Rate the Unit 22: Pandreo

[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: Pandreo

Class: High Priest

                     Lvl   HP  STR MAG DEX SPD DEF RES LCK BLD

Bases:          1      34    7    16      18    17      8    22    14    8

T. Bases:      16    14    4     8       10    11      5    12     9    4

Growths:      /      60    5    30     45    45    15    55    30    15

 

 

Personal Skill: Grants a bonus to Hit and Avo equal to 3× the number of allies and foes within 2 spaces.

Innate Proficiency: Staff

SP: 1200

 

Support Bonuses:

C    Hit+10, Dodge+5
B    Hit+15, Dodge+5
A    Hit+15, Dodge+10
S    Hit+15, Dodge+20

 

Tools and mo stats:

Engage Numbers - Google Tabellen

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

 

Rating: 8.21

Next unit on Thusrday

Edited August 24, 2023 by Imuabicus der Fertige

[samthedigital]

8.5/10; Maddening

I've pretty much exclusively used him as a Mage Knight with Canter and Speed+X because it works well and I'm too lazy to find something else. He probably also has enough starting SP to run some cheap filler skill until he gets Canter too. I like to run him with Corrin when she's available, but otherwise he doesn't really need help from an emblem to be an effective player phase unit. Magic is also the best attacking stat, and good magic attack spammers are in more demand since we don't have as many of them.

I've docked a point and a half from a perfect score because he just doesn't have that top end potential or flexibility. As a Griffin Knight his damage is going to suffer somewhat in exchange for staff and flying utility, and he loses some movement and speed as a Sage, so I've never been a fan of that class. He can probably be a decent Bonded Shield target with investment, but he needs a Qi Adept* partner for that, and he might also need more help with both speed and damage. In short his lack of flexibility will likely hurt him there too. It is worth noting that he's better than most at least because magic is always going to be best for this.

*Cavalry also gives 100% success rate for Bonded Shield, but I would not run Lucina on Cavalry for a variety of reasons.

Edited August 21, 2023 by samthedigital

[SumG]

Pandreo is in the running for strongest mage in the game, even through Maddening difficulty.  He's just about everything you would want in a rank and file mage.  He's got a good magic stat, great speed, and good build.  That last one is particularly important, since most of mages in the game cannot wield heavy workhorse tomes like Bolganone without significant speed penalties.  Meanwhile, Pandreo will only take small speed penalties out of the game, and once reclassed into his best class will take virtually no speed penalty at all.  His personal ability is nice as particularly on higher difficulties units tend to stick together a bit more, and it isn't uncommon for the ability to add 10-15 Hit/Avoid.

Pandreo joins as a high priest, but to be most effective he should reclass into Mage Knight.  With Mage Knight's class ability, he will be able to consistently double enemies through the end of the campaign on Maddening with no other assistance, something no other mage can claim.  The only downside to this being losing access to staves (a real cost in this game) in exchange for a melee weapon class that will not likely be used often.  Given there's no great offensive magic emblem in the game without the DLC, whichever emblem Pandreo equips will not alter his performance significantly, with the obvious choice being something that boosts his magic power.  Unfortunately, most of the magic-boosting emblems feel a bit wasted on Pandreo, as he would rather be attacking than setting terrain effects (Corrin), casting staves (Micaiah), or dancing/tutoring (Byleth).  He should also never be attacking physically, so Eirika is right out.  That really only leaves Celica as a good option, which is fine if unspectacular.  I suppose there is some merit to a unit being happy to take an otherwise lightly contested emblem.

The only question is which powerhouse mage takes the top slot: Ivy or Pandreo?  Pandreo has more speed, but has lower raw magic, does not get access to a flying class, and loses access to staves if he goes into his best class.  Before the well was introduced, I might have said Pandreo was better overall, but now it is not too onerous to give Ivy a skill book or two to get her you speed boosting ability of choice to patch her weakness up very quickly.  At that point, the movement type and staff access wins out.  So I'll leave Pandreo a bit behind Ivy at an 8.5/10.

 

[lenticular]

Pandreo is a lot like Fogado in that he has a very high floor and a ceiling that is decent but not spectacular, though I do think that he comes out ahead of Fogado on both fronts. Even if you do absolutely nothing with Pandreo, he's still going to be a decent performer as a High Priest with whatever equipment and Emblem/Bond Ring you have sitting around not doing anything else. That was pretty much how I used him in my first time through the game on Hard difficulty. I didn't really care for him as a charcter so I threw him into my party as filler to eventually be replaced by someone better when they came along. Nobody better came along. He just kept performing well despite getting no investment.

He has a few decent class choices. Sage is a slight upgrade on High Priest, since its stats are a bit better. This is the choice if you want to retain both tome and staff access, or if you want to stay in the Mystic group (eg, for access to Thyrsus through Byleth), but has the drawback of limited mobility. If you want a higher move stat, you can either give up staves and go with Mage Knight or give up tomes (in favour of a levin sword) and go with Griffin Knight. I've only run him in High Priest, but he seems like someone who has reasonable flexibility in how he can be built.

I give him 8/10 overall.

[SnowFire]

20/5 High Priest Pandreo (usual internal level 15 disclaimer here):

48 HP, 8 Str, 29 Mag, 28 Dex, 29 Spd, 11 Def, 42 Res, 28 Lck, 11 Bld, 5 Move
--

Pandreo is magical Kagetsu.  Similar min-max'd stat line except with Magic and Resistance rather than Strength, and much worse Defense.  You can stick him in whatever magical class you want and he'll be cool, with the combination of excellent Magic, Speed, and Build.  He's a superb hole-filler - even if you don't seriously plan on using him long-term, he's often a great drop-in for any spare slots, and he'll still be competitive with later joining mages like Hortensia, Lindon, or Mauvier even when getting shorted XP.  Works fine in any of the classically hyped magic classes.  And hell, even High Priest is basically fine - it's not what you want at endgame because no Bolganone, but the growths of High Priest are a bit better than Sage and Spell Harmony is a trash passive, so no hurry in class-changing to Sage if that's where you'd like to go.  Same with Griffin Knight, who cares about Clear the Way.  (Mage Knight...  yeah, maybe switch over sooner because Chaos Style rules, although that means going staff-less for awhile.)

My one minor comment is that the Resistance is seriously godlike, but it's paired with better HP than Hortensia, so he also makes a fantastic bait unit for magical bosses & foes.  Notably all the Hounds in C14 have magical weapons and base Pandreo can tank 'em all no problem, and this is still a useful niche later.

Pandreo gets an 8/10.

[Bartozio]

8/10 Maddening.

Honestly, I don't think there's that much to say about him. He joins with good bases for a magic unit and his growths are pretty solid as well. His personal is nice, and he kind of just does everything you could reasonably expect of a mage with his join time. His starting class isn't amazing for him, but he has the proficiencies for Sage, and he only needs sword proficiency to get into Mage Knight or Griffon Knight, which is practically free. And like... I said not amazing, but he still makes for a pretty nice filler unit in High Priest for a bit. No A-rank in tomes sucks later on, but there's no rush to reclass him asap when he joins. You just can if you want to.

Similar to Kagetsu, the only real downsides to him are that he can't benefit from the early emblem rings and that he doesn't really do anything special. He's a bit better than most units without a lot of investment, and he doesn't really break the game more than most other units can when he does get a lot of investment. Which is still very solid, but there's a few units that still outclass him I think.

[Barren]

It’s time to party like an animal! Pandreo, our man of the cloth has come to show what he can bring to the table. This is assuming maddening.

 

Pandreo joins you turn 1 of chapter 12 along with Fogado and Bunet. He comes with honest to god really good stats. A nice combo of magic, speed and build means that he’ll have no trouble wielding elfire when he joins and once his build reaches max (which is faster than any magic unit in the game), and if you switch classes he won’t have any issue wielding bolganone. Especially since you might want to give it an engraving that will lower it’s weight.

 

Party Animal is also a really useful ability if he is surrounded by people both friend and foe alike. This makes him a good beneficiary of bonded shield especially if he is able to double enemies. Of course him staying in high priest means no bolganone or even thoron. Instead you have S rank staves.

But it’s not the end of the world because even if you switch to Sage which has better magic, he can still maintain A rank in staves and still be able to use fortify. That would take some pressure off of Hortensia in case you want her to do other things as well as him being able to use any tome in the game.

 

Mage Knight on the other hand as already mentioned, doubles up his offensive capabilities with presumably levin sword as well as tomes (he might even be able to wield flame lance effectively enough given his build stat. Though it’s faster for him to get sword proficiency rather than wait for lances again). Chaos Style is really good and add that with speed + x and his personal ability and you have a doubling machine that could sometimes ORKO enemies with low res.

In terms of emblems, Lyn can grant him speed +x as mentioned. If you want something else, he would have to wait until maybe around the time you get Corrin for Draconic Hex with El Thunder/Thoron. Or Gentility from Erika to reduce damage. There are others I’m sure.
 

I’d give him a 8.5/10. Damn good unit I’d say.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pandreo is a lot like Kagetsu or Merrin, just generally very good stats for what he's trying to do, which in his case is magical offence. Since he's got a staff boon he makes a great Griffin Knight too, although his magic offence does suffer there. You kinda have to choose between two of access to good tomes, good staves, and good mobility, but whatever choice you make he'll do well. Makes great use of any magic-friendly emblem (Corrin, Byleth, Celica) and works well as filler even without one. His personal is also a nice boost because it's always doing something and can potentially be quite a bit.

Compared to Citrinne his magic is not enough lower to offset all his big wins everywhere else, and he basically just completely outshines Clanne or Celine. Compared to Ivy his stats are a bit better but he doesn't have the overpowered class.

8/10