Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War 2017 Tier List - Day 39: The support kids (Corple, Lene, Sharlow and Laylea)

[Yojinbo]

Fun to train up in casual runs, but really falls behind when you do things such as drafts and LTC.

On the contrary - it's LTC runs and drafts where you truly get to see what an irreplacably useful unit Dew is.

[Refa]

Yeah, he's actually garbage in casual runs because it's like "why bother training this dude when I could just have Sigurd/Levin/Fucking Ayra kill everything".

Edited December 16, 2016 by Refa

[eclipse]

First off, who the heck thought Dew was an appropriate name for a kid? Anyway, starting behind enemy lines is already asking for trouble, and he's supposed to be the muscle of the group. His saving grace is that Verdane is attached to axes, which means that he can dodge to survive. He doesn't need to kill enemies to swipe their money, and he can act as a bank (instead of having Sigurd/Cuan/Finn rack up all the money). Sol's a nice skill, but it's better off on his kids. He's stupidly frail, and now I have the horrible idea to pair him with Sylvia. Thanks, OP.

7/10, with a full point of bias because I somehow led him into a dead end on Chapter 1, and he dodged every single thing until Sigurd could travel across the map and bail him out. It was absolutely glorious.

[Elieson]

First off, who the heck thought Dew was an appropriate name for a kid?

Anybody who craves a fantastic thirst for Mountain Dew probably (me included).

[Darrman]

Dew is a thief. Dew does thief stuff. Thief stuff means handling money. Need to buy something expensive? Gotta call Dew and he'll give you some cash... if he can get cash. His combat is beyond terrible. Like, it's atrocious. 3 strength? 1 defence? No Pursuit? C swords? How do you train this guy? It's called feeding him kills. Lots and lots of kills. And he never becomes excellent, with those awful bases. He's got 40% everything, but it's not like that strength/defense are going anywhere decent fast. On the good side of things he has Bargain, so he can buy things and then sell them without hassle. He's not losing any money! He also finds himself a wind sword near the end of Ch3 so he can ranged steal in the last two chapters, so he can get safe experience and easy money. Sol is there too, not that it's doing much.

He has important utility, so I can't rate him that badly. Combat isn't his job anyway. 7/10.

[ZemZem]

On the contrary - it's LTC runs and drafts where you truly get to see what an irreplacably useful unit Dew is.

Yeah, he's actually garbage in casual runs because it's like "why bother training this dude when I could just have Sigurd/Levin/Fucking Ayra kill everything".

Huh...I thought it was the other way around. I've done a few FE4 drafts myself (one a long time ago), and I don't remember Dew being THAT useful (he certainly was, but not to a huge extent).

Then again, I never have had Dew go against the Chapter 3 Cross Knights (maybe I have, but my memory fails me). :P Sylvia always helped with them! I love Prayer.

[CappnRob]

I only do semi-casual runs and Dew has never proven himself to be exceptional for me lol. I manage my money just fine with town visits and lover sharing mostly. Sure Dew does help but not in a way that ever struck me as super essential. I wish you could set the amount of gold you give away too, its annoying to juggle full wallets.

[Mekkah]

Ayra is useless. I thought there was a limit of +0.5 on bias points but apparently it's more like +5.

2.5/10

For Dew, the most important thing about him is that he helps Raquesis promote ASAP. That alone is worth an above average mark, but he gets anyone out of financial trouble.

I don't really factor parenting into ratings but there is this misconception that Dew is a great father. He's not. He doesn't have Pursuit and his growths are only okay. Yeah, best non-holy blood...but it's still non-holy blood. You don't want him to marry Ayra since Sol and Astra conflict. Sol is rolled first, and if Sol activates then Astra can't activate, so you're actually cutting into an important part of their offense in exchange for unreliable durability. Bargain is nice for kids who need the money for Paragon Ring or something like that though, so Dew/Sylvia has some merit.

8.5/10

[Punished Dayni]

I thought there was a limit of +0.5 on bias points but apparently it's more like +5.

Not gonna lie, I see the point. I might not be someone who plays for efficiency (hell, I'm literally trying a playthrough with the worst combination of pairs I could make, so that's an understatement) but I do see the issue with a game of these map sizes, even if Chapter 2 is the worst of it (well, in G1, imo). I'm going to admit the bias, even if I think certain things offset a low score at least somewhat.

Also, I did chuckle at it. Mostly because yeah, I'm one of those idiots.

[Jave]

Ayra: Personally I think she's great unless you're playing LTC. She can fend for herself, Astra lets her kill everything, and does make two of the best kids in 2nd gen. Her only downside is lack of a horse. 8/10

Dew: Mostly utility. He can steal money and share it around, get you a couple of nice weapons through events, and lower the bridge in Ch4. He can be an okay combat unit but requires way too much babying at first. Bonus points for passing good growths to most kids. 6/10

[Peppy]

Mountain Dew can steal money from enemies if he can risk taking a hit and can open a drawbridge. His thieving utility is useful for gathering money for those who sorely need it but his lack of combat really isn't making the chapter progress any further.

4/10

[Flee Fleet!]

By the way, I find it weird for Dew to be paired with anyone, really.

He's too young for the girls, even Sylvia.

[Vaximillian]

By the way, I find it weird for Dew to be paired with anyone, really.

He's too young for the girls, even Sylvia.

Raquesis begs to differ.

[Excellen Browning]

Dew is difficult to rate. The stealing shenanigans are cool, but afaik it doesn't last past chapter 1. Dew can't keep up because he doesn't have a horse, and he certainly doesn't start with the combat stats to face anything but axes. There's still a world of opportunity in visiting villages and then donating the money to the needy, though. Raquesis and Aideen come to mind, perhaps Ethlin. This is extremely useful when you're playing fast or optimized, not so much outside of it. He can also grab a third magic sword if you're willing to wait for it. Which puts me in a pickle. Dew is really good in an optimized run for his ability to give money, and only interesting for getting you the wind sword otherwise. 5/10

[Flee Fleet!]

^Well, Raquesis also likes her brother, so she's like free for all.

[Vaximillian]

^Well, Raquesis also likes her brother, so she's like free for all.

The girl does really get around indeed.

[Yojinbo]

Huh...I thought it was the other way around.

The more you have to deal with the limitations of a low turn count, the more critical an issue clever resource management becomes and the more you benefit from having Dew in your party. In a casual run where you have as much time to spend as you want you can just use however many turns it takes to drag Aira all the way to the front lines, do fighting, get her healed and gain the exp needed for her to become a good fighter. You can grind exp for units until they can clear arenas and you can have low-movement units go to villages. All of these things decrease Dew's usefulness in casual- and even ranked runs [ranked runs have an extremely generous turn requirement].

[OliKad]

Once again with 18 votes, Dew got out of this poll with a 6.03/10, because he is yet again a polarizing foot-locked unit. I can definitively see a pattern here! ;)

Let's now cover up who is probably the ultimate definition of a staffbot in the Fire Emblem series, Aideen!

Class: Cleric (Level 3)
Holy Blood: Minor Ulir
Personal Skills: None

Class Skills: None
Stats:
28 HP (70%)
0 Strength (20%)
13 Magic (30%)
6 Skill (20%)
8 Speed (30%)
1 Defense (20%)
11 Resistance (5%)
9 Luck (60%)

My thoughts: Really, I'd just like to stop right here and give Adean a staffbot/10, but that might be a bit harsh, so i'll just be quick instead. *ahem*

Aideen got pretty much everything you would expect from her class, both in bases and growth rates: high Magic/Luck/Resistance, poor Defense/HP, average everything else. But, as a twist, she has a sorta-ish decent Strength growth because of having a physical kid, Lester. So there's at least that for originality. However, even if she ends up with good Speed, she will not be able to fight well after promotion, because she has absolutely no skills whatsoever, which is kind of a bummer. :/ However, despite her low movement, she does do her job well: healing. And that's pretty much what she'll do to gain experience rather quickly. So yeah, I can't say that much about her, so I'll just stop and give her a pretty generic 6.5/10, because she's just unremarkable - at least, as a unit...

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Worse healer than Ethlyn because non mounted and no skills... which is not great for her kids either.

However Aideen has higher magic base / growth and physic stave can compensate her inmobility somewhat.

Midir is the best (and only) choice for her because of free brave bow, pursuit and charge for Lester. Lana only cares about Aideen's staves.

6 / 10

Edited December 17, 2016 by Eleanor Hume

[Shin]

Her job is to warp and return. One that she does really well and saves a lot of trouble in chapter 2. She's never really going to fight and her movement isn't great but she gets a solid enough score from me. She also helps patch people up, but the arena is Sigurd's best source of healing and generally Lachesis and Ethlin take over as more mobile healers. Libro helps to some extent though.

7/10

[Jedi]

Her warp & returning is really useful overall, serving to speed up the monster of a chapter known as chapter 2, among other things. While she's never really going to fight, if you really want her promoted, just doing the aforementioned warp & return is enough to get her to promotion in no time flat.

7/10

[Darrman]

Aideen is a healer. She heals things. Pretty simple. She also has a better staff rank than Ethlin, so she can use better staves. She has more magic than Ethlin so she can heal more then 20 HP at a time. And even if you swap their heal and mend staves, Aideen can still physic and warp people. Ethlin can't do that! On the downside, she only has 5 move. And it ain't getting any better. And she has no skills. At all. She can't fight until promotion and even when she does promote she's only ever gonna hit once, but at least it's gonna be a big enough hit what with having an existent magic growth. You don't really need to invest anything much in her. She does her job and does it well. Plus she sticks around after Ch3 so she beats Ethlin in availability as well. Ha!

She can use pretty much any staff in the game. That's good. 8/10 +0.5 bias since if she wasn't kidnapped by those stupid bandits we wouldn't have a game to play plus she's pretty cute as well for an 8.5/10.

[Valkama]

She's alright early on and can help low move units get around easier on the large maps with warp but is pretty much nonexistent after chapter 2. The rescue staff isn't that great gen 1 and we aren't crediting units for their gen 2 contributions so 3/10

Edited December 17, 2016 by Valkama

[qwernst]

Adean comes with the superior Staff, Mend. Has a better base stat and growth with Magic over Ethlyn. But lacks any skills or mobility. She becomes a lot more helpful when you get the Physic and Warp staves. When promoted, she can get a C rank tome to help gain money in the arena or damage foes. But due to her having no skills, she can't double or assist in any way combat wise. She is the definition of a support unit.

5/10

[ZemZem]

Good staffbot. Adean may not have a mount, but she's still useful.

7/10