Rate the Unit 12: Alcryst

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Guidelines:

2.1.) mention the diffculty on which you rate the unit 

2.2.) what classes your unit went through, what skills they had and so on; don´t consider obviously suboptimal builds.

2.3.) no DLC rings, no non-unit DLC bonuses

2.4.) no grinding in skirmishes

2.5.) no rng abuse (no resetting for bond rings)

2.6.) cooking is allowed

2.7.) ratings to be given in the format X/10

2.8.) if it isn´t mentioned above, it´s fair game

2.9.) no "Kagetsu exists and obsoletes Lapis, 0/10", explain your rating

 

Unit: Alcryst

Class: Lord (promotes to unique class  Tireur d´elite, with the class skill Luna at level 5)

                     Lvl   HP    STR   MAG   DEX   SPD    LCK   DEF    RES     BLD

Bases:         10     28      11       2        17       12        8       8        5         4

T. Bases:     10      7        4       1         7         5         6       5        4         1

Growths:      /     65      30     10      40      45         15     30       20      10

 

Personal Skill:  When an ally within 2 spaces is attacked, grants Str+3 to unit for 1 turn.

Innate Proficiency: Bow

SP: 500

Support Bonuses:

C    Hit+15
B    Hit+15, Avoid+5
A    Hit+20, Avoid+5
S    Hit+30, Avoid+5

 

Mo stats and tools:

Average Stats - Fire Emblem: Engage (FE17) (triangleattack.com)

Engage Numbers - Google Tabellen

 

Rating: 5.5

Next unit on Thursday

Edited July 20, 2023 by Imuabicus der Fertige

[samthedigital]

I would give Alcryst a 5.5/10. He's basically just a vehicle for an Emblem that has early access to Canter. His stats are fairly middling to low everywhere even with his personal applied, so he's still a little limited in being able to abuse some of the stronger offensively oriented ones without a lot if investment. Alcryst's Bow proficiency lets him use Silver Bows as a Warrior, and he's one of several units that start in a covert class to perform start of map cheese (without any investment necessary) with Lyn when that's applicable. It's honestly not much to set him apart, but it lets him do a few small things that not every unit would be able to do.

I used Alcryst on my first Maddening playthrough. It was before the well mechanics were introduced, and I naturally knew a lot less about the game than I do now. I'm pretty sure that he was a Warrior with Dual Assist+ and his only utility was in killing flying units and potentially tanking a unit or two with Ike. I'm not really using that playthrough to judge him as a unit though for obvious reasons.

[Barren]

Time to add more fuel to the fire because it’s Alcryst time. As mentioned previously there was (and is) a debate going over between Etie and Alcyrst on who is better. We already talked about Etie so what does Alcryst bring to the table on hard mode? Will also mention Maddening.

 

Alcryst joins you turn 1 of chapter 7 along with his two retainers Lapis and Citrine. He like Etie is a covert bow user but is a unique Lord class similar to his brother Diamant. He comes in level 10 and is already ready to promote. In a meta where promoting as early as possible is the best way to get someone online, Alcyrst doesn’t need as much investment as Etie would. Not only that but his speed and HP is high enough to where if he has to take a hit he could afford at least two hits before needing healing. Now of course archers shouldn’t be exposed to enemy fire where they can’t retaliate but at least he can survive for a while if need be.

When be promotes to Tireur d'élite which translates to Marksman from French to English, he’ll eventually gain access to Luna. The biggest selling point for him is his really high Dex growth. With this in mind, Luna will eventually start to proc over time. But until he can get that many chances to trigger Luna, he does have a mid game slump and his lower strength growth doesn’t exactly help in that department.

 

People who don’t think Alcryst is a good unit will often bring up that he needs Luna which doesn’t always trigger even with high dex in order to inflict some kind of damage. Some even prefer Etie for more consistency. Alcryst does have a few things still going for him. You can forge a Killer Bow for him with a Byleth or Corrin engraving to really boost his critical hit chance. Canter is a fantastic option for him which you can get before the end of chapter 10 thanks in part to the well. And when Lyn shows up he can get speed + x along with speedtaker and alacrity. This would allow him to eventually double attack or quad slower enemies with a brave bow and thus giving him multiple chances to trigger Luna.

 

Speaking of multiple triggers, Lyn is definitely his best emblem for Luna procing Astra Storm and him being a covert can shoot up to 20 tiles away. On hard, he’s absolutely good. On maddening he is fine but not spectacular due to how fixed growths work in maddening. Mainly this means that his strength may not always go up as often as you want it to despite the high dex since as mentioned earlier is worse than Etie’s. And people may not be his biggest fan because of this flaw. 
 

That said he can also use Lunar Brace from Erika to help out his low strength. Corrin for Draconic Hex. Or if you’re lucky which is going to take time, you could get Claude’s S rank ring, Wind God. This will allow him essentially Bos Range + 1 while at full HP. If you can manage to keep him out of danger then he can really useful with this ring. Especially if he is a Warrior with Dual Assist+. But you would be giving up Luna in exchange.

 

I say he is a 6/10 unit. Solid overall but does have performance issues during the mid stages until late game where his high dex pays dividends and procs Luna. Of course I can understand if he is like a 5/10 unit because if him being reliant on Luna.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Barren

[vanguard333]

First Playthrough, Normal Difficulty.

Alcryst was really good on my playthrough. As far as default archers go, there's Etie, Alcryst and Fogado. Alcryst easily replaced Etie for me since all his stats were better, and I ended up not using Fogado, so I can't compare Alcryst to Fogado.

Obviously, Luna is a really good skill, and his high dexterity means that it will occur quite often. That said, I didn't encounter any strength issues with him at all; part of it may have been from playing on normal, but, honestly, my Alcryst grew his strength stat regularly enough that I think he wouldn't have had any problems even on higher difficulties.

Archers often have the issue of not being able to counterattack an enemy unit that gets near them, and Engage is no exception, and Alcryst wants to be in his unique class to obtain Luna, so that is an issue. An emblem that provides melee weapons can help, though only when engaged.

I ended up giving Alcryst the Roy emblem in the late game as a result of needing to give the Roy emblem to someone, and the extra strength was nice. I doubt that's the best emblem for him though; there are definitely far better emblems for him.

Overall, I'd say 8/10. He's an archer, he's really good at being an archer, and he still has all the weaknesses of an archer.

[Bartozio]

Welp, it's seems we have arrived at this games scared archer. Rating is based on maddening. I've admittedly never used Alcryst longterm, so take this one with a grain of salt.

Alcryst sadly suffers from a few pretty major setbacks. For one, his SP situation when he joins is among the worst of all the characters in the early game (along with his two retainers). 500 SP at level 10 means he needs to hit internal level 15 to reach Canter, whereas most other units only need level 12 or 13 at most. Because of the level curve this means he need more investment than units like Etie or Diamant to reach Canter. He can still get it of course, but it's a point against him.

The other issue is that his stats and growths just aren't all that impressive compared to other units. Sure, he beats Etie is basically every stat other than strength, but that's not exactly a very high bar. There's also plently of units like Lapis, Alear, Chloe and even a reclassed Clanne and/or Jean who will have more speed with similar strength.

So then, why would people still use Alcryst? The main contributors are the utlity bows provide and him getting Luna after promotion. So lets talk about those.

Bows are a great weapon type to have access to in this game. The effective weapon bonus by itself is basically enough to one shot most fliers other than some wyverns in the early to mid game, and being able to easily chip enemies at 2 or 3 range is extremely valuable. Of course the issue one might notice with that is that dealing chip damage and killing a specific enemy type is more a filler combat role. Even being great at this doesn't make you compare favourably to a unit who can easily sweep half a map with bonded shield support or the Ike ring.

The second issue is that Alcryst is hardly the only unit who can fill the niche of a bow unit, or even the best at it. Most people compare him to Etie and basically stop there, saying he's fine because he compares favourably to her. I do think Etie requiring less investment to get Canter makes her the winner in the role of low investment bow unit with canter, but she's hardly the only competition for alcryst. Anna promoted to warrior can easily abuse the fact warrior bases are enough to one shot most fliers with a bow to get all the easy kills Alcryst could, while also making much better use of the radiant bow because of her high magic. And if you're willing to spend a second seal on it, units like Jean or Amber make for very good overall combat units as warriors.

Of course none of those units have Luna, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. The extra damage is nice when it triggers and you can always rig a proc with divine pulse if you need to, but relying on a proc skill to get kills other units can get without any luck really isn't all that impressive. It's a cool ability and it's entirely possible to play around the proc chance by using it at the start of your turn and seeing if Alcryst is going to kill someone or just chip them down, but it's imo not enough to make up for other units just having better stats.

All in all, I think Alcryst is okay as a filler for a few chapters when he joins and if you invest in him he can stay a decent filler. Luna likely makes him pretty fun to use and gives him a shot at doing more than filler duties for a bit, but it doesn't actually make him a good investment target in terms of reliably clearing maps.

Overall, he gets a 4/10 from me.

[Unsight]

I like Alcryst and he's a great unit on Normal or Hard mode.  He has one job -- kill fliers in one round -- and he does that job very well.  For situations in which you need an archer, Alcryst has got your back.  His growths are serviceable and he's got some really great story content and supports.  

The problems creep in once you go up to Maddening.  Early on Alcryst can do the job well enough to justify his slot.  As the chapters begin to pass that changes.  He starts having more trouble killing fliers let alone non-fliers.  He can make up for his stat issue by using a radiant bow as soon as you can get your hands on one.  You can get pretty far with Alcryst and an upgraded radiant bow but pretty far doesn't cut it sadly.  Lategame fliers end up being too bulky for him to kill in one round whether he's holding a forged radiant bow or a forged silver bow.  He ends up missing the damage targets he needs to hit by anywhere from 5 to 14 points.  At the same time you have Fogado who is better with the radiant bow as well as half a dozen units who can all turn into warriors to arguably do Alcryst's job better than he can.

The end result is that he requires significant investment to work.  Since he's missing Maddening damage thresholds by more than a cooking bonus or tonic, he needs stat boosters, forges, engravings, and emblems to make up for his shortcomings.  You can give him those things and keep him in the game up to a point but those are competitive resources that other units could be using.  Any resources you're giving to Alcryst to keep him competitive could be going to Cupido Fogado, Warrior Fogado, or Warrior Merrin giving you better outcomes at less cost.

There is something to be said for gluing Lyn to Alcryst and using him as an Astral Storm bot.  I personally think if you want to abuse Astral Storm then making Etie your project for the run is a better way to go about it.  She has better stats for this specific use and Lyn solves some of her problems making it a good fit.  Alcryst can do it but the return isn't as good and Lyn has a lot of competition in the first place.

Maddening Rating: 5/10

In the end, you'll probably use Alcryst at some point.  Without DLC or favoritism, Etie is walking into the bridge map a level or two lower than Alcryst meaning he likely becomes your archer of choice until warriors appear in your army, Fogado joins, or warriors named Fogado appear in your army.  Alcryst will do the job you need him to do for 4-5 chapters then you can let him take a break.  Let's face it, after the events of chapters 8 through 11, he deserves some rest... and probably therapy.

[SnowFire]

20/20 Alcryst:

51 HP, 24 Str,  5 Mag, 40 Dex, 29 Spd,  22 Def, 14 Res, 15 Lck, 10 Bld, 5 Move

Somehow I missed this...

--

Alcryst is fine.  He's usable from join to C11 as probably an upgrade on Etie, so as a floor, you can use him for awhile there then drop him for one of the powerful later units cross-classed to Warrior or Sniper.  Bows are handy in Engage, so having access to someone with one is nice.

Later on...  he's still usable, IMO.  The breakneck Dex is actually useful for once with making Luna somewhat consistent.  On Hard, he can keep up in benchmarks when "playing fair" so to speak and treat Luna as a nice bonus.  Maddening stat bloat makes "vanilla" Alcryst a bit weaker, as his average Speed starts losing him some key doubles compared to say Fogado.  However, increased enemy Defense scores makes Luna even more potent, so if you can get Alcryst going, his unique quirk is more important.  The most obvious fix, as already noted, is to give Alcryst Lyn, which grants the excellent long-range Astra Storm sniping and fixes his speed, but blah blah contested emblem.  Might be worth letting him at least learn some Lyn skills like Speedtaker or Speed +X though.  Lucina is another interesting option - can make a dodgetank Alcryst (!) but lets him be a fake Warrior despite being in his personal class by getting long-range backup.  Late game, he's one of the best wielders of the Brave Bow due to 4x chances to get a Luna vs. slow enemies like Phantom Wyrms or Corrupted Dragons.

Alcryst is a 6/10.  Usable, but not required or anything.

[Shadow Mir]

On 7/22/2023 at 8:11 AM, SnowFire said:

Late game, he's one of the best wielders of the Brave Bow due to 4x chances to get a Luna vs. slow enemies like Phantom Wyrms or Corrupted Dragons.

I would not consider this a good idea. Wyrms are extremely dangerous with their defence ignoring breath. I could consider it if the enemy cannot counterattack, but wyrms maul him on the counterattack. In fact, those are so dangerous that I would have a good plan for killing them before approaching - which gambling on Luna is not. Especially since I saw one who was fool enough to leave one alive - on purpose - in an ironman, no less- and pay a *very* steep price for their stupidity. 

[SnowFire]

36 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I would not consider this a good idea. Wyrms are extremely dangerous with their defence ignoring breath. I could consider it if the enemy cannot counterattack, but wyrms maul him on the counterattack. In fact, those are so dangerous that I would have a good plan for killing them before approaching - which gambling on Luna is not. Especially since I saw one who was fool enough to leave one alive - on purpose - in an ironman, no less- and pay a *very* steep price for their stupidity. 

I completely agree that leaving Wyrms alive is insanely dangerous...  which is why units who can do more than tickle them are very handy.  You probably shouldn't attack into a Wyrm if Alcryst will get KO'd on the counter barring the usual exceptions (desperation, dodgetank Alcryst running Bow Avoid or something), but checking...  https://imgur.com/a/Y6zWuyQ lists an Eirika Paralogue Fabrication Wyrm with 40 attack, and https://imgur.com/a/wHummC2 lists a C23 Corrupted Wyrm as having 43 Attack, both on Lunatic.  20/20 Alcryst has 51 HP as mentioned before, but he's probably a bit lower level for these missions, so call it ~45 HP...  which is still enough to survive (unlike, say, Etie).  It's even safer against Hard mode stats.  And remember, if you're doing this early in your turn rotation, you can react to how much damage Alcryst did.  If you got super-unlucky and missed all 4 Lunas...  fine, you can Time Crystal it away at worst, but you can also switch tactics to a slower approach and throw your Eirika-user at the Wyrm (unless this was the Eirika Paralogue, har har), send in Chain Guard or Bonded Shield users, use Reposition + Obstruct to get to safety, etc.  You're going to have to deal with that Wyrm somehow, and Alcryst is a rare unit that has a relevant skill out of the box for this situation.

[samthedigital]

8 minutes ago, SnowFire said:

which is still enough to survive (unlike, say, Etie)

10/20 Etie has 44 HP with a tonic as a Sniper, so she can survive. I would probably opt to go Warrior or something and she would fare better. To be fair I'm not sure that Etie would be my dragon killer, but I'm not giving Alcryst much credit for it either given the amount of options we have later on in the game.

[LoneRecon400]

Alcryst ain't great at taking down corruputed wyverns, especially in his personal class.

Like the Corruputed Wyverns in Ch 17 have 33 Defense and 57 HP. Even with his endgame stats, he'd only have 30 attack with a +2 Brave Bow. So while severely overleveled, he would do no damage against them without Luna and would require require 4 Luna procs to one round it.

Even using something like a Silver Bow +1 would only result in 6 damage and 22 damage with Luna. So even if he gets a double Luna proc, he still wouldn't be able to one round them.

When you can instead do things like one shot them with 100% Wrath Crits, have effectively 50 might on them with Sieglinde, or use Seraphim with Holy Stance++ to one round them, having to rely on Luna to do any meaningful damage aganist them is pretty lame.

Though I will agree that he has no problem surviving them. Even if did, you could do something like Divine Pluse + Hortensia and have them use a fracture staff. With that skill she would have a near 90 hit rate against every wyrm in the game at base.

Edited July 24, 2023 by LoneRecon400

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, SnowFire said:

I completely agree that leaving Wyrms alive is insanely dangerous...  which is why units who can do more than tickle them are very handy.  You probably shouldn't attack into a Wyrm if Alcryst will get KO'd on the counter barring the usual exceptions (desperation, dodgetank Alcryst running Bow Avoid or something), but checking...  https://imgur.com/a/Y6zWuyQ lists an Eirika Paralogue Fabrication Wyrm with 40 attack, and https://imgur.com/a/wHummC2 lists a C23 Corrupted Wyrm as having 43 Attack, both on Lunatic.  20/20 Alcryst has 51 HP as mentioned before, but he's probably a bit lower level for these missions, so call it ~45 HP...  which is still enough to survive (unlike, say, Etie).  It's even safer against Hard mode stats.  And remember, if you're doing this early in your turn rotation, you can react to how much damage Alcryst did.  If you got super-unlucky and missed all 4 Lunas...  fine, you can Time Crystal it away at worst, but you can also switch tactics to a slower approach and throw your Eirika-user at the Wyrm (unless this was the Eirika Paralogue, har har), send in Chain Guard or Bonded Shield users, use Reposition + Obstruct to get to safety, etc.  You're going to have to deal with that Wyrm somehow, and Alcryst is a rare unit that has a relevant skill out of the box for this situation.

It still doesn't feel worth it when I could just instead use Twin Strike and maim it, if not kill it outright (at least for Corrupted Wyrms); the odds are just not in his favour. And this is with his endgame stats; in reality, his already abysmal performance would be even worse. 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[FashionEmblem]

I played on Maddening and am a fan of gambling Alcryst, but I won't deny that it's a gamble. He hits 30 Dex at internal level 25, and 40 Dex at internal level 39. That's a quite solid chance of proccing Luna once when attacking 4 times with a Brave Bow. Unfortunately, Alcryst does not have the speed to consistently quad with the Brave Bow, but you can also rely on that dexterity to fuel crits and run a Killer Bow for Luna crits. It's a lot of fun, but not exactly reliable.

Alcryst is at his best probably running Lyn, with all the extra speed to quad with the Brave Bow and fish for crits and some extra dexterity too. Lyn is a heavily contested resource, however, but that is somewhat lessened thanks to the well making it easier to gain SP to inherit Speed +x or Speedtaker without holding onto the Lyn ring. Covert + Lyn is nice for the long range Astra storms. Among coverts, Thieves are stuck using emblem weapons (though, Mulagir is quite nice) and Alcryst's personal class is better than Sniper. As an example, that extra range makes it much easier to bait out the Hounds in Chapter 14 so you need not fight all of them all at once (though, it's not essential). Luna can proc per hit of Astra Storm, which is a gamble but at least you get 5 rolls.

He appreciates emblems that give strength, speed or dexterity, such as Roy or Marth, though I see little particular reason to grant them to Alcryst specifically. With DLC other options include Edelgard (extra strength and dex, Weapon Sync with Claude, 3 range Flame Gambit and Poison Tactic from the Longbow without engaging) and Chrom (extra strength, dex, and speed, +10 magic while engaged + Robin's chain attack makes it possible for pretty much any archer to 1-shot fliers with a maxed out Radiant Bow).

Overall, I still prefer using Alcryst to Etie since she is just so frail. Neither should take a hit, but at least Alcryst has some room to not get one rounded should mistakes happen. I'd say Fogado is better than Alcryst, as either a Cupido or Warrior, and there are many characters that can achieve better archery than Alcryst as a Warrior. Alcryst does have the niche of being one of only 4 characters able to wield B rank bows as a Warrior, but I don't think that makes him better than a character with the magic to wield the Radiant Bow well (e.g., Merrin, Chloé). Alcryst's niches are Luna and being in the best class for high-range Astra Storm, so if those niches don't appeal to you he's probably hitting the bench once you have a couple of Warrior reclasses under your belt.

Edited July 26, 2023 by FashionEmblem

[New Acc 443]

I can't comment on maddening yet since I'm still playing on Hard mode, but as a general DPS to snipe Wyverns, this guy isn't bad, esp w/ Lyn's ring giving him 20 range Astra Storm where his personal skill can still trigger. A lot of people don't like trigger skills, but in this game, I think they are among the best skills to have because they have the potential to affect every combat massively, unlike something like Bow Knight's skill which is very likely to be completely useless. Even if this guy has only like, 15 Dex, there will still be roughly a 50% chance he'll proc Luna if he quad's with Brave Bow (and obviously even his base Dex is higher than 15, so the chances of a Luna proc are way higher). An issue with Luna is that it can deny additional emblem meter charges, similar to Fates, which more technical players may not be a fan of.

I think this guy's most fun use-case is as a chip damage dealer + debuffer with Brave Bow & Draconic Hex. His damage is fairly variable because his attack isn't the highest, but with support from various back-up units, he can still deal good chip damage to enemies even without Luna procs. Luna procs should be seen as more of a bonus that can potential save your other units a few actions here and there. Str/Dex from Edelgard which DLC players will innately have is likely his best skill since that will drastically increase his DPS. Every point of Dex matters on this guy, esp if he is quadding. Some calcs:

 

17 Dex: 1 - (0.83^4) = 0.52541679 chance of Luna Proc

18 Dex: 1 - (0.82^4) =  0.54787824 chance of Luna Proc

19 Dex: 1 - (0.81^4) =  0.56953279 chance of Luna Proc

20 Dex: 1 - (0.80^4) =  0.5904 chance of Luna Proc

I'm guessing he'll likely be a lot worse on Maddening due to higher enemy density and stats, making reliable ORKOes more important to achieve. It also makes his Quad potential worse. I have this gut feeling that his personal class likely isn't good either since it doesn't work well with Bonded shield tanking, which is an absurdly powerful strategy. Shame if that's the case, since Luna is one of the few class skills that doesn't feel like complete garbage, at least on hard mode where enemies have a lot of HP and the burst damage from Luna procs can let Alcryst wittle them out into KO range, if not outright KO some enemies.