Path of Radiance Ratings (Part 4)

Nothing serious, just some units you pick up in Gallia.

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Marcia

Base Stats

LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
05/00  20  08  00  07  11  04  08  06

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
 55  40  20  50  55  40  25  30

Fun fact: I actually did the laguz and Fireman and was about to do Kevin when I wrote Marcia's rating.

Marcia joins you as your first flying unit, and unfortunately, she's quite underleveled. Not as underleveled as Rolf, per say, but she is still like 5 levels behind. As far as she goes, 8 str at base level is actually quite good (for a pegasus knight. Most pegs have, like, 4 or 5; looks at Caeda, Florina, and Vanessa), as is 11 speed, with respectable growths in both (40 str/55 spd). However, 20 HP/8 def is meh at best, and she is prone to getting 2HKO'd, and with 55 HP/25 def growths, it gets little better, and bow/ballistae weakness do not help at all. Her offense is decent; with an iron lance, she has 15 atk, which is 3-4HKOing most of the map (and is tinking knights); with 11 AS, she doubles and 2RKOs everything but the fighters and myrms at base (lol about the knights, she can't hurt 'em). However, she has better movement range than everyone and completely ignores terrain, so she isn't completely useless at base.

She is helpful in many maps because there is a lot of uneven terrain. Chapters 12 and 13 are closed off boats which Marcia laughs at, Chapter 14 has rivers, Chapter 15 is desert which fucks up everybody else's move (well, except Fireman and magic users), Chapter 17 has swamp for the same reason as Chapter 15, Chapter 20 has a cliff area with only one entrance, which means your units can easily get backlogged, Chapters 21 has more rivers, Chapter 23 has pitfall traps that she doesn't care about (watch out for ballistae unless she has the full guard), and Chapter 25 is basically a mountain that takes a long-ass time to even get to the top.

Her supports are also decent. She can support with Kieran and later Tanith; Rolf is also decent because he wants the atk. She has no business supporting Gatrie because she dwarves his mov by 3. I haven't really thought of skills, but Wrath is decent enough, never mind that several other units want the scroll.

She gets a...

9.5/10

Support suggestion: Tanith A/Kevin B for starters. Rolf is alright I suppose.
Band suggestion: Her str and HP could use some working, so I recommend fighter.


Lethe

Base Stats

LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
--/03  34  12  04  10  12  15  09  07

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
130  50  05  65  70  50  40  25

RD Lethe really should've taken notes from PoR Lethe. She's better in PoR, but that isn't saying much.

Lethe's earlygame is above average. She has transformation issues, but she does transform on the first turn, so she can immediately pull her weight. Fully transformed, she has 26 atk/15 AS on offense and 34 HP/14 def/45 avo on defense. This completely blows pretty much everyone you have out of the water. For a point of reference, Ike doesn't match her attack or defense until he's promoted, and doesn't hit 15 AS until he's 15/0. Not attacking half the time sucks, but still, she one rounds everything except armors and promoted mooks while getting 5RKO'd at worst. And that's more than what I can say for a lot of units.

Ok, downsides. First off, her offense falls behind really quickly as your beorcs catch up. Being unable to attack half the time is a huge problem mid-lategame, and if she wants to attack full time, she requires the demi band, and that has the side effect of halving her transformation bonuses. This hurts her attack significantly, especially considering that around promotion time, most beorcs can use steel weapons without losing AS. Suppose she's Lv9 by Chapter 18. With the demi band equipped, she has 26 atk/18 AS. Zihark at 20/1 using a steel sword loses atk by 2, but wins AS by 4 and has more crit. Forget comparing her to units like Boyd who has like 5 more atk and only loses AS by 3. Without forges, her attack remains poor for the rest of the game. On defense, she has 42 HP/14 def/54 avo. That same Zihark loses HP by 7 and def by 2, but has a double digit lead in avoid thanks to supports.

Lethe's problems only get worse as you head into lategame, when silvers become available at the armory and beorcs are starting to finish building their supports. By this point, Lethe has basically passed her expiry date; --/20 Lethe has 35 atk. Beorcs only need ~20 str with a silver weapon to match that, and most units can reach that really easily (hell, 20/8 Boyd can match that with a steel axe).

Her support affinity isn't as good as Mordy's (lol heaven), and none of her supporters need hit that badly. Her best supports are with Jill and Muraim (Ike wants A Soren/B Oscar, and Ranulf joins in Chapter 23) because she would like the def. As for skills, I suppose she makes good use of Resolve and/or Wrath thanks to her relatively high HP. However, don't waste one of your occults on her since Roar is a piece of shit in PoR and is a waste of time.

Plenty of use early on, but after Chapter 17, bench time. Unless you have a catgirl fetish or something.

7/10

Support suggestion: Only viable supports are Jill and Muraim. Heaven sucks anyway.
Band suggestion: Anything for str, I guess? Her stats are OK as far as I'm concerned. After you get it, demi.



Mordecai

Base Stats

LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES 
--/02  41  15  02  08  08  10  13  06

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
150  65  00  55  50  40  40  20

Thought Lethe's earlygame was good? Wait until you see Mordy.

His transformed attack is ridiculous. He has 31 atk at base, which no beorc can hope to match until after promotion. Which means that despite his poor 11 AS, he is going to be 2HKOing (some weaker dudes get OHKO'd lol) everything in his starting chapter except the boss (he still 3HKO's Danomill), and if he doubles, it is an automatic ORKO. Ridiculous. With a 65% strength growth, his attack will remain good even at lategame and demi band's transform nerf. His speed mid-lategame is indeed a problem, but even without a wing, Lv10 Mordy hits 15 AS with demi band, which is borderline on things like soldiers and fighters.

Defensively, he's likely your most durable unit at this point with 41 HP/16 def at base. To give out an idea, he takes 5 damage or less from every enemy on his starting map except the boss, who does 12. He's monstrous. Even untransformed, it takes a while before he finally dies. With 150 HP/40 def growths, this more or less continues for the whole game.

Supports? Well, he's water affinity, increasing his already ridiculous atk and def. He also supports with two people of the water affinity, and is one of Stefan's only two supporters. Go see Lethe about what skills are good for him, but I should mention innate Smite, which lets him shove a unit two spaces, and because of his massive build, can shove any foot unit untransformed, and once transformed, can do the same to mounts. Smite is also incredibly useful in Chapters 13 and 22.

8/10

Support suggestion: He honestly couldn't give a shit who he supports. Stefan A/Mist B is good enough.
Band suggestion: Anything with spd/skl. Mordy's HP, str, and def are overkill as it is. Once you get it, demi.


Volke

Base Stats

LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES 
10/00  25  12  00  13  13  07  07  03

Growths

MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
 65  50  05  55  65  35  20  10

Volke, the first of two thieves, and the better of the two, since the other one just blows giant elephant cock. Badly.

His starting stats aren't too bad. 13 speed allows him to double anything that isn't a myrmidon or a boss, and 25 HP/7 def is respectable enough durability against most things. What makes him mediocre at combat is his atk. 12 base str is good, but his starting weapon (a knife) only has 2 might, for a total of 14 atk. However, being a thief isn't really about combat, it's more or less about the utility that comes from being a thief. Let's see the chapters in which he's useful for stealing/picking, given some training.
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Volke's Swag List:

C=Chest item
S=Stolen item
H=Hidden item

Chapter 10
Statue frag, Short axe, Steel lance, Javelin, Counter (all C)

Chapter 11
Laguzslayer (S)

Chapter 13
Killer bow, Laguz axe, Elfire, Longsword, Occult, Energy drop, Speedwing (all C)

Chapter 15
Guard, Silver blade, Physic, Statue frag, White gem, Boots, Coin x3 (all H)

Chapter 16
Silver lance, Ashera icon, Full guard, Dracoshield, Bolting, Physic (all C)

Chapter 17
Physic (S)

Chapter 18
Silence, Wrath, Recover (all C)

Chapter 20
Physic (S)

Chapter 21
Thoron, Talisman, Energy drop, Brave sword, Stiletto, Corrosion, Parity, Master seal (all C), Sleep x2 (S), Physic (S)

Chapter 22
Spirit dust, Nosferatu, Silver bow, Sleep, Tomahawk, Bolganone (all C), Killer axe (S), Physic (S)

Chapter 23-24
Physic x3 (S), Short axe (S)

Chapter 26
Physic x2 (S), Sleep (S), Short axe (S), Short spear/Killer lance (S), Spear (S)

Chapter 27
Bolganone, Resolve, Laguz axe, Fortify, Spear, Silver lance, Physic (all C), Physic x3 (S), Sleep (S), Silence (S), Brave lance/Spear (S)

Chapter 28
Bolting (S), Sleep (S), Silence (S)

While there are several rare items in Endgame, Berserk Ashnard makes it too risky.

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So he's rather useful for nabbing some pretty rare items, but combat wise, he's pretty crap. The problem is not his growths (50 str/65 spd is actually quite good), but the fact that his weapons have shitty might. His strongest weapon (a stiletto) only has 8 might, and he doesn't even get that until Chapter 21. So basically, he's doubling but can't do a whole lot of damage. Even after his latish promotion, his atk isn't too great. We are looking at 24 atk at 20/1 with a dagger, which is laughable compared to the rest of the team. A 23 str cap doesn't help him any, either. And don't think that his mastery skill will help him either. Lethality has a terrible proc rate (lolcrit/2), doesn't work on bosses, and requires that you waste an occult that a superior combatant (e.g. Ike, Boyd, or any of your paladins) could have used.

I forgot to mention, he's wind and only supports Bastian, who is also Wind and is one of the worst units in FE9.

So all in all, I'll give him a 9.5/10 for his thieving and a 4.5/10 for his combat for an average of...

7/10

Support suggestion: Lolwut?
Band suggestion: He really doesn't need anything. But if you insist, give him a priest/peg band.

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Part 3
Part 5

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Have a nice day.