Friday 17 July 2015

Path of Radiance Ratings (Part 7)

"The sand is nice and dry today..."

- Sir Crocodile, One Piece Chapter 178.

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Stefan

Base Stats
LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
--/08  38  19  08  27  25  05  12  09

Growths
MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
 70  50  20  40  55  25  30  25

Remember Karel from FE7? Imagine him, but give him better offensive bases and make his recruitment one of the biggest guide dang its in the series.

In all seriousness, his base stats are retarded. 25 base AS will double basically everything this game has to offer besides really really fast things, and a 55% spd growth more or less ensures that he can double even those enemies. Add to that, he has 19 str, which gives him 31 atk with the Vague Katti (never mind that he's the only unit that can use it for a very long time), and has 63 base crit with it. Ridiculous. Even with something like a steel sword, he has 27 atk, and it keeps going up thanks to his 50% str growth. And even if he can't one round something, he still has Astra to make up for it. WTF IS? You first give us all these weak-ass first tiers (from Chapter 9-16), then you put in a prepromote who simply spits in their faces like forever. Defensively, he could be a bit better. 38 HP/12 def is about average, and 55 avoid isn't too bad either.

What prevents him from being as brutally overpowered as, say, Boyd or Oscar is that he doesn't have 2 range options other than the highly-competed for Sonic and Rune Swords (and it's not like he's doing much with them, lol 8 magic). So basically, while the aforementioned units are tearing things apart with hand axes/javelins, respectively, Stefan easily gets mugged by mages and archers. Also, many enemies later on will have significant critical on him due to his absolutely piss luck. And I'm not talking about the dudes that may have 1-3 crit on him. Swordmasters and snipers all pose a significant threat to him since he's usually getting 3HKO'd, and a crit will easily finish him. You might want to give him a few Ashera icons if you really are paranoid.

Supports, eh? He's heaven, but both of his supports increase atk, so that's cool. He also doesn't need help with skills since Astra is decent enough already (though, like I said earlier, it isn't as good as it was in FE4, where it activated off skill and didn't halve damage.)

So basically, he's good the whole game after he joins thanks to his overkill offense. His rating:

8/10

Support suggestion: Mordy A/Soren B is about the best he can hope for. At least he ain't Fireman.
Band suggestion: Anything with luck.


Tormod

Base Stats
LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
07/00  20  02  10  09  09  08  04  09

Growths
MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
 50  20  45  40  45  35  25  45

In chapter 15, you get this unit named Stefan, and we all know that he rips the face off everything. But then we get to this game's 'Est', Tormod.

His stat spread is decent for the level he's at, but that's the problem, since he is very underleveled when you get him. He has 9 speed at base (8 AS w/ Fire or Thunder), which IIRC, was good back in Chapters 7 and 8, not fucking Chapter 16. In other words, he's not doubling anything except armors, and is in real danger of getting doubled himself. At least he hits decently hard thanks to his 10 mag and his attacks hitting res, though 14 atk with Thunder is unimpressive. And his durability is absolutely atrocious. 20 HP/4 def is what base Sothe has (and god forbid your using Sothe as a combat unit), and considering quite a few enemies in his first five maps can reach 24 atk (the amount needed to OHKO him at base), you really need to watch his ass.

He does improve somewhat thanks to his decent growth spread. 45 mag/45 spd is about average compared to other magic users in this game, and his durability woes don't disappear either. lol 50 HP, lol 25 def. However, what sets him apart from other magic users is that Tormod comes with Celerity, which means than any movement problems that mages (READ: Soren) might have don't apply to him. However, in order to abuse his growths, he needs around 400-500 points worth of BEXP to function properly, and considering that you may have used up a lot of it on Marcia/Neph/Jill/Astrid, that's a very tall order. And because of his poor level, he's promoting quite late; like Ch19 at the earliest.

Tormod is fire affinity, and all his supports save Sothe give full atk. His best supports overall are with Calill and Raisin/Devdan (Sothe is wind and sucks as a unit). He doesn't really need skills, but you can give him Adept or Wrath if you like.

TL;DR: Tormod is pretty bad here, but he's god compared to what he's like in RD.

3.5/10

Support suggestion: Calill A, maybe? Raisin and Danved can try their luck, and lol Sothe.
Band suggestion: He can really use the mage or paladin bands. A soldier band couldn't hurt either.


Muraim

Base Stats
LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
--/09  45  16  04  13  15  03  12  05

Growths
MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
145  70  05  70  55  35  60  45

Muraim is Tormod's bodyguard and a former laguz slave. Also, he's easier on your CEXP and BEXP budget than Tormod (not that it matters).

If you thought Stefan was ridiculous, Muraim is arguably even more so. There aren't words that explain how good is offense is at base. 32 atk transformed is basically killing everything he touches in two hits, and while 18 AS isn't as broken as 25 AS, he still doubles everything on the map due to how much enemy AS fails in PoR. Even with the demi band, he has 29 atk and 17 AS. And with 70 str/55 spd, this continues for the whole game. And let's not get to his durability; 45 HP/15 (14) def with 145/60 growths is above average at this point in the game (and 45% res is good for a laguz, as well). And gauge isn't even an issue for him since he comes with a demi band.

It's actually pretty funny to see how similar Muraim is to Mordy. At --/4, Mordy has -1 HP, -6 speed, and +2 Def on base Muraim while tying str. The one pro that Mordy has is that he's been helping out since Chapter 10, but Muraim has a massive edge in speed (it takes Mordy until Lv15 to reach Muraim's speed base). Also, Mordy's support pool and affinity are better than Muraim's.

As for any supports, A Zihark is totally recommended, with Lethe as a secondary. He doesn't come with any skills, but he makes great use of Resolve and/or Adept. Again, Roar is crap. Don't burn an Occult on him.

His rating:

8.5/10

Support suggestion: Zihark A, and he's good to go, I guess.
Band suggestion: He doesn't need any help with stats, so Demi band, anyone?


Devdan

Base Stats
LVL   MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
--/04  36  14  07  15  13  16  11  10

Growths
MHP STR MAG SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
 75  60  30  40  35  40  45  25

Devdan here fights like ten men. However, even three years later, as Danved, he didn't say what caliber of men. I'm guessing he meant pussies with zeros in every stat (and 1 HP).

You only need to take one look at his bases and his joining situation to know that he's only decent at best. He's not as bad as some people say, but in the eyes of some, I guess he is. 13 AS is only doubling slugs like armors and soldiers, and with a 35% growth, it gets little better (ok, I lied, the KW raises it to 65, so there). He makes up for this with okish damage; 14 str with a 60% growth means that he will be hitting somewhat hard (he has 24 base atk with a steel lance), so his offense is decent. Durability wise, he's worse than Stefan and only slightly better than base Titania. 36 HP/11 def is getting 4-5HKO'd by most enemies (watch out for things like fighters and promoted enemies, since they 3HKO him), which isn't too bad, and his durability growths are respectable (75 HP/45 def).

He's unlike some of the units before him (and like Stefan) where he can be picked up right off the bat, and doesn't really need babying or BEXP fed. However, compared to the people around him, he is sorely lacking in stats, especially in speed and defense. As I said before, he can use the KW to solve his speed woes (and pad his defense slightly), but let's face it: his bases aren't that great for the level he's at. For reference, 20/4 Neph is absolutely crushing him in most stats (he wins, like, HP/lck/res, and she's winning everything else).

If you are going to use him, I recommend supporting him with Neph and Tormod (Largo comes in too late), and as for skills, I guess he could make decent use of Adept/Wrath or Luna.

His rating:

4.5/10

Support suggestion: Tormod A/Neph B, and I think I'm being generous.
Band suggestion: Knight Ward, motherfucker, do you use it?

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Part 6
Part 8

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Have a nice day.

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