Rate the Unit 16: Amber

[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: Amber 

Class: Lance Cavalier

                     Lvl   HP    STR   MAG   DEX   SPD    DEF    RES    LCK      BLD

Bases:          11    31       15       2        13      11        9        3        9         8   

T. Bases:      11    8          9        1         5       4         5        1         7         2

Growths:      /       65      45      0        25     30       35      5        35       15

 

Personal Skill: If no other units are within 1 space of unit or foe, grants Hit+20 at a cost of Avo-10 during combat.

Innate Proficiency: Lance

SP: 800

 

Support Bonuses:

C    Hit+10, Avoid+5
B    Hit+10, Critical+3, Avoid+5
A    Hit+10, Critical+3, Avoid+10
S    Hit+10, Critical+3, Avoid+20

 

Tools and mo stats:

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

Engage Numbers - Google Tabellen

 

 

Rating: 5.75

Next unit on Thursday

Edited August 3, 2023 by Imuabicus der Fertige

[SumG]

I've heard other people have good results with Amber, based on his high base strength and good strength growth.  It makes sense that he could be a good Warrior, contributing with chain attacks and taking good advantage of the warrior class ability to do big damage to enemies that have been broken due to his large strength.  But when I tried to use him on Maddening, I felt he was one of the units that most suffered from the resource pinch that exists in the midgame.  His base speed is low, which makes his bulk dicey in the early chapters after you get him.  When I tried using him, I rushed to get him Canter prior to Sigurd leaving, but now I wonder if he would be better off forgoing getting that early and instead waiting to buy a Speed+X from Lyn.  Perhaps that would get him enough speed to avoid getting doubled for a bit longer.  Other resources to improve speed beyond that are highly contested, and without them Amber struggles.  Perhaps things are different if you prioritize giving him an early Master Seal, but I did not choose to do this in my playthrough.

In the midgame deployment slots are limited, and it very much felt to me that other units were more able to immediately step in and contribute.  Ultimately, it felt to me that Amber's niche was a bit too narrow.  He can be a big damage dealer, but he really needs allies to break enemies in order to be most effective.  He can be near the front lines, but I wouldn't characterize him as bulky.  He's...fine.  Perhaps he is a unit that highly rewards a bit of favoritism, but in a playthrough where I showed him fairly little favoritism he didn't perform particularly well and I ended up relegating him to the bench by the endgame.

So I guess in total, I'll give him a 5.5/10.  He has a role and you can make the role work if you put in a bit of effort, since there are tools to patch his flaws.  It's just a question of Amber is the unit you want to show favoritism to.  That's kind of the definition of an average character.

[Palasid]

I like Amber a lot, even if his voice actor could have probably done a few more takes on his crit quotes...

I have attempted to use him for three playthroughs (Hard, Lunatic, Hard [No Promotions]), in Paladin and Thief and Cavalier. However he just kind of exists. He does solid damage, but thats about it. He struggles with his hit rate, his speed makes him tricky to leave next to groups. He doesn't have outstanding defense either... He is fairly balanced. Also I am not sure if its just me... but he always has very unreliable hitrates. It doesn't look like he should but...

I think he was supposed to shine as a unit where you could send him off to distant physical enemies to distract them for a minute... Thats not really possible in Lunatic.

He is average, he has advantages and a niche people may want, but left alone he won't be impressing anyone. 5.5/10

[Armchair General]

Honestly, I liked Amber's support conversations an lot more than his initial role on the battlefield. Sure, he can dive with Ike's ultimate move, but an lot of people can pull it off an lot better than he can.

 

The one good thing that I can say about when he joins is that he comes with an free killer lance. Of course, it shouldn't be that hard of an decision on who to give it to.

[lenticular]

I was pleasantly surprised by Amber. I ran him as a Warrior on Maddening, and he did a decent job. He was never my best standout unit, but he always contributed meaningfully and never required babying or favouritism. 6/10.

[Barren]

Hold your alpacas it’s time to talk about Amber. 
 

On my completed hard mode run he was pretty decent for what I saw in him. He’s got good HP, Strength and Luck. Everything else except Res is pretty average. He can be another investment project unit but with a higher level to start with and he can immediately promote if you want to. With second seals unlocked and gaining Leif albeit temporarily you can use the opportunity to explore his other options in physical classes.

 

Aspiring Hero isn’t as bad of a ability some players might make it out to be. I say this because with proper AI luring, you can separate at least one of them and he can gain a +20 hit when using something like a javelin if he stays as Cavalier to Paladin. Or if you change him to something like Hero or Warrior he can have a second weapon to work with. Warrior in particular can work great with him if it’s going to further augment his strength growth. Long Bow + Aspiring Hero = very reliable chip damage/follow up damage after breaking an enemy.

 

Hero is another good option for the Brave Assist. He makes a good Halberdier as well if you like doubling with Pincer Attack but would need a unit to surround the enemy. Amber does face competition later on with Panette who already promoted and has a higher strength stat starting out.

 

Overall I’d say 6/10 if you’re willing to invest into him. He’s in the same boat as Diamant in my eyes but I think he can make for a good secondary slot for your team. Worth a try.

[FashionEmblem]

Amber is more or less a physical version of Citrinne: great strength, and not much else going on. Unfortunately for Amber, enemy defense scales much better than resistance, Citrinne can get staff utility, and Citrinne gets to attack from range. While Amber is certainly physically bulkier than Citrinne (a low bar), he also has to attack more in melee and suffer more counterattacks, which can rack up big damage since Amber has rather poor speed and his defense is rather mid. Amber also faces stiff competition on the physical side for high strength from Panette and characters with good speed (e.g., Kagetsu) or good speed and enough magic to dip into magic weapons (e.g., Chloé, Fogado, and Merrin).

Much like Citrinne (e.g., Dire Thunder), if you want to use Amber you need to lean into using his high attack stat. Most straightforward way to do this is a reclass into Halberdier for access to Pincer Attack. Who cares if Amber can ever double from his speed stat when Pincer Attack guarantees doubles? Good synergy here is combining with a forged Brave Lance (x4 attacks), Lunar Brace (extra true damage for each hit), and maybe emblem Roy (Hold Out to deal with counterattack damage at melee and extra strength). As a slight negative, Pincer Attack does negate Amber's personal ability, so no extra hit for him, unfortunately.

Since Amber has a good strength base/growth, he can also go into classes that typically have low strength and still dish out good damage from them, such as Thief, Wolf Knight (no second seal required, even), or Bow Knight. Some of these classes even give him enough speed where he can be patched into a good speed territory. For example, on fixed growths (i.e., Maddening) instant promote Wolf Knight!Amber hits 28 speed at internal level 39, which can be boosted pretty easily with Speed +5 and a speed boosting emblem (e.g., Marth or Lyn, or Chrom and Camilla with DLC) to ~38 speed (without any Speedtaker set up, if Lyn is chosen), the same as an internal level 39 WolfKnight!Merrin without any speed boosts. Meanwhile, WolfKnight!Amber hits 29 strength while WolfKnight!Merrin hits 22. This isn't to say Amber is better than Merrin, since she can also receive speed investment (get to a place where she can double even the speediest of enemies) and attack buffs, plus Merrin has the flexibility to target Res sometimes, but a speed invested Amber can do good work. Finally Amber can do anything that puts his strength to work decently well, such as Warrior or Hero. With his strength Amber can toss stronger Javelins and Spears as a Hero for better chip while avoiding the counterattacks he despises to keep Brave Assist up, for example.

Availability wise I think Amber does alright. He can rock Cavalier until Master Seals become more available, can gain a lot of weapon proficiencies for reclassing, and has 800 base SP which means it's quite doable to get him Canter via Chapter 9 with only one chapter of favoritism.

Edited August 2, 2023 by FashionEmblem

[SnowFire]

20/20 Paladin Amber:
55 HP, 33 Str, 3 Mag, 25 Dex, 24 Spd, 25 Def, 9 Res, 23 Lck, 13 Bld, 6 Move
--

Amber is...  fine.  As noted, he's got good Strength which can excuse a lot, but kinda meh Speed doesn't help.  He's also deathly allergic to magic.  He makes a weird Louis variant: he's notably faster, which is definitely better, but has less defense (which isn't THAT important), and for rating purposes, isn't there to carry in those early maps.  The result is a character who is usable, similar to second-half Louis, but not THAT special.  If he surfs the bench you won't really notice.

As already mentioned, he's an interesting candidate for Halberdier shenanigans if you want.  Paladin is sadly not a great class, so it's probably best to do at least something with him - Great Knight also works.

Amber gets a 5/10.