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

[Fire Emblem Fan]

6 hours ago, Simpsons138 said:

Sothe: Great offensive stat in 36/33, the highest attack stat on daggers,  a weapon that not only debuffs all enemies stats by 4 if they're within range, but also buffs himself and nearby allies by 4, instant Blade tome boost, with Life and Death he can easily get to 58 attack if is +Atk, but can be workable with other skills like Fury and such, Glimmer is already a good special for him to use, but giving him Luna or Draconic Aura would be a good idea, his main gimmick is being a glass cannon, his defenses are pretty bad even before equipping Life and Death, his HP is average, but he won't survive if he gets one-shot or doubled with Brave weapons or Daggerbreaker, the latter one is rare so you don't have to worry about it, but if you give him Desperation on player phase or Vantage or enemy phase and he has his special ready, he will destroy anyone completely, 7/10

Eirika: Sacrificing some bulk to get more attack, be mounted and have usage of magic, she can definitely do a lot of damage if is on the Desperation range, WHICH SHE ALREADY COMES WITH!!!! Along with Swift Sparrow and a weapon that will, with Swift Sparrow, instantly give her +7 Attack and Speed on the player phase on enemies with max HP, you do not want to get hit by Eirika, even blue units are afraid of her, unless they are pretty bulky, her defenses are lower than regular Eirika, so she can't take physical encounters, especially against Dragons and DC users, and with that low HP, even mages can take care of here if they have the correct amount of attack, but if you need a mounted mage, give them a Blade tome and abuse of many different buffs, Eirika is the one for you, 8/10

These cover most of my thoughts of well and I'd rate both Sothe and Eirika a 7/10

[LordFrigid]

Sothe

• Offense-focused stat line, with good Atk, decent Spd, and low Def and Res.
  • Peshkatz (Atk/Spd/Def/Res-4 to target & enemies within 2 spaces of target, Atk/Spd/Def/Res+4 to Sothe and allies within 2 spaces of him after combat) is a solid buff/debuff tool, enabling him to debuff all enemy stats and buff all ally stats.
  • He does a good job of dealing with Infantry foes with a Poison Dagger set, but otherwise has mediocre offense performance. He can run a Windsweep set to attempt to safely apply buffs & debuffs with Peshkatz, but will get tripped up by tomes and dragons.
  • Some capability with a Close Counter/Windsweep/QR seal setup once Peshkatz's effect has been applied, but it's gimmicky and unsustainable.
• He can provide basic field/combat buff support, and buff/debuff support through his weapon.

Overall, I give him 6.5 for combat (solid Infantry performance with the Poison Dagger, but runs into trouble against some Infantry dragons and non-infantry foes), and 1 for support (basic field/combat buff, buff/debuff support through his weapon), for a total rating of 6/10.

Eirika

• Offense-focused stat line, with good Spd, ok Atk, and low Def and Res.
  • Gleipnir (Res +3, Atk/Spd+3 during combat when enemy's HP = 100%) is a solid offense weapon.
  • Very strong green and red buff-dependent, sustainable matchups with a Rauðrblade+/Desperation set with full Cavalry buffs. She is a capable user of her standard Gleipnir as well, with strong green and red matchups.
  • Her stat line is not well-suited to a defensive role.
• As a cavalry unit, she can provide cavalry field/combat buffs for her teammates.

Overall, I give her 8.5 for combat (very strong green and red buff-dependent, sustainable matchups on offense with a Rauðrblade set), and 1 for support (cavalry field/combat buffs), for a total rating of 8/10.

~

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 July 17, 2018 by LordFrigid

[DehNutCase]

1 hour ago, Ice Dragon said:

No, it really isn't. How is gaining access to Armor March a diminished return? In the current state of the game, armors always want to be deployed two at a time because the marginal returns of gaining Armor March are so enormous.

If anything, armors are the movement type that have the greatest marginal returns on adding additional members with the same movement type. Due to the fact that they naturally clump together due to 2 movement range and a reliance on Armor March, they are perfectly suited for stacking Drive-type skills that cannot be negated by any means.

I was thinking in terms of:

If I need an armor, it's because my combat is kind of terrible. A team with even a single armor in it doesn't have terrible combat, so a team with a single armor doesn't need another armor to function.

And gaining armor march shouldn't affect mobility too much, especially considering it's effectively trading a C-slot for 1 move. Even in the worst case of an Infantry being in place of the 2nd armor what you lose in mobility from the ability to cross forests you gain in positioning via not being glued to the armor. (The fact that it's repo vs. pivot in the assist slot for mobility also helps out a bit. In the best case pivot and repo moves the team just as fast, but repo has more best cases.)

 

And I don't see how naturally clumping together because of less options can be an advantage, everything else being equal. Like, pretend for a moment horses have armored BST. They would use Goads and Drives better than armors, because they can choose when to clump together more easily. If armors use goads and drives better, it would have to be because of their BST advantage allowing them to sacrifice the raw power of Hone and Fort Type for un-negatable buffs.

At the cost of really not playing nice with any other unit type---seeing how everyone is using those skill-slots for stats, not just the armors.

 

Basically, it's not: 'we can death-ball,' which sounds like an advantage, but more like 'we have to death-ball.' All classes can death-ball, armors just have less options outside of the death-ball. Mind, armor's deathball is better than other classes* if you ignore the ability to separate the enemy team with mobility and AI manipulation, but 'price you pay for versatility' and all that.

*Horses might have a better offensive death ball with Goad stacking and better mobility to one-turn wipe, but honestly you sacrifice too much utility without a dancer to do that.

Edited July 17, 2018 by DehNutCase

[Hilda]

If anything then horses have a more difficult time to advance AND clump together compared to armorers because of trenches and trees. 

[DehNutCase]

17 minutes ago, Hilda said:

If anything then horses have a more difficult time to advance AND clump together compared to armorers because of trenches and trees. 

Trees, sort of---this is heavily map dependent. Horses usually get to dictate where the engagement happens, so they can just ride to a spot where they can death-ball freely.

Trenches definitely don't matter, though. You spent an action-turn repositioning someone onto the trench and you're set. (This is in terms of clumping into a death-ball, mind, trenches are still annoying if you're trying to hit and run unless you setup on them beforehand.)

[Usana]

On the scoring issue, despite disagreeing with DehNutCase I mostly didn't think much of it. Consistency is certainly a virtue. I tended to just assume they were less rate the unit and more rate the movement type, since that so heavily influenced the scores to the point of effectively marginalizing everything else. Some folks really are that big on mobility. Where I disagree is that horses are tied in 2nd for mobility for me. Flying units are mobility kings and Armor Marched armors are darn near equal if not better than horses since they ignore forests and can position more easily on such maps. I always end up cursing my horses since they can't go on forests. If they treated forests as trenches it wouldn't be so bad, but as is I view horses as having better offensive mobility but worse defensive mobility/positioning than Marched Armors.  Then again I am probably making a forest out of a grove or some such when it comes to horse's wooded movement.

 

Sothe - Poor guy. He really needs a spd boon to shine. Mine is just that so my rating here might be a bit higher than others since my experience with him is with a 36/36 unit. I don't mind that so much though since he is 4* available and as such has a bit more boon flexibility than a 5* lock like Summer Linde or Spring Kagero, who are two of the daggers that give him stiff competition. Anyways as Xenomata said he is basically an improved regular Kagero. Sadly. That doesn't really work with his Prf. His best game will be with a Lethal Carrot or Barb Shuriken refine. With a Lethal Carrot(SPD)/Moonbow/Life and Death/Speed +3 seal as their set he does outperform Spring Kagero if they are both speed stacked. Of course the Ninjabit has much better mobility and easier buff access. Funny thing is most of the better performance comes from him having superior bulk, not superior offense(spd stacked he trades 1 spd for 1 atk, which makes only the most minor of differences). Same deal with Summer Linde. Actually both of them prefer Swift to preserve what ever bulk they can. Sothe prefers Life and Death. Actually the only dagger I know of that outperforms him is Legault. Legault with Attack boon but otherwise the same set scores a few more kills thanks to having 2 greater speed and, I think, slightly better bulk. So at least with my settings in the duel simulator the Dagger goes Legault>Sothe>Takumi=Spring Kagero(he starts off ahead, but the higher the buffs go the further behind he falls). Anyways the difference between Legault and Sothe seem to stay the same regardless of buff level. But it is a rather small difference. So Sothe is either 2nd best or equal to the top dog. I think an 8.5/10 is warranted. Yeah Daggers tend to perform kinda weak over all, but of them speed stacked Sothe is one of the best.

 

Magerika - Best red tome horse for offense. Solid red tome over all. If she were infantry she would probably fall in the 8 range, but magical cavalry is awesome on offense and she is built just for that and is best in class at it. So an 9/10. Comparable with other Top cavalry tomes like Greenwen and Spring Catria. At least when looking at speedy blade candidates. Reinhardt is a different horse all together.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

If I need an armor, it's because my combat is kind of terrible. A team with even a single armor in it doesn't have terrible combat, so a team with a single armor doesn't need another armor to function.

A team with a cavalry unit in it certainly appreciates a second cavalry unit both to match the first cavalry unit's movement range and to apply superior buff options for both units.

I don't see why that logic should be any different with armors. If you've already chosen to put an armor in your team, your best option for a teammate is a second armor because it can supply better buffs and more efficiently than any other unit type.

This is why almost all of my team compositions are 2 pairs or 4 of a kind.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

And gaining armor march shouldn't affect mobility too much, especially considering it's effectively trading a C-slot for 1 move.

As a reminder, an armor has at least 17 more points of stats than a comparable unit (i.e. all other stat modifiers the same) in a different movement type, which means losing one of the two units' C slots still puts both units approximately 9-11 points ahead of comparable units in different movement types.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

(The fact that it's repo vs. pivot in the assist slot for mobility also helps out a bit. In the best case pivot and repo moves the team just as fast, but repo has more best cases.)

Armors run Swap, which is the superior mobility skill for a bulky team. It allows for more flexible positioning of units in exchange for less mobility of the death ball as a whole. What I mean is that unlike Reposition, which requires empty pathable tiles and therefore has its positioning restricted by terrain for non-fliers, Swap continues to work in cramped spaces. Furthermore, because Reposition necessarily moves a unit 2 squares, it is noticeably hampered on waffle-shaped maps.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

And I don't see how naturally clumping together because of less options can be an advantage, everything else being equal. Like, pretend for a moment horses have armored BST. They would use Goads and Drives better than armors, because they can choose when to clump together more easily. If armors use goads and drives better, it would have to be because of their BST advantage allowing them to sacrifice the raw power of Hone and Fort Type for un-negatable buffs.

At the cost of really not playing nice with any other unit type---seeing how everyone is using those skill-slots for stats, not just the armors.

Due to the high natural defensive stats of armors, Ward Armor benefits armors more than Ward Cavalry and Ward Fliers benefit their respective movement types (reducing damage taken from 30 to 22 is less powerful than reducing damage taken from 8 to zero, and fortification tiles give an additional boost to the strength of defensive buffs). The fact that they naturally clump together means that you easily give the team +0/0/8/8 from Ward Armor alone in addition to any Drive skills that are in the units' Sacred Seal slots.

A complete lack of boosts to offenses is actually completely compensated for by the fact that armors have access to superior Special cooldown reduction skills. Effectively, armors can afford to run fewer numeric points of buffs because (1) they have roughly three Tactic skills' worth of a head start from stats alone, (2) buffs to defensive stats on units with already high defensive stats are worth more than buffs to defensive stats on units with lower defensive stats even when numerically equal, and (3) they have access to superior skill options that are capable of compensating for their running fewer stat buffs.

 

1 hour ago, DehNutCase said:

Basically, it's not: 'we can death-ball,' which sounds like an advantage, but more like 'we have to death-ball.' All classes can death-ball, armors just have less options outside of the death-ball. Mind, armor's deathball is better than other classes* if you ignore the ability to separate the enemy team with mobility and AI manipulation, but 'price you pay for versatility' and all that.

*Horses might have a better offensive death ball with Goad stacking and better mobility to one-turn wipe, but honestly you sacrifice too much utility without a dancer to do that.

"Armors have to death ball" is irrelevant when they are just so damned good at it. Being forced to play optimally because that's "all you can do" is not really a disadvantage.

Cavalry do not have a better death ball than armor because player-phase death balls are simply not effective. You typically need to move out of your death ball to attack, which defeats the entire purpose of being in a death ball. A cavalry enemy-phase death ball is similarly less effective than an armor enemy-phase death ball because cavalry have fewer points of stats to put into defenses, meaning you either have units that have armor-like defenses and shit offenses, or you have units with simply not enough defenses to effectively death ball.

 

@The Priest If you ever want me to take this argument after school behind the gym, do tell me to do so.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[Hilda]

the pointbis this: Armorers are better because they clump easy together + higher stats & the fact they can badicly ignire spd stat for the Offense makes farly outweighs the need to use armor march. Its alot harder to bait mixed phase armor units then horses, because i cant just attack who i want

[Korath88]

Sothe 

Daggers may be crap, but at least he has some uniqueness to him. Good offensive stats, though his speed could be higher. His unique dagger allows him to buff his allies while also debuffing enemies, but the problem is that the buffs only last for that phase and not the whole turn. Either way, he still can contribute and has decent combat so he gets 6/10

Eirika

The other red horse mage. She's the fastest red mage at 35 speed, allowing her to run a blade build really effectively, having pretty much perfect green matchups and near perfect red matchups when fully buffed. The only problem is she has trouble getting into desperation range due to poor bulk on both ends, but there's always fury. 8/10

[Shiki]

@Ice Dragon Yeah I would appreciate it if you and @DehNutCase would take this somewhere else. I don't want to go through pages of discussion just to find the scores, this is just a simple RTU thread. Even if I don't say anything I'm not sure if a certain mod would appreciate it.
Though I would suggest making a public thread in the forum considering it is an interesting read.

@Xenomata I take it that you rated Sothe with a 7.5, right?

Sothe: 6.69
Eirika: 7.44

L'Arachel, Princess of Light

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
30/33/36
30/33/36
28/31/34
13/17/20
28/31/34

Base Skills:

Ivaldi
( - )
Growing Light

( - )
Renewal
Res Tactic

Myrrh, Great Dragon

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
39/42/45
30/33/36
22/25/29
32/36/39
28/31/34

Base Skills:

Great Flame
( - )
Bonfire

Fury 3
( - )
Hone Dragons

 

[Korath88]

L'Arachel

She's a blue mage on a horse, which automatically means that she's going to have to compete with Reinhardt which is never a good thing.

Her tome boosts Atk and Spd by 3 against full HP enemies, but her base speed is rather mediocre and she will likely fail to double quite a few enemies without +Spd IVs. She can also run blarblade like other blue mage cavalry but there are probably better candidates for it. What she does have over her competition is an actually usable Res stat allowing her to pull of ploys to reasonable success. A shame she had to be the obligatory demote on the banner. 7/10

Myrrh

Trainee and Gen 2 BST boosts on a single unit is pretty dumb, giving her stats on par with gen 1 armors. Her stats are also well optimised with excellent def to make use of her weapon and good Res as well with good Atk and HP and a speed dump. Her weapon prevents follow ups which negates the drawbacks of her poor speed.

With the standard kit of DC + Iote's shield, she has near perfect matchups against all colours only fearing dragon effectiveness and red bladetomes. Not only that, she is also a flier, potentially providing guidance support on top of stellar combat performance. She also has decent versatility, being able to run different sets based on team composition since it's honestly pretty hard to go wrong with her.

For unsurprisingly being a meta defining unit, Myrrh gets a 10/10 

(What's the point of a 10 rating if you aren't going to use it anyways?)

[Simpsons138]

• L'Arachel: Blue mounted mage, decent attack and resistance stat, average speed stat that can be higher with Ivaldi giving her +3 Atk/Spd if enemy has full HP and boost her defense by 3, but that's just about it for her, she can be faster if given a +Spd IV, Fury or Swift Sparrow, a ploy skill and a good special, but it will be hard for her to take hits, especially if she gets attacked on the enemy phase or if the enemy counters since her HP, is pretty bad like Lute, but the latter can take magical hits more easily, will need heavy investment and a Blade tome to make L'Arachel useful, but that's just about it honestly, 6/10

 

• Myrrh: And now for a real tank, an insane BST for her, giving her a great amount of all stats sans speed, has a weapon that gives her omnibreaker so long as she has 5 more defense than her opponent with a bonus +3 attack, AN SHE COMES WITH FURY AS WELL!!!! Not only that, she's a flying dragon, so she can abuse of both flying and dragon buffs so she can work on either kind of teams, archers can still hurt her but if she's given Iote's Shield that problem is solved, Falchion users need to one-shot her if they want to take her down, her speed is pretty bad, but it's compensated with Great Flame her weapon, unless they have a higher defense stat than her or a brave weapon, no doubles to her, unfortunately she misses on Steady and Warding Breath as it's locked to non-flying and mounted units, but she doesn't need it as long as she can activate her special, so it's anything goes with this flying dragon girl, 9/10

[eclipse]

L'arachel - 33/31 is pretty meh normally, but if she attacks someone at full health, it's 36/34, which puts her on par with Delthea.  The +3 defense that Ivaldi gives is completely worthless IMO - even with +Def, she'd have 33 HP and 23 defense, which is pitifully low.  Her Res is decent enough to work as a Ploy bot.  If she's +Res (like mine), slap Fury on her and giggle.  Since she's at her best when her opponent is at their best, she gets a 7/10 (her in-game bias is canceled out by the negative bias I would've added because I didn't like her in SS).

Myrrh - She is a wall.  Granted, she needs DC to fully take advantage of her weapon, but she'll most likely survive a bait.  Only Zelgius and Draug can get around Great Flame's effect and double her naturally - everyone else needs buffs.  She doesn't shine as much on PP,  because she's stuck with a single attack.  Great EP unit, not so much on PP.  7.5/10

Edited July 17, 2018 by eclipse

[Alexmender]

L'Arachel. Her stat spread focuses on Atk/Res while still having an almost passable Spd while totally dumping Hp/Def. L'Arachel stats force her to be an offensive unit which puts her in direct competition with Reinhardt (she doesn't have boosted BST so they're equal there) and outside of her workable Spd she loses to him everywhere else. Her Prf tome Ivaldi allows for a pretty strong initial combat thanks to the +3 Atk/Spd it grants when the enemy is at 100% Hp, when combined with skills like Death Blow/Darting Blow/Swift Sparrow she can deal heavy amounts of damage, but that's about it. Her bulk is non-existant, even though her Res is good her ultra low Hp destroys any kind of tanking potential she could have and her Def is a complete joke so don't even think about trying to take physical hits with her. L'Arachel is decent as an offensive unit but being in direct competition with more min-maxed units like Reinhardt/S!Catria makes it too hard for her to stand out in any way.

Rating: 5.5/10

Myrrh. She has a focus on Def while still having good Atk/Res/Hp and mediocre is Spd. Myrrh boasts the ability of having Gen 1 armor BST thanks to her Gen 2+Trainee bonuses which already puts her in the upper tiers when it comes to scoring but that's not all, her stats make a pretty powerful mixed tank that can hit back hard thanks to the Breath weapon damage properties, and to make it even more ridiculous her Prf weapon Great Flame grants her a semi Omnibreaker as long as her Def is 5 points higher than the enemy which is something trivial to do for the player thanks to her high base Def and access to both Dragon and Flier buffs. Add Quick Riposte and the Iote's Shield sacred seal and now the only type of unit that can do anything against her are enemy phase swords and Falchion users. Myrrh isn't totally invincible however, her low Spd means that if she's unable of triggering her Great Flame she's going to get doubled, the general increase in bulk of the meta makes it harder for her to activate this effect when facing armor units which she will in the upper tiers. She's also helpless against Alm but he's not that common so that's not an issue. In the AI hands she's fairly easy to counter due to her 100% EP focus but in the player hands she can fight on par with the best.

Rating: 8.5/10

[LordFrigid]

L'Arachel

• Magically focused stat line, featuring decent Atk and Res, ok Spd, and poor Def.
  • Ivaldi (Def +3, Atk/Spd+3 during combat when enemy's HP = 100%) is a solid offense weapon.
  • Very strong red, strong blue, buff-dependent, sustainable matchups with a standard Blárblade+/Desperation set when Hone Cavalry is active. Matchups bump up to very strong for both red and blue with full cavalry buffs, but increase in buff dependency. Very strong red, strong blue sustainable matchups with a basic Ivaldi/Desperation set when Hone Cavalry is active.
  • Her stat line is not very well optimized for a defensive role.
• As a cavalry unit, she can provide cavalry field/combat buff support. She has some stat ploy capability with her decent Res stat.

Overall, I give her 8.5 for combat (based on her offense matchups with Blárblade+), and 1.5 for support (cavalry field/combat buffs, stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 8/10.

Myrrh

• Bulky stat line featuring good Def, decent Atk and Res, and low Spd.
  • Great Flame (Atk +3, if the foe's Def is at least 5 lower than Myrrh's, their follow-up attack is inhibited) is easily one of the best defensive weapons in the game.
  • Limited player phase capability with her low Spd stat.
  • Overwhelmingly strong blue, strong green matchups on defense with a standard DC/QR set and Fortify Fliers or Dragons active. She can run the Iote's Shield seal on a flier team (where she is probably the tankiest unit), or Close Def on a dragon team (where she is probably better off outsourcing the bow-checking role to another bulky dragon). She must beware of Julia and Deirdre, as Naga & Divine Naga make them very capable of OHKOing her.
• As a dragon and a flier, she can provide either dragon or flier field/combat buffs for her teammates. She has some stat ploy capability with her decent Res stat.

Overall, I give 9.5 for combat (overwhelmingly strong blue, strong green matchups on defense), and 1.5 for support (flier or dragon field/combat buffs, stat ploy capability), for a total rating of 9/10.

~

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.

[Xenomata]

@The Priest Ah, yeah... I usually catch that mistake when reviewing these...

If the .5 wasn't counted... I mean, it's just .5, nothing to worry that strongly over.

L'arachel

Spoiler

If Reinhardt is raw power, Olwen is raw speed, Ursula is something in the middle, and Spring Catria is Olwen but better, that leaves L'arachel being... somewhat better than Ursula?

Anyways, L'arachel doesn't exactly stand out as a Blue Mage. Her Attack and Speed are both fairly average, her Defense isn't anything to write home about, and her Resistance lets her take a few magic hits before her bad HP runs out. It's not Odin bad, but it's certainly not the best we've gotten from a Blue Mage unit.

Ivaldi boosts the useless Defense stat while having the same meh effect of Gleipnir, Atk/Spd +3 on full hp foes, so at the end of the day it's the tome you default to if you don't particularly want to give L'arachel anything else. It's a good tome, mind you. Just kinda meh. Growing Light I feel is one of the worser AoE specials, as the trigger spaces are way too spread out for even Rival Domain enemies to be in the path of each space. Renewal is just a pretty good B skill to have, not necessarily doing L'arachel any specific good or bad, while Res Tactic is a tactic skill that boosts a stat that usually doesn't need boosting outside of Tactic Blade teams. It's still somewhat rare, but not so much that it's the reason you go all-out on L'arachel.

L'arachel's most notable aspect is being more available than other not-raw-power Blue Mage Cavalry, letting you more easily get a Blarblade set together for your Cavalry team. Having average Attack and Speed isn't necessarily a bad thing either, plus they're both high enough that Ivaldi plus some speed stacking will make L'arachel fast enough to double on some foes. She also has a sizable enough Res stat to consider using Ploys. Life and Death hurts her Ploy potential in exchange for the highest Atk and Spd boost, while Fury further boosts her Ploy potential, and Swift Sparrow keeps her Atk and Spd higher than Fury without hurting her Ploy potential.

The competiton L'arachel faces is, simply put, much better in whatever regards. Reinhardt is stronger with a Brave weapon, Olwen is faster if weaker, and Spring Catria is faster without being too much weaker. Ursula is the only one she can be considered better than, but Ursula also has Blarwolf exclusivity still. L'arachel has some of the better Ploy potential among the BM Cavs, but another problem she faces is that each other unit has a much better Personal Weapon than Ivaldi, which boosts the useless Defense stat while barely having much of an Atk/Spd boost to speak of.

Overall, a bit meh as a Blue Mage Cav, but still good enough to have around, when considering that she is the easiest of the speedy BM Cavs to obtain.

Rating: 6.5/10 Compared to other Blue Mage Cavalry, L'arachel doesn't exactly bring as explosive an entry as they do. She has a decent offensive spread and enough Resistance to trigger Ploys on the enemy, but the others are generally stronger or faster without even needing to think about Ploys. She's still good, and Ivadi's effect can give L'arachel that one little extra push to net the kill, while still being able to run with Blarblade, but if you have other options open, redundancy doesn't always mean better.

 

Myrrh

Spoiler

The first Green Manakete to powercreep the category that once only had one candidate.

Dumping her Speed in favor of boosting her other stats to be either respectable or amazing, Myrrh makes up for the lost speed by taking advantage of her high Defense and incorporating it into her base weapon, the Great Flame, which comes with a complimentary +3 Atk. If her Defense is at least 5 points higher than the foe, they can't double attack her. Given that high Defense enemies usually can't double her anyways, and most units who could double her have shoddy Defense, this basically means the enemy only has one shot to kill Myrrh.

Fury is a good skill to have by default as a result, boosting her statline just enough that the Defense boost will overwrite even certain forms of Defense stacking. Hone Dragons is unique in that it brings the already good offensive potential of Manaketes even higher, and Bonfire works wonders with Myrrh's defense.

The obvious skill to give to Myrrh's B slot is Quick Riposte, as it means she can double an attacking enemy when they usually can't. Fury can be overwritten by Distant Counter and decimate all ranged foes who dare try to kill Myrrh. I usually don't talk about Sacred Seals, but Iotes Shield is a notable SS to give to Myrrh, as unlike most other fliers Myrrh can actually take a Bow hit and has the potential to inflict a deadly wound on them in retaliation. Lightning Breath would theoretically be an alternative to Distant Counter, but Myrrh really wants the Wary Fighter effect on Great Flame, plus we are talking about a 7 might difference between non-Atk forged Lightning Breath and Great Flame.

Without Iotes Shield, Myrrh can be taken out by most powerful bows, notably high Atk Brave Bows. Her Resistance IS good, but popular Red Mages tend to favor high power, so one solid hit would be all it takes to rend Myrrh defeated. Her Defense is good, but Falchions and Breath of Fog still need to be taken on with caution. Notably, Falchion [Valentia] will decimate Myrrh without even letting her get a word in.

Myrrh is still a fantastic unit though, even if she did get powercreeped very soon after being released.

Rating: 8.5/10 A high Defense stat paired with a personal weapon that deletes enemy follow-ups if they aren't as defensive makes Myrrh a defensive beast. Having good stats overall is also a plus, though she is quite weak to Red one-hit wonders... still a great defensive unit, if a little demanding with the Sacred Seal.

I think none of the upcoming units are gonna be rated much lower than 6.5/10. Bar the early seasonals and early Tempest Trial units we'll be doing afterward, every new unit past this point is pretty strong in one regard or another...

Edited July 18, 2018 by Xenomata

[Usana]

L'Arachel - Pretty much what Korath said. Except with how powerful -blades and horse buffs and horse movement is I am rather tempted to go a bit higher. Particularly since unlike, say Ursula, she doesn't need to go blade. Ivaldi is a decent option, even if its stat boost is rather useless. So lets say 7.5/10.

Myrrh -Better than Amelia in my experience due to denying doubles and having flying movement and targeting res. However, while she is undoubtedly a queen amoung enemy phase units, that is a rather heavily contested territory.  Just in Green Dragon EP we have Male Grima who can combine DC AND a breath skill. AND can use Bold Fighter+QR to have a player phase on top of rock solid enemy phase. As such I can't even say she is the absolute best Green Dragon. However, being a flyer comes with its disadvantage and denying doubles while letting yourself double is exceptionally valuable. Such an advantage puts her over most from a purely EP standpoint. The problem, of course, is that she has no PP to speak of. She is a wall. I do think she out performs Amelia enough to give her a 9.5/10. The lack of a general player phase means that I can't really give her a perfect score, but she is so good at her primary job thanks to her Great Flame that I think she deserves to be darn close.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

L'Arachel: She already has to compete with Reinhardt, and unfortunately that already means she has some strikes against her. Ivaldi grants her +3 defense, but that doesn't do much to patch up that poor stat, and her attack and speed are workable but not amazing. Her resistance is of course great, but that's not much of a surprise. What really helps her is the +3 attack and speed she gets from Ivaldi if the opponent is at 100% HP, it should be enough to take out most opponents so she'll still perform well regardless of stats. She can also run -blade builds and has access to cavalry buffs, which further help her. 7/10

Myrrh: Myrrh has access to both flyer and dragon buffs, as well as a great (literally) weapon in Great Flame. She's sturdy and can both take some hits and dish out some damage. However, she also has double the weaknesses since she's both a dragon AND a flyer. Arrows hurt her, Falchion and Naga hurt her, she can have buffs negated by things like Beorc's Blessing, AND she's locked to 5-star so she's hard to obtain. When you do get her, she's definitely a worthy investment, but she's not amazing. 8/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

L'Arachel - Seeing Eirika and L'Arachel come out with basically the same tome makes me think this effect belonged on a seasonal banner as inheritable weapons. L'arachel has a much more sensible stat distribution than Olwen and has a higher BST tier without needing to take one particular boon. Of course, there isn't much argument for Olwen to not take an attack superboon in the first place. L'arachel also has Olwen's excellent Res Stat for ploys, but no Dire Thunder so it's not as major of a highlight. L'arachel came out as the superior blade tome user, but now her competition is with Spring Catria. If OHKOs blade users are important to you, then L'Arachel is your pick if Reinhardt for some reason is not an option. Otherwise I don't think she can stake much of a claim over the other units in this class. 6 out of 10. Still salty they didn't make her a healer.

Myrrh - Not being able to combine DC with a Breath skill is definitely a knock against her compared to other manaketes. But none of her shortcomings ever seem to matter. She has access to both Flier and Dragon buffs which really opens up her team composition. Great stats all around where you can safely dump speed thanks to her weapon. And her Res stat isn't a major weakness waiting to be exploited either. Her biggest weakness are the matchups she normally meets in the highest arena settings. Protection from doubles is a superflous bonus when fighting other, slow dragons and armor units. Plus said opponents often have massive defense stats that Myrrh probably doesn't overcome since Great Flame isn't refineable. These opponents keep Myrrh honest, since she's frankly overpowered outside of these top tier matchups. Still has a place in defining the meta, but I hesitate to say whether she dominates the meta. 9 out of 10.

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
107. Alm - 9
108. Lukas - 7.5
109. Clair - 7
110. Faye - 5.5
111. Ike - 6
112. Titania - 3.5
113. Soren - 4
114. Mist - 2.5
115. Celica - 7
116. Mae - 6.5
117. Boey - 3.5
118. Genny - 6
119. Luke - 3.5
120. Katarina - 5.5
121. Athena - 3.5
122. Roderick - 6
123. Gray - 5
124. Saber - 3
125. Mathilda - 3
126. Delthea - 6.5
127. Sonya - 4.5
128. Leon - 6
129. Seth - 2
130. Tana - 7
131. Amelia -8
132. Innes - 6
133. Brave Roy - 6.5
134. Brave Lucina - Abstain
135. Brave Ike - 8
136. Brave Lyn - 8.5
137. Elincia - 7.5
138. Osxar - 6
139. Nephenee - 7
140. Sigurd - 7.5
141. Tailtiu - 4.5
142. Deirdre - 6
143. Ayra - 9
144. Mia - 8
145. Lute - 7.5
146. Dorcas -8
147. Siegbert - 7.5
148. Soleil - 7
149. Shiro - 6.5
150. Rhajat - 7
151. Zelgius - 9.5
152. Micaiah - 8
153. Sothe - 4.5
154. NotCanon!Eirika - 5.5
155. L'Arachel - 6
156. Myrrh - 9

Ratings I would change in retrospect: Gordin would be a 2.5 and Jeorge a 4, Cain would be a 3, 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. Leo I'd bump up to a 3. Nino should be a 6. Hector is a 7.5.

 

[XRay]

I changed my weighted performance formula.
WP = 2.5(RP) - 12.5
0 ≤ WP ≤ 10
Basically, a raw performance score of 5 or less would be treated as 0 while a raw performance score of 9 or more would be treated as 10. This change will boost most unit's score quite a bit I think.

I am still trying to figure out how to weed out low bulk Enemy Phase units.

Here is how my criteria are rated:

Spoiler

Mobility:
Armor units are 0/10. Infantry units are 5/10. Cavalry units are 8/10. Flying units are 9/10. Units with unique mobility skills will bump up their score.
Range:
Melee units are 0/10. Distant Counter Weapon melee units are 5/10. Ranged units are 10/10.

Player Phase General Performance (Raw):
This is based on the W:L:I ratio. Enemies will have a set up of +5, +Spd, Moonbow, and Fury. The unit will be +0, may not use Breakers, and will not have Chills or Ploys activate. Units may have access to buffs (usually, +4 to any two stats for infantry and armors, and 6/6/0/0 or 0/0/6/6 for cavalry and fliers). I would also list the build used to achieve that ratio. I think the following formula is pretty reasonable:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Raw Performance
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted):
Since most units can get a raw performance score of at least 5, setting 5 as 0 for the weighted performance makes more sense in judging how good a unit is. By the same token, a score of 9 is treated as 10.
(Raw Performance - 5) * 2 = Weighted Performance
(2.5*Raw Performance) - 12.5 = Weighted Performance
0 ≤ Weighted Performance ≤ 10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence):
This just means how reliant the unit is on buffs. If I take off the buffs and the unit still performs pretty well, they will get a good score. The formula is that same as the raw performance:
(W%) - (L%*0.25) = Independence
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
This is pretty much the same as general performance, except I take out certain classes of enemies. I will generally take two of the following classes of enemies out: Red, Blue, Green, Colorless, Melee, Ranged, Physical, Magical. Melee units I am testing will generally have ranged enemies taken out and vice versa. Units will also have the color that they are weak against taken out; colorless units usually would not have any color taken out, although they may have physical or magical enemies taken out.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Player Phase Performance:
I consolidate the above scores into one score. If I took more than 2 classes out in the adjusted section, each additional class taken out will reduce the Adjusted Performance by 1 point. On the other hand, if I took 1 or 0 classes out, the unit will receive an additional 0.5 or 1 point.
(Weighted General * 0.8) + (Raw General * 0.1) + (Independence General * 0.1) =  General Performance
(Weighted Adjusted * 0.8) + (Raw Adjusted * 0.1) + (Independence Adjusted * 0.1) - [Classes Taken Out] + [Classes Added In] = Adjusted Performance
(General Performance + Adjusted Performance) * 0.5 = Player Phase Performance

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence):
See Above.
Enemy Phase Performance:
See Above.

Ease of Use:
This is an average of the mobility and range scores.
Performance:
This is just Player Phase performance or Enemy Phase performance, whichever is higher.
Support:
Most units by default will be 0/10. Units with 30+ Res start from 1/10. Debuffers (dagger, staff, and breath units) start from 1/10. Healers (staff units and units with access to healing skills like Recover Ring) start from 1/10. Buffers start from 3/10. Fliers start from 4/10. Dancers/Singers start from 5/10. Other unique support skills may further boost their score.
Other:
If the unit has some unique application or fun build, it will be noted here.

Familiarity/Experience:
This just means how familiar I am with this particular unit or type of unit in Arena. If it is a low number, that means you should take the following rating number with a grain of salt since I do not have much experience with this particular unit and/or type of unit.
Rating:
The rating is how good I think a unit is. Here is how I weigh each criterion:
Ease of Use 4/10
Performance: 5/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Notes:
1. A unit's build in raw performance will not take into account a unit's support build, Raven build, or any other builds. Raw performance build aims to get the best score. Likewise, a unit's ease of use, support, and other criteria will not take into account the unit's raw performance build.
2. The build used in raw/weighted performance might not be the build with the best score. If there is an alternative build with a slightly less performance but much higher independence that results in a higher total score, that build will be used instead.
3. Axe and dagger versions of Wo Dao are not available in the regular summoning pool yet, but I think they will be added in the future, so I am using Giant Spoon and Lethal Carrot as place holders.

Disclosures:
I have a strong bias for non-armor Player Phase ranged units. My experience with melee and armor units in Arena is pretty minimal (i.e.: I suck at using them), so my rating for them is mostly based on theory. My Arena core consists of BH!Lyn, Reinhardt, and Olivia. I am usually in Tier 20, but I may drop to Tier 19 if I do not fish for points.

Experimental Stuff:

Ease of Use 3/10
Performance: 6/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Ease of Use 2/10
Performance: 7/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Revised Ease of Use:

Movement

1 Movement = 0
2 Movement = 2
3 Movement = 3
Go on Trenches = +0.5
Unimpeded by Trenches = +0.5
Go on Forests = +0.5
Unimpeded by Forests =+0.5
Go on Obstacles = +0.5
Unimpeded by Obstacles = +0.5
Exclusive Movement Effects = +1

Armor = 2 = 0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5
Infantry = 3.5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5 = 3.5
Cavalry = 3.5 = 3+0.5 = 3.5
Flier = 5 = 2+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5+0.5

Weapon Range:

Melee = 0
Distant Counter = 2
Ranged = 4

Other:

Spoiler

Template

— — — — — — — ◆Red◆ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ◾Blue◾ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ⬟Green⬟ — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — ●Colorless● — — — — — — —

Mobility: /10
Range: /10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Player Phase Performance: /10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Red/Blue/Green/Colorless/Melee/Ranged/Physical/Magical): /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Performance: /10

Ease of Use: /10
Performance: /10
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10

Summary:

_______ got bad/okay/good/stellar combat performance.

She/He can the support the team with Ploys.

She/He can support the team with daggers/Light Breath and Dark Breath.

She/He is a great mobility support unit as a flier.

She/He can also run Firesweep-Hit and Run as a flier unit.

She/He can run a Firesweep-Poison Strike-Poison Strike.

She/He can run Wrathful Staff-Dazzling Staff to emulate Firesweep archers.

She/He can run a Raven set.

 

— — — — — — — ◾L'Arachel◾ — — — — — — —

Mobility: 8/10
Range: 10/10

Player Phase General Performance (Raw): 7.47/10 — 207:27:34
Player Phase General Performance (Weighted): 8.18/10
Player Phase General Performance (Independence): 3.18/10 — 92:27:149
[+Spd, -Res, Ivaldi, Moonbow, Atk/Spd Push, Renewal, Speed +3, 6/6/0/0]
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Green/Melee): 8.35/10 — 83:8:6
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted — No Green/Melee): 8.38/10
Player Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Green/Melee): 4.12/10 — 42:8:7
[+Spd, -Res, Ivaldi, Moonbow, Atk/Spd Push, Renewal, Speed +3, 6/6/0/0]
Player Phase Performance: 6.98/10

Enemy Phase General Performance (Raw): /10 — 176:74:18
Enemy Phase General Performance (Weighted): /10
Enemy Phase General Performance (Independence): /10 — 95:146:27
[+Spd, -Res, Ivaldi, Moonbow, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Close Def, 6/6/0/0]
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Raw — No Green/Melee): /10 — 88:6:3
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Weighted— No Green/Melee): /10
Enemy Phase Adjusted Performance (Independence — No Green/Melee): /10 — 80:10:7
[+Spd, -Res, Ivaldi, Moonbow, Kestrel Stance, Quick Riposte, Distant Def, 6/6/0/0]
Enemy Phase Performance: 6.04/10

Ease of Use: 9/10
Performance: 6.98/10
Support: 1/10
Other: 0/10

Familiarity/Experience: 5/10
Rating: 8/10

Summary:

L'Arachel got good combat performance. She can support the team with Ploys.

Edited July 18, 2018 by XRay

[MacLovin]

L'arachel

Good combat on horse. Can run bladetomes or her prf and can do some ploys or tactics support.

Easy enough to build too.

7/10

Myyrh

Flies, is a dragon, can run a shitload of builds but her base skills are still really good.

I have a -att one and she still gets whatever pve content I need her to do

8/10. She doesn't like the hyperoffensive red unit presence so there's that.

[Shiki]

L'Arachel: 6.86
Myrrh: 8.70

Celica, Imprisoned Soul

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
36/40/43
32/35/38
32/35/38
23/27/30
23/26/30

Base Skills:

Beloved Zofia
( - )
Luna

( - )
Chill Spd
Hone Atk

Hardin, Dark Emperor

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
41/45/48
31/34/37
24/28/31
33/36/39
29/32/35

Base Skills:

Gradivus
( - )
Vengeance

Brazen Def/Res
Bold Fighter
( - )

 

[Simpsons138]

Oh boy, a banner full of alts minus one of them, so let's see:

• Celica: Great offensive stats at 35/35, decent defense and respectable resistance, overall her stats are pretty solid, how do you make them better? Beloved Zofia not only increasing her defense by 3, but also giving her +4 to all stats at 100% HP, this makes her a pretty dangerous unit if she has 100% HP, so it's best for a healer to be near her to heal her at all cost, especially since her weapon will damage her by 4 after that single damage, but thanks to that, she can hit hard, double and prevent doubles and if given things like Fury or Life and Death, she's going to be a monster completely, especially with things like Chill Speed which she already comes with and a few other boosts as well, so yeah, just keep her away from Swordbreakers and blue mages and she's solid, 8/10

 

• Hardin: Highest BST on Blue Armors along with Eliwood, a solid 81/77 on defenses which can get higher with armor buffs and Brazen Def/Res which he already comes with, a weapon that gives him Distant Counter and a pretty decent attack stat, you've got a pretty powerful armored unit, his speed stat is pretty low as many armors do have a low speed so he will get doubled a lot, but this is compensated with Bold Fighter which he already comes with, he can be a pretty powerful tank in both the physical and the magical department and if given Quick Riposte as a Seal, he can be a threat for both phases, even armorslayers have difficulties taking him down once he's on the brazen range, unless they have the refined armorsmashers, lancebreaker and a high offensive stat, Hardin ain't going nowhere, 9/10

[Alexmender]

Fallen Celica: Her stat spread focuses on Atk/Spd while still having respectable bulk. Celica is a balanced unit done right, her offensive stats are good and her defenses are average at worst, this makes her a pretty good unit but what makes her great is her Prf weapon, Beloved Zofia, which grants her Def+3 and increases all her stats by 4 when her Hp is at 100% with the demerit of taking 5 damage after her first round of combat (it doesn't have to be on the Player phase, as long as Celica attacks she'll take the recoil damage) which basically puts her at the level of a +10 unit, or +20 if she's at max merges. This grants a lot of flexibility as it allows Celica to run great mixed phase sets or also go for a complete focus on either Player or Enemy phase. She has very few weaknesses due to her well rounded nature with the main one being that as an infantry sword she has to compete with Karla/Ayra for the spot with Ayra taking the crown 9/10 times, Celica can focus on a tank set in order to distinguish herself from the Glass Cannons and luckily that spot doesn't have a lot of competition so she can carve a niche for herself, just keep in mind that in order to make the most out of Celica you're going to need a healer, Renewal or Steady Breath+Aether due to how her weapon recoil works.

Rating: 8.5/10

Fallen Hardin They may release OG!Hardin one day so I'll leave it like that: He is a semi balanced unit with high Atk/Def/Res, relatively above average Hp and mediocre Spd. Hardin is one of the holy armor trinity of power alongside M!Grima and Zelgius and it isn't hard to see why. High defenses and above average Atk coupled with a weapon with DC built-in and all the armor boons makes Hardin one of the best units in the game. He can make use of the DC+Breath+Bold Fighter+Quick Riposte combo which is broken as hell. The only thing that puts him below Zelgius in terms of raw power is the lack of an OP special like Black Luna but Hardin will do more than good enough with Ignis nukes. His mixed bulk means that he has very few weaknesses so yeah, one of the best units in the game and one of the best scoring ones. His Atk is a bit low for his class but not to the point of reducing his power considerably.

Rating: 9.5/10

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Celica - Her stats are excellent but a sword infantry with great stats isn't enough for me to get out of bed in the morning. It's good to know her balanced stat spread gets even better when at full health. Similar to normal Celica, the release of Atk/Spd Push lets her combine the effects for greater offense. Wait for more Push skills to come out if you want greater variety in these boosts, but +9/+9/+4/+4 in-combat boosts is appropriate for any engagement. Celica at base works wonderfully as a mixed phase unit, but she'll rely heavily on healer support. Sticking to 100% health engagements frees up her B slot enough that Renewal kiting would be viable. But in a Tactics driven mixed emblem team your team could probably spare a slot for a cav healer anyway. 8.5 out of 10. I think she's got a lot going for her even if she can't blast dragons and has poor matchups against armors.

Hardin - Highest BST tier in the game. Myrrh-level mixed defenses, and he can combine DC with a Breath skill. Hardin's speed is not ideal, and unfortunately if you want to keep his BST tier you have to avoid the speed superbane. In fact, I think he is one of very few characters in the game where a neutral nature is one of the optimal choices with the others being -Res. The other two Lance Armors and Lukas can attain higher physical bulk via the weapon refinery, But Hardin will always be a menace to your opponents regardless of their team composition. All he's really missing is...Black Luna I suppose. 9.5 out of 10.