POR: Units worth using

[Shadow Mir]

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.

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.

You do realize the point your last paragraph responded to was one that was absolutely irrelevant to this discussion?

Anyways, as I see it, if Stefan's at risk of taking that much damage when he should be far and away the best unit on my team, I shudder to think of what happens if the enemy gets lucky when he's not head and shoulders above them any more... And given that he's grossly overleveled and gaining next to no exp for kills for quite a while... that's an unenviable position, to be sure. Also, I'd much rather have innate Vantage or innate Adept than innate Astra.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Raguna]

Levant to be perfectly honest you're blowing things out of proportion here. Stefan's issue in luck can be easily remedied and his great bases mean nothing will reasonably kill him in one go because nothing but a high end enemy swordmaster with killing edge will even have a chance to kill him in one go and you have to remember Stefan isn't alone in the first place. Threats like the aforementioned swordmaster are those you take out first, risking damage only from lower level hitting enemies during enemy phase. Plus you have units like Nephenee, Oscar, Titania or Brom who you tipically put on the frontlines to sponge up on the damage.

I just fail to see your point when it's so unlikely and improbable. It's a lot more probable for Mia to get killed than Stefan will if they were brought into the same situation.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Raguna

[Shadow Mir]

Levant to be perfectly honest you're blowing things out of proportion here. Stefan's issue in luck can be easily remedied and his great bases mean nothing will reasonably kill him in one go because nothing but a high end enemy swordmaster with killing edge will even have a chance to kill him in one go and you have to remember Stefan isn't alone in the first place. Threats like the aforementioned swordmaster are those you take out first, risking damage only from lower level hitting enemies during enemy phase. Plus you have units like Nephenee, Oscar, Titania or Brom who you tipically put on the frontlines to sponge up on the damage.

I just fail to see your point when it's so unlikely and improbable. It's a lot more probable for Mia to get killed than Stefan will if they were brought into the same situation.

Maybe I am. Not that I'll stand down on the subject - it's called "Properly Paranoid", look it up. Facing crit chances is objectively, infinitely inferior to not facing them, and this is non-negotiable, largely because of how valuable crit is to the enemy.

...Anyways, other than Brom, none of those guys you mentioned are likely to face crit chances, and Brom largely won't care if it's not a mage.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Samias]

Honestly I don't find any of the swordmasters to be particularly good in this game. Though 100% activation rate Vantage is cool, Mia isn't strong enough for most of the game for her preemptive attack to be that useful. That said they aren't bad, just Ike, Boyd, and to a lesser extent Nephenee (ughh that E rank lance...) have an easier time of things, and the latter two can use a hand axe/javelin respectively for 1-2 range through most of the game.

Best units:

-Do they ride a horse? Good unit. Universally. There are very few maps that punish a cavalry-centric army.

-Do they ride something that flies? GREAT unit. Marcia and Jill will break the game over their knees from very early on. Tanith brings an additional 6 semi-controllable units with her to every map she can be in. Incredible. Bows also don't do as much effective damage in this game to boot. Several maps practically require flying units.

-As far as infantry goes, Ike and Boyd are the strongest. They're both available for pretty much the entire game too.

-You want at least 1 mage and it doesn't really matter who you pick. They all have something going for them. Calill is a strong pick-up midgame. She's locked out of promoted staff utility but can use all the siege tomes.

-Laguz are strong early game combantants but drop off because they only have their one claw weapon. However the tigers are incredible utility units. Mordecai comes with smite and is invaluable for positioning. Muarim can use the 2nd Smite scroll later as well. Reyson is the game's equivalent for a dancer but he flies and refreshes 4 units while transformed.

Lesser units:

-Armor knights. Doing armor knight things. Kind of a shame because Gatrie and Brom aren't that bad, they will just never make it to the enemy ever.

-Archers. Shinon gets mileage early game but that's about it. Rolf comes too late for an early game archer and thus needs BEXP to be useful. Unfortunately Marcia shows up at the same time and is a god. Astrid is a better bow user since she has a horse, Paragon for double exp, and can pick up a secondary weapon upon promotion.

-Mid to late game infantry recruits. To me this means Devdan onwards. Their bases and growths are fine but since BEXP is so plentiful it's easier just to continue using the units you've been training from before.

-Sothe. Steals for free, but since money isn't that much of an issue Volke is generally better and he also promotes.

-Dragon laguz. They join too late.

[spoiler=Endgame]-Naesala. The laguz royals in general don't contribute anything really but Naesala in particular can't hurt Ashnard due to lack of stats. Giffca is best pick FYI.

[The Draco Knight]

-As far as infantry goes, Ike and Boyd are the strongest. They're both available for pretty much the entire game too.

I disagree: Boyd can be speed screwed and this may give him some problem to double the enemies you encounter.

Largo is a much better option, even if he doesn't have a great availability like Boyd.

[Augestein]

You do realize the point your last paragraph responded to was one that was absolutely irrelevant to this discussion?

My connection got fudged up when it reapplied the edit and somehow preserved the old text-- strange phenomenon to be sure. Soren wasn't even initially the jerk in Chapter 8. Lethe was. She came in and started complaining about "humans" and how horrible they were. Soren got mad because she basically wouldn't shut up with her vapid, unnecessary, irrelevant whining. She basically ignored what her king said, and started picking a fight for who knows what reason. It's so bad that even Mordecai calls her out on it afterward. Unfortunately, Ike is so busy basically sucking off every Laguz he sees so this scene doesn't even make a modicum of sense. Soren didn't provoke the Laguz. Lethe provoked Soren. Soren's reaction was a bit uncouth, for certain, but he definitely wasn't the initial aggressor.

Anyways, as I see it, if Stefan's at risk of taking that much damage when he should be far and away the best unit on my team, I shudder to think of what happens if the enemy gets lucky when he's not head and shoulders above them any more... And given that he's grossly overleveled and gaining next to no exp for kills for quite a while... that's an unenviable position, to be sure. Also, I'd much rather have innate Vantage or innate Adept than innate Astra.

Except he will pretty much always be head and shoulders above the team. Mia is not getting his strength, speed, or hp over the course of the game. Ever. Innate Vantage might actually mean something for Mia if she actually had the strength to DO something with it-- most of the game it's pretty worthless for Mia or forcing you to leave Mia as the only viable target for enemies that aren't dead (why would you be doing this?). If you're going vantage / Wrath Mia, well, let's just say that Stefan has a lower chance of being hit by a stray critical than Vantage + Wrath has for actually working in your favor (even if you use Swordmaster critical + Killing Edge + Wrath + Vantage, you aren't guaranteed to kill an enemy). Both Vantage and Adept are scrolls you can obtain in the game too. If you hate Astra, you can give him Adept. You don't have to leave it equipped.

Maybe I am. Not that I'll stand down on the subject - it's called "Properly Paranoid", look it up. Facing crit chances is objectively, infinitely inferior to not facing them, and this is non-negotiable, largely because of how valuable crit is to the enemy.

...Anyways, other than Brom, none of those guys you mentioned are likely to face crit chances, and Brom largely won't care if it's not a mage.

Facing enemies that 2HKO - 4HKO is objectively worse than worrying about 1-5% critical rates. Sure, you can plan around being 2-4HKOed, but I just see a mediocre unit at that point versus a good unit with a weakness. If Stefan didn't have that low luck and have a chance to take criticals, he'd be unstoppable.

Kieran has pretty lousy luck. Jill's isn't too hot (like, a recently promoted Jill has 9 luck the same Stefan would have with icons), Soren, Nephenee's isn't particularly good, Tormod's isn't too good comparatively for when he joins. Like I said, give him the two Ashera Icons if you're that paranoid about it, and after that point his luck is pretty close to other people with not so good luck.

[Quintessence]

I disagree: Boyd can be speed screwed and this may give him some problem to double the enemies you encounter.

Largo is a much better option, even if he doesn't have a great availability like Boyd.

Not really. Boyd has a pretty nice Spd growth and he'll be more than ok because he has all the game to grow, and he's one of the best foot units you have, if not the best. Early game units are so shitty that they get weighed by steel weapons and get near to 0 AS, and Boyd will get a lot of Str procs that he will be lessening the AS issues.

And if you're playing Fixed Mode, things come better because he'll get like 1 spd proc per 2 level ups if you give him spd growth accessories, Iron weapons and face spd units; or just BEXP manipulate lv ups. That said, I've never had a problem with Boyd, I always give him the Ch2 Speedwing to make let him grow faster.

[The Draco Knight]

Not really. Boyd has a pretty nice Spd growth and he'll be more than ok because he has all the game to grow, and he's one of the best foot units you have, if not the best. Early game units are so shitty that they get weighed by steel weapons and get near to 0 AS, and Boyd will get a lot of Str procs that he will be lessening the AS issues.

And if you're playing Fixed Mode, things come better because he'll get like 1 spd proc per 2 level ups if you give him spd growth accessories, Iron weapons and face spd units; or just BEXP manipulate lv ups. That said, I've never had a problem with Boyd, I always give him the Ch2 Speedwing to make let him grow faster.

His speed growth isn't actually that nice; I would say is actually pretty shaky and can give him some problem in the mid game and late game too

I even give him some bend to bost his speed growth but he still fall down(altough I could be simply unlucky here).

Of course, I don't deny that Boyd's speed can become pretty good, but I still prefer Largo because he starts with 20 base speed, which is more than enough for me.

But then again, the enemies of this game aren't really strong, so Boyd's speed issues aren't even such a big problem after all.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Honestly I'd say Jill or Titania are the best axe users in FE9.

Anyways I never ever had a good Boyd. Always benched him at the latest when I got Jill.

[Quintessence]

^ PEMN

Also, thing with Titania is that her utility curve starts to descend by mid game onwards.

[Samias]

Boyd might have speed issues but at least he is there for the whole game with amazing strength. Enemies in this game also aren't likely to double him except maybe endgame swordmasters. You could replace him with Largo later on if he gets stat screwed though, they are similar enough. Largo just doesn't appear until chapter 25 of a 29 chapter game. That's a long time to wait, especially when Solo has already been completed.

Also I agree Titania and Jill are better units than Boyd overall and they do compete for axes, but I still do want some foot units with decent con and Boyd happens to have the best availability.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Samias

[Augestein]

Boyd might have speed issues but at least he is there for the whole game with amazing strength. Enemies in this game also aren't likely to double him except maybe endgame swordmasters. You could replace him with Largo later on if he gets stat screwed though, they are similar enough. Largo just doesn't appear until chapter 25 of a 29 chapter game. That's a long time to wait, especially when Solo has already been completed.

Also I agree Titania and Jill are better units than Boyd overall and they do compete for axes, but I still do want some foot units with decent con and Boyd happens to have the best availability.

He really doesn't have speed issues though. 6 speed base with 45% growth at level 2 is good (Now Rhys, that's some bad speed). The only characters that really have better are Mia having 13 at level 6 and Soren for having a whopping 8 at level 1. That's the same speed growth as Oscar, and Oscar has only 1 speed more at level 3 than Boyd. If Boyd is shaky and slow, then so is Oscar, a unit that people think of as fast. I think people are just too used to other fighters, because Boyd isn't slow at all. You could also give him the paladin band on second playthroughs and his speed growth would be 50%.

Jill is lucky because of the weird E rank steel axes being a thing in PoR. Con doesn't matter in PoR, just having enough strength to use axes... Which all axe users have strength as one of their primary stats.

[Samias]

Yeah, I don't have any issue with Boyd's speed personally. Some people do. 50% not bad in this game at all but it still has potential for screwage. In my case I will save scum BEXP level ups for Boyd if need be and his growth spread is really ideal for what he needs to do. His CON and his strength are just too valuable for me to leave behind compared to the noodle armed myrmidons.

[Snowy_One]

The paladins and fliers tend to be considered the 'best'. However almost all units can be good. So, really, pick whoever you want and don't skimp. If you're really pressed consider RNG abuse to power-level, but that's about it.

[Caliban of Sycorax]

If you're planning to transfer over to FE10 be sure to use units who will benefit best from them, specifically Jill and Ike.

Otherwise, you'll want to use Titania, Oscar, and Boyd liberally as they are not only your best units throughout a majority of the game, but they are also available for most, if not all of it. Kieran is also a stellar unit with a bit of work; he is Titania lite. In FE9 when you promote Cavaliers you are able to pick their second weapon. Axes are probably the best weapons in the game, so Oscar especially benefits from them.

FE9 is extremely generous to mounted units so be sure to utilize them all, even if you don't plan to use everyone for Endgame.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Protip: Marcia + Paladin Band = Yes.

[Shadow Mir]

My connection got fudged up when it reapplied the edit and somehow preserved the old text-- strange phenomenon to be sure. Soren wasn't even initially the jerk in Chapter 8. Lethe was. She came in and started complaining about "humans" and how horrible they were. Soren got mad because she basically wouldn't shut up with her vapid, unnecessary, irrelevant whining. She basically ignored what her king said, and started picking a fight for who knows what reason. It's so bad that even Mordecai calls her out on it afterward. Unfortunately, Ike is so busy basically sucking off every Laguz he sees so this scene doesn't even make a modicum of sense. Soren didn't provoke the Laguz. Lethe provoked Soren. Soren's reaction was a bit uncouth, for certain, but he definitely wasn't the initial aggressor.

Except he will pretty much always be head and shoulders above the team. Mia is not getting his strength, speed, or hp over the course of the game. Ever. Innate Vantage might actually mean something for Mia if she actually had the strength to DO something with it-- most of the game it's pretty worthless for Mia or forcing you to leave Mia as the only viable target for enemies that aren't dead (why would you be doing this?). If you're going vantage / Wrath Mia, well, let's just say that Stefan has a lower chance of being hit by a stray critical than Vantage + Wrath has for actually working in your favor (even if you use Swordmaster critical + Killing Edge + Wrath + Vantage, you aren't guaranteed to kill an enemy). Both Vantage and Adept are scrolls you can obtain in the game too. If you hate Astra, you can give him Adept. You don't have to leave it equipped.

Facing enemies that 2HKO - 4HKO is objectively worse than worrying about 1-5% critical rates. Sure, you can plan around being 2-4HKOed, but I just see a mediocre unit at that point versus a good unit with a weakness. If Stefan didn't have that low luck and have a chance to take criticals, he'd be unstoppable.

Kieran has pretty lousy luck. Jill's isn't too hot (like, a recently promoted Jill has 9 luck the same Stefan would have with icons), Soren, Nephenee's isn't particularly good, Tormod's isn't too good comparatively for when he joins. Like I said, give him the two Ashera Icons if you're that paranoid about it, and after that point his luck is pretty close to other people with not so good luck.

First paragraph: I see. Thinking about it, I'm kinda surprised Ike didn't lose his cool.

Everything else: Well, while I do agree with some of your points, I will say that Stefan doesn't ALWAYS face crit chances, for a while at least, but still, 1-5% crit chances generally aren't the kind of chances I'd want to take in a game series with permanent death, especially repeatedly. Aside from that, I find he's not that much better than a 20/1 Zihark, and his overleveled status doesn't really help his case. Nor does it that he only has two supports, and the worst support affinity to go with them.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Radiant Dragon]

Levant, why are you worried about your units getting hit by criticals? It's because you don't want them dying, correct? Stefan has the bulk to eat a critical and not die, so what's the point of worrying about it?

Using Augestein's numbers from the last page, lets assume that Mia or Stefan are getting attacked by three of the lower-end Myrmidons, all three of the Myrmidons hit (they're pretty accurate, after all), and Stefan gets crit by one of them (the chances of him getting crit twice in a row are astronomically small; even you must be able to realize this):

- Mia takes 24 damage and only has 2 HP left, literally anything can finish her off at this point. If the Myrmidons' attack stats rounded up slightly, she's just dead.

- Stefan takes 25 total damage (15 from the crit, 5 each from the other two), and still has 13 HP left. Not only has he taken only one more point of damage than Mia despite eating a critical she did not, he still has the health to take a couple more attacks just fine. (In addition, anything that attacked Stefan is dead, while Mia may be leaving stragglers thanks to her lower Str/Spd.) Getting hit by criticals only matters when you can't survive them. It's not like every enemy has a 5% chance to activate Lethality on Stefan.

[Shadow Mir]

Levant, why are you worried about your units getting hit by criticals? It's because you don't want them dying, correct? Stefan has the bulk to eat a critical and not die, so what's the point of worrying about it?

Using Augestein's numbers from the last page, lets assume that Mia or Stefan are getting attacked by three of the lower-end Myrmidons, all three of the Myrmidons hit (they're pretty accurate, after all), and Stefan gets crit by one of them (the chances of him getting crit twice in a row are astronomically small; even you must be able to realize this):

- Mia takes 24 damage and only has 2 HP left, literally anything can finish her off at this point. If the Myrmidons' attack stats rounded up slightly, she's just dead.

- Stefan takes 25 total damage (15 from the crit, 5 each from the other two), and still has 13 HP left. Not only has he taken only one more point of damage than Mia despite eating a critical she did not, he still has the health to take a couple more attacks just fine. (In addition, anything that attacked Stefan is dead, while Mia may be leaving stragglers thanks to her lower Str/Spd.) Getting hit by criticals only matters when you can't survive them. It's not like every enemy has a 5% chance to activate Lethality on Stefan.

It might as well be playing Russian Roulette, far as I'm concerned. I'm also of the mindset that even if it doesn't kill, eating a critical is bad unless the attacker was dealing next to no damage to begin with, because a non-fatal critical hit just might set up another attack that'd be survivable otherwise to be a fatal blow, and we all know what that means. Other than that, I DID have a run ended by an enemy critical hit - and thanks to that, I consider even a 1% chance 1% too high. So it all goes back to how valuable crit is for the enemy.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Just call me AL]

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.

That's not entirely true. Mist can make up for the Physic staff range disadvantage for he MOV upon promotion. And Mist does have Forge access. Given that Forges do give Steelies, and Mist gets a D in Swords, a Steel Sword can be forged for her to get her Sword rank up as quickly as possible so that she can use the Sonic Sword and (later) the Runesword. And given that she has higher Spd, and that the Knight Band can boost her Offense and durability even by the tiniest bit, I would say that she's better at defending herself than Rhys is. I'll grant you that there's not much worth investing in having either as a fighter, but it's something I thought I'd point out.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Mist takes effort, but ive learned that Rhys does too. Like, a lot. His speed is total ass and hes made of paper and has difficulty keeping up with the team on actual maps. Mist's promotion makes her just so much better, and if you want to spend the resources, she can wreck mages and things. But Mist has this one other thing: Being able to help out in the BK fight. A trained Mist ups your chances of winning it by quite a bit tbh.

[Quintessence]

Agreed that Mist is by far a better option than Rhys. Sonic Sword and Runesword Mist is much better than Rhys. Mist builds her staff rank super fast with chapters 9, 10 and onward. She'll be able to use Physic by Ch 17. Upon promotion she can use Steel Swords or forges, or even use an Arms Scroll to fasten the process. In the end, her only flaw is her terrible skill.

Meanwhile Rhys suffers AS penalty due to awful Str growth, heavy Light tomes and low Spd base. I mean, I promoted him by desert chapter and had to give him both a speedwing and an energy drop and he has 4 Str and 15 Spd, not being able to double much stuff, while Mist automatically has average to decent dmg and high sp. Also BK fight.

[Samias]

Yeah, light magic sucks a lot in this game and other than mag/res/luk, Rhys just doesn't scale well into the game. He's useful early and their growths are very samey when strength is taken out of the picture, but Mist is more flexible keeping up with cavalry. She might lose a panel or two of physic range but her horse makes up for it and allows her to use heal/mend/recover more often since she keeps up with the paladins. She also starts with a higher speed base and at a lower level than Rhys so she gets the chance to outpace him all game in that respect. I prefer using Mist + Soren/Ilyana/Tormod and maybe Elincia in the lategame instead of using Rhys for anything. Staff rank is easier to come by than other weapons too.

[Radiant Dragon]

I'm also of the mindset that even if it doesn't kill, eating a critical is bad unless the attacker was dealing next to no damage to begin with

Being 10HKO'd isn't 'next to no damage' enough for you? I know you have an unreasonable disliking of units with low luck, and I get that. I'm not saying that you have to like Stefan. Objectively, however, he's still an excellent infantry unit regardless of his low luck.

[Augestein]

That's not entirely true. Mist can make up for the Physic staff range disadvantage for he MOV upon promotion. And Mist does have Forge access. Given that Forges do give Steelies, and Mist gets a D in Swords, a Steel Sword can be forged for her to get her Sword rank up as quickly as possible so that she can use the Sonic Sword and (later) the Runesword. And given that she has higher Spd, and that the Knight Band can boost her Offense and durability even by the tiniest bit, I would say that she's better at defending herself than Rhys is. I'll grant you that there's not much worth investing in having either as a fighter, but it's something I thought I'd point out.

The issue here is that Forge still doesn't help. Mist's strength is just that bad. Mist promotes and usually has about 9 strength. To put into perspective of how bad that is, someone like Rolf has 9 strength at level 13, and he's not considered to be a good unit. Volke, a unit that you also use for utility starts out with 12 strength. Even being stuck with knives, he still can inflict more damage than Mist. Especially because he doesn't get weighed down by any of his weapons. Rhys gets weighed down by his Light tome, but at least you can eliminate the problem with 1 energy booster generally. 2 Might versus 8 isn't so bad when you realize that: Rhys has a lot more magic than Mist has strength, and if Mist uses a Steeal Sword she loses 3 AS which puts her only 1-2 points higher than him. If Rhys can avoid being doubled, he's doing more damage than her.

Mist will still be weighed down if she got one. Granted it's only 1 point, but it's still pretty lousy. For Rhys versus Mist, it's really if you consider a mount more useful or more magic. If you don't steal physic staves or buy them, Mist is definitely the better option IMO. But really, even with better range, I don't think it matters too much, because canto is still nice to have. That said, I can't say for certain which one is better because it boils down to preference here. I will say that I've used magical sword Mist before, and it's really not too impressive. It's not much better than a standard mage except she has more of a hassle to get there.