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

[Lewyn]

Well a character I actually built at 5 stars.

Minerva-8/10  She comes with rare ward fliers, she also has a lot more flexibility in builds than the other axe fliers which are mostly either very enemy phase (Beruka) or player phase (Cherche) orientated.  Thanks to excellent defense and okay speed which can be boosted with various A skills and access to flier buffs she can either be an enemy phase unit that is very hard to double and kills opponent or a player phase unit that always doubles her opponent and kills opponent.  Her weapon with its refine is of course very powerful and pushes the damage to sky high levels.  Her attack can be high enough to use heavy blade seal well, meaning she could do crazy things like proc Dragon Fang every encounter and with that +10 damage boost it is going to kill most stuff.  Her good HP can make up for her low res in a distant counter build as well.  I think other than NY Azura cause of being a dancer, she is the best axe flier I believe cause of all the different roles she can fill and how you can play her.  She has aged very well.  

[LordFrigid]

Minerva

• Fairly balanced, physically offensive stat line including middling Atk and Spd, decent Def, and low Res.
  • Hauteclere (Accelerates special trigger) is a powerful personal weapon that can be refined for stat boosts or +10 damage on special activation.
  • On offense, she has solid matchups against blue foes and good matchups against green foes when buffed by Hone Fliers (though she prefers Goad stacking to help bump up her middling offensive stat line a bit more), using Hauteclere (Eff)/Moonbow/Life and Death. She has sustainability through Desperation.
  • Capable of running a Distant Counter set with Moonbow, Noontime, or Bonfire on defense, with decent results.
• As a flier, she can run a flier field or combat buff in her C slot, but generally needs a combat-oriented option in her seal slot.

Overall, I give her 8.5 for combat (flier team assumed; strong blue matchups, good green matchups on offense; small bonus for sustainability through Desperation), and 1 for support (flier field/combat buff), for a total rating of 8/10.

Merric

• Stat line oriented towards physical bulk, with high HP and Def (for a mage), mediocre Spd, and low Atk and Res.
  • Excalibur (effective damage vs Fliers) is a good weapon, but being tied to a low-Atk unit in a game where many fliers have high Res makes it difficult for Merric to use. It can evolve into Dark Excalibur, which grants +10 damage on special activation.
  • Decent blue, shaky green OHKO capability with Gronnblade, shaky overall matchups with Dark Excalibur.
  • Decent blue matchups and shaky green matchups on defense with a Gronnowl+ or Dark Excalibur set with Close Counter/Quick Riposte. Benefits strongly from Spur/Drive support.
• Cannot provide much team support beyond the standard C passive field or combat buff.

Overall, I give him 5 for combat (decent blue and shaky green matchups), and .5 for support (basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 4.5/10.

~

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. 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. Units that are highly capable on both phases will be given a small bonus.
• 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.

[XRay]

WIP

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.
Ease of Use:
This is an average of the mobility and range scores.
Player Phase Raw Performance:
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%*0.5) = Raw Performance
Player Phase Weighted Performance:
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.
(Raw Performance - 5) * 2 = Weighted Performance
Enemy Phase Raw Performance:
See Above.
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance:
See Above.
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. Independence will be based on the higher of Player Phase or Enemy Phase raw performance. The formula is this:
(Raw Performance without buffs) / (Raw Performance) = Independence
Support:
Most units by default will be 0/10. Units with 30+ Res start from 1/10. Healers start from 2/10. 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. For example, since Raven mages have a performance penalty, they will get some extra points here for being relevant and viable in certain team compositions.

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 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
Weighted Performance: 4/10 (The higher of Player Phase or Enemy Phase will be used.)
Independence: 1/10
Support: 1/10
Other: If the unit got some unique application or fun build, they will get a boost to their rating.

Notes:
A unit's build in raw performance will not take into account a unit's support build, Raven build, or any other builds. Likewise, a unit's ease of use, support, and other criteria will not take into account the unit's raw performance build.

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, 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.

Other:

Spoiler

Template

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

Mobility: /10
Range: /10
Ease of Use: /10
Player Phase Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Weighted Performance: /10
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: /10
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal]
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10

Summary:

 

— — — — — — — ⬟Minerva⬟ — — — — — — —

Mobility: 9/10
Range: 0/10
Ease of Use: 4.5/10
Player Phase Performance: 7.73/10 — 192:5:48
Player Phase Weighted Performance: 5.47/10
[+Spd, -Res, Hauteclere [special], Luna, Swift Sparrow, Desperation, Speed +3, 6/6/0/0]
Enemy Phase Performance: 7.45/10 — 191:17:37
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: 4.9/10
[+Spd, -Res, Hauteclere [special], Luna, Distant Counter, Quick Riposte, Speed +3, 6/6/0/0]
Independence: 3.64/10 — 73:8:164
[+Spd, -Res, Hauteclere, Luna, Swift Sparrow, Desperation, Speed +3]
Support: 4/10
Other: 0/10

Familiarity/Experience: 3/10
Rating: 4.5/10

Summary:

Not a huge fan of melee units, hence their low score overall. That being said, Minerva is still a solid combat unit, especially when buffed.

— — — — — — — ⬟Merric⬟ — — — — — — —

Mobility: 5/10
Range: 10/10
Ease of Use: 7.5/10
Player Phase Performance: 4.31/10 — 119:27:99
Player Phase Weighted Performance: 0/10
[+Spd, -Res, Gronnblade, Moonbow, Life and Death, Desperation, Speed +3, 4/4/0/0]
Enemy Phase Performance: 4.78/10 — 134:34:77
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: 0/10
[+Atk, -Res, Gronnowl [Spd][1 Ally], Moonbow, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Attack +3, 4/4/0/0]
Independence: 3.67/10 — 84:87:74
[+Atk, -Res, Gronnowl [Spd][1 Ally], Moonbow, Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Attack +3]
Support: 0/10
Other: 5/10

Familiarity/Experience: 5/10
Rating: 4/10

Summary:

He is basically green Odin. He is useful as a Raven mage though.

Edited May 8, 2018 by XRay

[Shiki]

Well, I'm slightly late.
Though no one posted the next round in my stead ...

Minerva gets a 7.56, Merric has earned himself a 3.21.

Maria, Minerva's Sister

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
33/36/40
23/27/30
31/34/37
16/19/22
28/32/35

Base Skills:

Panic+
Physic+
Miracle

( - )
( - )
Fortify Res

Wrys, Kindly Priest

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
39/42/45
21/24/28
20/23/26
19/22/25
33/36/39

Base Skills:

Slow+
Rehabilitate+
Heavenly Light

( - )
Live to Serve
( - )

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by The Priest

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Maria - Before the healer rework, I felt like Maria was the best infantry healer. High speed, high res, and only 27 points of BST wasted on that useless ATK stat. Wrathful staff on infantry healers was really just a gimmick option. A skill better spent on the cav healers that could attain better stats with cav buffs. Nowadays, Maria faces stiffer competition from other infantry healers that actually do have Atk stats. It's somewhat viable to dump her attack stat, but she will want either Recover+ or Rehabilitate+ for her healing skill unless you really value Physic's 2 range. For an attacking skill, I think Pain+ with dazzling refinement may be best suited to her low attack and low physical bulk. I still think Maria is better than most other staff infantry thanks to the speed and res stat that allows for some ploys, but leagues below the cavalry healer options who can fight as well as support. 6 out 10. Still my infantry healer of choice, but has a lot more to prove now.

Wrys - A worse Maria. Though he he may appear to have serious magical bulk, being a two range unit makes that not matter when it comes to manaketes. Furthermore, his speed is so low that mages and healers doubling him will still get off considerable damage due to a staff unit's limited means of further increasing their defensive stats. Though Fortress Res seal certainly helps his case. Like Maria, I recommend Dazzling pain as you dump his Atk stat. His native rehabilitate is also a satisfactory choice. Wrys may not be as terrible as he first appears, but the magical bulk just does his so few favors that a decent speed stat wouldn't also accomplish - as evidenced by Maria, Serra, Lucius, and even Mist to some extent. 3.5 out of 10. Ploys are a nice avenue for support, but you can get more out of a healer.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Glennstavos

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Maria:

2 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Maria - Before the healer rework, I felt like Maria was the best infantry healer. High speed, high res, and only 27 points of BST wasted on that useless ATK stat. Wrathful staff on infantry healers was really just a gimmick option. A skill better spent on the cav healers that could attain better stats with cav buffs. Nowadays, Maria faces stiffer competition from other infantry healers that actually do have Atk stats. It's somewhat viable to dump her attack stat, but she will want either Recover+ or Rehabilitate+ for her healing skill unless you really value Physic's 2 range. For an attacking skill, I think Pain+ with dazzling refinement may be best suited to her low attack and low physical bulk. I still think Maria is better than most other staff infantry thanks to the speed and res stat that allows for some ploys, but leagues below the cavalry healer options who can fight as well as support. 6 out 10. Still my infantry healer of choice, but has a lot more to prove now. 

I more or less agree with this and my rating for Maria is also 6/10.

Wrys:

4 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Wrys - A worse Maria. Though he he may appear to have serious magical bulk, being a two range unit makes that not matter when it comes to manaketes. Furthermore, his speed is so low that mages and healers doubling him will still get off considerable damage due to a staff unit's limited means of further increasing their defensive stats. Like Maria, I recommend Dazzling pain as you dump his Atk stat. His native rehabilitate is also a satisfactory choice. Wrys may not be as terrible as he first appears, but the magical bulk just does his so few favors that a decent speed stat wouldn't also accomplish - as evidenced by Maria and even Mist to some extent. 2.5 out of 10. Ploys are a nice avenue for support, but you can get more out of an infantry healer.

I also more or less agree with this and my rating for Wrys is a measly 2/10, he might just be the worst character in the game. 

[AndrewMcC00l]

Maria gets a 5/10. Staff users have a great buff, but Maria's low attack and being an infantry unit hold her back. She can tank magic very well, but there are other units who can do that and also fight back. Fortunately, staff skills can get pretty ridiculous even if the attack itself is doing 0 damage, and her Resistance lets her ploy well, so it's worth it to deck her out if she's your only one.

Wyrs: Read Maria's but replace "she" with "he," "Maria" with "Wyrs," and "her" with "his." He's a strong contender for the best base kit on a healer, although it can just be inherited onto a better one. 4.5/10 since getting doubled hurts his tankiness. Still, if you have no other staff users, take him with you and you'll be very glad you did.

Edited May 8, 2018 by AndrewMcC00l

[Zapp Branniglenn]

13 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Wrys:

I also more or less agree with this and my rating for Wrys is a measly 2/10, he might just be the worst character in the game. 

lol, I actually just buffed my score for Wrys from 2.5 to 3.5 because I remembered how I found even less to value from other healers such as Lissa, Lachesis and Mist. Lachesis' focus on atk matters more now, but I promoted her recently and have not been impressed. 

But really though, you've gotta have an open mind when talking about non-cav healers. And when they finally release a flying healer, I think it'll be all over for these little girls.

[Alexmender]

Maria, Michalis's little sister. She has a decent spread with above average Spd and Res which lets her survive hits from mages. As a healer she has access to powerful staff for disrupting the enemy. Her Atk is a little low so she'll fare better with a more utility based staff like Pain+ Gravity+ and Candlelight+, all with a Dazzling refine instead of Wrathful. 

Rating: 5.5/10

Wrys, one of the biggest meme characters of FEH alongside Bartre and Raigh. He has a mammoth Res stat but pales everywhere else. He can do chip damage with Pain+ and dual Savage Blow but this job is done better by Azama who has better mixed bulk so he's outclassed in that regard. He's nice if you need a Res sponge but otherwise there's very little going for him.

Rating: Meme/10 3/10

[LordFrigid]

Maria

• Magically bulky stat line with high Res, decent Spd, and low Atk and Def.
  • Poor combat matchups on both phases, but cannot be counterattacked on the player phase with the Dazzling weapon refinement (or actual Dazzling Staff).
• Powerful support options through healing, status infliction (depending on her chosen weapon), and ploy capability.

Overall, I give her 3.5 for combat (some combat capability against slower, low-Res foes, cannot be counterattacked on the player phase), and 3 for support (healing, status, ploys), for a total rating of 4/10.

Wrys

• Magically bulky stat line with very high Res and HP (for a healer), and poor Atk, Spd, and Def.
  • Poor combat matchups on both phases, but cannot be counterattacked on the player phase with the Dazzling weapon refinement (or actual Dazzling Staff).
• Powerful support options through healing, status infliction (depending on his chosen weapon), and ploy capability.

Overall, I give him 1 for combat (negligible combat capability, cannot be counterattacked on the player phase), and 3 for support (healing, status, ploys), for a total rating of 2/10.

~

Scoring criteria:

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. 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.

On 5/8/2018 at 1:59 PM, The Priest said:

Though no one posted the next round in my stead ...

I'll try to keep an eye out in the future, though the start time is 2 hours into the beginning of my workday, so no promises. In fact, it would definitely be at least 1 hour late. Edit: Well...except maybe tomorrow, if needed.

Edited May 17, 2018 by LordFrigid
Typo with Maria's combat score.

[NegativeExponents-]

All healers are capable of running dazzling pain+, wrathful staff, savage blow 6 combo, so they immediately get a 5/10 just from healer utility and strong AoE damage.

Maria: fast and can take a magic hit. Low attack but could pick off some low res units if need to. Fragile and would get OHKO by many physical units. 6/10

Wrys: Tied for highest base res in the game. unsalvageable atk and everything else really. 5.5 for magic wall and ploy usage but not much else.

[eclipse]

Maria - She starts with a Panic staff, which has its uses.  I prefer something like Fear/Slow, since I really like debuffing enemies.  She's pretty fast and somewhat magically tanky, so she can absorb a tome from an enemy.  Otherwise, she's not particularly interesting, other than having identical defensive stats to Priscilla.  5.5/10

Wrys - Hoo boy, he needs that Res (tied with a couple of seasonal armors for highest base in the game).  With it, he can run some pretty silly builds, like Slow and double Ploy.  Aligning everyone's a pain, though.  I consider +Res/-Spd to be one of his better combos, just for the stat shenanigans.  But other than that one gimmick build, he's not that noteworthy.  Lower Atk means that his staves won't heal as much.  2.5/10

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Draug 7
An unit I haven't build yet unfortunately, but I know about his potential of being a not ranged BK. His mediocre offense Can be equaled by ignus / bonfire (same as with Sheena). Combined with Wo Dao+ and quick Impulse he's really damn good. However that requires lots of ressources, so only a good and not very good rank.


Marth 6.5
In combat and as a support unit very solid overall.


Abel 5
As Cain he is outclassed but swordbreaker 3 makes him a very wanted unit for inheriting.


Jeorge 4.5
He's really average capwise. His skills are rather poor, but at least he gets a decent enough refine weapon. Definitely better than Gordin since darting blow can make him doubling stuff.


Barst 4.5
I Never bothered to build him because I prefer Cherches or my Gerome, but he has somewhat potential and reposition is an amazing assist skill.


Gordin 3
At the latest outclassed for being a bulky archer by WinterCorrin's existence. His skills are somewhat useful though.


Cain 3
He's not terrible but just outclassed by Other cavs. His skills aren't too great either.

Merric 1.5
Odin in green, just with much worse - even useless - skills. One of the worst units in the game.


Jagen 1 
He has decent res... The worst coloured unit imo.


Maria 5
A decent range healer. She's fast and tank mages somewhat. But miracle Can allow her to take a fatal physical hit. She's one of the better non mounted healers.


Wrys 2
His B skill saves him from being completly useless. Still decent fodder forhealers who don't have this skill.


Askr trio doesn't get a rating since I don't bother with it.
Same goes for Linde and Minerva since I haven't pulled them yet.

[Punished Dayni]

Both are theoretical, as they are not among the healers I have at 5*.

Maria: Well, Maria is a easy to damage healer. She's actually really fast, which makes her pretty reliable for an offensive mage with the right staff, though her Atk is pretty low at 27, which does limit her healing a little if you want a staff like Recover+. Her high Res also helps with her combat as well as potential for a role with ploys. The issue is that her combat's not all that great, she's easy to take out with physical attacks (If Alfonse can 1-shot you unassisted, you're frail in my book), and she needs a lot of inheritance to make work. So she's not great, but she's workable. I think that you can do better, but she can work... but I doubt she's worth much without some 5* investment. Doesn't help her default kit isn't all that good barring Physic, though Panic can be useful for emblem or tactic teams.

4/10, she could be good at 5*

Wrys: Man, he's both slow and weak, which is bad for him as a healer for the most part. The low Spd and Atk prevent him from being useful in combat and his low Def leaves him very exposed to physical attackers. There are things going for him though. He's got the highest Res of the healers, giving him the edge if you need someone for ploys. He's also got a great pool of HP which with some tinkering on his defence stat can make him pretty durable as well. He's not going to be as irritating as Azama, as Azama has more speed to prevent doubles and his defence is great among healers though. His default kit's also great, with Rehabilitate+ being a good staff if other units are badly hurt (not the best for everyone like before 2.0), Live to Serve being great for non-combat clerics and Heavenly Light being alright for a party heal, though not too useful. Slow also isn't great sadly.

3/10, Better healers exist, though he has some niche options.

[XRay]

I have adjusted my combat performance formula. I used to penalize losses by counting them against the wins, with two losses canceling out one win. I feel that still penalizes units too much for having losses, since they have teammates who can tackle those losses/enemies better. I have now adjusted it to four losses canceling out one win.

I think I may need to tweak around my rating system a bit more over the weekend since most units still fall within the 4.5 to 5.5 range.

I am a bit busy lately, so I will just be doing one today.

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.
Ease of Use:
This is an average of the mobility and range scores.
Player Phase Raw Performance:
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 Weighted Performance:
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.
(Raw Performance - 5) * 2 = Weighted Performance
Enemy Phase Raw Performance:
See Above.
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance:
See Above.
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. Independence will be based on the higher of Player Phase or Enemy Phase raw performance. The formula is this:
(Raw Performance without buffs) / (Raw Performance) = Independence
Support:
Most units by default will be 0/10. Units with 30+ Res start from 1/10. Healers start from 2/10. 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. For example, since Raven mages have a performance penalty, they will get some extra points here for being relevant and viable in certain team compositions.

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 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
Weighted Performance: 4/10 (The higher of Player Phase or Enemy Phase will be used.)
Independence: 1/10
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. Likewise, a unit's ease of use, support, and other criteria will not take into account the unit's raw performance build.
2. Since healers' Firesweep build [+Atk, Pain [Dazzling Staff], Attack +3, Wrathful Staff, Attack +3] requires the user to do two rounds of combat to measure how good it is, that overwhelmingly skews the combat results for healers, so I decided to tone down their performance by using Brazen Atk/Spd-Desperation and taking away 10 HP or 25% of max HP, which ever is greater.

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, 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.

Other:

Spoiler

Template

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

Mobility: /10
Range: /10
Ease of Use: /10
Player Phase Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Player Phase Weighted Performance: /10
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Enemy Phase Performance: /10 — #:#:#
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: /10
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal, #/#/#/#]
Independence: /10 — #:#:#
[+Boon, -Bane, Weapon, Special, A, B, Sacred Seal]
Support: /10
Other: /10

Familiarity/Experience: /10
Rating: /10

Summary:

 

— — — — — — — ●Maria● — — — — — — —

Mobility: 5/10
Range: 10/10
Ease of Use: 7.5/10
Player Phase Performance: 5.11/10 — 135:39:71
Player Phase Weighted Performance: 0.22/10
[+Spd, -Res, Slow [Dazzling], Brazen Atk/Spd, Wrathful Staff, Attack +3, 4/4/0/0]
Enemy Phase Performance: 0.21/10 — 25:79:141
Enemy Phase Weighted Performance: 0/10
[+Atk, -Res, Slow [Wrathful Staff] , Close Counter, Quick Riposte, Close Def, 4/4/#/#]
Independence: 8.6/10 — 181:56:8
[+Atk, -Res, Slow [Dazzling], Brazen Atk/Spd, Wrathful Staff, Attack +3]
Support: 3/10
Other: 10/10

Familiarity/Experience: 5/10
Rating: 4.5/10

Summary:

Since healers' Firesweep build [+Atk, Pain [Dazzling Staff], Attack +3, Wrathful Staff, Attack +3] requires the user to do two rounds of combat to measure how good it is, that overwhelmingly skews the combat results in favor of healers, so I decided to tone down their performance by using Brazen Atk/Spd-Desperation and taking away 10 HP or 25% of max HP, which ever is greater.

Maria's combat performance is pretty average. She, like any healer, is great with a Firesweep set, but she is kind of lackluster otherwise.

 

[Frosty]

Maria

Oh boy, where to begin; she's fast and has good RES. Physic staff is nice although her ATK stat is a bit shaky. Panic is good for screwing over Emblem teams. Since I mentioned she has good RES means it opens up Ploy Shenanigans. Nothing's funnier than a cute little Cleric ploying her opponents and Razzle Dazzling them to their doom.

Takes a lot of love to make her work but hey, she's not bad.

6/10

Wrys

All he has is high RES and mediocre to poor in everything else. He's handy for Ploys and Magic tanking though.

2.5/10

[LordFrigid]

Day 9

Caeda, Talys’s Heart

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
33/36/40
22/25/29
34/37/40
21/24/28
31/34/37

Base Skills:

Wing Sword
Rally Speed
( - )

Darting Blow 3
( - )
Fortify Fliers

Ogma, Loyal Blade

Spoiler

Max. Stats:
44/47/50
32/35/38
31/34/37
24/28/31
10/13/17

Base Skills:

Brave Sword+
( - )
Noontime

Defiant Atk 3
( - )
Spur Atk 3

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ceada - I have to abstain, as I'm still waiting on an optimal nature to promote. Before her Wing Sword, I had planned on giving a Ruby Sword to take advantage of her incredible speed. I really can't imagine how the wing sword performs with such low Atk and low Def.

Ogma - Ogma's stat spread is good in a vacuum, but he's totally outclassed by Hana and Soleil. And he also fails to eke out relevance with all those infantry swords and their fancy personal weapons. Ogma's got some nice physical bulk for a slaying sword build too, but he'd be competing with Alfonse and Laslow, and nobody can touch Hinata at that role. I have to rate Ogma a 4 out of 10. Feels harsh rating him that low when he's totally usable, but to rate him as high as "average" for a sword user would just be false. 

[Alexmender]

Caeda. The first thing that comes to the eye are her great Spd and Res stats which lets her abuse Ploy skills and duel dragons if she has her special ready. Before she was forced to run a Slaying Edge/Wo Dao build in order to do damage but now she has access to a Prf, the Wing Sword which turned Caeda from the worst red flier to one of the best in the game. The Wing Sword grants effective damage against cavalry and armor units, with the latter being extremely prevalent in arena this gives Caeda a niche as an armor killer but that's not all, the Wing Sword can be refined to have a Flashing Blade effect, which allows Caeda to charge her special faster if she has more Spd than her opponent which is a trivial requirement because Caeda is super fast. Caeda's main downside is her low Hp and Def which means she'll crumble against physical units, with archers spelling her doom if she can't avoid or ORKO them. All in all Caeda is a great investment and should not be overlooked even if her Atk stat looks quite low.

Rating: 8.5/10

Ogma. He is an interesting case, his stat spread is that of a great unit and yet he's barely used (I blame this on his art, those muscles look awful). He has a good offensive spread of 34/35 alongside a huge HP of 47 and a passable defense of 28 which means that he has both power and bulk and yet he finds himself outclassed by more specialized swords like Hana and Chrom/Laslow who focus on doing one role instead of trying to be a Jack of all Trades. This is only taking into account release swords, if we factor newer units like Athena, Mia, both Ikes and specially Ayra we find that Ogma hasn't aged very well in the great sword sea we find ourselves in. If you wish to invest in Ogma he'll work pretty well but know that there's a lot of better options than him.

Rate: 4.5/10.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Caeda: Caeda benefited heavily from her new Wing Sword and its refinement. Before that, she wasn't really anything of note, but now her low attack has been patched up a bit and she has an advantage over calvary and armors. Plus she has high speed and resistance, so mages aren't an issue and she isn't likely to be doubled too often. Her defense is still problematic, though, and her health doesn't help matters, she'll be annihilated by archers and stronger sword units. 7/10

Ogma:

1 hour ago, Alexmender said:

Ogma. He is an interesting case, his stat spread is that of a great unit and yet he's barely used (I blame this on his art, those muscles look awful). He has a good offensive spread of 34/35 alongside a huge HP of 47 and a passable defense of 28 which means that he has both power and bulk and yet he finds himself outclassed by more specialized swords like Hana and Chrom/Laslow who focus on doing one role instead of trying to be a Jack of all Trades. This is only taking into account release swords, if we factor newer units like Athena, Mia, both Ikes and specially Ayra we find that Ogma hasn't aged very well in the great sword sea we find ourselves in. If you wish to invest in Ogma he'll work pretty well but know that there's a lot of better options than him.

Rate: 4.5/10.

I basically agree with this and I'd rate Ogma a 5/10.

[Jingle Jangle]

Caeda:  7/10 Having her Wing Spear Sword helps out her match ups greatly. Also having good res and flashing blade refine makes her specials hit hard.Her downside is that she's frail and her lowish attack.

[Shiki]

Maria gets a 5.23, Wrys a 3.05.
Sorry about the late tallies and round announcements.

[LordFrigid]

Caeda

• Fast, magically bulky stat line with high Spd and Res, low HP and Def, and poor Atk.
  • Wing Sword (effective against cavalry and armored units) gives her a strong, highly useful combat niche in all score ranges. The effect refinement grants her an additional +1 special charge rate on her attacks when her Spd is higher than her enemies.
  • Strong green and decent red matchups on offense with a Wing Sword/Iceberg/Swift Sparrow set with Hone Fliers active, but cannot ORKO Myrrh. Sustainability option with Desperation, but hampered a little against non-cavalry/armored foes by the fact that she cannot guarantee a special activation for every round when in Desperation range. Takes a lot of damage from physical foes that can counterattack, but handles dragons well.
  • Strong green and decent red matchups on defense with a Wing Sword/Iceberg/DC set with Hone Fliers active, but can only KO Myrrh with Quick Riposte (not necessarily bad, since her B passive slot is pretty flexible anyway, and QR opens up options for very fast enemies). Sustainability option with Aether, but hampered a little by the lack of a one-round Iceberg activation. Takes a lot of damage from physical foes, but handles mages and dragons well.
• As a flier, she can run a flier field or combat buff in her C slot. She also has the Res to use Ploys (and in fact, greatly benefits from using Def Ploy to help her own matchups).

Overall, I give her 8.5 for combat (flier team assumed; strong green and decent red matchups on either phase, depending on which she is built for; large bonus for having a useful combat niche), and 1.5 for support (flier field/combat buffs, ploy capability), for a total rating of 8/10.

Ogma

• Offense-heavy stat line and good physical bulk with high Atk and HP, medium Spd and Def, and abysmal Res.
  • Strong green and shaky red matchups on offense with an Atk-stacking Brave Sword set with +4/4/0/0 buffs (enemies were given +3/3/6/3 buffs and various inheritance) and no breaker. Red matchups improve considerably with a -7 Def debuff added (Chill Def). Also capable of running a Firesweep Sword set, but requires Swordbreaker to net ORKOs on fast Sword foes.
  • Capable of running a defense-oriented set, but DC sets take massive damage from mages and dragons, and Steady Breath sets cannot counter at range (and still take massive damage from dragons). Neither set handles fast reds that focus on one-round special activations well.
• Cannot provide much team support beyond the standard C passive field or combat buff. Can potentially provide Chill Def debuff support.

Overall, I give him 7 for combat (strong green and decent red matchups with a Brave Sword set), and .5 for support (basic field/combat buff), for a total rating of 6.5/10.

~

Scoring criteria:

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. 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 May 9, 2018 by LordFrigid

[eclipse]

Caeda - She's fast, her sword gives her a nifty niche, and she's totally meant for a flying team.  Great for taking out the likes of Cecilia/Gunnthra/most other green units, but drops off otherwise.  Not even a super-effective sword can save her from her 25 base Atk.  6.5/10, because I remembered that Swift Sparrow exists.

Ogma - 35/34 offenses are decent.  Hana and Celica ties him in Atk and beats him on Spd, several people are within two points of his Atk but beat him in Spd, and Soliel beats him in both.  +Atk/-Spd makes him a formidable Brave Sword guy (and he conveniently comes with one, too!), while +Spd gives him several more options.  He has some physical defenses to his name, but he truly shines in HP.  Only the armors beat him, and of the rest of them, he has the best balance of offensive stats (Karel beats him by a single point in Spd but loses on Atk, Chrom wins on Atk and loses hard on Spd, Seliph's Atk is slightly lower and we don't talk about his Spd, and lolHinata).  His biggest issue is that he's stuck in a pool of units who specialize more in offense or defense, whereas he dabbles in both.  6/10

Edited May 10, 2018 by eclipse

[Silverly]

Wow these move so damn quickly. Guess I should make these shorter now

Caeda: The Wing Spear makes her what she is. Has great speed and impressive resistance, average HP with mediocre (though not terrible) defense. While her base attack is pretty attack is pretty pathetic at 25, she’s blessed with a superboon which cranks it to a manageable 29. Don’t forget the skills and flier buffs you can stack on her too! In a neat filled to the brim with armors and horses, Caeda has now made a name for herself and should not be overlooked. 8.5/10

Ogma: Caeda’s strongman is decent though he hasn’t stood the test of time as well as other launch date swordies like Hana or Lucina. His offenses remain solid, but his HP is bloated for nothing; his defense is better than average but not tank worthy, while his resistance is laughable. He just doesn’t stick out so much these days with other swordies coming in needing less work to be built and better min-maxed stats. Far from terrible, but he’s average these days. 5.5/10

Edited May 10, 2018 by SilvertheShadow