POR: Units worth using

[Michelaar]

So I'm replaying path of radiance, but in my first playtrough, I ended up losing a lot of units and I had to restart a lot. I want to know who the best units in the game are, and which of them are actually worth using.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

In general: It's one of the few FE games everyone is usable.

However mounted units are the most useful.

[Michelaar]

I've heard lots of people disliking Soren. Is it because his battle skills or his character. I like both his character and battle skills, but I want this to be an optimal run

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

His character is hated by some people. You'll see later why.

Soren is the best magic user. Has good magic, skill, speed and adept.

His strength is awful but thankfully wind tomes are the lightest in this game.

[Michelaar]

Ok, thank you :)

[Dinar87]

If you haven't played PoR before, here's a tip....DON'T USE SOTHE!! He's the only tier one class in the game who can't promote for whatever reason. Unless you want a unit who can never increase his stats beyond 20 stay far away from him!

As for actually useful units I'd recommend Jill and Nephenee (I think that's how it's spelled).

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I'm pretty much agree with Ayama said. There isn't really any unit that is extremely bad. Personally, I'm not a fan of Tormod. And Lucia and Bastion aren't great unit wise, but they are still usable imo.

Soren is great. He is definitely the most useful mage in the game. He has a little bit of a slow start, but when he gets going, he gets great. That being said, I don't like his character. So I decide to bench him for Ilyana as soon as I get her, even if she is inferior. Her character isn't great either, but I can tolerate her at least. My favorite magic user doesn't come till late in the game, unfortunately.

[Michelaar]

I played POR before, Didn't really like it that time. Thats why I'm replaying it. Maybe I like it more

Let me guess, Calill?

Edited July 17, 2016 by Michelaar

[Shadow Mir]

I've heard lots of people disliking Soren. Is it because his battle skills or his character. I like both his character and battle skills, but I want this to be an optimal run

His character. To put it bluntly, he's an asshole.

Anyways, the only units I'd avoid are Rolf (who's only use is getting Shinon back) and Sothe. I'm not a fan of Stefan, either.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[JonoJamMan]

There are units that start off good, units that can be good but require some additional help to get going, laguz, units that are pretty average but usable, and sothe

characters you get in the beginning are all around great, boyd oscar rhys gatrie

then there are few later charcters that still start off pretty decent like illyana, marcia jill, zihark but arnt super stars right away

then you got things like soren, mia , rolf, nephenee and keiren that can get really strong with some help, but you shouldnt use too many of these

laguz are pretty bad in general cause they are only useful half the time. mordecai and lethe are ok but really shouldnt use them for an optimal run

then a lof of later characters are still fine but require a bunch more work, astrid probably being the best of these

and in general pre-promoted units are actually pretty ok, the best one being stefan in my opinion

and dont use sothe, its a trap

i could say how i feel about every charcter if you want but ill keep it short xD

[UNLEASH IT]

If you haven't played PoR before, here's a tip....DON'T USE SOTHE!! He's the only tier one class in the game who can't promote for whatever reason. Unless you want a unit who can never increase his stats beyond 20 stay far away from him!

As for actually useful units I'd recommend Jill and Nephenee (I think that's how it's spelled).

I wouldn't recommend using Nephenee when you already have Oscar.

[The Draco Knight]

His character. To put it bluntly, he's an asshole.

Anyways, the only units I'd avoid are Rolf (who's only use is getting Shinon back) and Sothe. I'm not a fan of Stefan, either.

Why? Stefan is probably the best swordmaster having an S rank in Sword when you get him and he also has very high base stats.

The only bad thing about him is the way to get him.

I'd recommend him over Mia, Zihark and Lucia. Just remember that he is recruitable only by putting Mordecai and Lethe in a certain square of the map of chapter 15.

[Shadow Mir]

Why? Stefan is probably the best swordmaster having an S rank in Sword when you get him and he also has very high base stats.

The only bad thing about him is the way to get him.

I'd recommend him over Mia, Zihark and Lucia. Just remember that he is recruitable only by putting Mordecai and Lethe in a certain square of the map of chapter 15.

That's easy. His luck stinks. So much so, in fact, he faces the threat of critical hits for the entire game, pretty much. Edited July 17, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Augestein]

That's easy. His luck stinks. So much so, in fact, he faces the threat of critical hits for the entire game, pretty much.

And his defense is so high comparatively that even if he did get hit by a critical, he'd still take the same or less damage than Mia. He has 3 points of defense higher than her forever, and way more res than her as well as hp. Even getting hit by criticals, he's still more durable than the other swordmasters. Even worse, is that Mia and Zihark's luck isn't THAT much higher. Lastly, by the time you get Stefan, you could easily give him a Ashera Icon.

For mages, here's how it goes.

Soren and Ilyana are the most easy to use. Ilyana with a speedwing, if you're willing to sacrifice one, is generally better than Soren statwise, especially on a 2nd playthrough where you can give her Shinon's archer band to up her speed growth to 35%. However, Adept is a better skill than Shade overall so I'd still give the win to Soren overall for being a nuke. Tormod is the best statwise, but may be a bit difficult to use if you plan on leveling him up to 20. Although, he's perfect for a master seal and makes a very effective healer. Calill has great stats but cannot heal. Bastian is kind of bad.

Any mounted unit is good. The worst one is kind of Geoffrey, but he still stomps all over the game. Haar is a bit slow, but is really sturdy.

Both archers are kind of bad with Shinon being even more difficult to use than Rolf.

Stefan is by far the best swordmaster with Mia being the worst of all of them for over the course of the game (Lucia joins with slightly better stats than a promoted Mia but is 11 levels higher) but still usable. Although Lucia isn't terribly hot either, and her base skill Parity is kind of terrible (in PoR it is).

Rhys versus Mist - Mist has a mount, but Rhys can actually fight worth something in the event that you don't need a heal. His physic staff also will have more range because he has more magic. He'll probably never double unless you get lucky though. To get Mist to be able to fight is pretty worthless as her strength is garbage. Even with magical swords, there aren't enough to be worth investing in this. They are healers through and through. Rhys is only good because of that staff level though for physics. Soren will be able to heal just as well when he promotes.

Brom versus Gatire - Brom with a knight ward for a couple of levels is pretty solid and has better stats overall than Gatrie. Gatrie's defense is too overkill, and the wins he has are marginal at best. Tauroneo has resolve which is cool though and a wicked defense + res combo. Too bad about his base speed though.

Sothe is only worth using if you're going to transfer over to RD, and even then, it's not THAT useful overall as Sothe is really powerful in RD at the start, and will still falter later on. The only good thing about PoR transferred Sothe is being able to have a luckier Sothe for better dodgetanking in part 3. Also, you can see the series only promotion where you lose stats. So that's always a treat if you're into seeing bizarro things. Volke might charge you, but there's nothing he opens that results in a net loss of money.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

Let me guess, Calill?

Yes sir!

Well, I actually like Bastion a bit more as a character, but he isn't nearly as good as a unit as Calill.

She does come with knives instead of staves... but I feel like she would be TOO good is she had staves instead.

[MacLovin]

if it has a mount, use it.

If it has 1-2 range, use it.

I think the units everyone hates are like; Shinon, Rolfe, and Sothe. But that's because 2 out of these three have shit bases and not a lot of value through use. I guess Sothe's transfers are neat, and Shinon's got really good growths so there.

this game has a FUCKTON of bexp, even if you turtle. You can almost solo the damn game with Titania+Ike without trying that hard.

Hell, I try to ditch the cavs after earlygame sometimes, just to give myself a damn challenge.

[DarkDestr0yer61]

What difficulty are you going for?

[Quintessence]

Some tips:

1. Everyone is worth using.

2. Optimizing PoR Hard Mode is kinda overkill since PoR is awfully easy.

For instance, Titania and either Oscar/Boyd at 2nd Tier by Ch11 or 12 can roflstomp the game with Ike.

Anyways, the best options per class are Zihark/Stefan, Boyd, Nephenee, Rofl, Mist, Soren/Ilyana, Gatrie, Oscar/Kieran, Marcia, Jill, Volke. And I really don't use Laguz but Lethe is quite a good unit.

Also, it really depends on whether you're playing Random or Fixed Mode.

His character. To put it bluntly, he's an asshole.

Well that's because of his past. Edited July 17, 2016 by Quintessence

[Michelaar]

What difficulty are you going for?

Hard mode

[IcyShallows]

I think Mia is a pretty good unit. She really sucks at first, but you can give her the wrath skill and with a killing edge+vantage (which she comes with) she can be pretty hard to kill.

...Unless someone throws a stray javelin at her, then she might die.

But yeah, use all the units with high movement and Ike and you'll have an easy time.

[Shadow Mir]

And his defense is so high comparatively that even if he did get hit by a critical, he'd still take the same or less damage than Mia. He has 3 points of defense higher than her forever, and way more res than her as well as hp. Even getting hit by criticals, he's still more durable than the other swordmasters. Even worse, is that Mia and Zihark's luck isn't THAT much higher. Lastly, by the time you get Stefan, you could easily give him a Ashera Icon.

Doesn't make it any less unacceptable in my eyes, especially considering how potent criticals are in enemy hands, and the fact that he always has to risk eating counters. To put it into perspective, the Myrms in chapter 16 do anywhere from 15 to 24 damage to Stefan if they crit. And this is during the point of the game where he should be uber. What is more, the other two only need 5 levels just to get the same amount of luck Stefan can ever hope to get on average.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[arkel]

These are the units I typically bring into the endgame:

1. Ike

2. Titania

3. Marcia

4. Jill

5. Oscar

6. Kieran

7. Astrid

8. Volke

9. Makalov

10. Boyd

11. Soren

12. Mist

13. Reyson

14. Nasir

[Quintessence]

Tbh enemies in PoR don't have quite awesome stats to be a menace, coupled with the shitton of statboosters they throw at you, like the Dracoshield, Talisman and Goddess Icon at early game. The only threat one can have is killing edge swordmasters because his high avoid will make him dodge hits frequently. PoR is not Fates where enemies have bonus crt, ddg is lck/2 and Stefan is not Arthur.

[Shadow Mir]

Well that's because of his past.

That doesn't excuse being as big a dick as he is in chapter 8 (yeah, let's go piss off the guys who saved our asses, never mind the fact that they beat down an entire army and could easily rip him to shreds). And that's just part of it.

Tbh enemies in PoR don't have quite awesome stats to be a menace, coupled with the shitton of statboosters they throw at you, like the Dracoshield, Talisman and Goddess Icon at early game. The only threat one can have is killing edge swordmasters because his high avoid will make him dodge hits frequently. PoR is not Fates where enemies have bonus crt, ddg is lck/2 and Stefan is not Arthur.

PoR isn't Fates, yes, and Stefan isn't Arthur, but Arthur at least did have some means to get around his crap crit evade. Stefan has no such luck, and thus is susceptible to being blicked off the map or at least severely wounded if his evade fails him. Edited July 18, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Augestein]

Doesn't make it any less unacceptable in my eyes, especially considering how potent criticals are in enemy hands, and the fact that he always has to risk eating counters. To put it into perspective, the Myrms in chapter 16 do anywhere from 15 to 24 damage to Stefan if they crit. And this is during the point of the game where he should be uber. What is more, the other two only need 5 levels just to get the same amount of luck Stefan can ever hope to get on average.

You're missing the point. Stefan's defense lead + his hp means that he literally takes less damage than Mia or equal if he gets hit by a critical. Using your example lets do some math for a second:

15 to 24 damage would mean that they 5-8 points of damage normally. This puts them at 17-20 attack.

Mia would be about level 15-16 here, as gaining slightly more than 1 level per chapter is pretty fair for her (she joins chapter 7 with not many enemies to kill and is level 6 just so we can have an idea of how she's gaining levels so honestly, we're kind of being generous here).

Mia's defensive stats are : 26 hp and 9 def

Stefan defensive stats are : 38 hp and 12 def

Mia takes 8 damage from a low end Myrmidon. Mia takes 11 points of damage from a high end Myrmidon. Low end Myrmidons 4HKO her. High end Myrmidons 3HKO her.

Stefan takes 15 damage from a critical on the low end. He takes 24 from the high end. He's 3HKOed by this low ends. High end, he'd be 2HKOed. This makes it sound like Stefan is worse until you realize that enemies don't get critical hits every attack. It also ignores the fact that Stefan will kill whatever enemy he attacked or attacks him with his 19 base strength and 25 speed. He's basically never going to not be doubling, while Mia is going to realistically not double her myrmidon. Stefan's is dead. So even if it DID critical him, he's not dead. It also ignores that enemies like Tigers kill Mia in 2 hits, she has terrible strength against anything with lances-- which is all of midgame and quite a bit of endgame, and ignores that Mia's luck at level 15 - 16 is a whopping 2 points higher than his. 5% critical is hardly something to fret over.When it doesn't critical him, it looks more ridiculous for why you'd ignore him because of that. Stefan takes 5 damage from lower end Myrmidion. He takes 8 damage from high end Myrmidon. Low end Myrmidons 8HKO him. High end Myrmidons 5HKO him.

2nd: 5 levels is a lot. Most people beat the game with their characters around 20/1 - 20/8. Fretting over critical hits that low is like fretting over 95% hit chances on enemies. Mia for instance? She needs to be 20/6 to have the same speed as Stefan, and even more ridiculous is that she needs to be 20/15 to have his base strength. 20/13 for hp, and 20/2 to have the same defense as base Stefan. Res takes to 20/7. That's nuts. If giving this guy 2 Ashera Icons so his base luck goes from 5 to 9 means that I can have all that power, I'll happily depart with 2 of the most useless items in the game.

That doesn't excuse being as big a dick as he is in chapter 8 (yeah, let's go piss off the guys who saved our asses, never mind the fact that they beat down an entire army and could easily rip him to shreds). And that's just part of it.

This makes it sound like Stefan is worse until you realize that enemies don't get critical hits every attack. It also ignores the fact that Stefan will kill whatever enemy he attacked or attacks him with his 19 base strength and 25 speed. He's basically never going to not be doubling, while Mia is going to realistically not double her myrmidon. Stefan's is dead. So even if it DID critical him, he's not dead. It also ignores that enemies like Tigers kill Mia in 2 hits, she has terrible strength against anything with lances-- which is all of midgame and quite a bit of endgame, and ignores that Mia's luck at level 15 - 16 is a whopping 3 points higher than his. 3% critical is hardly something to fret over.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Augestein