Which Game Did Magic Best/Worst in Gameplay?

[Interdimensional Observer]

From a gameplay perspective, which game(s) had Magic at its strongest and or at its most useful? And in which game was magic the least useful/powerful?

Feel free to also discuss which game(s) had Magic at its most balanced/executed it the best.

 

My take:

Gaiden/SoV makes magic the most necessary and useful of any game, due in part to ignoring the massive terrain bonuses, but the range and power of magic contribute as well. Excalibur and Seraphim delete foes with ease, and everything else has some use. The HP costs are generally bearable, and rings and healers mitigate this issue outside of instances where you need to use a strong spell whilst taking a strong counterblow, which should be rare.

The silver for magic potency goes to Awakening mostly because Robin, but also because of brokenly good Nostanking and tomes, unlike Javelins or Hand Axes, having 1-2 range and high power.

Radiant Dawn on the other hand neuters the usefulness of magic almost completely and I give it last place. I did some analysis a while ago and wrote this little explanation as to why magic is so awful in RD:

Spoiler

FE10 conspires against mages- making resistance too high, and tomes too weak. Enemies on average have 4-7 less res than def, unless a general, wyvern, tiger, or red dragon, then it is larger. An Elfire tome, the most powerful easily buyable tome, has 7 might, and effective Elthunder, only 15. A buyable Steel Greatlance has 14 might- totally mitigating the def-res gap of most units, the poleaxe and blade equivalents have 15 and 13 respectively. A Wyrmslayer has 33 effective might- more than double Elthunder’s might and it mitigates the def-res gap there too; a Hammer probably does the same vs. armors. With all this said, why bother fielding mages? They are slow and fragile, with 1-2 range that is useless due to their fragility denying them a heavy enemy phase. The only reprieve magic users get is that steel power weapons don’t appear in Part 1, and for Micaiah specifically Thani holds up well vs. regular steels and the late-to-appear iron powers.

PoR wasn't much better, though it was somewhat at least. Tomes were weak, and the halving of the effective weapon bonus added to this problem.

Fates has some fairly strong tomes, with Lightning and Horse Spirit as standouts. While the nerfing of Nostanking kept things in check. The major problem with Fates is that the natural mages are generally lacking in some key regard. Even Leo though the best of them all, isn't broken in any way. And Corrin doesn't start with tomes either, unlike Robin. We also have ninjas being magically resilient, fast and able to counter. Lastly, putting magic in the weapon triangle weakened magic a little vs. knights and cavs, things they traditionally roasted without worry, now they have a little fear of not hitting them.

The GBA games were fairly balanced-ish. The only issue being dodgetanking could get a little out of hand and let you destroy everything a little too easily with mages. The GBA games only really favored anima users though. Light and Dark magic users were generally less dodgy and suffered from having worse tomes.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Interdimensional Observer

[Moblin Major General]

Games I've played: Outclassed in Fates, busted in Awakening, dominated Echoes, okay in GBA, slightly better than GBA in SD and NM, PoR slightly worse than GBA, and FE4 is dependent both on what type it is and whether the unit using magic gets a mount or not.

[Slumber]

Good in FE1/3

Very good in FE2

Situational(IE "horse?") in FE4

Very good in FE5

Alright in FE6

Good in FE7

Mediocre outside of Bishops in FE8

Mediocre in FE9-10

Mostly alright in Awakening, aside from Dark Magic which is flatout the most broken thing in the game

Good in Fates

I'd say magic is at its overall best in FE2 and FE5. But its absolute peak is Dark Magic in Awakening.

Edited June 9, 2017 by Slumber

[Topaz Light]

I think magic is certainly at its most interesting in Gaiden/Echoes, wherein it's also very strong and worth using.

As for which games it's bad in, I couldn't really say for certain since I haven't played every Fire Emblem game in-depth, but I remember it being kinda underwhelming in Path of Radiance, and, as mentioned before, while magic itself isn't terrible, the majority of your innate magic users in Fates are pretty meh.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

I think Gaiden/Echoes did it both the best and worst with how they decided to work it. Best because it's pretty strong and balanced in a way that doesn't feel overpowered or under powered. Worst because we get the emphasis on terrain map design in Gaiden/Echoes in general that give Magic an extra appeal to use. 

Fates is weird because the best Mages are people like Elise and Sakura who start off as healers, whereas people who start off as Mages like Odin and Orochi aren't great (Ophelia and Rhajat vary depending on Mother).

Awakening is stupidly over-powered. 

GBA:

FE 7: Pretty good, they do what they are expected to due

FE 8: Lute and Bishops; if can get access to Bishop... their is no reason not to promote to that class.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

• FE4: For casual players relevant since magic triangle took a buff.
• FE5: Fantastic for boss and other shenigans like daimthunder + ambush.
• FE6: Pretty good since physical weapons except for swords took accuracy nerf.
• FE9: Weapon weight screws some units like Soren or Ilyana who uses the heaviest magic type. Later on they're alright but even magic weapons can replace anima tomes. Had a Mia with maxed magic who did the same damage with rune sword as Soren with tornado.
• FE10: Magic users were made as slow as armor knights. Also magic triangle is irrelevant for the most part since enemy magic users and healers have good resistance. Bolting basically doesn't exist. However as opponent they're still scary for some physical tanks like Ike or Haar.
• FE13: only dark magic is useful
• FE15: So OP that it almost must be busted. Seriously it's the best weapon type in the game because of the stupid terrain boost and being able to attack from 3-4 range with the magic ring.
  
   

Edited June 10, 2017 by アリサ ラインフォルト

[Magical Glace]

2 hours ago, アリサ ラインフォルト said:

• FE14: So OP that it almost must be busted. Seriously it's the best weapon type in the game because of the stupid terrain boost and being able to attack from 3-4 range with the magic ring.

Do you mean Echoes here?  Since that doesn't seem accurate to what I've seen of magic when playing Conquest.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, アリサ ラインフォルト said:

• FE4: For casual players relevant since magic triangle took a buff.
• FE5: Fantastic for boss and other shenigans like daimthunder + ambush.
• FE6: Pretty good since physical weapons except for swords took accuracy nerf.
• FE9: Weapon weight screws some units like Soren or Ilyana who uses the heaviest magic type. Later on they're alright but even magic weapons can replace anima tomes. Had a Mia with maxed magic who did the same damage with rune sword as Soren with tornado.
• FE10: Magic users were made as slow as armor knights. Also magic triangle is irrelevant for the most part since enemy magic users and healers have good resistance. Bolting basically doesn't exist. However as opponent they're still scary for some physical tanks like Ike or Haar.
• FE13: only dark magic is useful
• FE14: So OP that it almost must be busted. Seriously it's the best weapon type in the game because of the stupid terrain boost and being able to attack from 3-4 range with the magic ring.

FE4: You do realize that the magic triangle was introduced in that game (as was the weapon triangle), and it was broken (due to weapon weight being the only stat that was different between the magic types)?

FE9: I'm rather hesitant to buy your statement about magic weapons... Most melee units tend to not have good magic growths.

Awakening: Outside of Nosferatu and Aversa's Night, the only dark tome of note was Mire.

I assume you meant Echoes for that last one...

Anyway, my thoughts on magic will come later, when I've given it some real thought.

Edited June 10, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

16 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

FE4: You do realize that the magic triangle was introduced in that game (as was the weapon triangle), and it was broken (due to weapon weight being the only stat that was different between the magic types)?
That's what I tried to say except for all the players who only use mounted units. It's also the only game where the anima magic triangle is really relevant.

FE9: I'm rather hesitant to buy your statement about magic weapons... Most melee units tend to not have good magic growths.
It was a special example that shows how weak magic in this game is. I'd say it's even worse than in FE10 since effective damage is tripled.
It's obvious that most units can't handle magic weapons well aside of base Tanith.

Awakening: Outside of Nosferatu and Aversa's Night, the only dark tome of note was Mire.
Meant specailly HP-absorbing tomes.

I assume you meant Echoes for that last one...
I almost forgot that's the 15th part already.

[NinjaMonkey]

Worst: Path of Radiance - The magic weapons are virtually useless because most units that can use them have poor Magic growths (with the exception of Mist), and tomes suck against the Laguz units they are strong against due to PoR's effective damage being 2x damage, instead of 3x. Also, Mages in PoR have garbage Strength growths, so they lose AS from pretty much every tome.

Best: Awakening - Magic is so overpowered that physical units cannot even begin to compare in terms of damage output.

Edited June 11, 2017 by NinjaMonkey

[Shadow Mir]

13 hours ago, アリサ ラインフォルト said:

13 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

FE4: You do realize that the magic triangle was introduced in that game (as was the weapon triangle), and it was broken (due to weapon weight being the only stat that was different between the magic types)?
That's what I tried to say except for all the players who only use mounted units. It's also the only game where the anima magic triangle is really relevant.

FE9: I'm rather hesitant to buy your statement about magic weapons... Most melee units tend to not have good magic growths.
It was a special example that shows how weak magic in this game is. I'd say it's even worse than in FE10 since effective damage is tripled.
It's obvious that most units can't handle magic weapons well aside of base Tanith.

That'd be true on paper, but in actual practice, the lack of balance between the magic types rears its ugly head - fire magic is heavy to the point where the avoid penalty negates the -20 hit that the wind user would suffer.

Still, I wouldn't expect to get much mileage out of a weapon that runs off a stat most units that aren't mages would likely have a rather low score in... Even Tanith doesn't exactly light the world on fire with magic weapons.