Player Phase Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Raw Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: /10
Enemy Phase Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]

Ease of Use: /10
Performance: /10
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10

Summary:

_______ got bad/okay/good/stellar combat performance.

She/He can the support the team with Ploys.

She/He can support the team with daggers/Light Breath and Dark Breath.

She/He is a great mobility support unit as a flier.

She/He can also run Firesweep-Hit and Run as a flier unit.

She/He can run a Firesweep-Poison Strike-Poison Strike.

She/He can run Wrathful Staff-Dazzling Staff to emulate Firesweep archers.

She/He can run a Raven set.

— — — — — — — ◆Red◆ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ◾Blue◾ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ⬟Green⬟ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ●Colorless● — — — — — — —

Mobility: /10
Range: /10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Performance: /10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Performance: /10

Ease of Use: /10
Ease of Use EX: 2|3.5|5|||4|5.5|7|||6|7.5|9 /10
Performance: /10
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10
Rating EX: /10

Summary:

_______ got bad/okay/good/stellar combat performance.

She/He can the support the team with Ploys.

She/He can support the team with daggers/Light Breath and Dark Breath.

She/He is a great mobility support unit as a flier.

She/He can also run Firesweep-Hit and Run as a flier unit.

She/He can run a Firesweep-Poison Strike-Poison Strike.

She/He can run Wrathful Staff-Dazzling Staff to emulate Firesweep archers.

She/He can run a Raven set.

 

— — — — — — — ◆Celica◆ — — — — — — —

Mobility: 5/10
Range: 10/10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): 7.53/10 — 202:16:45
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): 5.06/10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): 5.88/10 — 159:17:87
[+Spd, -Def, Ragnarok, Moonbow, Atk/Spd Push, Renewal, Speed +3, 4/4/0/0]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Blue/Melee): 9.4/10 — 87:2:3
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted — No Blue/Melee): 8.8/10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Blue/Melee): 7.96/10 — 74:3:15
[+Spd, -Def, Ragnarok, Moonbow, Atk/Spd Push, Renewal, Speed +3, 4/4/0/0]
Player Phase Performance: 7.08/10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): 6.87/10 — 190:37:36
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): 3.75/10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): 4.97/10 — 145:57:61
[+Spd, -Def, Ragnarok, Moonbow, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Close Def, 4/4/0/0]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Blue/Melee): 9.4/10 — 87:2:3
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Blue/Melee): 8.8/10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Blue/Melee): 9.4/10 — 87:2:3
[+Atk, -Def, Ragnarok, Moonbow, Atk/Spd Push, Quick Riposte, Distant Def, 4/4/0/0]
Enemy Phase Performance: 6.55/10

Ease of Use: 7.5/10
Performance: 7.08/10
Support: 0/10
Other: 0/10

Familiarity/Experience: 5/10
Rating: 6.5/10

Summary:

Celica got good combat performance.

[Simpsons138]

19 hours ago, Mister Rogers said:

Mae- 8/10

• Comes with a bladetome 

Mae actually comes with an Owl tome, but anyways:

• Celica: with a stat spread that focuses on nuking enemies and out-speeding other foes, couple that with that +5 Atk/Spd boost from Ragnarok and you've got yourself a pretty fast nuke, with the new addition of Atk/Spd Push and Bond skills, Celica can get a high stat to destroy a lot of enemies after getting buffed up, though her low defenses won't allow her to take that many physical and magical hits, but she can hold her own in battle, one of the best red mages out there, 8/10

 

• Mae: Just like Celica, she has a high attack, average speed but has a poor defense and HP stat, comes with Desperation right from the get-go and and with the correct set, she can be a powerful blade tome user or can also use the Owl tome to boost her stats even further, as she can also take magical hits thanks to her high res stat, but that's just about it really, physical matchups are bad for her, but magical matchups, especially against reds, are good for her, 7/10

[Shiki]

Celica: 7.29
Mae: 6.86

Boey, Skillfull Survivor

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
40/43/46
25/29/32
23/27/30
29/32/35
14/18/21

Base Skills:

Gronnowl+
( - )
Ignis

Earth Boost
Renewal
( - )

Genny, Endearing Ally

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
29/32/35
32/35/38
22/25/29
18/21/24
31/34/37

Base Skills

Gravity+
Physic+
Heavenly Light

( - )
Wrathful Staff
( - )

 

Edited July 1, 2018 by The Priest

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Boey - 29/27 offenses are frankly garbage, just like on Florina. Boey ties for the highest HP and owns the highest Def of his class. I'm not surprised people rate him so low when Owl or Raven tomes seem the most sensible weapon choice. The Close Counter Owl build is gimmicky but he is one of few mages that could perform reasonably well with it, so I call that a niche. 3.5 out of 10.

Genny - Massive attack stat for a healer. 34 Res is also above average for ploys if you want them. Genny will be played like most healers with the one difference that when she attacks she'll do decent damage in addition to the Gravity effect. She won't survive an engagement with any enemies, but that's what the dazzling refinement is for. All you can really ask for out of a healer that Genny can't provide is enough speed to survive mages on enemy phase. Oh, and a horse. 6 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
113. Soren - 4
114. Mist - 2.5
115. Celica - 7
116. Mae - 6.5
117. Beoy - 3.5
118. Genny - 6

 

Edited June 28, 2018 by Glennstavos

[Alexmender]

Boey. His stat spread focuses on Hp and Def disregarding every other stat. He's basically a green Henry with more Atk and Spd in exchange of less Res, this makes him a wonderful physical tank and able to deal large amounts of damage with Bonfire/Ignis. That's about it, his Res is so garbage that he's going to get destroyed by any Dragon/Mage which can only be salvaged by TA3 but that will force him into an anti-blue unit and even then he'll take absurd amounts of damage from Blade tomes. He's one of the few mages that makes good use of Close Counter thanks to his high Def. His Spd is relatively salvageable to use as a defensive stat but don't expect Boey to double anyone not named Reinhardt without Quick Riposte. 

Rating: 4/10

Genny. She has the highest Atk of all healers if I recall correctly. This alone lets her use more than Pain+ effectively so she already has more flexibility than other healers. Her Res is high enough to use Ploys with ease increasing her support capabilites, also thanks to her huge Atk she's able to heal tons of Hp in one turn as long as she's not using something like Rehabilitate+. Her main downsides are her abysmal Hp and low Def/Spd making her an easy prey to melee units and archers. I consider Genny the best infantry healer with Lucius being a close second.

Rating: 7.5/10

[LordFrigid]

Boey

• Physically bulky stat line, with decent HP and Def, mediocre Atk, low Spd, and poor Res.
  • He can run an OHKO-based Gronnblade set, which will get good blue matchups and mediocre green matchups. It is heavily buff dependent, and his low offensive stat line holds him back.
  • He has strong blue and mediocre green performance on defense with a Gronnowl+/Close Counter set.
• He has some Panic ploy capability with his decent HP stat.

Overall, I give him 6 for combat (strong blue, mediocre green defense matchups), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, some Panic ploy capability), for a total rating of 5.5/10.

Genny

• Magically focused stat line, with good Res and Atk, low Spd, and poor Def.
  • She has some KO power over foes with low Res and/or Spd, and cannot be counterattacked on the Player Phase. She is limited to mage checking on the Enemy Phase, but is capable of taking a hit or two from them.
• She can provide heal, status staff, ploy, and basic field/combat buff support to her teammates.

Overall, I give 4 for combat (some KO power over low Res/Spd foes, cannot be counterattacked on the Player Phase), and 3 for support (heal, status staff, ploy, basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 4.5/10.

~

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.

[Xenomata]

Boey

Rating: 1/10 Green Henry, the end.

...fine I'll give an actual review... ignore the above...

Spoiler

I wasn't exaggerating too badly when I said Green Henry, because they have almost exactly the same roles they can perform.

Boey's Attack and Speed are quite below-average, and his Resistance is garbage. None of the above are traits of a typical Green mage, and furthermore his HP and Defense are quite exceptional. His Defense might not enable the use of Panic Ploy, but it can at least trigger Infantry Pulse. He's actually quite similar to some original melee units in a way...

Boey can run with one of two weapons effectively: path one sees him keeping his default Gronnowl and being a defensive unit with pretty high Defense and high enough Speed that he can avoid at least a few doubles. Close Counter will let him try and kill melee units at the same time.

Path two sees him taking Gronnraven from Cecilia and disabling the advance of Bows and Blue units with Triangle Adept 3.

Both take advantage of his high Defense in some way, but neither set actually uses the other skills in his default set. Earth Boost would be good theoretically, since his HP is high enough that his most common targets will trigger it by default, but it's overall not that powerful and can easily be disabled after one round of combat. Renewal would theoretically fix that issue, but he has to drop it for certain other skills, namely Quick Riposte, Guard, or a Breaker skill. Ignis is somewhat slow to charge and can be replaced, but not necessarily required.

Anyways, Boey's bads are that, while he isn't SLOW, he is certainly slow enough that he will be doubled if he doesn't have the full Gronnowl boost or breaker skill. Going for a RavenAdept build has a risk in that Boey cannot take magic hits for beans. Trying to counter Reinhardt poses a problem if you don't build his Res up a little, and most Blue mages can double him if he doesn't have Blue Tomebreaker, so all the damage you removed initially is wasted.

Another point against him is how different he is. I mean, he's good in his own way, but he's also very weak compared to other Green Tomes, and is unable to fulfill the same role as many of them easily fit.

So yeah, Boey is basically Green Henry... wait that exists already... Boey is basically unarmored Green Henry.

Rating: 5/10 Boey suffers a bit from the problem that he is a defensive Green Tome user with horrid Resistance, but is still able to take advantage of his good Defense to either wall against most physical threats or wall against bows. He won't be as good as other GT users, but he's a decent option even still. I only don't rate him higher because, in review, there's already a lot of bulky greens.

 

Genny

Spoiler

Genny is interesting as a staff user, for more than the one obvious reason.

Probably in reference to Gaiden/Echoes, Genny comes with the one necessary skill for all Staff Nukes by default: Wrathful Staff, removing the -50% damage modifier enforced on all staff users. If you're willing to stop thinking about all the possible staff users this enables, this actually works quite well with Genny's high Attack stat, in fact the highest of all Staff users. She also comes with one of the premier Staff weapons, Gravity+. Physic+ is not a bad healing assist either, and works well with how high Genny's attack stat is. Her Resistance is not bad either, and lets her take at least one magical hit if need be.

Hurting Genny is her bad Defense and HP. Her defense is low enough in tandem with her HP that she can't take melee hits, a problem all too common to staff users. She is also quite slow, and due to being a Staff user, speed stacking is a lot harder on her than it is other units, and may not even be worth the trouble.

Same troubles as other staff users. Limited skillset potential, lack of offensive specials, forced to run with Wrathful Staff (so at least she comes with it by default). Lack of mount, in this case, might actually be a good thing considering how bad her HP is already, but she still lacks the potential of high field buffs and movement of horse emblem.

But her ability to be a cheap Staff user should not be overlooked, as she has most of the tools needed to be a powerful nuke by default.

Rating: 7/10 Genny is powerful for a staff user, and her default kit includes the rare Wrathful Staff, on top of being good from the starting point. Her biggest weakness is how bad her physical defensive ability is, but given the chance she can be a valuable asset.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

5 hours ago, Xenomata said:

Boey

Rating: 1/10 Green Henry, the end.

...fine I'll give an actual review... ignore the above...

  Reveal hidden contents

I wasn't exaggerating too badly when I said Green Henry, because they have almost exactly the same roles they can perform.

Boey's Attack and Speed are quite below-average, and his Resistance is garbage. None of the above are traits of a typical Green mage, and furthermore his HP and Defense are quite exceptional. His Defense might not enable the use of Panic Ploy, but it can at least trigger Infantry Pulse. He's actually quite similar to some original melee units in a way...

Boey can run with one of two weapons effectively: path one sees him keeping his default Gronnowl and being a defensive unit with pretty high Defense and high enough Speed that he can avoid at least a few doubles. Close Counter will let him try and kill melee units at the same time.

Path two sees him taking Gronnraven from Cecilia and disabling the advance of Bows and Blue units with Triangle Adept 3.

Both take advantage of his high Defense in some way, but neither set actually uses the other skills in his default set. Earth Boost would be good theoretically, since his HP is high enough that his most common targets will trigger it by default, but it's overall not that powerful and can easily be disabled after one round of combat. Renewal would theoretically fix that issue, but he has to drop it for certain other skills, namely Quick Riposte, Guard, or a Breaker skill. Ignis is somewhat slow to charge and can be replaced, but not necessarily required.

Anyways, Boey's bads are that, while he isn't SLOW, he is certainly slow enough that he will be doubled if he doesn't have the full Gronnowl boost or breaker skill. Going for a RavenAdept build has a risk in that Boey cannot take magic hits for beans. Trying to counter Reinhardt poses a problem if you don't build his Res up a little, and most Blue mages can double him if he doesn't have Blue Tomebreaker, so all the damage you removed initially is wasted.

Another point against him is how different he is. I mean, he's good in his own way, but he's also very weak compared to other Green Tomes, and is unable to fulfill the same role as many of them easily fit.

So yeah, Boey is basically Green Henry... wait that exists already... Boey is basically unarmored Green Henry.

Rating: 5/10 Boey suffers a bit from the problem that he is a defensive Green Tome user with horrid Resistance, but is still able to take advantage of his good Defense to either wall against most physical threats or wall against bows. He won't be as good as other GT users, but he's a decent option even still. I only don't rate him higher because, in review, there's already a lot of bulky greens.

 

Genny

  Reveal hidden contents

Genny is interesting as a staff user, for more than the one obvious reason.

Probably in reference to Gaiden/Echoes, Genny comes with the one necessary skill for all Staff Nukes by default: Wrathful Staff, removing the -50% damage modifier enforced on all staff users. If you're willing to stop thinking about all the possible staff users this enables, this actually works quite well with Genny's high Attack stat, in fact the highest of all Staff users. She also comes with one of the premier Staff weapons, Gravity+. Physic+ is not a bad healing assist either, and works well with how high Genny's attack stat is. Her Resistance is not bad either, and lets her take at least one magical hit if need be.

Hurting Genny is her bad Defense and HP. Her defense is low enough in tandem with her HP that she can't take melee hits, a problem all too common to staff users. She is also quite slow, and due to being a Staff user, speed stacking is a lot harder on her than it is other units, and may not even be worth the trouble.

Same troubles as other staff users. Limited skillset potential, lack of offensive specials, forced to run with Wrathful Staff (so at least she comes with it by default). Lack of mount, in this case, might actually be a good thing considering how bad her HP is already, but she still lacks the potential of high field buffs and movement of horse emblem.

But her ability to be a cheap Staff user should not be overlooked, as she has most of the tools needed to be a powerful nuke by default.

Rating: 7/10 Genny is powerful for a staff user, and her default kit includes the rare Wrathful Staff, on top of being good from the starting point. Her biggest weakness is how bad her physical defensive ability is, but given the chance she can be a valuable asset.

This is also my thoughts and what I'd give Boey and Genny.

[Shiki]

Boey: 4.6
Genny: 6.4

Luke, Rowdy Squire

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
40/43/46
31/34/37
24/28/31
26/30/33
17/20/23

Base Skills:

Brave Sword+
( - )
Bonfire

Fire Boost
( - )
Panic Ploy

Katarina, Wayward One

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
31/34/37
29/32/35
31/34/37
12/15/19
29/32/35

Base Skills:

Rauórowl+
( - )
Glacies

Swift Sparrow
( - )
Atk Ploy

 

[Silverly]

Luke: Unrelated, but I get a kick out of his special quotes, especially “Gotta love the Luke!”. Sadly, there’s not a lot to love about the Luke other than he’s a better Cain. Good attack and physical bulk, but lousy speed and resistance. He lacks a personal weapon to stand out, and Brave Sword sets are not in as of now. He’s also a somewhat suspect 5* lock, though that’s not being accounted for his rating. All in all, he’s just an okay sword cav, and the Luke gets a 4.5/10.

Katarina: She’s my go to red mage, so I’ll be a little biased here. While arguably recent red mages like bride Tharja and male Morgan give her competition should they ditch their personal weapons and use a bladetome, Katarina still holds up. She’s got decent attack and good speed, as well as impressive resistance which allows her to check green mages and proc specials like Iceberg, which vanilla Tharja only wishes she could do. Her defense is problematic, admittedly, and she can struggle against armors and dragons if she isn’t in desperation range. I like Katarina in spite of that, and I think she’s still a relevant red mage to use. 7.5/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Luke - More like "Look" for a better sword cav. Among the very few sword cavs not packing a personal weapon, Luke has the best attack, so his brave sword is appropriate. Be sure to take the HP or Res bane or Luke will drop an entire BST tier for arena scoring. Not much bad to say about this guy other than he dared to be a sword cav that lacks a personal weapon. 3.5 out of 10.

Katarina- Tharja but with a stat distribution that lets her tank something, even if it's just mages and healers. The weapon refinery really killed the fast, Res heavy mages and Katarina's no different. If you want a blade mage then a massive attack stat would be preferred like on Lilina and Sanaki. And 34 speed isn't that fantastic for a mage, especially since they keep giving us fast red mages. 5.5 out of 10. Left behind, but not unviable.

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

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. And Leo I'd bump up to a 3.

 

[Xenomata]

Luke

Spoiler

I personally hate Luke, but let's put that aside for now...

Luke has a base kit that puts some other Brave users to shame, along with the stats to match. Relatively high Attack with decent Defense and HP, and poor Speed and Resistance. His Base Kit was made specifically for being a Brave user, which is good considering it's basically all he can do. Fire Boost boosts his Attack by 6 if he has more HP than the target, good for guaranteeing low-HP targets go down, but just replace it with Death Blow. Panic Ploy by default is interesting, since he has decent enough HP to run with it. Bonfire is a good default Special choice.

Hurting Luke the most now, of all things, is that he is now considered a worse Reinhardt, who is only beaten by Luke in HP. All other stats are better, but worse is that Meistershwert is a personal weapon that triggers its Brave effect on both phases, meaning Reinhardt can go either Player Phase or Enemy Phase, and do so better than Luke ever could.

Besides that, Luke also just doesn't have that big a presence when his speed and res are both so low he can be done in by most mages. His HP being higher than the enemy is a unique gimmick, but Luke doesn't even have that high an HP stat in the first place: it's just average, plus the Brave Sword can't be forged so his one main use disables him from getting anymore HP.

Overall... eh... I suppose if you need another Brave user, Luke is reliable enough on that front...

I still hate him BTW, but NO BIAS.

Rating: 5/10 Luke is pretty good as a Brave user, but needing more HP than the target (For Panic Ploy) is quite hard when your Brave Sword can't be forged and you only have average HP to begin with. Worse is that he is far worse than Reinhardt, who has a better statspread for a Brave set overall and can trigger the Brave effect on both phases. He can fill the void, but doesn't improve on what he does.

 

Katarina

Spoiler

Katarina has offenses almost similar to Celica, save for a little extra speed, and does away with her Defense and HP to improve on her Resistance. As an offensive Red Mage, she's average.

On her base kit, we see Raudhrowl, boosting her stats relative to the number of adjacent allies. Swift Sparrow by default is amazing, to at least one extent in that she doesn't really need to replace it anytime soon, and Attack Ploy can improve her survivability against some other mages.

Raudhrowl doesn't really suit her more offensive spread, but that's a simple case of replacing it with Raudhrblade. Afterwards, she becomes pretty much normal Tharja with more Resistance to let her trigger Ploys on the enemy, which can be argued as being more valuable than the 1 attack and speed that Katarina loses by not being able to run LnD3.

Keeping Raudhrowl is just as viable, and lets her wall most mages pretty well, between her good Speed and Resistance, but she will need to drop her default Swift Sparrow for something else.

Her Defense being shoddy is nothing new of an offensive unit, though it does mean she isn't gonna be taking any melee hits anytime soon, but hurting Katarina still is her lower Attack and Speed compared to other Red Mage nukes, as well as those same RMNs having access to Movement buffs, so they can deal a lot more damage than Katarina could unless she somehow manages to get the 4 Tactic skills triggered on her at once.

So she's good. Being Tharja but able to trigger ploys is a good thing.

Rating: 7/10 Katarina's default Raudhrowl may not be as powerful on her as it is on other Red Mages, but she shares the same statspread as Tharja but with more Resistance, enabling her to trigger Ploys on the enemy. Her bad Defense shouldn't prove a problem so long as you don't try to make her take Melee hits, and in the end she can be a powerful ally.

You know, sometimes I wonder if I should also abstain from rating some units, since I don't have many of the units I've had to review... but then I wonder if maybe an outsiders perspective would actually be healthy, see what they think of this unit who they have no experience with or against? I dunno...

Edited June 30, 2018 by Xenomata

[Ice Dragon]

17 minutes ago, Xenomata said:

but needing more HP than the target

Death Blow is a thing. There is no reason to ever run Fire Boost when Death Blow does the exact same thing with a much easier condition.