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Rate the Unit, Day 92: Brave Ephraim & Brave Veronica


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Haven't used Karel before.

Ninian: A dragon and a dancer! Two unit types that tend to make units great on their own. Ninian is both, but can she also deliver a dragons high attack and durability combined with dancer utility? Unfortunately the answer is not a resounding yes. Ninian makes for a great and very durable dancer, but her statline does not make her a terror like Nowi. She needs an attack boon and dragon buffs to do more than take out stragglers. Still, her dancing utitlity is still extremely valuable for those and mixed teams. Her durability offers very interesting potential for support skills that other dancers couldn't handle. For instance, my own Ninian has an HP boon and is great at running Infantry pulse, especially with TT buffs. Even if her draconic side is lacking, her uniquess as a dancer sets her apart: 7.5 

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Karel: Sword Demon
+ High HP, which is good for melee fights as well as proccing Infantry Pulse and Panic Ploy
+ Has Nameless Blade, a prf weapon that, if given the effect refinement, combines the effects of Wo Dao and Slaying Edge.
- Ayra, Mia, and Karla outclass him offensively.
- Is 5*-exclusive, meaning the player cannot expect to obtain merges of him easily and often has no choice in Karel's IVs. Fir can give him a run for his money due to her being a Nameless Blade user and having much better availability (Fir is a 3-4* launch-day unit, meaning many veteran players would have gotten at least 1 copy of her; heck, she was even given away as a quest reward one time).

5/10

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny
+ High HP for a dancer, which is good for survival, Panic Ploy use, and Infantry Pulse use.
+ Dance skill. If she doesn't have this skill equipped outside of training her, why use her?
+ Decent Spd for avoiding doubles.
+ Has Fortify Dragons by default, allowing her to fit into dragon teams.
+ Dragon unit; with a refined breath weapon, she can deal adaptive damage
- Low Atk and Def and mediocre at best Res.
- 5*-exclusive, meaning merging is difficult and player has little choice in IVs (a common flaw for every dancer in the game except Olivia: Blushing Beauty).
- Dragon units are generally enemy phase, meaning they usually don't need a dancer to do their job.

7.5/10

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I honest to God did not expect Reinhardt to best Hector with how the meta has shifted, but I guess bro has really made that much of an impression. Anyway, don't actually have either of today's units so I'll abstain.

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1 hour ago, bottlegnomes said:

I honest to God did not expect Reinhardt to best Hector with how the meta has shifted, but I guess bro has really made that much of an impression. Anyway, don't actually have either of today's units so I'll abstain.

There are a lot of factors that affect scoring and pretty much mean that anything past the decimal point is meaningless (i.e. that there is too much fuzziness to actually distinguish who is actually the higher of the two if two characters are within 1 or 2 points of each other):

  • A lot of voters score based on gut feel.
  • Voters have different scales, and there are few enough voters that a single voter abstaining can create a noticeable shift in the average.
  • There are no guidelines on how much different factors are worth, and, again, a single voter abstaining can shift the average noticeably.
  • Anyone using actual match-up numbers isn't using a representative set of enemy builds.

It's like trying to measure the height of everyone in a room, but you have 10 meter sticks that are slightly different from each other, you don't know which one (if any) is actually accurate, all of them stretch, some of them have no markings on them, and every now and then a meter stick abstains from measuring.

And then trying to order everyone by height from just the resulting average measurements alone without actually looking at the people.

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Karel

  • Stat spread with high HP, good Spd, alright Atk, and low Def and Res
    • Nameless Blade (Accelerates Special trigger), with the effect refinement (+10 damage when special activates) is an incredibly potent offensive tool. It makes him easily one of the best users of Moonbow/Wrath.
    • Overwhelmingly strong green, strong red matchups on offense with a Moonbow/Wrath/Atk-stack set. Life and Death grants him his most consistent performance, though he can work with a Brazen as well. Matchups were run with Karel at 1 HP. Very bulky reds like Zelgius and Tiki (Naga's Voice) can give him trouble.
    • Low defenses make his defensive matchups unsustainable at best. He can use Distant Counter in his A passive slot to set up the Moonbow/Wrath combo, or just take a hit from melee foes.
  • He has the HP to provide Panic Ploy support for his allies.

Overall, I give him 9 for combat (overwhelmingly strong green, strong red matchups on offense), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, Panic Ploy capability), for a total rating of 8.5/10.

Looking through the ratings Karel has been given so far, I feel a little obligated to provide a quick graphic to support my claims:

Spoiler

Col A is enemy defense. Col E is the assumed Karel set, with his unbuffed, +0 Atk value in Col F. Col B and C are the damage values he gets from attacking red and green foes with his Moonbow/Wrath combo set up, respectively.

YtHSd2u.png

That's enough punch to OHKO 3x-Ward Stacked Hector (either one, take your pick) and Chrom (Gifted Leader), albeit with non-refined weapons (I don't really see many people replacing either Armads though) and neutral Def & HP.

Ninian

  • Somewhat balanced stat line featuring decent Spd, passable Res, and low Atk and Def.
    • She's best off with a TA set, allowing her to act as a red check. In terms of generalist sets, she can hold her own with a Lightning Breath+/Steady Breath set with Fortify Dragons active (decent red, poor blue). She does, however, take a lot of damage.
  • Capable of providing Dance support for her allies. As a dragon unit, she can also provide a Dragon field/combat buff. Her HP is high enough to Panic Ploy her foes reasonably far.

Overall, I give her 4.5 for combat (decent red, poor blue matchups with a generalist defensive set), and 3 for support (Dance, dragon field/combat buff, Panic Ploy capability), and +1 bonus point for being a Dancer, for a total rating of 6/10.

...I was afraid that was going to happen.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

  • Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
    • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
    • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
  • Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
  • At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.

This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.

Edited by LordFrigid
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Skipping Karel, no experience with him

Ninian

The only dragon dancer in the game. Poor Atk stat of 24 gives her awful killing potential, but rather than focus on that, she does have great survivability with decent defense, good Res and Spd and the largest HP pool of any dancer and access to water breath for even more bulk, and thus gets a base rating of 6 due to that niche. Dancer bonus gives 1.5 for infantry dancers for a final rating of 7.5

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Karel is why i wonder people hype Regnal Astra so much and not Ayras spread

 

Like Karel's Glimmer/Moonbow is pretty much identical to Regnal Astra. After he get Nameless Blade he is genuinely a top tier unit imo

 

8.5/10. Refined Nameless Karel is one of the top Sword in the entire game being basically Ayra in terms of one punch damage, turning Bow and Glimmer into Regnal Astra which give him fantastic combat, and he can offer support with his HP stats. I would probably argue hes better than Mia based on that alone. Being top 3/5 in an entire class of a very strong pool easilly puts him at near the top

Edited by JSND Alter Dragon Boner
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Karel has the flexibility to run different builds. I run mine with a 69 HP Vengeance built that is devestating the lower his HP gets. He can just wait his turn at low HP and deal 50+ special damage... its insane

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Abstain from Karel, no experience with him.

Ninian: Ninian is, I think, possibly the best infantry dancer in the game. She's a dragon, she dances, and she's bulky enough to survive most hits from red units and a good chunk of blue ones! She really only has two downfalls, the first being her relatively low attack. I feel like, as a dragon, even a dancing one, it should be higher. The other is her weakness to Falchion and Naga. The Falchion weakness isn't as prominent as all Falchion users are red, but Naga? Hoo boy. Regardless, she's a fantastic unit and worth investing in! 9/10

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Karel: 6.28
Ninian: 7.69

Let's go to Colorless Hell!

Lucius, The Light

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
34/37/41
29/32/35
26/30/33
10/13/17
32/35/38

Base Skills:

Pain+
Martyr+
Miracle

HP+
( - )
( - )

Rebecca, Wildflower

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
34/37/41
25/29/32
31/34/37
18/21/24
23/27/30

Base Skills:

Silver Bow+
Ardent Sacrifice
( - )

Darting Blow
Seal Atk
( - )

 

Edited by The Priest
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Lucius - He and Serra are pretty much the only infantry healers I can take seriously with a good attack stat. A little awkward then that he's equipped with Pain whom so many other healers would settle for. Lucius is also tying for second highest Res value in the game giving him good ploy support. The manakete buff really hurt his potential to tank since most mages worth your time are fast enough to double Lucius' 30 base speed. Still, Lucius is considerable steps above many other healers. 4.5 out of 10.

Rebecca - With some investment you can make her work...is the kind of diplomatic sentiment I'd share in regards to FE7. Summer Gaius, and Innes are a more min maxed version of her. Gaius being even faster while Innes having superior attack and Def ploy utility to ramp up his damage. And several more unnoteworthy archers have better offensive spreads. She doesn't even have the state-mandated 31 attack for a brave build. 2.5 out of 10. Only Niles is worse in my opinion.

Past Ratings

Spoiler
  1. Alfonse - 3
  2. Marth - 7
  3. Sharena - 3
  4. Jagen - 1
  5. Anna - 4.5
  6. Barst - 3
  7. Cain - 4
  8. Draug - 7.5
  9. Gordin - 5
  10. Jeorge - 5.5
  11. Abel - 5.5
  12. Linde - 9
  13. Minerva - Abstain
  14. Merric - 3.5
  15. Maria - 6
  16. Wrys - 3.5
  17. Ceada - Abstain
  18. Ogma - 4
  19. Catria - 4
  20. Est - 6
  21. Sheena - 6.5
  22. Cecilia - 4
  23. Clarine - 6.5
  24. Matthew - 4
  25. Palla - 2.5
  26. Roy -7
  27. Gwendolyn - 7.5
  28. Shanna - 4.5
  29. Bartre - 7
  30. Fae - 7.5
  31. Serra - 4
  32. Lissa - 2
  33. Y!Tiki - 8
  34. Lilina - 7
  35. Florina - 1.5
  36. M!Robin - 3.5
  37. Hector - 8
  38. Raven - 8.5
  39. Gaius - 4 
  40. Virion - 3.5
  41. Raigh - 1.5
  42. Sophia - 3.5
  43. Sully -2.5
  44. Cordelia -7
  45. Hawkeye - 5.5
  46. Nino - 8
  47. Felicia - 6.5
  48. Jakob - 1
  49. Fir - 4
  50. Eliwood - 5.5
  51. Donnel - 3.5
  52. Nowi - 8.5
  53. Frederick - 6.5
  54. Cherche - 7.5
  55. Saizo - 4
  56. Kagero - 4.5
  57. Lyn - 7
  58. Chrom - 5
  59. F!Corrin - 7
  60. Azura - 6.5
  61. Gunter - 3
  62. Camilla - 5.5
  63. Azama - 6.5
  64. Setsuna - 3.5
  65. Stahl - 2.5
  66. Lonqu - 3
  67. Hinoka - 7.5
  68. Oboro - 2.5
  69. Beruka - 6
  70. Arthur - 2
  71. Takumi - 5.5
  72. Sakura - 3
  73. Olivia - 7
  74. Henry - 2
  75. Subaki - 4.5
  76. Peri - 6.5
  77. Niles - 1.5
  78. Elise - 7.5
  79. Tharja - 5
  80. A!Tiki - 8
  81. Odin - 1 
  82. Effie - 7.5
  83. Lucina - 7
  84. M!Corrin - 6
  85. Ryoma - 5.5
  86. Hinata - 4.5
  87. Hana - 5.5
  88. Laslow - 3
  89. Selena - 2
  90. Leo - 2
  91. Eirika - 5
  92. Seliph - 5.5
  93. Ephraim - 7
  94. Julia - 6
  95. Eldigan - Abstain
  96. Sanaki - 6.5
  97. Reinhardt - 8
  98. Olwen - 5.5
  99. Lachesis - 3
  100. Klein - 4
  101. Karel - 6.5
  102. Ninian - 7
  103. Lucius - 4.5
  104. Rebecca - 2.5

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3.5, Cecilia would be a 3.5. Linde would be 7. And I'd drop Matthew and Saizo to 3.5. Beruka would be a 7. Caeda I'd rate a 5.5 now that I've been using her at 5 star. And Leo I'd bump up to a 3.

 

Edited by Glennstavos
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Lucius. He sports a good Hp, Atk (for a healer), Spd and Res while dumping his Def completely. His good Spd allows him to avoid a good amount of doubles and thanks to his high Res he won't take much damage from mages if he ends up in their range. He's in the top 3 of infantry healers alongside Bride Lyn and Genny meaning that he's going to be great when built properly. Thanks to having an actual Atk stat he can run other staves instead of Pain+ making him more versatile. All in all Lucius is a very good healer and can work as a colorless mage if required, just keep him away from melee units because his Def is pathetic.

Rating: 7/10

Rebecca. Her stats have a semi focus on Spd and Res (sorta). With a +Atk nature she's able to emulate the likes of the archer trio of Klein/Jeorge/Takumi in terms of generic builds or she can take the +Spd route to become a quadding archer like Setsuna. Thanks to being an archer she'll do a decent job but at the same time suffers a lot from the general increase in bulk that the weapon refinery provided. The lack of a Prf weapon also hurts her as she's forced to run generic builds. I'll keep it short, she's totally outclassed by the archer trio thanks to their higher Atk and even worse she'll never be close to Bride Cordelia who sports higher Atk and Spd. Use her if she's one of your favorites but she's not in a good spot, maybe if she gets Rienfleche one day she'll improve? We'll see.

Rating: 3/10

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Lucius

Spoiler

One of the healers who could be used decently well out of the box. At least now...

A decently good Attack stat, decent Speed, really good Resistance at 35 that a little support can render most magic, even coming from Ravenadepts, trivial, and enough HP to get through the day, but not necessarily enough to run Panic Ploy. Infantry Pulse is a little more possible on him, but only for supporting glass cannons who can afford to run a -HP nature and still somehow have less than 37 Spd if their weapon has a refine that adds HP.

Before the upgrades to staves, Lucius wasn't that great. Pain was just an average weapon that did good chip damage and little else, since it was weak, and Martyr was possibly the worst healing assist that could have been used at the time. Miracle could help in taking damage, but Lucius wasn't exactly fast enough to charge a 6 cooldown special, if running Martyr, so good thing he had Imbue. And HP +5 was just kinda bad.

Now though, Lucius has one of the better kits to have by default, though not the best. Pain+ is an amazing Chip damage weapon only rivaled by Deathly Dagger, and enables the safe weakening of enemy units who, even if they run Vantage, can't charge their Special. Given Wrathful Staff, Lucius becomes a pretty powerful direct attacker himself. His Speed can also be built up a little, so he can double and get all that more damage in on some slower targets. Martyr+ now does healing based on half the users Atk, so it's the same as all other healing assist+'s in that way, but now without that dumb Special Charge penalty and still being able to heal himself if he needs to, negating any need for Live to Serve (sorry, new sacred seal). He can also now safely charge Miracle and speed stack to get 2 charges per attack, and with the right support can have it ready by the time combat is expected to start. HP +5 now extra sucks.

You can give him any of the offensive staves, and with only a Refining Stone refine can be combat ready in no time, or just keep Pain+ and save the staff for someone less fortunate. Keeping with Pain+ gives you a good reason to get that Savage Blow SS to level 3, and with the Savage Blow C passive that's 24 damage to surrounding enemies. In most cases, that's over half a units HP. Combined with the Dazzling Refine and Lucius's pretty good default Attack, he can also get safe damage in on the target +10 after combat damage, even more if you opt to give him Wrathful Staff as well.

Now to bring us back to reality, because Lucius still suffers from healer problems. Namely, lack of offensive specials, lack of any good A passives, forced use of certain B passives, and also he has a potential 10 Defense, forgot to mention that because IT DOESN'T EXIST. Most melee hits WILL kill him, and most Dragons WILL kill him, meaning he needs to run a Dazzling Staff B passive or refine to safely initiate. One other problem is lack of a horse, meaning he gets compared easily to the healers who DO have one. This also means he can't get as powerful Field Buffs as those Horse Healers, not without a Tactics team, and he himself has to give up a Savage Blow slot if he wants to do that as well, meaning weaker AoE damage.

I don't consider those reason enough not to use Lucius though. He is one of the more gifted healers, and the right support WILL go a long ways.

Rating: 7.5/10 Lucius has the right build to run a powerful offensive nuke build, at the cost of not being able to take melee hits or Dragons... at all. But given the right skills, he won't need to care.

 

Rebecca

Spoiler

Rebecca is an example of a below-average Archer, in a bit of a limbo where she's got good enough stats to use, but without them being good enough to consider using over any other archer.

Exhibit one, her Attack is only barely better than neutral Attack Setsuna, which matters little because Exhibit two, her Speed is only average. In most cases, boosting her Speed is the right move, and she only has as much booned Speed as neutral Setsuna. Exhibit three is where all that potential power went: her defenses. Bad Defense, average HP, and below-average Resistance all do nothing to enable any defensive play, all which could have gone towards being a more offensive Archer.

Exhibit four, her base kit is underwhelming. Silver Bow is just an average weapon nowadays, having no more than raw power to its name. Darting Blow tries to fix the issue of Rebecca's average Speed, but does little for her Attack. And Seal Attack would be nice to fix her bad defenses, if she could enable such a skill in trying times as these, where EVERYONE wants to counterattack regardless of distance. Ardent Sacrifice doesn't do many favors either.

Still, she can be usable. Firesweep Bow is the easy route, which enables Rebecca to safely initiate combat. She can become pretty speedy with a Speed refined Slaying Bow, and is able to trigger Moonbow on Desperation enabled hits... and that's about it for bows. Unfortunately, there really just aren't that many bows out there that she can use well. If she could use the Brave Bow that'd be one thing, but she barely can. If there ever exists a Special Damage +10 bow, you could go for that to fix her shoddy Attack, but there isn't...

And she still has to be compared to other, better archers. Her defenses do not let her run with a Guard Bow like Faye or LA!Roy can, her offenses are overall weaker than a number of other bows, notably Setsuna. Ultimately, anything good that can be said about Rebecca can be said better to other bow users.

If all you need is another offensive bow, she's an extra option more than anything. Others are more able built than her though, so think of her last before all else.

Rating: 4.5 I'm being fair when I say that Rebecca is the below-average standard of an offensive bow, and she still doesn't quite perform. That's not saying she can't be used, because she can still be pretty fast, but others are more specialized than her.

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I'll have to abstain from Lucius, I don't have much experience with him.

Rebecca: Another character I personally think is much better than people give her credit for. She has fantastic speed and good resistance, and average health and defense for an infantry archer. The only worrisome stat is her low attack, but that can be patched up relatively easily with all the skills that have been brought into the game, and her attack still isn't even the lowest of the archers. Setsuna, anyone? Rebecca is a decent option for an infantry bow unit, not as good as someone like Innes or Leon (both of whom I think are maybe 8/10s) but certainly better than the likes of Niles, Virion, or Setsuna. 7/10

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Lucius

  • Magically bulky stat line featuring good Res, decent Atk, alright Spd, and very poor Def.
    • He can be built to have decent matchups against low Spd and Res foes, but requires Atk/Spd Bond or Atk/Spd Push to do so. He cannot be counterattacked.
    • He can take a mage shot or two if needed.
  • He can provide heal, status staff, ploy, and basic field/combat buff support to his allies.

Overall, I give him 4.5 for combat (decent performance against low Spd and Res foes, cannot be counterattacked on the player phase), and 3 for support (healing, status staff, ploys, basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 5/10.

Rebecca

  • Stat line with good Spd, passable Res, mediocre Atk, and low Def.
    • Poor matchups on the player phase due to her mediocre Atk. She can use a Brave or Firesweep set, the former of which will perform well enough against low-Def foes, while the latter prevents foes from counterattacking.
    • She can run a Guard Bow set on defense to act as a 2-range check, but she will have some trouble with bows due to low Def.
  • She has limited stat ploy capability with a passable Res stat.

Overall, I give her 5 for combat (decent, but not great capability with a Brave or Firesweep set on offense), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, limited stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 5/10.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

  • Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
    • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
    • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
  • Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
  • At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.

This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.

Edited by LordFrigid
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Missed out on rating Raven and Merric, but I can at least help out Lucius. I'll have to abstain from Rebecca. She pitybroke me so many times back in the day that, I never got around to actually using her. Still a little bitter. If I can find the time to run some calcs later and research some builds, I'll edit in a rating. 

Lucius - He could have been a mage... As far as healers go, he has a great ATK stat, falling just short of Genny, but unlike Genny, he has a somewhat salvagable SPD stat giving him the potential to possibly double things depending on the build you want for him. He comes with Pain, one of the more annoying weapons to deal with. Even without access to Wrathful Staff, he can run an annoying Dazzling Pain+double Savage Blow build to chip away at an entire area's worth of enemies. With his adequate ATK stat+Wrathful Staff, he can do some pretty substatial damage as well. This sort of "magic firesweep" damage is pretty invaluable when faced with DC armors, dragons, units with Vantage, etc. Though more expensive, he also has access to weapons like Gravity and Candlelight (though limited) which can further support his enemies in battle. With great RES, he can also use his C or S slot to ploy enemies. Another benefit of having a great ATK stat is that it improves his healing potential as well. He can play many different roles in a battle (healer, chipper, colorless mage, debuffer, etc.) but he's also very limited in what he can do. He has limited access to valuable A slot skills. The best skills like Brazen ATK/SPD, ATK/SPD Bond, ATK/SPD+2 etc are all very RARE or limited. Further more, he doesn't have an offensive special. Unlike Priscilla, Elise, and Nanna, he doesn't have access to the extra movement (very valuable for a healer) or cavalry buffs. I'm going to give him a 7.5/10. Healers in general are valuable for their flexibility especially since Dazzling+Wrathful Staff is possible, and Lucius has a fairly good offensive stat spread. The debuffs he can provide whether through his staff or ploys are very valuable. But with limited access to buffs and other skills, he can't really reach his full potential as a "mage" and most teams would probably prefer to run an actual mage in place of a healer.

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Aw HELL YEAH~!

Lucius - A ton of Atk, on top of a Pain/Martyr set?!  Excellent!  Take Lachesis, give her a proper niche, turn her into a dude, and you get Lucius.  At 35 Res, he makes excellent mage bait.  His 30 speed is middling, but he's not being doubled by every last unit a la Lachesis.  He absolutely does not want to take a physical hit.  He makes excellent use of the Dazzling/Wrathful combo.  He'll most likely only hit once, but it'll hurt.  7/10 (yes that's the same rating as Elise, but I shoved some bias in there)

Rebecca - And on the other end of the spectrum, we have her.  29/34 is Niles with more attack and less mage focus.  The only advantage she can leverage is fliers, but that's not saying much.  She can attempt to do things with Darting Blow/Desperation, but her damage output will be on the lower side unless she's +Atk (and then it becomes mediocre).  She's somewhat of a threat on her phase, but she gets walled hard by any unit with a competent defense stat.  +Res can think about being mage bait with a Guard Bow (even if +Atk Niles will tank better).  She'll chip decently enough, but why do that when a Brave Bow archer can kill?  3.5/10

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Lucius: 6.42
Rebecca: 4.25

Rebecca should have been in range of Niles but eh. If I listed my gripes with the scores so far I would be here forever.

Priscilla, Delicate Princess

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
33/36/40
25/29/32
25/29/32
16/19/22
29/32/35

Base Skills:

Panic+
Rehabilitate+
Still-Water Balm

( - )
( - )
Spur Def

Jaffar, Angel of Death

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
38/41/44
23/26/30
30/33/36
22/25/29
19/22/25

Base Skills:

Deathly Dagger ( After combat, if unit attacked, inflicts Def/Res-7 on foe through its next action. If unit initiates combat, deals 7 damage to foe after combat. )
( - )
Glimmer

Life and Death
( - )
Threaten Spd

 

Edited by The Priest
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Priscilla. She's the most balanced of all the troubadours in the game with average Hp/Atk/Spd, high Res and low Def. Her Atk is passable which lets her use other staves rather than Pain+ and her mobility makes her a decent user of Gravity+ as long as she has a teammate to get her out of danger after she uses it. Her relatively low Spd will put her in danger if she stays in the enemy range for whatever reason. Her balanced spread gives the Jack of all Trades problem that many release units suffer from, they can work well but are totally outclassed by more specialized units (in this case, Elise). Still, Priscilla will do a good job as a support unit and relatively above average in terms of offensive support. 

Rating: 6.5/10

Jaffar. His stat spread focuses on Spd and Hp being mediocre everywhere else. He is an interesting one, his stats are bad (even his Spd which is one of his highest stats is just mediocre nowadays) which means he won't be a damage dealer. The weapon refinery tried to give him an anti-mage niche but even then he has trouble killing speedy mages because he won't double them ever. Jaffar is one of the best units for the Rivals Domain and Grand Conquest modes where he is able to do huge amounts of splash damage with his Prf weapon Deathly Dagger combined with Savage Blow which will weaken the opposing force in a second. Sadly this ability doesn't translate well in arena where killing the opponent fast is more important than debuffing and debilitating the enemy. For this reason Jaffar is a bad unit for arena but he's quite good in other modes where his niche is more useful.

Rating: 2/10

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Priscilla - Probably the worst of the cavalry healers. But being a cavalry healer is better than infantry since your mixed emblem team shouldn't spend an infantry slot on that sort of class. Be mindful of dumping her attack stat as that will take her down an entire BST tier and that's unacceptable for such a low scoring unit. Priscilla is a less min maxed elise and the lacking speed means she's unlikely to survive any type of attack at high arena tiers. Use Elise is you value an offensive spread or use Clarine or Nanna if you value surviveability. 4 out of 10.

Jaffar - take Matthew's stats, swap one point of speed for one point of attack, then balance out his defensive stats before giving him a personal weapon that was underwhelming pre and post weapon refinery. Although the personal weapon does allow for better arena scoring compared to other daggers. Jaffar can attempt to play a debuff support role with a different weapon, but his speed is behind that of Matthew, Saizo, and Gaius and that matters a great deal for windsweep procs. The attack superboon is quite enticing as well and not being counterattacked can help him whittle down a bulky mage whom nobody can engage safely. That's a niche role but it's the best he's got.  3.5 out of 10. I would give him a four if he had just one more point of speed, and higher if he could continue to get a good windsweep spread. But the other dagger units could ramp up their speed higher with weapon refinements and better bases.

Past Ratings

Spoiler
  1. Alfonse - 3
  2. Marth - 7
  3. Sharena - 3
  4. Jagen - 1
  5. Anna - 4.5
  6. Barst - 3
  7. Cain - 4
  8. Draug - 7.5
  9. Gordin - 5
  10. Jeorge - 5.5
  11. Abel - 5.5
  12. Linde - 9
  13. Minerva - Abstain
  14. Merric - 3.5
  15. Maria - 6
  16. Wrys - 3.5
  17. Ceada - Abstain
  18. Ogma - 4
  19. Catria - 4
  20. Est - 6
  21. Sheena - 6.5
  22. Cecilia - 4
  23. Clarine - 6.5
  24. Matthew - 4
  25. Palla - 2.5
  26. Roy -7
  27. Gwendolyn - 7.5
  28. Shanna - 4.5
  29. Bartre - 7
  30. Fae - 7.5
  31. Serra - 4
  32. Lissa - 2
  33. Y!Tiki - 8
  34. Lilina - 7
  35. Florina - 1.5
  36. M!Robin - 3.5
  37. Hector - 8
  38. Raven - 8.5
  39. Gaius - 4 
  40. Virion - 3.5
  41. Raigh - 1.5
  42. Sophia - 3.5
  43. Sully -2.5
  44. Cordelia -7
  45. Hawkeye - 5.5
  46. Nino - 8
  47. Felicia - 6.5
  48. Jakob - 1
  49. Fir - 4
  50. Eliwood - 5.5
  51. Donnel - 3.5
  52. Nowi - 8.5
  53. Frederick - 6.5
  54. Cherche - 7.5
  55. Saizo - 4
  56. Kagero - 4.5
  57. Lyn - 7
  58. Chrom - 5
  59. F!Corrin - 7
  60. Azura - 6.5
  61. Gunter - 3
  62. Camilla - 5.5
  63. Azama - 6.5
  64. Setsuna - 3.5
  65. Stahl - 2.5
  66. Lonqu - 3
  67. Hinoka - 7.5
  68. Oboro - 2.5
  69. Beruka - 6
  70. Arthur - 2
  71. Takumi - 5.5
  72. Sakura - 3
  73. Olivia - 7
  74. Henry - 2
  75. Subaki - 4.5
  76. Peri - 6.5
  77. Niles - 1.5
  78. Elise - 7.5
  79. Tharja - 5
  80. A!Tiki - 8
  81. Odin - 1 
  82. Effie - 7.5
  83. Lucina - 7
  84. M!Corrin - 6
  85. Ryoma - 5.5
  86. Hinata - 4.5
  87. Hana - 5.5
  88. Laslow - 3
  89. Selena - 2
  90. Leo - 2
  91. Eirika - 5
  92. Seliph - 5.5
  93. Ephraim - 7
  94. Julia - 6
  95. Eldigan - Abstain
  96. Sanaki - 6.5
  97. Reinhardt - 8
  98. Olwen - 5.5
  99. Lachesis - 3
  100. Klein - 4
  101. Karel - 6.5
  102. Ninian - 7
  103. Lucius - 4.5
  104. Rebecca - 2.5
  105. Priscilla - 4
  106. Jaffar - 3.5

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3.5, Cecilia would be a 3.5. Linde would be 7. And I'd drop Matthew and Saizo to 3.5. Beruka would be a 7. Caeda I'd rate a 5.5 now that I've been using her at 5 star. And Leo I'd bump up to a 3.

 

Edited by Glennstavos
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Priscilla

Spoiler

Priscilla is, frankly, a worse Elise. Her offensive statline is Elise if she had a bane in both Attack and Speed, and those points all went to HP. This technically makes Priscilla a more resilient Elise, being able to take slightly more magical damage before potential death, but the offensive role of healers these days doesn't really call for such. She is otherwise the exact same as Elise in Defense and Resistance, and let's get it out of the way now, dump her Defense. Boost her Attack for stronger direct hits, or boost her Speed to enable doubles against slower foes, but she doesn't need her Defense when she can actually take a few magical hits and still live. Just run Miracle if Priscilla needs to tank a physical hit.

Her base kit is also worse than Elise, especially now. Panic+ inflicts a debuff that, while good, is only good in certain scenarios, as opposed to the universal oppression granted by Gravity, Pain, or Candlelight. Rehabilitate used to be a pretty strong healing assist when healing assists still sucked, but it is now one of the worst, with most heals from it not even reaching 20 hp if the target doesn't have less than 50% hp or less. Spur Defense isn't bad per say, but it is not the rare Live to Serve that Elise sports.

As with all healers, Priscilla can't access any good A passives, has limited B passives she can reasonably run, and cannot run offensive specials. As a Troubadour, she has the benefits of larger area of reach and access to Horse Emblem buffs, fixing some of the issues that were listed earlier. In that way, Priscilla is just your average Troubadour.

Building Priscilla as you would any healer will still grant good results, however you do need to keep in mind that as an offensive healer, Priscilla is weaker and/or slower than all the popular ones. What you are signing up for with Priscilla is a weaker Elise, which isn't the worst thing she could be.

Rating: 6/10 Arguably the worst Troubadour, Priscilla still has all the advantages of one, but without the speed that Clarina and Nanna have, or the evenly balanced offensive spread of Elise.

 

Jaffar

Spoiler

Times have been kinder to Jaffar than some other units. His Attack and Speed aren't great, though his Attack can be superbooned, and his defensive stats are too low to be used to any effect, but too high for a unit of his calibur.

Coming with Life and Death fixes both of the above. Threaten Speed somewhat fixes the Speed issue, but not to any notable degree.

The reason to use Jaffar is his dagger, the Deathly Dagger. Without a forge, it only has the Poison Strike 2 effect, albeit it can trigger even if Jaffar is killed after combat, and has worse might than a forged dagger. But after forging, it becomes like any other ranged personal weapon, and also gains the effects of Poison Strike 3 and Savage Blow 4, dealing 10 damage to the target and all enemies within 2 spaces of the target, in addition to the defensive drop already on all daggers.

This makes Jaffar a crippler, lacking some of the offenses held by other daggers to directly kill the enemy, but having the weapon and access to all tools to considerably weaken the enemy for other teammates to kill in record time. The only notable advantage he has over a Pain+ staff, however, is that he can wield any B special allowed to Daggers, including Poison Strike to further cripple the target who he presumably won't be able to kill in one go.

The strongest effect given to Jaffar, however, is the ability to negate the counterattack of all Magic foes.(not staves unfortunately). This makes him into an effective answer to Mages, and gives him a solid target to initiate and surround the debuffs of the Deatly Dagger on.

Jaffar is not the best Dagger user, however. Even with a Superboon, his Attack will never be high enough to initiate reliable kills with, and his Speed is quite low for Dagger standards. The effects of the Deathly Dagger make him a good crippler, but in direct combat it may as well be a Silver Dagger+ for what it's worth, and he doesn't have the offensive ability to wield any other dagger better than others can. Being able to initiate safely on Tome users is useful, but in personal opinion he is worse as an AoE damage dealer even with the benefit of not being a staff user, because all other enemies can counterattack, unlike Staff users disabling ALL counterattacks. In a meta where the best units either have DC weapons or run with DC, this is a bit of a detriment to his combat ability.

Still, being able to cripple the enemy so reliably is not to be overlooked. Jaffar isn't the LnD3 fodder he once was, he is now on almost equal footing as other cripplers.

Rating: 5.5/10 Jaffar's AoE crippling ability is strong, and his ability to safely initiate on Tome users is appreciated. But in direct and fair combat, Jaffar is not that good, and I feel he is overall weaker as an AoE crippler than staff users because he can only safely initiate on tomes. But he is still not to be underestimated.

Edited by Xenomata
Removed half a point from Jaffar. Strong AoE crippling doesn't do much to fix that issue.
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Priscilla - Delicate Princess: 4/10 without inheritance, 3/10 with inheritance.
In average compared to the other Staff users, she has average HP, Atk, and Spd, with a below-average Def and above-average Res.
Without inheritance, Priscilla is outclassed by Maria as a Panic+ user (though Priscilla has 2 more Atk, Maria has 5 more Spd); as a Rehabilitate+ user Priscilla fares the worst, with a below-average BST, terrible Def compared to the others, and excelling at nothing save for a single point of Atk higher than Bridal!Lyn. As a user of Still-Water Balm, Sakura outclasses her by not only having more Def but also having the ability to heal at range. Priscilla is the only Healer who has Spur Def though, and combined with Rehabilitate+ this makes her excel more as a Pocket Medic for high-Def units than other Healers.
With inheritance, her average Atk means she can use Pain+ better than many other Healers, but her low Def makes her default Rehabilitate+ a far safer option than Martyr+. Other healers excel far better at her at being Razzle-Dazzlers, with Priscilla herself preferring a Dazzling refinement and staying out of most fights except to wall some magic attacks due to her above-average Res. Without Martyr+ or Absorb+ to heal herself up with, she would need to inherit either Live to Serve or Renewal, though this isn't much of an issue as Healers aren't given many good options in terms of B inheritance. Speed +3 or Resistance +3 would be good A options for her, though in my opinion the most optimal inheritance option for her would be Spd/Res Bond from Spring!Kagero to make her capable of walling magic users better (except for Dragons, obviously). Unfortunately, when inheritance is involved Priscilla is outclassed quite a lot by most Healers, and shouldn't be chosen as your main pick for a Healer...that's not to say she's bad, but if you have other options then you should likely choose them instead of her.

Jaffar - Angel of Death: NA. I barely use Dagger units aside from Felicia for the most part, and I'm not familiar enough with Jaffar's niche to be comfortable reviewing him just yet.

Hope this helps...at least, the Priscilla review.

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Priscilla

  • Magically bulky stat line featuring decent Res, mediocre Atk and Spd, and poor Def.
    • Mediocre matchups on the player phase, but cannot be counterattacked.
    • Poor defense matchups, but she can take a hit or two from a tome, in a pinch.
  • She can provide heal and status staff support. As a cavalry unit, she can provide cavalry field/combat buffs for her allies. She can provide ploy support with her decent Res.

Overall, I give her 4 for combat (mediocre matchups on the player phase, but cannot be counterattacked), and 3 for support (heal, status staff, cavalry field/combat buff, & ploy support), for a total rating of 4.5/10.

Jaffar

  • Stat line features decent Spd, and low Atk, Def, and Res.
    • Deathly Dagger (-7 to enemy Def, Res, & HP after combat) is a decent debuffing weapon, but not a good option for KOing foes. All refinements for the weapon increase the damage and defense drops, to HP-10 and Def/Res-7 to the target and all enemies within 2 spaces of the target. The effect refinement prevents tome users from counterattacking him.
    • He has poor matchups on the player phase, hampered by his low Atk and lack of a color. He can use the Player Phase to set up debuffs on enemies.
    • He has poor enemy phase matchups due to his low defenses. He has a highly gimmicky Close Counter/Vantage set, relying on setting up damage and defense debuffs so enemies run into him and die, but this has minimal practical application in the Arena.
  • He can provide debuff support through his weapon, and basic field/combat buff through his C and/or Seal slots.

Overall, I give him 3 for combat (poor ORKO matchups regardless of phase), and 1 for support (debuff capability through his weapon, basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 3/10.

~

Scoring method:

Spoiler

Units are evaluated based on both their combat performance and their team support capabilities (i.e. their whole contribution to a team).

  • Combat performance is judged by matchups, especially against enemies that are at triangle disadvantage or neutral to the unit. Performance against more relevant meta threats is more valuable than performance against units that are rarely seen. Triangle Adept sets are not considered, though they might be noted. Scale of 0 to 10.
    • Sustainability and filling a useful niche are given small bonuses, when applicable.
    • I will look at least one PP-focused and one EP-focused skill set for each unit, but only evaluate based on performance for whichever phase I deem the unit to be stronger on.
  • Support capabilities are decided by how much support a unit can provide (without horribly compromising their combat capabilities), and how valuable I feel that support is. Scale of 0 to 3.
  • At the end, the combat and support scores will be weighted (with a heavy focus on combat performance), combined, and rounded to the nearest .5 to obtain the total rating. Dancers and Singers will get +1 point to their total rating (not to exceed 10), because I value Dance/Sing utility highly.

This method of evaluation essentially compares each unit to a hypothetical "god unit" who is stellar at everything, instead of each unit to each other.

All my ratings.

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Priscilla: I like Priscilla, she does well as a mounted healer. She can also pack a surprisingly powerful punch, especially with some not-so-hard to obtain Wrathful Staff refinements. She has fantastic resistance and can tank magical attacks, while also dealing good enough damage. She has the benefit of being a calvary unit, has healing capabilities, and stay out of peril if using something like Physic. 7/10

Abstain from Jaffar, he's the only Four Fangs member I have yet to summon.

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Abstain on rating Jaffar...

Okay...

Priscilla

Best described as a worse Elise stat-wise in the offensive side but better on the magic walling side due to better HP and RES. She's not bad for a Cavalry healer at all.

If one would use her Panic+ staff; she has the opportunity to fuck up Emblem Teams which synergizes well with Gunnthra to nuke them or to defuse Bladetome units (I still encounter them, yo!).

She's also a good user of Pain+ and Gravity+ being on a horse after all. While I said earlier that she's worse than Elise; if you score a boon on either ATK or SPD; she'll be able to somewhat perform like Elise albeit a bit worse; but still she gets the benefits of Cavalry buffs allowing her to lay down some pain if she's built offensively with a Razzle Dazzle build. I'd give her...

7.5

NOTE: I am an owner of a +SPD/-HP Priscilla, she's doing wonders for me.

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