Rate the Unit 33: Mauvier

[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: Mauvier

Class: Royal Knight

                     Lvl   HP    STR   MAG   DEX   SPD     DEF    RES   LCK   BLD

Bases:          12    51      21      23       25     22        26       24      16     12

T. Bases:      31   28      14      18        16     14         21       20      11       6

Growths:      /      70      35      40       40    35         50      45      15      15

 

Personal Skill: If unit uses Wait without attacking or using items, grants Def+2 for 1 turn.

Innate Proficiency: Staff

SP: 2500

 

Support Bonuses:

C    Hit+10
B    Hit+10
A    Hit+10
S    Hit+10

 

Tools and mo stats:

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

Engage Numbers - Google Tabellen

 

Rating: 5.1

Next unit on Monday

Edited October 2, 2023 by Imuabicus der Fertige

[lenticular]

The game really wants you to use Mauvier and Veyle. The deployment limit has been capped at 12 for a while, and then it gets bumped up to 13 when Mauvier comes along and then 14 when you get Veyle too. And unless you've been deliberately training more characters than you have unit slots, they're pretty much going to outclass any other benchwarmers who might potentially take their slots. This means that they are both likely to see deployment.

Personally, though, I find that about 10 characters is the sweet spot for deployment in Fire Emblem, with up to 12 being OK and then more than that starting to feel like a drag. I don't find myself thinking "ooh, yay, now I get to deploy 13 units"; rather I think "ugh, now I need to deploy 13 units". My 13th (or later 14th) best unit just isn't going to contribute very much when I've already built a well-rounded team of 12 who are plenty capable of filling all niches that I feel I need or want.

And when I got him, Mauvier was absolutely my 13th best unit. He was better than my bench warmers, but considerably behind the units I'd been using. I don't know if this is a playstyle thing but for me, by that point, I was overleveled considerably past both the enemy units and past Mauvier. The end game level curve was just completely broken for me. (This is on Hard, after doing all paralogues, not doing skirmish battles, and generally having a "kill every last one of them" approach to most maps.)

So Mauvier's role was, essentially "the least worst filler available for a deployment slot I didn't actually want". And he was OK in that role, I guess? Staff utility never hurts, and he has sufficient bulk to not feel like a liability. But he also didn't actually really do anything. He was more useful than keeping an empty deployment slot, but not by much. I give him 3/10.

[Barren]

More exciting than Jim Ryan stepping down as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment or maybe just as disappointing as no announcement of a Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War remake (at least we’re getting Paper Mario Thousand Year Door for switch next year), it’s time to talk about Mauvier. That turn coat left his Four Hounds family to be reviewed as another filler unit for the Divine Dragon’s merry band of fighters. This is assuming hard but could be applied to maddening.

 

Mauvier obviously joins you with some impressive enough stats to make work and has some good reclassing potential for later on. 2,500 SP is no joke since this can allow him to inherit needed skills right away. Of course his very late availability will often times get in the way of his viable because by that point you’ve already decided on your team more or less.

 

Royal Knights are bulky and he is no exception but unless he changes to a Griffin Knight with speed + 5 as well as Canter, he might end up having a hard time contributing to the team. Then again, that isn’t the only way to salvage him. Martial Master is another intriguing option for him as he has a good strength and magic stat which he needs to deal damage with Flash Arts. He could also be a dedicated bonded shield like Framme as he would 100% of the time auto guard allies.

 

I think he’s a 6/10 personally. At worst he’s a 4. 6 if you plan on investing into him and making him into a viable unit. 4 if all you’re using for is those back to back chapters where he is mandatory and never use him again. At least he isn’t as bad as Michalis on FE12’s lunatic reverse difficulty where he is almost unusable. Here, he is very much usable.

[samthedigital]

55 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I don't know if this is a playstyle thing but for me, by that point, I was overleveled considerably past both the enemy units and past Mauvier. The end game level curve was just completely broken for me. (This is on Hard, after doing all paralogues, not doing skirmish battles, and generally having a "kill every last one of them" approach to most maps.)

That sounds about right for Hard mode with that playstyle. It wasn't any different for me at least on my first playthrough. There's a similar trend in Maddening, but the exp penalty and enemy stat inflation does make it a lot closer if we don't include emblem buffs.

6.5/10

Mauvier is a ball of stats. His personal is worthless, but he can do pretty much anything at that point in the game even if he's not going to be the best at anything. He's also probably going to be relevant to some degree on every playthrough given the nature of deployment slots in this game. It is worth mentioning that there are still a few 12 deployment slot maps after he joins though. Anyway, the main reason I'm docking points from him is for availability along with his speed not being good enough on its own to double most late game enemies. I'd rather heavily invest into a unit that's going to be around for longer, so Mauvier isn't going to get any special treatment. Still, he's probably going to perform similarly to the bottom half of my units if I give him their emblem and skills instead, and he has a good shot at being on my team on every single one of my playthroughs.

Edited September 28, 2023 by samthedigital

[SumG]

Mauvier is a unit that I tried once, but in trying him out really didn't make much sense to me for Maddening.  The nicest thing that you can say about him is that he joins at a high level with OK stats.  If to that point you have only been using a number of units equal to your deployment slots, Mauvier will likely have higher raw stats than most of the bench units that you haven't used in 5+ chapters just in time to take advantage of the new 13th and 14th deployment slots.  But I'm not particularly impressed with how his stat block is allocated, and if you've made the forethought to train an extra unit over the course of the game then that unit will likely serve you better.  In LTC or other styles of play where large portions of maps are skipped and the associated experience is lost he may have value, but otherwise I just don't see it.

The problematic thing about Mauvier's stat block is that his attacking stats are evenly divided between magic and strength while also having low speed.  It means that it takes a significant amount of work in order to get him to double, and even if he does he will do significantly less damage than other big damage dealers.  His speed is in line with other slowpokes like a comparably leveled Amber or Citrinne, but those units have the benefit of at least having a big attack stat (str and mag, respectively) to build around while Mauvier is average in both.  He's got good raw defensive stats, but again because his speed is so low he's liable to be doubled by a large number of enemies unless you commit significant resources to improving his speed, in which case you're not going to do good damage.  His build is good, so he can wield heavy weapons without any further speed penalty, but that only does so much when his base speed still means he's getting doubled quite often.  His personal ability is cute, but would have been far more useful in the first few chapters of the game instead of Chapter 21 when he joins and enemy attack/damage is much higher.

If you're playing through the game for the first time and did not realize that you were getting extra deployment slots so late, there's a case to use him over a bench unit that's sitting at IL 22 or similar.  If you're going for a LTC or highly efficient playthrough, then he can slot in to a team then.  And in Royal Knight at least he has staff access to do some cheap healing and utility staff work.  But I just think there are far better things you can do with a deployment slot if you're playing the game more or less conventionally and have even a little forethought.  I'll give Mauvier a 4/10.

[samthedigital]

3 hours ago, SumG said:

and if you've made the forethought to train an extra unit over the course of the game then that unit will likely serve you better.  In LTC or other styles of play where large portions of maps are skipped and the associated experience is lost he may have value, but otherwise I just don't see it.

The other way to play in a more casual (so to speak) setting is to choose a handful of units to give a ton of experience/resources to so that we create some juggernauts to beat the game with. A unit like Mauvier is going to have more value in this kind of playthrough also. It's a similar idea to Pokemon where pooling experience into one Pokemon lets them solo the entire game with minimal effort. It's a little more complicated in Fire Emblem, but the same general idea applies.

[lenticular]

17 minutes ago, samthedigital said:

The other way to play in a more casual (so to speak) setting is to choose a handful of units to give a ton of experience/resources to so that we create some juggernauts to beat the game with. A unit like Mauvier is going to have more value in this kind of playthrough also. It's a similar idea to Pokemon where pooling experience into one Pokemon lets them solo the entire game with minimal effort. It's a little more complicated in Fire Emblem, but the same general idea applies.

This sort of approach is typically powerful in FE, yes (although probably less so in Engage than most other games in the series since fewer units means fewer Emblems). I'm not clear on why you think that adds value to Mauvier, though. Typically, if someone is looking to build a juggernaut then it's best to do so with early-game units. This gives them plenty of time to really snowball, and also just means that you have your overpowered units for as great a percentage of the game as possible. For that sort of play through, isn't Mauvier just going to be even more outclassed than usual by the time he's recruited?

[samthedigital]

3 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I'm not clear on why you think that adds value to Mauvier, though. Typically, if someone is looking to build a juggernaut then it's best to do so with early-game units. This gives them plenty of time to really snowball, and also just means that you have your overpowered units for as great a percentage of the game as possible. For that sort of play through, isn't Mauvier just going to be even more outclassed than usual by the time he's recruited?

He's going to be more outclassed relative to the best units, yeah. The problem is that we don't have as many units that have been properly leveled, so it adds value to units that come for free with combat ready stats for some of the secondary combat or utility roles.

12 minutes ago, lenticular said:

although probably less so in Engage than most other games in the series since fewer units means fewer Emblems

It depends on how exactly you want to use your emblems too. Byleth is the primary example since I don't really care about the Byleth user's combat. It's nice to have a Byleth user with good combat on occasion, but for example I used Vander as my primary Byleth/Corrin bot throughout the game and didn't miss out on too much. I would have used anyone else if I could have by the way; I was just forcing myself to use the last few units that I had never used before past the start of the game.

[SumG]

1 hour ago, samthedigital said:

The other way to play in a more casual (so to speak) setting is to choose a handful of units to give a ton of experience/resources to so that we create some juggernauts to beat the game with.

Is that really viable on Maddening in Engage?  There are a number of mechanics, particularly in the late game, that would make this strategy more challenging in practice.  Clear objectives for maps are often defeating numerous bosses, each of which can have multiple revival stones, and often multiple bosses will activate in tandem so they must be dealt with simultaneously.  Endgame maps typically require dividing your party into multiple subgroups, which can make low-manning them more difficult.  Without resorting to warp-skip tactics, I have to imagine that sort of strategy is more challenging than having a full party, though I admit I have not tried it myself.  And with warp-skips, you're basically doing LTC strategies, so the discussion is moot.

[samthedigital]

2 hours ago, SumG said:

Is that really viable on Maddening in Engage?

This is how I like to play Engage, so yes, it is possible.

2 hours ago, SumG said:

Clear objectives for maps are often defeating numerous bosses, each of which can have multiple revival stones, and often multiple bosses will activate in tandem so they must be dealt with simultaneously.

The way I set it up is to have 3 carry type units and a bunch of support combat/utility. I have my Ike carry, the Bonded Shield duo, and then the Lyn carry. The Lyn carry is typically being fed a bunch of stat boosters so that they can tackle MM enemies on their own, but they might make use of Bonded Shield also. Chapter 22 comes to mind as being significantly easier when having this kind of Lyn unit available. This isn't completely set in stone, but it gives you a general idea of how I approach maps.

2 hours ago, SumG said:

Endgame maps typically require dividing your party into multiple subgroups, which can make low-manning them more difficult.

It depends on the specific map, but let's take chapter 23 as a quick example. The game is softly encouraging you to split your party in two, but we can ignore that suggestion and just group everyone up anyway. I like to ignore the right part of the map entirely to clear the map more quickly. It might be a little slower if you want to full clear the map, but it is a lot more simple. It's not universally slower to play that way though, and of course there are ways to deviate from the "ball of death" strategy slightly for better clears.

2 hours ago, SumG said:

And with warp-skips, you're basically doing LTC strategies, so the discussion is moot.

What do you think of Entrap and Astra Storm cheese? There are also a few ways to use Warp/Rewarp/Rescue that trivialize maps while not falling into the LTC umbrella. Chapter 25 is the ultimate example since you can bypass the whole split army gimmick by rescuing all of your units to one side of the map. Of course you could get them all to the top of the map and kill the thieves to trivialize the map entirely, but I'm not sure whether you consider that LTC or not. I wouldn't personally; my turn count by the end of the game is like 4-5 times worse than an LTC, but I guess that it depends on your perspective to some extent.

2 hours ago, SumG said:

Without resorting to warp-skip tactics, I have to imagine that sort of strategy is more challenging than having a full party, though I admit I have not tried it myself.

I have no idea either way; my first MM playthrough is the only one that featured a more even distribution of resources. I had the hardest time with this playthrough, but it's also not a good point of reference for obvious reasons. My latest playthrough featured only 4 competent combat units (Amber, Citrinne, Yunaka, and Boucheron), and they were able to handle just about everything with a garbage supporting cast. I didn't full clear every single map, but that would only make things easier since my carries would have been able to trivialize more. This was happening while units like Jade, Vander, and Bunet contributed almost nothing offensively.

Edited September 28, 2023 by samthedigital

[SnowFire]

Lvl. 20 Royal Knight Mauvier

57 HP, 25 Str, 27 Mag, 29 Dex, 26 Spd, 30 Def, 29 Res, 18 Lck, 12 Bld, 6 Move
Mauvier doesn't have an internal level in the data dump, but manual testing seems to suggest it's as if he promoted at L20, meaning a default endgame level of */20.

--

Mauvier is solid.  As noted already, the game gives you an extra slot just for him (thus making low availability arguments a bit less potent), and he's appropriately leveled and a general all-rounder.  Royal Knight isn't considered a particularly good class, but he's fine in it.  Make him a Griffin Knight for +4 Spd and better mobility, or a Sage for +4 Magic.  It's all good.  To be sure, if you have plenty of staffers already, you can just slot in Saphir / Goldmary / Rosado instead for more of a physical focus.

6/10.