Who were some of your first benched units?

[BriForABri]

One of the biggest parts of the Fire Emblem series that I love is the sheer variety of characters that are given to the player. Each game has a wide selection of characters who not only have different personalities, but also have different banes and boons, just like in real life! However, as we all now, quantity does not necessarily equal quality. Due to certain stats, growth rates, or perhaps personal preference, some units in a Fire Emblem game may never experience the thrill of combat and are thus confined to the "bench" that we all know and love.

I ask you all to take a trip down memory lane and think about some of the first ever units you have benched. What about them made you want to send them to the bench so that you may never have to see their faces again? Would you try and use them again if you replayed a certain FE game?

As for me, I remember my introduction to the series back when I first played Sacred Stones. If you think I benched Amelia, you would be wrong. Some of the first units I ever benched included Ross and Moulder. While I did enjoy some of their differing support conversations, I never found myself using either of them, even after replays of the game. I always to Ross to be inferior to his father, and Moulder was almost immediately robbed by Natasha of all of his staves when I recruited Natasha. I did this simply because I found Natasha to be a MUCH more interesting character (ex-Grado priest who knows about the Vigard's true desires regarding the Sacred Stones). Not only that, considering you get Saleh and L'Arachel later (in an already very easy FE game), I NEVER found myself needing him. The benching of these units continues no matter how many times I replay Sacred Stones. And as for the two pegasus knights you get (Tana and Vanessa), I have benched both of them across many playthroughs, but Tana was sent there first.

[Slumber]

Wil was likely the first unit I ever actively de-selected for a chapter. I used to think Rath was awesome, and right off the bat I hated how bows worked. So when I had a cool bow user, lamer Wil got put right on the bench. I think Florina was right behind him.

I eventually learned my mistake with Florina, but 12 year old me was right on the money with Wil.

[DiogoJorge]

Marcus, I guess. When I started, it was on normal Eliwood, so I had little need for him other than to soften enemies, so once that became unecessary, I would bench him around chapter 15. I still bench him, except I do it later rather than earlier on harder difficulties on chapter 21.

[JimmyBeans]

With my first game being Radiant Dawn, I was in awe with all the cool characters that showed up (especially bk) and as a kid I saw Meg and when she first showed up and I remember being pretty disgusted with her because I was a horrible person and a brat. In short I hated her so much that I went to the next level of benching and took her sword away and fed her to those Laguz tiger bandits in the first level you get to use her I kept playing and never looked back........

Other than that I benched every prepromote in the first part because I'm a noob.

[Cute Chao]

Probably Florina, since FE7 was my first. She was made of tissue and I didn't like that. I never really missed her, either, but I also never really played on hard mode. 

I did replay and use her other times, but only for support. I prefer her sisters, honestly. 

I used Wil until the end, though. I just adore his character. Lyndis' Legion remains my favourite group :D 

[henrymidfields]

With my first FE Game (FE6), it was:

• Lugh from Chapter 8, as Lilina generally had better firepower, doubling around this point in the game was generally difficult even with Lugh (or outright situational with generally anyone that is not Rutger, Dieck, or Marcus) anyway, and accuracy for Anima magic was also high enough anyway.
• Wolt, as Sue and Shin were Bow-users that were the closest to being game-breaking.
• Chad from Chapter 8, as Thieves back then could not be promoted, and Astor had better starting stats.
• Marcus from Chapter 14 onwards: Chapter 14 is one of the few chapters where mounted units get a huge disadvantage. In addition, as the Jeigan archetype, Marcus becomes redundant once your other units get promoted, and there's Perceval from Chapter 15 which is a better Jeigan.

Edited January 13, 2019 by henrymidfields

[The Roger The Paladin]

Rath would be my first. I have a bias on Wil, and never bothered to use Rath, seeing as I already had a bow user. No regrets.
Next would be Bartre. I figured with Dorcas being already somewhat trained from his part in Lyn mode, Bartre was just unneeded, a point that became more felt when Hector came in next chapter. Then when Lyn, Kent, Sain and Wil returned I asked "what use is having Rebecca, Lowen, Marcus (who was losing steam) and Guy (seeing as Lyn was practically a Myrmidon)?" After that, I benched Raven because I had enough swords in my opinion.

[Von Ithipathachai]

Matthis, mainly because he kind of failed to do anything that Cain and Abel couldn't do already and better.

[deskita]

Stahl, Virion and Frederick were some of my first benched units and while I do now sometimes use Frederick as the back of a pair up. Stahl and Virion are seldom if ever used by me.

[Zoryou]

Fe7: Fiora and Rebeca because i got Florina and Will  already,  Dorcas, Bartre and Dart, because i just dont like they. Marcus in hard mode, not necesary anymore. Wallace because i got to Geitz route. Heath, got better units at this point. 

Fe6: Wolt Dorothy and Shin, i prefer Sue and Klein.   The knights and generals are eww....   Cecilia Marcus, Zealot , Garret and Douglas have nothing to do here... 

Fe10: Meg, Fiona and the normal laguz... ¿Why are they in the game? And Tormod you leave and appear in the end game at low level.

Edited January 11, 2019 by Zoryou

[TheWildestCat]

Fe13: Virion, and Frederick. I use Frederick to help get a child unit with Luna and I don't even pair Virion. As soon as I get Noire I bench Virion. Just why do they only give you one archer. 

Fe14: Odin, and Niles but of course they have amazing child units forcing you to use them. 

Fe15: Boey and Luthier. I don't know if it's bad RNG but I can't hit with Boey. And you have Kliff and Delthea making Luthier kind of bad, but at least he comes with Crit-Caliber. I swear I always crit with that move. 

[Ertrick36]

Since the first time I played FE was Awakening and I did a lot of grinding, the reality is that the first bench I made wasn't actually for the first game I played.

I believe it was either New Mystery or Fates that I played next where I benched someone.  In either of those games, the first characters I benched were:

• New Mystery - Warren and Matthis; the former because there are better bow users, and the latter because there are obviously a whole lot of better cavaliers.  Of course reclass was a thing in this game, but I wasn't about to crack the secrets of optimization for every character on my first playthrough.  And let's just say I find a pair of archer brothers who both look like shotas and the training buddies I came to know and love in the prologue much more appealing than some random idiot in the forest that I have to risk one of the best units in the game to get and a spineless coward (and also idiot) who doesn't have the balls to fight back whenever someone gives him an order.
• Fates - Either Subaki or Setsuna; the idea of a male pegasus rider was a novel idea that was only ever employed in the original Mystery of the Emblem, but Subaki just wasn't all that great.  As for Setsuna, I maybe made some attempt to use her, but abandoned her as soon as I got Takumi.  He's just a better character, and is generally more useful to me.

If I had to pick some units from Awakening that... maybe I used less, I'd say Stahl, Vaike, and maybe Virion, all for a lot of the reasons other people have said.  But everyone got a round in on the grinding stone at some point in that game.  And maybe they did in Fates too, though Fates' progression feels a lot more limited so it just doesn't feel like it'd count as me using them.

[Shadow Mir]

Fates (Conquest): Arthur, because axe infantry are already jokes, and he's one of, if not the worst yet. In layman's terms, he's the living embodiment of Russian Roulette thanks to his nonexistent luck, and he also has a shit tier personal that does nothing but make things worse. It's gotten to the point where I don't bother to marry him off to anyone, because I'm spiteful like that.
Charlotte, because she's also one of the worst axe infantry to ever disgrace a Fire Emblem title. To be more exact, her problem is that she's pigeonholed into the role that a myrmidon would likely find themselves in (that being a squishy melee unit that struggles to stay alive on the frontlines) - though it could be that the nerf to hand axes has something to do with that. It does not help her case that she comes underleveled, nor does it that she faces competition from Camilla.
Silas, aka most underwhelming cavalier evar. And let's just say I find his daughter infinitely more appealing.
Odin and Niles, because the former doesn't specialize in anything (important, at least), and the latter only has two stats I can count on to be good (those being speed and resistance), which is not a good thing either.

[KevinskyHaaz]

Shadow Dragon - Jagen and Gordin (I hate Jagen and Gordin just sucks)

New Mystery - Rody (Luke is basically Sain while Rody is Kent, so I had to)

Holy War - Noishe (just kinda felt like it) oh and Azel because he was too slow and this is Horse Emblem

Thracia - Eyvel (she benched herself lol) and Marty (poor boy), I actually really love Tanya surprisingly 

Sealed Sword - Wolt (ew), Bors (ew), and Marcus (I refuse to use old men, they need to rest)

Blazing Sword - Florina and Dorcas? Too long ago for me to remember but I'm pretty sure my 5-6 year old self didn't like them

Sacred Stones - Franz (you already have Seth!)

Path of Radiance - I was so close to dropping Soren, thank god I didn't, but I did lose Mia after a few seconds of contemplation

Radiant Dawn - Everyone except Micaiah, Nolan, Illyana, and Sothe (NEED I EXPLAIN???)

Awakening - Stahl (he wants a nap) and Kellam and Frederick (both extremely boring characters)

Fates (I played Conquest, wasn't a fan so I just watched the others... But in Conquest) - Camila (I HATE THIS STUPID OVERRATED NONSENSICAL ONE DIMENSIONAL MONSTER THAT PEOPLE CALL A CHARACTER.... Ahem. Moving on.)

Echoes - Python (he just wants to sleep guys, seriously), and Kamui (not as cool as Leon and Valbar) oh and Atlas (does he have an arc?)

[ArgentSable]

First to ever bench was Frederick followed by Stahl. I used Sully, and Fred boi sucked up exp (I recognized this rather early when I saw the difference in XP gain). After that, I played all the older ones, and aside from lunatic runs I tended to bench all the Jagen archetypes early on, and I always benched 1 of the 2 Cain-Abel archetype cavalry units (I still do. I can never balance XP gain between the two)

[BriForABri]

I don't know if it is just my personal preference or just the sheer amount of characters you get in Binding Blade, but I think I benched more characters in that game than I did in Path of Radiance, Genealogy of the Holy War, and Sacred Stones combined. And I always had the perfect amount of good units to use! I never found myself needing to pick someone off of the bench in a time of need. Even after 2 hard mode playthroughs (I broke one of the Crusader weapon-things), I always had a ridiculously large bench and still managed to beat the game just fine. 

In all honesty, I feel like I just picked one unit from the little bundles of units you get and just bench the others. For example, from Roy's starting party, Marcus, Lance, Alan and Wolt, I always ended up using Lance and benching everyone else (Wolt was terrible, Alan was the stereotypical benched Christmas cavalier, and Marcus just cannot compete with Percival). Further still, when I recruited Deke's mercenary group (Deke, Loto, Wade, and Shanna) I seemingly always used Deke and ended up benching the other members (I tried to use Shanna and Loto, but to no avail, and Wade never saw the light of a battle again)!

Try as I might, I could never escape the fate of having a bench the size of three other FE games combined.

[Ertrick36]

2 hours ago, FE_McFly said:

I don't know if it is just my personal preference or just the sheer amount of characters you get in Binding Blade, but I think I benched more characters in that game than I did in Path of Radiance, Genealogy of the Holy War, and Sacred Stones combined.

tbf, you can field every unit you get in Genealogy, so it's not like you're forced to drop people.

PoR has a sizeable cast, but doesn't it also allow you to field more units than per average FE game (usually around 12-16 units)?

Sacred Stones just has a small cast.  Definitely the smallest playable cast out of all the GBA games.

Honestly, your experience with Binding Blade seems like a perfectly normal FE playthrough.  Shadow Dragon, Mystery of the Emblem, Binding Blade, Blazing Sword, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, and Fates: Revelation all have casts that are at least three times the size of their usual deploy limits.  So naturally you're going to be foregoing around two-thirds of their characters so that you can build a proper team.

Though I mostly interpreted this thread as more about which units I immediately looked at and thought "there's no way in hell I'm using you", I know I've had to bench tons of units, good and bad.  I had to put away such notable units as Navarre, Draug, Jakob, and Felicia because I had to make room for units I preferred more.  And this isn't counting the challenge runs I'd do, just the natural course of me playing a game for the first time.

4 hours ago, ArgentSable said:

First to ever bench was Frederick followed by Stahl. I used Sully, and Fred boi sucked up exp (I recognized this rather early when I saw the difference in XP gain). After that, I played all the older ones, and aside from lunatic runs I tended to bench all the Jagen archetypes early on, and I always benched 1 of the 2 Cain-Abel archetype cavalry units (I still do. I can never balance XP gain between the two)

Kind of the same, tbh.

Though I used the living hell out of Oifaye in Genealogy.  I love that mustached monster of arms.

I know a lot of people say that Jeigans are great, but I do find some charm in building up a team instead of just charging through with, like, a Seth or whatever.

[ArgentSable]

5 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

tbf, you can field every unit you get in Genealogy, so it's not like you're forced to drop people.

PoR has a sizeable cast, but doesn't it also allow you to field more units than per average FE game (usually around 12-16 units)?

Sacred Stones just has a small cast.  Definitely the smallest playable cast out of all the GBA games.

Honestly, your experience with Binding Blade seems like a perfectly normal FE playthrough.  Shadow Dragon, Mystery of the Emblem, Binding Blade, Blazing Sword, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, and Fates: Revelation all have casts that are at least three times the size of their usual deploy limits.  So naturally you're going to be foregoing around two-thirds of their characters so that you can build a proper team.

Though I mostly interpreted this thread as more about which units I immediately looked at and thought "there's no way in hell I'm using you", I know I've had to bench tons of units, good and bad.  I had to put away such notable units as Navarre, Draug, Jakob, and Felicia because I had to make room for units I preferred more.  And this isn't counting the challenge runs I'd do, just the natural course of me playing a game for the first time.

Kind of the same, tbh.

Though I used the living hell out of Oifaye in Genealogy.  I love that mustached monster of arms.

I know a lot of people say that Jeigans are great, but I do find some charm in building up a team instead of just charging through with, like, a Seth or whatever.

Yeah same. I like building them. Oifey I used a fair bit in Genealogy. Though it had to do with Oifey being super useful in the game since cavalry pretty much ruled the game (and surviving onslaughts was rather hard when I removed a mobile monster like Oifey.

[indigoasis]

I used all of the characters in SoV except Nomah. I didn't see the point in using him since my other units were so much better (especially so since I had grinded them up).

I don't quite think sacrificing a character counts as benching, or maybe it does, but I sent Jagen off in Shadow Dragon's prologue. I didn't see the point in using a unit that I would ultimately end up benching anyway. Others include Bord (outclassed), Darros (WAY outclassed), and Matthis (already have three more viable cavaliers available). I think I also ended up benching Gordin since Castor was working out better for me anyway. I'm still kind of in the early game, so I haven't gotten too far yet, but I'm getting there. Slowly.

 

[BriForABri]

9 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

tbf, you can field every unit you get in Genealogy, so it's not like you're forced to drop people.

PoR has a sizeable cast, but doesn't it also allow you to field more units than per average FE game (usually around 12-16 units)?

Sacred Stones just has a small cast.  Definitely the smallest playable cast out of all the GBA games.

Honestly, your experience with Binding Blade seems like a perfectly normal FE playthrough.  Shadow Dragon, Mystery of the Emblem, Binding Blade, Blazing Sword, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, and Fates: Revelation all have casts that are at least three times the size of their usual deploy limits.  So naturally you're going to be foregoing around two-thirds of their characters so that you can build a proper team.

Though I mostly interpreted this thread as more about which units I immediately looked at and thought "there's no way in hell I'm using you", I know I've had to bench tons of units, good and bad.  I had to put away such notable units as Navarre, Draug, Jakob, and Felicia because I had to make room for units I preferred more.  And this isn't counting the challenge runs I'd do, just the natural course of me playing a game for the first time.

You are totally right about the FE games I mentioned. Given that Sacred Stones and Genealogy have such small rosters, the amount of benched units would definitely be smaller. And since Path of Radiance was the first 3D Fire Emblem game with some pretty huge maps, they had to provide some form of balance in terms of deployment numbers. I guess Intelligent Systems was just trying new things, but I never really liked how roster sizes throughout each game have changed so much. Like, as you said, Genealogy has a cast so small that you can literally deploy every unit, but then Thracia changes that by having a pretty sizable roster (at least compared to its prequel). And then you bring in the drastic roster size differences across the GBA games you mentioned. Because I started with Sacred Stones, played Binding Blade later, and then Genealogy after that, my bench size saw a natural rise and decline across each game (small roster, large roster, and then small again). So I guess, depending on who you ask and what games they have played, one could say they benched a lot of units, while another person could say they benched little.

I suppose I could have been more specific when writing my proposed question, lol. Your interpretation was correct, but I guess I was focusing more on benching units due to other units being potentially better stat-wise. But I am in the same boat as you. I have had many a playthrough of whichever Fire Emblem game where I simply didn't want to use a character because of their design, personality, whatever. I also have had my fair share of runs where I had to bench units I like. For example, I really wanted to use Diermuid in Genealogy and Thracia, but there were simply better units who filled his role much better (Oifey in FE4 and Fergus in FE5). Somehow, I was able to use both Jakob and Felicia (both are two of my favorite characters in the Fates saga) but eventually, Felicia fell behind. So, you are definitely right about having to possibly bench some of the units you like. 

[Rapaille]

Miriel is character that I have always benched on every playthrough that I did of Awakening. The funny part is that she's actually really good (at least that's what I've heard) and most of the time I will always use good units even if I don't like them. But Miriel is unfortunate enough to appear in a game that simply isn't friendly to most units. Normal mode is hilariously easy so use whoever you want, it hardly matters. Hard is a bit more difficult but easily managable if you know what you're doing (with which I mean beat the game with only Robin (f), Chrom, Frederick & Sumia). Lunatic on the other hand makes the game way harder and makes almost all units unviable. Miriel is probably better then most units in this because of rescue so maybe my lunatic playthrough will change my outlook on her (or maybe not).

[Hanes]

The first unit I benched? Well FE15 as limitless until endgame so my first experience has to be 7 and benched as in did it on purpose was actually Rebecca :P How ironic.

[DarthR0xas]

FE1: Cord and Bord, they were the first to be benched

FE2: No one

FE3: Haven't played enough of

FE4: No one

FE5: That one horse axe dude, the one in the Manster Escape sequence, and Marty.

FE6: Lance and Red-Head. I've only played this game in draft form and I've never gotten these chaps.

FE7: Wallace, or whatever that general dude's name was in Lyn's mode was the first dude I actively benched, followed by Rebecca and Lowen.

FE8: Vanessa, who to this day I still have yet to actually use.

FE9: Oscar, not really a big fan of him

FE10: Leonardo, Meg, Edward once Zihark shows up, and any laguz. Also Heather, and Brom, as well as Rolf.

FE11: Everyone not named Marth or Jagen.

FE12: Haven't played

FE13: Sully, never liked her so she was quick to be benched

FE14 BR: Subaki

FE14 CQ: Elise, although I ended up regretting that hard since I didn't have an endgame healer except for that Elise who I barely promoted at level 10 and was as thin as tissue paper. That wasn't the only stupid thing I did on this playthrough. What can I say, it was my first FE game.

FE14 RV: Anyone who isn't a royal or named Felicia.

FE15: No one

FE Warriors: Hinoka, Lissa, and Robin. Basically only used as pair-up bots for the skills and items.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, DarthR0xas said:

FE14 CQ: Elise, although I ended up regretting that hard since I didn't have an endgame healer except for that Elise who I barely promoted at level 10 and was as thin as tissue paper. That wasn't the only stupid thing I did on this playthrough. What can I say, it was my first FE game.

I dunno whether to be amazed or put off that Conquest was your first game...

3 hours ago, DarthR0xas said:

FE Warriors: Hinoka, Lissa, and Robin. Basically only used as pair-up bots for the skills and items.

I'm not sure I would've mentioned Warriors here... anyway, imo, Lissa's one of the only two good axe users in Warriors (the other being Frederick) - Camilla and Minerva both have issues, including, but not limited to, poor ability to combat officers.

[Tuvy]

Playing FE7 for the first time, I remember I benched:

Marcus, Rebecca, Lowen, Guy, Legault, Isadora, Nino, and Serra. I know I benched every pre-promote (I might have used Vaida.). I probably benched more though.

I usually bench Jeigans (unless they are Oifey).