The Absolute Worst Fire Emblem Characters.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I gave an answer for tearing Saga, but I want to give an answer for Fire Emblem, I would say Vika. Her availability is extremely terrible, and you need to force-feed her a lot of experience in a very short period of time. I have had her stand in front of the boss in the chapter you get her and had him attacked me till he broke his weapons. She gained a lot of experience and leveled up her weapon level, but the only reason I knew to do that is because I played the game before. And I shouldn't have to do that so she won't be an extremely underleveled by the time you do get her back. Because if she is underleveled, then she will get one shotted when you get her

[Shadow Mir]

I'm surprised not to see a mention of Fiona, considering she has next to no Chapters to actually train in to become even halfway competant before the game becomes too hard to even attempt to use her at all.

I'd agree, but Lyre and Meg exist.

Lyre is better than Fiona. Lyre actually has chapters to use her in. 3-7, Fiona can't hurt anything really, and if you put a Steel Lance on her, she's doubled and then pretty much dies immediately. 1-8 and 1-9 Fiona isn't there, and in 3-E, she can't climb up the side of the cliffs so she has to roam around, and gets -2 movement for being inside, so she can't move faster than anyone else. By this point, all of your units either have B supports or A while Fiona is rocking a C at most. In comparison to other units that have C rank and below supports, Fiona is trash in comparison. Rafiel? Naliah? The Black Knight? I mean really. Part 3 is even worse

3-6, Fiona can't advance anywhere in the water, 3-12 she can't fight because of the same problems from before, and unless you jammed a ton of BEXP into her, she's going to be massively underleveled, and 3-13? She's not hot there because she barely leveled. After this point, it's end game. She starts out as an unpromoted level 9, and is expected to gain like 20 levels in 5 chapters in a group of characters that are already starved for EXP.

Lyre at least can get some use with a single energy drop, as transformed it gives her the equivalent to 4 extra strength, and more pressingly, there's actual time to use her and level her up. Fiona I'd honestly say is the worst unit in this game and is even less usable than Wendy. Because at least when you get Wendy up to steam, she's... Just not worth it. Getting Fiona up to steam is impossible without BEXP abuse, or completely dedicating literally your entire game to using her? Fiona needed to be like --/10 when you got her with the average stats she has to actually be "worth your time." Her bases are simply too bad and outclassed to bother with.

But yes, Fiona is pretty cute.

I find it hard to consider Lyre better when she's a laguz, with all the problems that entails, and worse yet, a cat, which is the worst laguz class in the game.

And for that matter, I'm not buying Fiona being less usable than Wendy, either, because she at least has access to forges and BEXP.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Sweet_Basil]

Lyre is better than Fiona. Lyre actually has chapters to use her in. 3-7, Fiona can't hurt anything really, and if you put a Steel Lance on her, she's doubled and then pretty much dies immediately. 1-8 and 1-9 Fiona isn't there, and in 3-E, she can't climb up the side of the cliffs so she has to roam around, and gets -2 movement for being inside, so she can't move faster than anyone else. By this point, all of your units either have B supports or A while Fiona is rocking a C at most. In comparison to other units that have C rank and below supports, Fiona is trash in comparison. Rafiel? Naliah? The Black Knight? I mean really. Part 3 is even worse

3-6, Fiona can't advance anywhere in the water, 3-12 she can't fight because of the same problems from before, and unless you jammed a ton of BEXP into her, she's going to be massively underleveled, and 3-13? She's not hot there because she barely leveled. After this point, it's end game. She starts out as an unpromoted level 9, and is expected to gain like 20 levels in 5 chapters in a group of characters that are already starved for EXP.

Lyre at least can get some use with a single energy drop, as transformed it gives her the equivalent to 4 extra strength, and more pressingly, there's actual time to use her and level her up. Fiona I'd honestly say is the worst unit in this game and is even less usable than Wendy. Because at least when you get Wendy up to steam, she's... Just not worth it. Getting Fiona up to steam is impossible without BEXP abuse, or completely dedicating literally your entire game to using her? Fiona needed to be like --/10 when you got her with the average stats she has to actually be "worth your time." Her bases are simply too bad and outclassed to bother with.

But yes, Fiona is pretty cute.

Fiona gains experience at a much faster rate than Lyre, so spoon-feeding her kills seems easier to me than spoon-feeding kills to Lyre. Lyre grows much slower and is stuck forever at 1 range and her cat-laguz meter does not help her. Fiona's butchered because she joins way too late, had she join in Meg's chapter maybe she would have been a much better character.

I also disagree about Wendy, because Fiona has A) BEXP in her favor and B) IF we're focusing on her she has opportunity to use skills and her Earth support.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Sweet_Basil

[TornadoGenerator456]

I'd replace worst by useless:

But here we go:

FE4: Arden

FE5: Shanam

FE6: any knight and locked axe user except for Lot till chapter 8

FE8: If Lagdou and Valni didn't exist, then all the trainees and Marisa.

FE9: none

FE10: Fiona

FE11: about 50% of the cast

FE12: ^

FE13: Ricken

Conquest: Odin

Birthright: none

Revelations: Odin, Elise (because Sakura is a better healer and has better promotion gains)

I can agree that without valni or lagdou amilia and ewan are bad but ross is much better because you get him early on so he can kind of pull his wait and with enough training he will become amazing. Marisa... I don't know why but I always liked marisa and every time I play sacred stones I try my best to use her (not the easiest thing to do in the world) she may not be worth it in the end but I have a strange connection with her and I won't ever classefy her as bad. I would say duessel is the worst FE8 character. Sure his stats are impressive but he is lvl 10 promoted when you get him. And if you go on ephraims route you are not, I REPEAT you are not going to train him up. Seth is much better in everyway and you would have to be a complete dunce to get him killed so you are in no need for a replacement. Use any other great knight other than him. ANY OTHER franz, kyle, forde they are all going to be better.

[Augestein]

I'd agree, but Lyre and Meg exist.

I find it hard to consider Lyre better when she's a laguz, with all the problems that entails, and worse yet, a cat, which is the worst laguz class in the game.

And for that matter, I'm not buying Fiona being less usable than Wendy, either, because she at least has access to forges and BEXP.

Wendy needs to be fed kills, like Fiona, but once she starts catching up, she's just a subpar knight, which is admittedly pretty awful, but still better than what Fiona does. Wendy joins mid chapter 7, and then proceeds to be there for the rest of the game. There hits a point where Wendy starts to become average as a unit. Fiona on the other hand, joins worthless, just like Wendy, like seriously, Meg's base stats are almost identical to Fiona and Meg joined in chapter 4 while Fiona joins at chapter 7. At level 3, Meg has + 2 strength and + 2 defense with a 6 level deficit , all of Fiona's wins are marginal at best for being 6 levels higher. If Meg is considered some trash tier unit, and all Fiona is winning by is + 4 hp, +5 mag, + 1 skl, + 1 lck, and + 1 res, something is seriously wrong. The magic is about the only relevant stat because of her innate Imbue skill, which really doesn't help her durability too much because pretty much every enemy attacks her and doubles her if she's not using an iron lance.

Forge only exist for part 1. It's gone in part 3. It's back in part 4, but big deal, if Fiona isn't at least tier 2 by then, you can kiss all of your BEXP goodbye because pretty much any enemy that attacks her will double her and kill her and using BEXP isn't actually using the unit. In hard mode, most of your time will be spent giving Fiona BEXP. You won't even be using her. Just flooding her with BEXP. That's horrible. Plus, you probably won't even have used her enough to give SS rank weapons with her even if you do BEXP her which means you'll have to bless some garbage weapon for her instead. Fiona throwing Javelins is a joke, because that's literally 15 points of damage. That's not killing anyone. Even at WTA, and even if it were, you're either fighting myrmdons which are dodgy, or tankier units like sword cavaliers or knights. Armor Knights start with 12 defense, and cavaliers start at 8. You're literally doing like 3 and 7 damage respectively against them, and neither are actually slow enough for her to double. Like... It's that bad. You can't even forge javelins for her, so it's a moot point. Earth Affinity supports might matter if Nolan, Zihark, and Volug didn't exist, but at this point, no one in the DB is exactly hurting for earth affinity.

Fiona gains experience at a much faster rate than Lyre, so spoon-feeding her kills seems easier to me than spoon-feeding kills to Lyre. Lyre grows much slower and is stuck forever at 1 range and her cat-laguz meter does not help her. Fiona's butchered because she joins way too late, had she join in Meg's chapter maybe she would have been a much better character.

I also disagree about Wendy, because Fiona has A) BEXP in her favor and B) IF we're focusing on her she has opportunity to use skills and her Earth support.

And it's not enough of a faster rate to matter. Fiona needs about 25 levels in 5 chapters. That's nuts. Even if you count BEXP in the mix, this is by no means an easy feat. Lyre is in this range of being astronomical suck, but the game doesn't feel like it's effectively designed against her. Fiona is like this. You use BEXP to use Fiona, only to require more BEXP to keep using Fiona. And her join time matters tremendously. If Sophia joined at Chapter 1 of binding blade, she'd be okay. Not better than someone like Lugh or even Hugh, but she'd still be so-so and not the trash that she is in the actual game.

BEXP doesn't help. It really doesn't. There isn't enough to go around. You literally have to dump the Dawn Brigade's and some of the Greil Mercenary BEXP on her, as well as stuff arms scrolls in her to make her useful. Wendy requires you to... Slow down and play at her pace. You can't even do that with Fiona because the game demands an unreasonable amount of growth for her in a short time for a unit that already sucks.

[Shadow Mir]

Wendy needs to be fed kills, like Fiona, but once she starts catching up, she's just a subpar knight, which is admittedly pretty awful, but still better than what Fiona does. Wendy joins mid chapter 7, and then proceeds to be there for the rest of the game. There hits a point where Wendy starts to become average as a unit. Fiona on the other hand, joins worthless, just like Wendy, like seriously, Meg's base stats are almost identical to Fiona and Meg joined in chapter 4 while Fiona joins at chapter 7. At level 3, Meg has + 2 strength and + 2 defense with a 6 level deficit , all of Fiona's wins are marginal at best for being 6 levels higher. If Meg is considered some trash tier unit, and all Fiona is winning by is + 4 hp, +5 mag, + 1 skl, + 1 lck, and + 1 res, something is seriously wrong. The magic is about the only relevant stat because of her innate Imbue skill, which really doesn't help her durability too much because pretty much every enemy attacks her and doubles her if she's not using an iron lance.

Forge only exist for part 1. It's gone in part 3. It's back in part 4, but big deal, if Fiona isn't at least tier 2 by then, you can kiss all of your BEXP goodbye because pretty much any enemy that attacks her will double her and kill her and using BEXP isn't actually using the unit. In hard mode, most of your time will be spent giving Fiona BEXP. You won't even be using her. Just flooding her with BEXP. That's horrible. Plus, you probably won't even have used her enough to give SS rank weapons with her even if you do BEXP her which means you'll have to bless some garbage weapon for her instead. Fiona throwing Javelins is a joke, because that's literally 15 points of damage. That's not killing anyone. Even at WTA, and even if it were, you're either fighting myrmdons which are dodgy, or tankier units like sword cavaliers or knights. Armor Knights start with 12 defense, and cavaliers start at 8. You're literally doing like 3 and 7 damage respectively against them, and neither are actually slow enough for her to double. Like... It's that bad. You can't even forge javelins for her, so it's a moot point. Earth Affinity supports might matter if Nolan, Zihark, and Volug didn't exist, but at this point, no one in the DB is exactly hurting for earth affinity.

And it's not enough of a faster rate to matter. Fiona needs about 25 levels in 5 chapters. That's nuts. Even if you count BEXP in the mix, this is by no means an easy feat. Lyre is in this range of being astronomical suck, but the game doesn't feel like it's effectively designed against her. Fiona is like this. You use BEXP to use Fiona, only to require more BEXP to keep using Fiona. And her join time matters tremendously. If Sophia joined at Chapter 1 of binding blade, she'd be okay. Not better than someone like Lugh or even Hugh, but she'd still be so-so and not the trash that she is in the actual game.

BEXP doesn't help. It really doesn't. There isn't enough to go around. You literally have to dump the Dawn Brigade's and some of the Greil Mercenary BEXP on her, as well as stuff arms scrolls in her to make her useful. Wendy requires you to... Slow down and play at her pace. You can't even do that with Fiona because the game demands an unreasonable amount of growth for her in a short time for a unit that already sucks.

Wendy has to be fed kills at far from reliable hit rates... and generally stands to get either killed or maimed if she whiffs. And there's not much time to get her up to speed before the game essentially laughs at her, either. This is to say nothing of the fact that FE6 has some really big maps, and she joins right as they're about to get bigger. And sure, she may be usable if you turtle... except FE6 isn't the type of game where you can afford to turtle every chapter, as stated earlier. That being said, I've actually been able to make something out of Fiona; I highly doubt I could make Wendy usable without tearing my hair out. Or Meg, or Lyre, for that matter.

EDIT:

I'd replace worst by useless:

But here we go:

FE4: Arden

FE5: Shanam

FE6: any knight and locked axe user except for Lot till chapter 8

FE8: If Lagdou and Valni didn't exist, then all the trainees and Marisa.

FE9: none

FE10: Fiona

FE11: about 50% of the cast

FE12: ^

FE13: Ricken

Conquest: Odin

Birthright: none

Revelations: Odin, Elise (because Sakura is a better healer and has better promotion gains)

Looking at Conquest, I'd honestly consider Arthur worse off than Odin.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Rezzy]

yup i remember that era

its hilarious looking at that stuff now and claiming that Marcus and Seth are awful characters.

I remember people saying Marcus was bad, but has Seth ever been considered bad other than being an XP hog? He was the beginning of OP Jeigans that continued until we got good ol' Gunter.

Wendy is bad in that she's got comparable growths with inferior bases to the other Knight that you already have, and Knight is a poor class is general crippled by lousy movement in a game with only seize maps. If there were actual defense maps that relied on choke points, they might have been viable.

I love Nino, but I enjoy raising Ests. Sophia isn't really good enough to be considered an Est.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I remember people saying Marcus was bad, but has Seth ever been considered bad other than being an XP hog? He was the beginning of OP Jeigans that continued until we got good ol' Gunter.

Wendy is bad in that she's got comparable growths with inferior bases to the other Knight that you already have, and Knight is a poor class is general crippled by lousy movement in a game with only seize maps. If there were actual defense maps that relied on choke points, they might have been viable.

I love Nino, but I enjoy raising Ests. Sophia isn't really good enough to be considered an Est.

i think seth was considered bad early in gamefaq's history, but he got considered better, faster then marcus did.

[SSbardock84]

heck he used them as examples of "good late game characters"

i'm convinced people don't fully pay attention to videos.

That's because I skimmed through the video. I did say that in my post.

[Baldrick]

If you like using her, that is fine. But that doesn't mean that she is worth using. If I have to deploy 3 armor knights in order to set up a Triangle attack, then I think she isn't really worth using since I have to go through that process just to feed her kills

No shit she's not worth using. What we are discussing is how easy it is to train her.

Wendy is easy to train if you deploy Bors and Barth.

If Bors and Barth aren't worth deployment slots, why are you using one on Wendy?

It's sandbagging.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Looking at Conquest, I'd honestly consider Arthur worse off than Odin.

I' ve played CQ only once yet but Arthur was pretty damn good.

Although he has no luck his defense was great enough (paired with Effie / Beruka) to survive a crit by most enemies with physical weapons. (I think he was critted only twice which weren't fatal.)

Odin has the wrong class with his growths. He might be better if he's reclassed to a non magic class. (I haven't done it yet.)

At least as a mage he was the most useless unit in my run.

[Cornguy]

I will proceed to list every game I've finished;

FE4: Arden. Don't think I need to explain, but just in case, worst movement on giant maps, terrible stats until promotion, which he's unlikely to ever reach.

FE6: Sophia. Almost every unit I recruit will attack, heal, or open a chest before I bench them. At least if I'm playing a team of bad characters, Wendy can be spoon-fed some early kills with triangle attack. Sophia will almost definitely require an arena, boss abuse, savestates, or all of the above.

FE7: Tough call, but its either Nino or Dorcas. Might be personal experience/bias talking, but Dorcas has always had a fatal combination of low speed and defense that keep me from ever using him successfully.

FE8: With no grind, Ewan/Amelia. Ross can be leveled somewhat reasonably in the Bazba chapter, but Ewan and Amelia don't have the same luxury. With grind, I'd say Garcia. Bad stats(by FE8 standards), and not great class.

FE9: Probably Lucia or Bastian. Bad stats, weak skills. There may be a better candidate here, but I've never seen success with these two.

FE10: Fiona. Its sad, because its really just wrong place, wrong time. Meg, Lyre and Vika come close, but at least they get a little use on their joining chapters.

FE11/12: Don't remember too well, but Mathis and Vyland were terrible if memory serves.

FE13: Ricken maybe Say'ri. Never really had a serious run at this game, but I recall not using them much.

FE14: Not really sure still. Orochi seems bad at a glance, but I'm sure someone is worse.

Overall, I would say Sophia. Unpromoted at level 1, halfway through the game, why? My suspension of disbelief wouldn't be affected if she were level 15.

[Shadow Mir]

I' ve played CQ only once yet but Arthur was pretty damn good.

Although he has no luck his defense was great enough (paired with Effie / Beruka) to survive a crit by most enemies with physical weapons. (I think he was critted only twice which weren't fatal.)

Odin has the wrong class with his growths. He might be better if he's reclassed to a non magic class. (I haven't done it yet.)

At least as a mage he was the most useless unit in my run.

His low luck is still pretty damning, since it takes his otherwise respectable durability and makes it subpar in practice. And his garbage tier personal doesn't help.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

i must say that arthur is one of the best candidates for goddess icons, surely factoring in is helpful for him.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Subaki is the definition of trash.

[BrightBow]

Arthur's low luck would definitely be fixable if he also didn't have a personal skill that made him more vulnerable to critical hits.

Edited July 1, 2016 by BrightBow

[Shadow Mir]

i must say that arthur is one of the best candidates for goddess icons, surely factoring in is helpful for him.

I guess, but as stated earlier, his personal makes him more vulnerable to critical hits, which is no bueno.

[Rezzy]

Arthur has bad Luck, but if you're going to have a dump stat, Luck is the one to go far, except maybe Resistance, and Goddess Icons even give +4 to Luck now. Arthur's got great Strength and HP in a game where HP is uniformly low. His Defense is also good, so even though he may get critted, his defensive stats make him one of the few units that can eat a crit and live.

Arthur's greatness is largely dependent on whether he gets speed screwed or not. His other stats that matter are all going to turn out well, most of the time.

[Shadow Mir]

Arthur has bad Luck, but if you're going to have a dump stat, Luck is the one to go far, except maybe Resistance, and Goddess Icons even give +4 to Luck now. Arthur's got great Strength and HP in a game where HP is uniformly low. His Defense is also good, so even though he may get critted, his defensive stats make him one of the few units that can eat a crit and live.

Arthur's greatness is largely dependent on whether he gets speed screwed or not. His other stats that matter are all going to turn out well, most of the time.

I vehemently disagree with Luck being a good choice for a dump stat - when crits generally spell the end for a unit, I'd rather not have to worry about my units being on the receiving end of them. And when it takes two point of luck to equal one point of crit evade, I see absolutely no good in letting luck suffer for the sake of other stats.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Augestein]

Wendy has to be fed kills at far from reliable hit rates... and generally stands to get either killed or maimed if she whiffs. And there's not much time to get her up to speed before the game essentially laughs at her, either. This is to say nothing of the fact that FE6 has some really big maps, and she joins right as they're about to get bigger. And sure, she may be usable if you turtle... except FE6 isn't the type of game where you can afford to turtle every chapter, as stated earlier. That being said, I've actually been able to make something out of Fiona; I highly doubt I could make Wendy usable without tearing my hair out. Or Meg, or Lyre, for that matter.

Which is the exact same scenario with Fiona. The only difference is that Fiona has less chapters, stronger enemies, and is fighting for a deployment slot when she first appears. Wendy at least gets that half way point where she can fight archers in her join chapter. Honestly, the only reason you won't tear your hair out using Fiona is because 80% of the time Fiona's use is nothing. Nolan tanks better than her with his axe, actual time to build a support Earth Affinity, and mountain of hp. I fail to see how you can really make something out of Fiona when Fiona's stats are comparable to Meg's base stats 3 and a half chapters later and 6 levels higher. If you can train Fiona, there's no doubt Meg can be trained easier. As I stated before, Lyre with an Energy Drop has the same strength score as Lethe. Lethe will only have a bit more hp (4 points) and defense (2) and 1 point of speed. Both are fast enough to double, and +1 speed and + 2 luck is not dodging anything more than Lyre. There's no doubt that Lyre is worse than Lethe, but if Lyre is tear your hair out in frustration, so is Lethe, it's like a slightly less garbage Lyre. To compare Meg to Fiona let's look at it this way. Let's assume Meg gains exactly 1 level per chapter she's there before Fiona joins (we'll count chapter 6 as two chapters). That's 4 chapters, so Meg will be level 7 when Fiona joins.

Fiona comparatively has with : hp (+2), str (-3), mag (+5), Skl (+0), Spd (+0), lck (-4), def (-3), res (-1). Fiona is just straight up worse if you bother with Meg, and it's not unreasonable for Meg to get 1 level per chapter if you plan on using her. Movement? Well, sure, you could just take Celerity from Tormod and give it to Meg. Also, as a bonus, Meg is completely immune to critical hits, and gives Heaven affinity, and gets rid of those shaky hit rates that plague the early game. The best thing about Fiona is that she has the best Paladin caps by end game. However, good luck getting her there. Even on average, she needs an absurd amount of levels to be better than Geoffrey-- a unit that's terrible in the endgame. "Canto" and affinity is not worth the garbage factory that is Fiona.

Arthur's low luck is annoying, but really, who else are you giving Goddess Icons too? His personal? It helps him more than it hurts him, so I'm of the opinion that it's a decent skill. Especially because it's not like it's only the ones that participate in battle, it's enemies within two tiles which means that he can help other people have higher critical rates at the expense of being *slightly* more vulnerable to critical hits. Plus, being a berserker helps him too.

[Rezzy]

I vehemently disagree with Luck being a good choice for a dump stat - when crits generally spell the end for a unit, I'd rather not have to worry about my units being on the receiving end of them. And when it takes two point of luck to equal one point of crit evade, I see absolutely no good in letting luck suffer for the sake of other stats.

I'd rather have good Luck than Bad, but it's the least important stat you can have, apart from Resistance and whichever Strength/Magic is the opposite of your unit type. Low Luck can be somewhat compensated for with High HP and Defense/Resistance. I've had my Arthur get critted and live several times.

HP: More valuable than ever before, due to pretty low growths across the board

Strength/Magic: Very important for offense

Skill: Paramount for hitting now that True Hit is gone and skills

Speed: Always been the god stat

Defense: Most units deal physical damage

Resistance: Competes with Luck for least valuable stat.

As mentioned before, Arthur's a good candidate for the Goddess Icon, and going from terrible Luck to decent Luck, helps more than going from decent Luck to good Luck.

[Augestein]

This

I'd rather have good Luck than Bad, but it's the least important stat you can have, apart from Resistance and whichever Strength/Magic is the opposite of your unit type. Low Luck can be somewhat compensated for with High HP and Defense/Resistance. I've had my Arthur get critted and live several times.

HP: More valuable than ever before, due to pretty low growths across the board

Strength/Magic: Very important for offense

Skill: Paramount for hitting now that True Hit is gone and skills

Speed: Always been the god stat

Defense: Most units deal physical damage

Resistance: Competes with Luck for least valuable stat.

As mentioned before, Arthur's a good candidate for the Goddess Icon, and going from terrible Luck to decent Luck, helps more than going from decent Luck to good Luck.

There's also the fact that is Arthur starts to get RNG speed screwed, you can marry him to Effie, and then snag Wary Fighter. IF Effie x Arthur isn't your thing, then A+ Benny. Like... This guy is not bad at all.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Augestein

[Shadow Mir]

Which is the exact same scenario with Fiona. The only difference is that Fiona has less chapters, stronger enemies, and is fighting for a deployment slot when she first appears. Wendy at least gets that half way point where she can fight archers in her join chapter. Honestly, the only reason you won't tear your hair out using Fiona is because 80% of the time Fiona's use is nothing. Nolan tanks better than her with his axe, actual time to build a support Earth Affinity, and mountain of hp. I fail to see how you can really make something out of Fiona when Fiona's stats are comparable to Meg's base stats 3 and a half chapters later and 6 levels higher. If you can train Fiona, there's no doubt Meg can be trained easier. As I stated before, Lyre with an Energy Drop has the same strength score as Lethe. Lethe will only have a bit more hp (4 points) and defense (2) and 1 point of speed. Both are fast enough to double, and +1 speed and + 2 luck is not dodging anything more than Lyre. There's no doubt that Lyre is worse than Lethe, but if Lyre is tear your hair out in frustration, so is Lethe, it's like a slightly less garbage Lyre. To compare Meg to Fiona let's look at it this way. Let's assume Meg gains exactly 1 level per chapter she's there before Fiona joins (we'll count chapter 6 as two chapters). That's 4 chapters, so Meg will be level 7 when Fiona joins.

Fiona comparatively has with : hp (+2), str (-3), mag (+5), Skl (+0), Spd (+0), lck (-4), def (-3), res (-1). Fiona is just straight up worse if you bother with Meg, and it's not unreasonable for Meg to get 1 level per chapter if you plan on using her. Movement? Well, sure, you could just take Celerity from Tormod and give it to Meg. Also, as a bonus, Meg is completely immune to critical hits, and gives Heaven affinity, and gets rid of those shaky hit rates that plague the early game. The best thing about Fiona is that she has the best Paladin caps by end game. However, good luck getting her there. Even on average, she needs an absurd amount of levels to be better than Geoffrey-- a unit that's terrible in the endgame. "Canto" and affinity is not worth the garbage factory that is Fiona.

Arthur's low luck is annoying, but really, who else are you giving Goddess Icons too? His personal? It helps him more than it hurts him, so I'm of the opinion that it's a decent skill. Especially because it's not like it's only the ones that participate in battle, it's enemies within two tiles which means that he can help other people have higher critical rates at the expense of being *slightly* more vulnerable to critical hits. Plus, being a berserker helps him too.

You have a point, but I feel the need to point out that laguz are treated as being double their level while transformed, meaning Lyre levels about as fast as Shinon and Titania do, and worse yet, starts leveling like a third tier once she hits level 21. That said, I do agree that Lethe's barely better than Lyre. WRT Meg: Celerity's 15 points, meaning Meg can't make use of it until she promotes. Fortune doesn't do much good on her either since she has one of the highest luck growths in the game - it'd only really help against the occasional killer weapon, which you don't see very much of. Also, Meg's affinity does her no real favours since Heaven is pretty much the most useless support affinity.

As for Arthur, from where I'm standing, most enemies in Fates don't have anywhere near enough crit evade for his personal's effect to be noticeable on them, especially late in the game when they start using Silvers, which nuke their crit evade (for the record, this is a big part of why I think Misfortunate is the absolute worst personal skill in the entire game - the other part being that it's actively detrimental to the user). What's more, making him a Berserker practically ensures he'll be facing crit chances, thanks to their innate Dodge penalty. It does NOT help Arthur's case that crit is one of those stats that's horribly lopsided in terms of usefulness. . .

Edited July 1, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I'm gonna say Lyre. Anytime she's available, Lethe is also available. Lyre's only real advantages are higher growths in Skill and Speed, and even then she starts behind her sister. And both of them suffer the Laguz curse of only being able to attack half the time, only having a single attack option, and having no ranged attacking. The only case you'd use her is if you want to field two cats (not sure why), or if Lethe died. Meg and Fiona may be pretty terrible starting out, but at least they're unique when they show up, and have potential with BEXP.

If I include Shadow Dragon - Mathis, Vyland, Roshea, Bantu, Dolph, Macellan, Tomas, Boah, Samson, and Arran are all pretty garbo.

[Shadow Mir]

I'd rather have good Luck than Bad, but it's the least important stat you can have, apart from Resistance and whichever Strength/Magic is the opposite of your unit type. Low Luck can be somewhat compensated for with High HP and Defense/Resistance. I've had my Arthur get critted and live several times.

HP: More valuable than ever before, due to pretty low growths across the board

Strength/Magic: Very important for offense

Skill: Paramount for hitting now that True Hit is gone and skills

Speed: Always been the god stat

Defense: Most units deal physical damage

Resistance: Competes with Luck for least valuable stat.

As mentioned before, Arthur's a good candidate for the Goddess Icon, and going from terrible Luck to decent Luck, helps more than going from decent Luck to good Luck.

Far as I'm concerned, giving Arthur Goddess Icons doesn't change much of anything, thanks to his shitstain of a personal skill - he's going from facing crit chances to facing crit chances. Also, while low luck can be compensated for with high HP and Defense, they're not perfect solutions - unless you're taking trivial damage from enemy units, having whatever damage you'd be eating get tripled can still suck. In addition, I think Skill still hasn't done a very good job of staying relevant as a stat.

This

There's also the fact that is Arthur starts to get RNG speed screwed, you can marry him to Effie, and then snag Wary Fighter. IF Effie x Arthur isn't your thing, then A+ Benny. Like... This guy is not bad at all.

He definitely isn't good by my standards either, and I think calling him mediocre is pushing it.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia