4 replies to this topic

[CATS]

Eir Route assumed I guess.

[CATS]

Well, for starters, Artur has a chapter of availability on Natasha. He appears on the map from the start of Ch 4 and gets to knock stuff around for a chap when Natasha isn't yet heard of.

Attacking and healing are difficult to compare, so I won't really bother with trying for now. You can provide some arguments for it if you want, or maybe I will in the next post, depending on whether or not I think it matters. Both of these two want an early promotion, so they'll likely spend more time promoted than unpromoted anyways.

Assuming a promotion after Ch 10, since two monster chaps are coming up, and a one level lead for Artur since he joins one level higher, one chapter earlier:

11/1 Bishop Artur, B Lute, w/ Lightning: 17.5 Atk, 11.6 Spd----26.9 Hp, 8.3 Def, 37.4 Avo
10/1 Bishop Natasha, B Joshua, w/ Lightning: 13.4 Atk, 11.6 Spd----25.5 Hp, 6.3 Def, 39.6 Avo

As you can see, Artur wins handily. 4 Atk, 1-2 Hp, 2 Def beats out 2 Avo. Growth-wise, Natasha wins Atk by 10% (not enough to ever close the Atk gap; they'd need to gain 41 levels for her to close a 4.1 Atk gap with that), Spd is tied, Artur wins Hp by 5%, Def is tied (but really Artur wins since he'll be getting more from higher support ranks), and Natasha wins Avo by 35%. Too bad Natasha's higher Avo growth is counteracted by Artur's superior supports. An eventual A with Lute, possibly followed by a C with Tethys, gives +5-10 Avo; Natasha getting an A with Joshua, possibly followed by a C with Franz, is only +2-5. Even after 10 levels, Natasha has only gained 3.5 more Avo than Artur from growths, which is immediately canceled or even surpassed by Artur's additional Avo from supports.

It's also notable that Artur will wield Ivaldi in Ch 20 and the final. It's only two chapters, but he's using a 34 Mt weapon which also gives +5 Def to its wielder, so that's a pretty significant window of time in this otherwise close comparison. You might counter with an argument that Natasha's staff rank is higher, but Artur catches up to her by the time it matters. Bishop Artur starts with C Staves, and no staff above C Rank is available until Ch 14. Dividing his staff uses between Mend, Barrier and Ch 11 Torch, Artur reaching A staves by the start of Ch 16 is just a little under 6 staff uses per chapter. If anything Artur's better at using staves, as his higher Mag gives him more range and power with Physic.

Artur's a better friend than Natasha, aswell. Artur hands out full Avo and Def to Lute, while Natasha hands out only half Avo/Def to Joshua; if my life depended on it, I'd rather have battlefield conversations with Artur.

[WeaponsofMassConstruction]

Attacking and healing are difficult to compare, so I won't really bother with trying for now. You can provide some arguments for it if you want, or maybe I will in the next post, depending on whether or not I think it matters. Both of these two want an early promotion, so they'll likely spend more time promoted than unpromoted anyways.

Here is where Natasha pulls out the win.

Artur at base with Lightning: 19 hp, 10 atk, 8 AS, 2 def
A unit needs only 21 hp/0 res to survive a double hit from Artur. In return, Artur gets 2HKO'd by a mere 12 att.

So how bad is this? Let's look at some chapters.

Ch4:
1x Mogall Level 1 (Evil Eye): 16 HP, 10 Atk, 1 AS, 89 Hit, 3 Avo, 2 Def, 5 Res, 1 Crit
1x Revenant Level 3 (Rotten Claw): 30 HP, 12 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 1 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Rotten Claw): 29 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 1 Avo, 0 Def, 2 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 1 (Rotten Claw): 28 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Mogall Level 2 (Evil Eye): 16 HP, 10 Atk, 1 AS, 91 Hit, 3 Avo, 2 Def, 5 Res, 1 Crit
1x Bonewalker Level 2 (Iron Sword): 22 HP, 11 Atk, 4 AS, 96 Hit, 8 Avo, 3 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Bonewalker Level 3 (Iron Sword): 24 HP, 11 Atk, 5 AS, 96 Hit, 10 Avo, 4 Def, 2 Res, 1 Crit
1x Revenant Level 1 (Iron Sword): 28 HP, 10 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 1 Avo, 0 Def, 1 Res, 0 Crit
1x Mogall Level 1 (Evil Eye): 17 HP, 10 Atk, 1 AS, 89 Hit, 3 Avo, 2 Def, 5 Res, 1 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Rotten Claw): 28 HP, 10 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 1 (Rotten Claw): 28 HP, 10 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Bonewalker Level 3 (Iron Sword): 24 HP, 11 Atk, 4 AS, 96 Hit, 9 Avo, 4 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Rotten Claw): 30 HP, 12 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 3 (Rotten Claw): 30 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 84 Hit, 0 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Entombed Level 1 (Fetid Claw): 37 HP, 17 Atk, 0 AS, 78 Hit, 2 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit

Reinforcements

1x Bonewalker Level 1 (Turn 1, right, Iron Lance): 22 HP, 12 Atk, 3 AS, 86 Hit, 6 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Bonewalker Level 1 (Turn 1, right, Iron Lance): 23 HP, 13 Atk, 3 AS, 86 Hit, 6 Avo, 3 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Bonewalker Level 2 (Turn 1, right, Iron Lance): 23 HP, 14 Atk, 3 AS, 84 Hit, 6 Avo, 4 Def, 2 Res, 1 Crit

1x Revenant Level 2 (Turn 3, top-left, Fetid Claw, Vulnerary): 28 HP, 17 Atk, 0 AS, 77 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 1 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Turn 3, top-left, Rotten Claw): 28 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 1 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Turn 3, top-left, Rotten Claw): 29 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 82 Hit, 0 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 0 Crit
1x Revenant Level 2 (Turn 3, top-left, Rotten Claw ): 29 HP, 11 Atk, 0 AS, 84 Hit, 1 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit

Artur ORKO's a grand total of 0 enemies. He is 2 shotted by 7 enemies and is borderline 3 shotted by the rest not counting Mogalls. This is quite a bad performance, even just against basic monsters.

So let's look at some enemies that aren't monsters.
Ch 5:
1x Soldier Level 6 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 14 Atk, 0 AS, 85 Hit, 2 Avo, 1 Def, 2 Res, 1 Crit
1x Fighter Level 5 (Iron Axe): 26 HP, 18 Atk, 6 AS, 85 Hit, 12 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 2 Crit
1x Fighter Level 5 (Iron Axe): 25 HP, 17 Atk, 7 AS, 83 Hit, 15 Avo, 2 Def, 2 Res, 2 Crit
1x Soldier Level 6 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 13 Atk, 1 AS, 86 Hit, 3 Avo, 1 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Soldier Level 5 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 13 Atk, 0 AS, 87 Hit, 2 Avo, 0 Def, 2 Res, 1 Crit
1x Soldier Level 5 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 13 Atk, 1 AS, 84 Hit, 3 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Fighter Level 5 (Iron Axe): 26 HP, 17 Atk, 6 AS, 83 Hit, 12 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 2 Crit
1x Archer Level 5 (Iron Bow): 23 HP, 12 Atk, 5 AS, 98 Hit, 13 Avo, 5 Def, 1 Res, 3 Crit
1x Mercenary Level 6 (Iron Sword): 25 HP, 12 Atk, 1 0AS, 113 Hit, 6 Def, 0 Res, 5 Crit
1x Fighter Level 5 (Iron Axe): 27 HP, 17 Atk, 7 AS, 83 Hit, 14 Avo, 2 Def, 1 Res, 2 Crit
1x Archer Level 5 (Iron Bow): 22 HP, 13 Atk, 6 AS, 98 Hit, 13 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 3 Crit
1x Soldier Level 5 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 13 Atk, 0 AS, 87 Hit, 2 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Archer Level 4 (Iron Bow): 22 HP, 12 Atk, 5 AS, 96 Hit, 12 Avo, 5 Def, 0 Res, 2 Crit
1x Fighter Level 4 (Iron Axe): 25 HP, 16 Atk, 6 AS, 83 Hit, 13 Avo, 4 Def, 0 Res, 2 Crit
1x Soldier Level 5 (Iron Lance): 25 HP, 13 Atk, 0 AS, 85 Hit, 2 Avo, 1 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Knight Level 8 (Javelin): 32 HP, 19 Atk, 4 AS, 83 Hit, 13 Avo, 12 Def, 4 Res, 4 Crit*

Reinforcements

1x Brigand Level 4 (Turn 1, right side, Iron Axe): 27 HP, 17 Atk, 8 AS, 86 Hit, 16 Avo, 6 Def, 2 Res, 2 Crit
1x Brigand Level 4 (Turn 1, right side, Iron Axe): 25 HP, 15 Atk, 6 AS, 81 Hit, 12 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit

1x Brigand Level 5 (Turn 5, under arena, Iron Axe): 25 HP, 16 Atk, 6 AS, 82 Hit, 14 Avo, 4 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit
1x Brigand Level 5 (Turn 5, under arena, Iron Axe): 25 HP, 16 Atk, 7 AS, 81 Hit, 15 Avo, 3 Def, 2 Res, 1 Crit

1x Brigand Level 5 (Turn 8, near Saar, Iron Axe): 28 HP, 16 Atk, 7 AS, 82 Hit, 16 Avo, 5 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Brigand Level 5 (Turn 8, near Saar, Iron Axe): 26 HP, 16 Atk, 7 AS, 80 Hit, 16 Avo, 4 Def, 1 Res, 1 Crit

Instantly there is a notable difference as now any enemy unit that isn't a knight or soldier now avoids getting doubled by Artur. So he 3RKO's most enemies except armors and soldiers. The atk of the enemy units has also jumped, as all but 2 enemies 2HKO Artur, assuming he's gained a point of hp. 1 of them ORKO's Artur (Can you guess which?).

So at the same time, Natasha comes in and immediately provides your team with much appreciated healing. Without her, your progress would be noticeably slowed as self healing is slow and Moulder can't handle everyone who has injured, especially since you'll split your party up in a lot of maps.
This trend continues and while Artur improves later on, healing easily gives Natasha the win.

Assuming a promotion after Ch 10, since two monster chaps are coming up, and a one level lead for Artur since he joins one level higher, one chapter earlier:

11/1 Bishop Artur, B Lute, w/ Lightning: 17.5 Atk, 11.6 Spd----26.9 Hp, 8.3 Def, 37.4 Avo
10/1 Bishop Natasha, B Joshua, w/ Lightning: 13.4 Atk, 11.6 Spd----25.5 Hp, 6.3 Def, 39.6 Avo

As you can see, Artur wins handily. 4 Atk, 1-2 Hp, 2 Def beats out 2 Avo. Growth-wise, Natasha wins Atk by 10% (not enough to ever close the Atk gap; they'd need to gain 41 levels for her to close a 4.1 Atk gap with that), Spd is tied, Artur wins Hp by 5%, Def is tied (but really Artur wins since he'll be getting more from higher support ranks), and Natasha wins Avo by 35%. Too bad Natasha's higher Avo growth is counteracted by Artur's superior supports. An eventual A with Lute, possibly followed by a C with Tethys, gives +5-10 Avo; Natasha getting an A with Joshua, possibly followed by a C with Franz, is only +2-5. Even after 10 levels, Natasha has only gained 3.5 more Avo than Artur from growths, which is immediately canceled or even surpassed by Artur's additional Avo from supports.

So now Artur grabs staves and can now compete with Natasha. The first thing of note is that Natasha could very easily have B Josh C Seth C Franz, causing a tie in def and an avo gap of 9.
C Franz comes 14 turns before Artur gets B Lute and C Seth comes 13 turns earlier, so those supports shouldn't be difficult if B Lute is accepted.

Secondly, Natasha should go Valkyrie. She gains a point of move over Artur so she's still better at healing, she has GBA canto, the +2 con offsets the +1 spd from Bishop, and Valkyrie just looks cooler.

While she does give up some combat on the monster chapters, her class bonus in exp gain should mean she'll be more than competent enough for the later chapters.

So does Artur's combat make up for his heavy earlygame loss? Well if he does fight, then he's running into the same disadvantageous matchup as before, as healing > okay offense crappy defense.

It's also notable that Artur will wield Ivaldi in Ch 20 and the final. It's only two chapters, but he's using a 34 Mt weapon which also gives +5 Def to its wielder, so that's a pretty significant window of time in this otherwise close comparison. You might counter with an argument that Natasha's staff rank is higher, but Artur catches up to her by the time it matters. Bishop Artur starts with C Staves, and no staff above C Rank is available until Ch 14. Dividing his staff uses between Mend, Barrier and Ch 11 Torch, Artur reaching A staves by the start of Ch 16 is just a little under 6 staff uses per chapter. If anything Artur's better at using staves, as his higher Mag gives him more range and power with Physic.

The point about Ivaldi is true, but if those 2 chapters are a significant win for Artur, the early game staff utiliy Natasha has is a mindblowing advantage.

Building staff rank for Artur is not good for his levels. He's only gaining 6 exp a mend, and that's just not enough to keep up with the rest of your team in levels. Barrier and Torch aren't much better and if Artur's spending his time using these staves, Natasha's running away with actually utility.

Also of note is that while Artur has Ivaldi, Natasha can use Latona, which fixes any problems you may run into in the last 2 chapters. Sure Artur can use Fortify, but he'll probably end up with something like a 10 square limit, which isn't enough when you're splitting your party.

So overall, Natasha's healing win early game secures her the victory as Artur can't pull out anything significant enough to make up for it.

Artur's a better friend than Natasha, aswell. Artur hands out full Avo and Def to Lute, while Natasha hands out only half Avo/Def to Joshua; if my life depended on it, I'd rather have battlefield conversations with Artur.

They have the same affinity.

[CATS]

Comparing Artur to the enemies means nothing in and of itself. A unit that 3RKOs, if placed into a game where most PCs 5RKO, is top tier, and the opposite if placed into a game where most PCs ORKO. Performance must be measured relative to the performance of other PCs. If you want to talk about how shitty Artur's earlygame is, then very well. Let's compare to the only other high tier combat units you have at the moment, Eirika and Lute. Ch 6:

L4-5 Artur: 7.25 Mag, 9 Spd----20.4 Hp, 2.35 Def, 7.4 Res, 20.65 Avo

L6 Eirika: 6 Str, 12 Spd----19.5 Hp, 4.5 Def, 2.5 Res, 32 Avo
L4 Lute: 7.3 Mag, 7.4 Spd----18.4 Hp, 3.4 Def, 6.2 Res, 24.2 Avo

Artur beats them both in Hp? lol

Some Ch 6 enemy samples for your convenience.

Iron Lance Soldier: 14 Atk, 1 AS----27 Hp, 1 Def, 1 Res
Cavalier w/ Iron Lance & Javelin: 15/14 Atk, 7/5 AS----26 Hp, 7 Def, 1 Res
Steel Axe Fighter: 20 Atk, 2 AS----28 Hp, 3 Def, 2 Res
Shaman: 14 Atk, 3 AS----20 Hp, 4 Def, 5 Res

Against the Soldier, everyone is 2RKOing and being 2RKOed in return, but Eirika takes counters ftl.
Against the Cavalier, Eirika wins offense with a Rapier ORKO, but loses defense as she takes counters when attacking (and is still 2RKOed; she's like FE7 Lyn at this point). If it whips out the Javelin (as it likely will given its large attack range and the likelihood of you having a 1 range unit in the fray), Artur doubles and beats Lute in offense, otherwise they're similar.
Against the Fighter, everyone 2RKOs and is 2HKOed. Eirika takes counters but has alot of Avo, so she probably wins. Artur and Lute are still similar.
Against the Shaman, Eirika is 2HKOed while Artur is 4HKOed and Lute 3HKOed (very close to a 2HKO). Eirika does ORKO as compared to Artur's 2RKO, but she can't counter and loses defense by alot. As for Lute, admittedly there is a Mage in this chapter where the triangle will work in Lute's favor, but not as strongly as it works in Artur's favor here (vs Dark, Artur has WTA vs Lute WTD, whereas vs Anima, Artur has WTD vs Lute WTN).

Overall there is no clear victor, except that Artur is probably a little better than Lute. So yeah, while he may be not ORKOing things and getting 2 or 3HKOed in return, he's doing it with constant 1-2 range, and most others are hardly better off, so Artur is not by any means sucking. Let's see who else is out there, there's awesome guys like Seth and Franz, but they're the best in the game, Artur being worse than them is both expected and meaningless. Then you get to the units I just compared, and past that it's mostly the likes of Gilliam, Garcia, Neimi and Ross. So again, no, Artur's combat is not bad, and if anything it is the opposite. He clearly has value as an attacker.

So at the same time, Natasha comes in and immediately provides your team with much appreciated healing. Without her, your progress would be noticeably slowed as self healing is slow and Moulder can't handle everyone who has injured, especially since you'll split your party up in a lot of maps.
This trend continues and while Artur improves later on, healing easily gives Natasha the win.

This doesn't do anything to show that an extra healer > an extra attacker. Self healing is in fact barely slower than Natasha at this point, you only have one Mend staff (which would be utilized even without Natasha's presence, thanks to the existence of Moulder), and Natasha + Heal restores 12 Hp vs 10 from a Vulnerary. Moulder can't heal everyone ASAP all by himself, no, but neither can your attackers take down all the enemies ASAP all by themselves, either.

As for splitting your party up, while this does indeed increase the value of an additional healer, it also increases the value of additional attackers. On a 12 man team that stays in one big block throughout the chapter, many attackers won't even have room to attack on any given turn, whereas if you split up into two smaller groups, each group is less crowded, and each individual attacker gets more opportunities to see action in his/her theater of combat.

You'll have to type more than a couple short sentences to conclusively show that another healer > another attacker. The two functions are both undeniably useful and yet completely different and difficult to compare; from an objective standpoint, armed with only these facts, one would declare them roughly equal until further evidence is presented. Thus, the burden of proof falls on you to show that an additional healer is significantly better than an additional attacker.

So now Artur grabs staves and can now compete with Natasha. The first thing of note is that Natasha could very easily have B Josh C Seth C Franz, causing a tie in def and an avo gap of 9.
C Franz comes 14 turns before Artur gets B Lute and C Seth comes 13 turns earlier, so those supports shouldn't be difficult if B Lute is accepted.

Whoa, so Natasha joins a chapter later and gets two free C's while Artur gets nothing? Let's stop and think about this. C Franz and C Seth are 35 and 38 turns, respectively. And you don't get to build a support with 3 units by ending your turn adjacent to one of them. For Natasha to build 3 supports at the same rate Artur builds 1, she has to stay adjacent to all 3 of her partners (damn, what a whore) just as often as Artur is staying adjacent to Lute, which is just, well, the polite term would be impractical. Especially considering two of her partners are high-move and happen to be the two best combat units.

In terms of total support turns required, B Josh C Seth C Franz is 120 turns of support, about 20 turns per chapter. You need to keep the 4 of them (yes, fucking 4 units) glued together basically every single turn from Ch 5-10 in order to make this happen. Have fun with that, if you're seriously on board, I'll be happy to demonstrate how this cripples the performance of those 3 fighters, particularly Seth and Franz (who can't support each other, which they want to do, while both standing next to Natasha, btw). Have fun using Seth to rush Ch 5's left side or hold off Ch 6's Cav reinforcements while he's holding Natasha's hand. Did I mention that Seth x Franz is better for those two than supporting Natasha, and can't be done if they're both glued to Natasha? Yeah, I think I did mention that.

Let's also keep in mind, if supports build like this, Artur easily snags A Lute by now and also has C Joshua (which is soon to be a B,), and he's getting his bonuses from just two partners instead of 3 (and the majority of the Avo and all of the Def from just a single partner), which is probably at least equal to your proposed Natasha setup. So even if this were practical, which it isn't, it wouldn't help Natasha's case very much.

Gonna stick with my current setup, if you don't mind. A single B support for both is much more reasonable.

Secondly, Natasha should go Valkyrie. She gains a point of move over Artur so she's still better at healing, she has GBA canto, the +2 con offsets the +1 spd from Bishop, and Valkyrie just looks cooler.

A single point of move, mitigated by mounted terrain penalties (the presence of a single forest in their path causes their move to equalize, and Artur actually has more move if there's 2 or more forests or w/e). In exchange for losing Slayer. Oh boy. The sad part is that this is actually the biggest advantage of going Valkyrie.

GBA canto? That would be alot cooler if it could be used after the action that is taken 95% of the time, attack/staff.

I guess Valkyrie does look cooler, but if you want the battle to be decided on cool points, Artur can go Sage and use Ivaldi, which is insta-win. Plus Natasha is apparently a selfish, attention-seeking whore; 3 male supports by Ch 11 ftl, while holding Seth/Franz back to pull it off.

While she does give up some combat on the monster chapters, her class bonus in exp gain should mean she'll be more than competent enough for the later chapters.

Bishop gets the same class Exp bonus as Valkyrie.

Losing Slayer turns Ch 11 and 12 into an auto-win for Artur. Let's check out offense in Ch 11 with Bishop Artur vs Valk Natasha.

11/1 Bishop Artur, B Lute, w/ Lightning/Shine: 17.5/19.5 Atk, 11.6/10.6 Spd----26.9 Hp, 8.3 Def, 37.4/35.4 Avo
10/1 Valk Natasha, B Joshua, w/ Lightning/Shine: 14.4/16.4 Atk, 11.6/9.6 Spd----25.5 Hp, 6.3 Def, 39.6/35.6 Avo

I'm gonna give a range of observed values for enemy types in this chapter.
Melee Skeletons: 29-31 Hp, 1-3 Res, 4-6 AS
Bow Skellies: 26-27 Hp, 1-2 Res, 6 AS
Hellhounds: 24-25 Hp, 1-3 Res, 15 AS
Eyeballs: 20-21 Hp, 6-8 Res, 3 AS
Zombies: 36-37 Hp, 1-3 Res, horrible, horrible AS
Gargoyles: 27-28 Hp, 1-2 Res, 10 AS

Promoted enemies:
Entombed: 57 Hp, 4 Res, no AS (actually he has 1 AS but who cares)
Wight (Boss): 38 Hp, 10 Res, 12 AS

Also a Steel Lance Deathgoyle, but Seth crit'd him on the counter and it's FoW, so I couldn't get stats on him. Oh well. Let's compare.

Melee Skellies: Natasha can't reliably 2HKO. Against one with 30 Hp/2 Res, Shine Natasha pulls out 28.8 damage on average. And with 9.6 Spd she's borderline on doubling the faster ones, that's just sad.
Bow Skellies: Natasha needs Shine to reliably 2HKO these, which makes her borderline for doubling.
Hellhounds: Obviously not doubling and she can't OHKO. Shine causes her to get doubled, which is bad considering that she relies on Shine to have a shot at ORKOing other enemy types.
Eyeballs: Shine Natasha actually fails to 2HKO the high-end samples (against 21 Hp/8 Res, she does 18.8 damage on average), still pretty sad.
Zombies: Too much Hp to have any hope of a ORKO. This is really, really lol, these guys are like the monster version of loldiers.
Gargoyles: Can't double, atleast she 2HKOs.

Artur's offense, meanwhile, is ballin. He's ORKOing everything, no exceptions. 12 Mt Lightning obviously roasts anything he can double, and 18 Mt Shine pulls out the OHKO against anything he can't (Hellhounds, Gargoyles).

Against promoted enemies, Natasha is still lulz against the promoted loldier (aka Entombed). She's actually 3RKOing. Artur admittedly misses the ORKO, but he's very close (leaves the guy with 2 Hp). And then obviously a nuke from Artur does way more to the boss than whatever Natasha does.

So as you can see, this is a big offense gap. Natasha can't reliably ORKO, well, any of the enemy types, while Artur nabs all the unpromoted enemies and still does shitloads more damage against the promoted ones. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this beats out a 1 move lead. Again, Valk Natasha means auto-win for Artur on 11 and 12. While we're on the subject of auto-wins, remember that horses suck in the desert. The move gap gets violently reversed for Ch 15, turning into another effective auto-win for Artur. But wait, there's more--monsters also exist in Ch 18. And remember that Artur was already auto-winning Ch 20 and 21 with Ivaldi. It sounds like Natasha is giving up a lot of free wins to Artur here. In fact:

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

That's over half the chapters after they're promoted. Ouch.

So does Artur's combat make up for his heavy earlygame loss? Well if he does fight, then he's running into the same disadvantageous matchup as before, as healing > okay offense crappy defense.

Yeah, but you're missing one key fact here. Now Artur can heal too. If healing > attacking, Artur can do that. When there's nothing worth healing, though, and you need that Bael dead, Artur > Natasha.

Building staff rank for Artur is not good for his levels. He's only gaining 6 exp a mend, and that's just not enough to keep up with the rest of your team in levels. Barrier and Torch aren't much better and if Artur's spending his time using these staves, Natasha's running away with actually utility.

So what? The debaet is Artur vs Natasha, not Artur vs The Rest of the Team, and Artur levelling slightly lower than unpromoted combatants is of little or no concern. If you value Exp gains so highly, say that Natasha is better staying unpromoted until L20 or something.

Barrier and Torch aren't useless, either. Torch is quite useful for Ch 11 (the only chapter where it can be used until 19 anyways), and Barrier is mainly there to give staff users a way to gain Exp when there is nothing better to do (for example the first turn of a chapter).

Also of note is that while Artur has Ivaldi, Natasha can use Latona, which fixes any problems you may run into in the last 2 chapters. Sure Artur can use Fortify, but he'll probably end up with something like a 10 square limit, which isn't enough when you're splitting your party.

A character comparison consists of Unit A + Team vs Unit B + Team. Artur + team vs Natasha + team. Moulder gets to use Latona aswell, and he's top tier so he'll obviously be used. Artur's team just has him using it instead of Natasha for the same effect. Natasha's ability to use Latona gives no benefit to her team which is not also available to Artur's team.

So overall, Natasha's healing win early game secures her the victory as Artur can't pull out anything significant enough to make up for it.

I find it funny that you strongly emphasize Natasha's early healing, then after promotion, attack the notion of Artur using staves frequently so that his staff rank won't match Natasha's.

They have the same affinity.

Yes they do. However, supports are absolutely a two-way deal. Both partners are equally necessary, and both give/receive the same bonuses. If you take Artur away, Lute loses 2 Def and 10 Avo, whereas if you take Natasha away, Joshua only loses 1 Def and 5 Avo; thus it's clear that Artur's support has a bigger impact. You might say that, since Lute's affinity is better than Joshua's, Artur allowing her to utilize it is better than Natasha doing the same for Joshua.

[WeaponsofMassConstruction]

Comparing Artur to the enemies means nothing in and of itself. A unit that 3RKOs, if placed into a game where most PCs 5RKO, is top tier, and the opposite if placed into a game where most PCs ORKO. Performance must be measured relative to the performance of other PCs. If you want to talk about how shitty Artur's earlygame is, then very well. Let's compare to the only other high tier combat units you have at the moment, Eirika and Lute. Ch 6:

First of all, Eirika/Lute are not your best combat options as of now. They definitely are not high tier because of their epic early game.

L4-5 Artur: 7.25 Mag, 9 Spd----20.4 Hp, 2.35 Def, 7.4 Res, 20.65 Avo

L6 Eirika: 6 Str, 12 Spd----19.5 Hp, 4.5 Def, 2.5 Res, 32 Avo
L4 Lute: 7.3 Mag, 7.4 Spd----18.4 Hp, 3.4 Def, 6.2 Res, 24.2 Avo

I'll throw in everybody. L6 Eirika is low.

L4-5 Artur: 7.25 Mag, 9 Spd----20.4 Hp, 2.35 Def, 7.4 Res, 20.65 Avo
L8 Eirika: 6.8 Str, 13.2 Spd----20.9 Hp, 5.1 Def, 3.1 Res, 35.6 Avo
L4 Lute: 7.95 Mag, 8.35 Spd----18.35 Hp, 3.45 Def, 6.2 Res, 26.05 Avo What happened to your numbers here?
L2 Seth: 14.5 Str, 12.45 Spd----30.9 Hp, 11.4 Def, 8.3 Res, 38.15 Avo
L6 Franz: 9 Str, 9.5 Spd----24 Hp, 7.25 Def, 2 Res, 23 Avo
L6 Gilliam: 9.9 Str, 3.6 Spd----26.8 Hp, 10.1 Def, 3.4 Res, 10.8 Avo
L5 Vanessa: 6.4 Str, 13.4 Spd----19 Hp, 6.8 Def, 6.2 Res, 32.8 Avo
L7 Ross: 8 Str, 4.8 Spd----19.2 Hp, 4.5 Def, 1.2 Res, 20 Avo
L6 Garcia: 9.3 Str, 7.4 Spd----29.6 Hp, 5.5 Def, 1.3 Res, 18.6 Avo
L5 Neimi: 5.8 Str, 8.4 Spd----19.2 Hp, 3.6 Def, 3.4 Res, 22.8 Avo
L6 Colm: 5.6 Str, 12.6 Spd----21 Hp, 4 Def, 1.8 Res, 35 Avo
L6 Joshua: 8.35 Str, 14.55 Spd----24.8 Hp, 5.2 Def, 2.2 Res, 36.4 Avo

Approximate order of offense:
Seth Joshua Franz Eirika Vanessa Colm Artur Lute Garcia Gilliam Neimi Ross

Approximate order of defense:
Seth Gilliam Franz Garcia Joshua Vanessa Eirika Colm Ross Artur Neimi Lute

These lists are probably erroneous, but they should have the general order down. Artur's offense is somewhere in the middle; he can hit for decent chip damage if he doubles, but doubling is questionable. I don't have Ch6 enemy stats besides the one's you've provided, but 9 AS doubles only 9/22 enemies in Ch5, at which point his offense drops below the likes of Garcia/Gilliam. Defense is where Artur crashes.

Some Ch 6 enemy samples for your convenience.

Iron Lance Soldier: 14 Atk, 1 AS----27 Hp, 1 Def, 1 Res
Cavalier w/ Iron Lance & Javelin: 15/14 Atk, 7/5 AS----26 Hp, 7 Def, 1 Res
Steel Axe Fighter: 20 Atk, 2 AS----28 Hp, 3 Def, 2 Res
Shaman: 14 Atk, 3 AS----20 Hp, 4 Def, 5 Res

Against the Soldier, everyone is 2RKOing and being 2RKOed in return, but Eirika takes counters ftl.
Against the Cavalier, Eirika wins offense with a Rapier ORKO, but loses defense as she takes counters when attacking (and is still 2RKOed; she's like FE7 Lyn at this point). If it whips out the Javelin (as it likely will given its large attack range and the likelihood of you having a 1 range unit in the fray), Artur doubles and beats Lute in offense, otherwise they're similar.
Against the Fighter, everyone 2RKOs and is 2HKOed. Eirika takes counters but has alot of Avo, so she probably wins. Artur and Lute are still similar.
Against the Shaman, Eirika is 2HKOed while Artur is 4HKOed and Lute 3HKOed (very close to a 2HKO). Eirika does ORKO as compared to Artur's 2RKO, but she can't counter and loses defense by alot. As for Lute, admittedly there is a Mage in this chapter where the triangle will work in Lute's favor, but not as strongly as it works in Artur's favor here (vs Dark, Artur has WTA vs Lute WTD, whereas vs Anima, Artur has WTD vs Lute WTN).

So where are the archers/non-javelin cavs/non-weighed fighters/mercs? AS's of those are only going to increase as the levels progress, and 9 AS was already not solid in Ch5 so Artur's going to pull a 3HKO against those guys. These enemies you've pulled out are biased in favor of Artur as he's doubling them while he usually isn't.

Backtrack to Ch5 for second. I'll keep the same stats for Artur's convenience. This time he's up against Gilliam and Garcia.

1x Soldier Level 5 (Iron Lance): 26 HP, 13 Atk, 1 AS, 84 Hit, 3 Avo, 0 Def, 0 Res, 1 Crit
1x Fighter Level 5 (Iron Axe): 26 HP, 17 Atk, 6 AS, 83 Hit, 12 Avo, 3 Def, 0 Res, 2 Crit
1x Archer Level 5 (Iron Bow): 23 HP, 12 Atk, 5 AS, 98 Hit, 13 Avo, 5 Def, 1 Res, 3 Crit
1x Mercenary Level 6 (Iron Sword): 25 HP, 12 Atk, 10 AS, 113 Hit, 6 Def, 0 Res, 5 Crit

Against the Soldier, Artur and Gilliam 2RKO, but Garcia ORKO's. Defensively, Artur is 2RKO'd, while Gilliam is 9RKO'd and Garcia is 5RKO'd.
Against the Fighter, Artur doesn't double and so 3RKO's while Gilliam pulls a 2RKO though his hit might interfere with that and Garcia 2RKO's. Artur is again 2RKO'd while Gilliam is 4RKO'd and Garcia is 3RKO'd.
Against the Archer, Artur 3RKO's, Gilliam 2RKO's, and Garcia 2RKO's. Artur is 2RKO'd, Gilliam is 14RKO'd, and Garcia is 5RKO'd.
Against the Mercenary, Artur 3RKO's, Gilliam 2RKO's, and Garcia shakily 2RKO's. Artur is 2RKO'd, Gilliam is 27RKO'd, and Garcia is 4RKO'd.

Also,
1x Myrmidon Level 5 (Killing Edge): 24 HP, 17 Atk, 14 AS, 101 Hit, 5 Def, 2 Res, 36 Crit

ORKO's Artur and is placed in a central region of the map, greatly limiting Artur's domain. Fortunately, Natasha can get rid of this problem.

So what does this mean? First of all, Artur's going up against two units who are in upper mid but are in the bottom half of the tier list. He loses pretty much everywhere and while he can try to gain a little durability through ranged attacks, Gilliam/Garcia can do the same and even if they don't, they have a big enough defensive lead that Artur's not all of a sudden winning defensively.

Sure Artur isn't going to take counters, but he's also got a very limited enemy phase. Seeing as he's 2HKO'd by anything other than the like 2 shamans in Ch6, he needs to be protected to stay alive and can't move forward confidently, which is not very efficient. Thus, the likes of Garcia/Gilliam jump Artur in combat ability (they also 2RKO against the enemies you posted with steel weaponry) since their defense/hp combo allows them to see more combat and do more on enemy phase.

Overall there is no clear victor, except that Artur is probably a little better than Lute. So yeah, while he may be not ORKOing things and getting 2 or 3HKOed in return, he's doing it with constant 1-2 range, and most others are hardly better off, so Artur is not by any means sucking. Let's see who else is out there, there's awesome guys like Seth and Franz, but they're the best in the game, Artur being worse than them is both expected and meaningless. Then you get to the units I just compared, and past that it's mostly the likes of Gilliam, Garcia, Neimi and Ross. So again, no, Artur's combat is not bad, and if anything it is the opposite. He clearly has value as an attacker.

His defense is just bad, which undermines his use as an attacker. Seeing as he's killed by most everything in 2 hits, he wants practically no part in enemy phase and so he is limited to player phase, where he's 2-3RKO'ing. The rest of your units barring Neimi, Ross, Eirika, and Lute (two of which are lower mid and one of which you're saying is lower mid right now) are thus better combat units.

This doesn't do anything to show that an extra healer > an extra attacker. Self healing is in fact barely slower than Natasha at this point, you only have one Mend staff (which would be utilized even without Natasha's presence, thanks to the existence of Moulder), and Natasha + Heal restores 12 Hp vs 10 from a Vulnerary. Moulder can't heal everyone ASAP all by himself, no, but neither can your attackers take down all the enemies ASAP all by themselves, either.

Of course, how much does Artur's meh combat stack up against Natasha's healing? So self healing is barely slower than staves at this point? Take a look at this example.

Eirika is being pinned down by enemy archer fire. Since Eirika is 2HKO'd, she now has the choice to heal herself or try to kill the archer in OR, which she can't without a crit. She has to spend her player phase vulneraring up at which point the enemy archer attacks Eirika again and now we're back to where we started. This cycle will continue for a long time and will result in highly inefficient play. Now let's apply Natasha to the situation. Instead of wasting her turn self healing, Eirika can now attack the archer and you're through him in 2 turns.

This is just one example so let's look at another.

During the last enemy phase, Artur was stabbed and since he's 2HKO'd by everything, he has to vulnerary up to save himself. The problem here is that, along with the enemy myrmidon that attacked Artur, there is a soldier nearby waiting to finish Artur. If he self heals, he's screwed since he's going to get attacked twice and if he finishes the myrmidon, he's also screwed since the soldier will then finish him. Natasha comes in and solves problems. Now, Artur can finish the myrmidon and still take a hit from the soldier thus saving him from eminent death.

So you may think that it's unlikely that you're controlling only one unit.

Franz, Vanessa, Lute, Seth, Joshua, and Colm are being sent to handle a group of enemy units (Let's say 2 cavs, 2 archers, 1 fighter, and 1 knight). Since the enemy AI prioritizes your softies, you station Franz, Seth, and Josh in front to bear the brunt of the assault on your position. The enemy decides to target Josh since he has the least durability and sends the fighter and the two cavs his way. He kills the fighter, but since he has WTD and can't ORKO the cavs, they block more potential points where he is attacked. The AI also decides to attack him with both archers and now he's down to 5 HP. The fighter and armor go after Franz and he doesn't kill them either and he's down to 12 HP. Come player phase, you've still got 5 units to deal with and to handle them, you send Lute to kill the armor, Colm to finish a cav, Seth to take care of an archer, Vanessa to try to kill the other archer, Josh to finish the archer, and Franz to finish the other cav. Now all seems well, but anyone there missed or otherwise failed to kill their assigned unit, you'd be screwed. Healing thus offers insurance as a mended Josh now doesn't have to fear a second assault as opposed to the weak 10 hp self healing and failure to kill finish his assignment.

Now you could just let Seth handle everything, but then your other units are needed elsewhere where the same situation can happen, just with an even less reliable chance of success.

These are just a few examples where healing saves you/allows you to be more aggressive, but you get the point.

So while Artur is hanging back and chipping when he deems it possible for him to survive enemy phase, Natasha's healing is allowing your team to push farther faster with more security. The enemies early game can take out a good bit out of even Seth and the ability to patch him up to send him and other units forward to take on the next wave is very valuable. Artur has to worry about himself before he tries to contribute clearing enemy remains while Natasha ensures the safety of your units in the midst of a skirmish where multiple units are injured into 1-2HKO territory and patches them up to quickly be able to wade through the next set of enemies. Without healing, you're spending extra turns using vulneraries just to be able to move forward and you might not even be able to survive your current disposition. Thus, Natasha's healing is paramount to an efficient clear of this game and is much more valuable than Artur's minimal combat capabilities.

As for splitting your party up, while this does indeed increase the value of an additional healer, it also increases the value of additional attackers. On a 12 man team that stays in one big block throughout the chapter, many attackers won't even have room to attack on any given turn, whereas if you split up into two smaller groups, each group is less crowded, and each individual attacker gets more opportunities to see action in his/her theater of combat.

True, except that Artur's defensive issues deny him as much benefit since he must be protected while usually returning only a single attack per turn to compensate. Since the enemy AI targets the weakest member of your team, whichever team he's sent with will have his durability if his use is as an active attacker.

Yes they do. However, supports are absolutely a two-way deal. Both partners are equally necessary, and both give/receive the same bonuses. If you take Artur away, Lute loses 2 Def and 10 Avo, whereas if you take Natasha away, Joshua only loses 1 Def and 5 Avo; thus it's clear that Artur's support has a bigger impact. You might say that, since Lute's affinity is better than Joshua's, Artur allowing her to utilize it is better than Natasha doing the same for Joshua.

Which of course supports:

if my life depended on it, I'd rather have battlefield conversations with Artur.

I'm going to post this now and get back to the rest later.