Rate the Unit, Day 14: Lyn

[Kngt_Of_Titania]

So I think Lyn gets a bit of a unfair shake (her crappy personality and her piss poor memory concerning bandits aside...). She's actually a pretty good unit, and she's a good candidate for the Angelic Robe in LHM, which brings her from fragile to a respectable durability (training her in LHM certainly helps too). Her only other issue if this is done is the possibility of STR screwage, although this goes both ways (she's even better with it blessed). She's definitely a better candidate for the Heaven Seal than Eliwood, and bows does give her some anti-flier utility -- she's a rather good unit throughout the game, both in early-game and end-game. And I completely forgot the Mani Katti, which of course is Rapier++ (and since she can actually double, it's icing on the cake).

However, it's not all sunshine and puppies and bubbles and ponies and rainbows. Angelic Robe, even though it IS in LHM, still is a somewhat necessary investment (especially if you want her to dominate much of 17x and get a few free levels), and Heaven Seal is worth 20k, making you think twice about promoting her in S rank runs (although HHM has rather lenient Funds ranking compared to, say, EHM, and promoting Lyn won't break your bank).

Rating: 7/10. She has a lot of good points, and she's a solid character, but her high-maintainance to get her to kickass status is a bit high for FE7; she can't hold as high a rating as those who can kick ass without investment.

Current ranks (in order):

Bartre-2.8

Rebecca-3.13 (...the irony)

Dorcas-4.1

Eliwood-5.34

Guy-5.63

Erk-6.05

Matthew-6.3

Serra-6.3

Oswin-6.7

Lowen-6.75

Hector-8.3

Priscilla-8.3

Marcus-9.29

Edited January 2, 2012 by Kngt_Of_Titania

[Raven]

Lyn? Florina was next because F is before L sigh.

[Kngt_Of_Titania]

Lyn? Florina was next because F is before L sigh.

My need to write a terrible joke overruled my not knowing we were doing Alphabetical Order where more than one person is recruited on the same chapter.

[Integrity]

It's okay, Rayray. Florina can be next.

Nooooow, you know I can't resist you Clipsety dearest.

Lyn totally never impressed me in any way whatsoever. She's never even been a solid unit or dependable, just the shy side of it. I'm also a little biased against her for some reason, to be honest. 4/10.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Integrity

[Raven]

My need to write a terrible joke overruled my not knowing we were doing Alphabetical Order where more than one person is recruited on the same chapter.

It was established that it's in alphabetical order back when we were rating Eliwood and co., notice how Bartre is before Dorcas and Eliwood.

Nevermind, I'm sure it doesn't matter since they're all going to be done anyway. I'll vote later when I have time.

[PKL]

Great looks Doubles everything. Can be great in her own mode when trained and even in the other modes too assuming she didnt get screwed. Mani Katti is amazing. Better Heaven Seal candidate than Elifail. Gets Bows on promotion for wyverns.

Cons: Shes frail. Sword-locked. No good 1-2 range. Only 5 move :/.

Bias says shes 10/10. But im giving her 8/10 :3

Edited January 2, 2012 by PKL

[Parrhesia]

Okay, Lyn's... lopsided. Her offensive capability is amazing and she has a penchant for criticals, paired with the fact that her Proficient weapon is fucking godly. And it gets repaired for you just before you start HHM. She's fragile, however, and she tends to be hard countered by certain enemy types, and armours once the Katti breaks. I don't know why people say her promotion's better than Eliwood's... he gets a horse and spears. Auto-D, which means javelins. Based on personal experiences, she'd have an eight, and I dislike her enough (...a lot, but not open disgust) to be briefly tempted to give her a five but considering my Lyns are usually strength-blessed and leaving Lyn aside for more Paladin Sain/Kent is a good plan, she can get a 7/10.

I've always been curious as to how (IIRC) Guy > Lyn in the tier lists, but I guess tier players don't usually feel obliged to train the secondary lords much. IDK, I play casual efficiency (well, GO UP) for a reason.

Edited January 2, 2012 by Furetchen

[Loki Laufeyson]

(i thought it was according to joining time.)

Eugh...Lyn. This unit has problems. Big ones. She has a decent start considering. She's got good base speed and can double. Plus Mani Katti action. However she has gaping holes in defense, res and strength. If she doesnt get that Robe, things look really nasty for her especially later on. It takes promotion for defense growth to even happen and even then its not great at all.

Pros:

Lyn mode training. (obviously....)

Pretty fast supports.

High speed.

Mani Katti.

High crit rate.

Cons: (hoo boy)

Bad defense.

Low strength

Low res.

Bows on promotion is meh.

Sol Katti too heavy for her to use properly.

Low HP.

Really, i find Eliwood to be more of a contributor. 5/10. She gets an 8/10 in her own mode. (Personal bias 3/10. While her character is ok, Lyn as a unit tends to not be too fantastic for me.)

Edited January 2, 2012 by Florina

[Florete]

7/10. Sword lock and poor durability are a problem, but she has pretty great offense with the Mani Katti. By the time that breaks she should be good enough to hold her own with normal weapons. D Bows on promotion can be helpful for a good ranged option, and her CON would make Lances and Axes difficult to wield anyway.

[Thor Odinson]

Lyn's pretty alright, LHM considered. Her offense is pretty good with Mani Katti, she murders cavs and do well against armours with it, and alright with other swords on a good portion of the enemies if she's at a decent level, and she gets bows on promotion which means she gets effective on fliers and some form of ranged combat. Her durability, though, is absolutely ASS. 2 base is terrible and 20% growth ain't getting her outta that rut any time soon. She can pull passable avoid on axe enemies, but not so much with swordsmen, who have good hit, and lancers, who have WTA, the latter of which comprises the biggest percentage of FE7's enemy types.

6.5/10. Might've given her a 7 but I gave Hector a 7 and I don't feel that Lyn is better than or on par with Hector.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Luminescent Blade

[Bryan]

I love Lyn, she's always been one of my favorite units. Mani Katti is pretty awesome even though I never use it.

8/10.

[eclipse]

Hmmm. . .she IS the star of her own mode, so she'll have some levels and sword rank under her belt. She reappears with some much-needed money, and the perfect place to use it! Any hit issues with her PRF weapon are amended quickly with her Skill. She's really fast, so she'll probably be chewing through weapon uses twice as fast as most of your other units.

However, if she gets Strength-screwed, she's in for a rough time. The Mani Katti doesn't last forever, and her small size means that she's weighed down by the harder-hitting things. Sword lock in this game royally sucks, and she's not exactly the paragon of taking hits. On promotion (which will be quite late), she gains. . .bows. That means she can take out the numerous flying things a bit easier and ignores the weapon triangle, but being stuck to 1 or 2 range isn't something I'd like to do.

Her support with Florina is really fast, but she can't keep up with her friend. Her next fastest support option is Rath, who comes halfway through the game and is on a horse (granted, Rath's support options are bad, worse, and pointless. . .) After that is Kent, who will probably outrace her. She can support Eliwood and Hector, but both take a long time to build. She can also support Wil and Wallace, but why would you do that?

Late promotion, weird weapon typing, and her ponytail give a 6.5/10. The extra .5 is because the Mani Katti chose her over Matthew.

EDIT: INTEGRITY~! SQUEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Edited January 2, 2012 by eclipse

[Galenforcer]

6/10

Ok, but frail and has bad weapon type.

[Swordsalmon]

I've always been curious as to how (IIRC) Guy > Lyn in the tier lists, but I guess tier players don't usually feel obliged to train the secondary lords much. IDK, I play casual efficiency (well, GO UP) for a reason.

Guy has some use after he joins, which is a plus. And better durability, with a feasable promotion.

On Lyn: What?

3/10

[Florete]

with a feasable promotion.

Lyn's promotion item is literally dropped in Hector's hands. What's so unfeasible about it?

On Lyn: What?

Mani Katti is pretty sweet.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Mani Katti is pretty sweet indeed. Especially since you can Hammerne that thing so she can keep it forevers. (because shes gonna need it forevers.) Perhaps ill bump my rating to a 6 because of that. Without that sword...eeewww.

[Smiley Jim]

Let's party:

Lyn is your typical sword fighting unit: Doubles everything, but has ass for durability and mediocre atk.

As usual, let's start with the good: Lyn is one of the few units in this game who can double everything at lower levels than other people. At 11/0 going into chapter 16, her 15 AS doubles everything on the map except for the thief(12AS)and one of the myrms(13AS). Ridiculous. This combined with her 60% speed growth allows her to double lategame valks at higher levels(reaches 26 AS at 20/10), which is definitely awesome as the only other people doubling these fags are Guy, Raven, and Rebecca. And, like with Guy, a 30 cap just to overkill it. Also of note is her Mani Katti. It functions identically to Eli's rapier, except it has +1 might and +10 crit. Oh, and it doesn't have a price tag, unlike Eli's rapier which is worth 6K in funds(only applicable in ranked runs). At 11/0, Lyn has 16 atk(24 eff)with it, which doesn't quite 2HKO things like mercs, but will 2HKO cavs even with WTD. And she doubles them with 26 crit(or a 1/4 chance of killing them outright without taking a counter.). Not bad.

However, this doesn't come without drawbacks: Lyn's durability is just ass. 23HP/4def gets 2HKO'd by 16 atk, and quite a few enemies in Chapter 17 reach this. And while 70% HP growth is decent, 20% def growth is not. The end result is a range locked glass cannon. That's where Lyn's other issue comes in: She is locked to swords before promotion, and even after promotion, it still isn't all that pretty. Bows are a mixed curse for a unit like Lyn: On one hand, it prevents Lyn from taking counters from non-archers/mages, which is helpful as Lyn's durability is completely fucking awful. On the other side of the coin, she's no longer countering on EP, and that's bad considering a unit should be able to wipe out 10+ enemies on the EP. Also, Lyn is promoting late; Chapter 26 is when most of the dudes you are using should have promoted by now. Granted, her contributions after promotion aren't bad in this map, as she has steel bow chip against the wyverns here(Lyn starts with D bows). 32 atk against 32HP/12def? That's a text-book ORKO since she doubles these bastards as well, even with -3 AS loss.

I'd say she's better than Eli, but worse than Hector.

7

[Shadow Mir]

Guy has some use after he joins, which is a plus. And better durability, with a feasable promotion.

Wait. What?

[Esaka]

4/10

Lol

[Swordsalmon]

Lyn's promotion item is literally dropped in Hector's hands. What's so unfeasible about it?

Mani Katti is pretty sweet.

The earliest Lyn can promote is Chapter 26, which is pretty late. And it causes quite a bit of a hit on Funds, if I'm not mistaken (It's been a long time.) :/

[Florete]

The earliest Lyn can promote is Chapter 26, which is pretty late. And it causes quite a bit of a hit on Funds, if I'm not mistaken (It's been a long time.) :/

Most units don't promote much sooner than that, if sooner at all (assuming they promote at 20, but if not it's a mixed bag because Lyn will promote at a higher level), especially in a ranked run (the only situation you'd care about Funds). In my HHM ranked run Ch 26 is actually the first time I promoted anyone, though I think I promoted Lyn in the next map. Even when I play casually (e.g. not too worried about turn counts) I don't see most of my promotions until 24 or 25.

It does cost twice as much as a regular promotion item, which is a hit against her for ranked runs, but the Silver Card makes Funds easy enough that it really isn't a significant hit.

[General Horace]

She rocks the socks off Lyn Mode, then is only taken as far as the Mani Katti carries her in Hector Mode.

5/10.

[Aran613]

6/10.

I really find that she's a not-so-great unit in the beginning, but through training and promotion, she's versatile because she can then use bows, which in combination with swords, makes her not a situational unit, but comparable to Rath (Not in stats, but in weapon traits).

[Aethereal]

It does cost twice as much as a regular promotion item, which is a hit against her for ranked runs, but the Silver Card makes Funds easy enough that it really isn't a significant hit.

Meh. I'm sure my S-Rank run wasn't optimal, but I couldn't bring myself to promote Lyn or Eli knowing that it meant I couldn't promote two other units. Maybe I should/could have managed funds better, but I know I could have used a few more promoted units.

She plays jump rope with average imo, a little above during efficient runs just because of Mani Katii, and a little below in ranked, because frail units who need extra resources to be good are frustrating. 5/10

[Mekkah]

3/10

1-range and what might as well be WTD lock, horrible durability (worse than Lucius taking everything into account), stuck with 5 mov for a long time due to a stupid promotion item, and offense is only really good vs axers and things that often carry lances. Salvageable but just not worth the trouble. There's worse things to put up with when trying to get Geitz though, like Eliwood. One of the most overrated units in FE history.