Ranking each game by classes: Archers/Snipers

[Shadow Mir]

On 5/26/2023 at 6:57 PM, Jotari said:

Bow units do tend to be reasonably accurate though. For years I did think bows had higher hit than swords just because I rarely have hit issues with them, except when using longbows in certain games. We all remember Sacred Stone's Sure Hit, aka the most useless skill in the series as it's an accuracy proc on a class that you will never have hit issues with anyway. So the argument should really be about high hit weapons vs skill units to wield them. In which case it's probably fine that bows have moderate to decent hit while Archers and Snipers have high skill that eliminates hit issues. This means bows are less useful on generals and warriors compared to snipers. I know in Shadow Dragon at least I never use Snipers due to other promoted bow users being able to just do more, and that's an issue. Single weapon users are nice classes to have for aesthetic reasons, but if they are to compete with dual weapon classes then they need some sort of edge. Min maxing stats, a skill/crit boost, exclusive class weapons or S rank exclusivity are usually the things they get. Of those options S rank exclusivity is the one I like the least.

About the one time I could see Sure Strike being useful is against Carlyle in Eirika's route because the bastard is a swordmaster on a throne... and even then you're looking at single digit activation rates because it's tied to the unit's level; just how many levels is Innes going to get between Revolt at Carcino and then? Also, I'd consider Careful Aim (the Bow Knight class skill in Engage) almost as big a joke. A hit boost is generally not thought highly of already, but this one adds the condition that you must initiate combat without moving, to which I can only say "what the hell?"

Edited May 29, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

About the one time I could see Sure Strike being useful is against Carlyle in Eirika's route because the bastard is a swordmaster on a throne... and even then you're looking at single digit activation rates because it's tied to the unit's level; just how many levels is Innes going to get between Revolt at Carcino and then? Also, I'd consider Careful Aim (the Bow Knight class skill in Engage) almost as big a joke. A hit boost is generally not thought highly of already, but this one adds the condition that you must initiate combat without moving, to which I can only say "what the hell?"

Certainly a useful skill for the enemy given how ridiculous you can get player avoid, and how once you have avoid so high you're going to gather a crowd around the dodge tank. That being said...I can't really remember fighting many enemy bow knights in Engage.