Mekkah I'm loving these character guides! In my opinion it's a lot more fun to talk about units in this format. It's more combat focused, which is easier to understand compared to the more vague efficiency focused. But at the same time, movement and stuff is still taken into account.
@@Xenoks01 This is what I like about Mekkah in comparison to some other TH-camrs *cough* FED *cough*. Most of his Three Houses videos are all about LTC instead of actually playing through chapters. That's cool and all but I would say that most that play these games, especially the first time through, don't do an LTC run.
Definitely agree with this guide, Titania "falls off" because she has competition, she's like Seth but with actual people who can get to that level. Marcia and Jill are some examples of that.
Titania's weapon stats are still VERY high when you first get her. You can easily get her lance to A rank in about 8 maps, and since Titania has the 2nd highest availability in the whole game, she can get S rank for Axes and A rank Lances. Titania just needs a couple of energy drops to keep her strength high, since her average strength is like 18 on level 20 paladin.
I would give some credit to Tauroneo, he's basically invincible when he shows up, and continues to body people for the rest of the game. Of course, that was my recent experience giving 0% growths a try. I'd imagine since I capped him, he is still quite usable in a casual run too.
Something that also makes Titania busted is her weapon ranks. It always strikes me how slow weapon ranks build in PoR, and unless you’re super conciseness about using steel weapons/blades, it’s difficult to build weapon ranks. For example, in my iron man, Rolf didn’t get S bows until endgame (which is worth it. Double is great. Nothing beats wrath-resolve, 7 might, 4 range Rolf). Titania will get A rank in both lances and axes super fast, meaning that she’ll be an rare silver weapon user for a lot of the game. The weapon rank issue is part of Haar always feels underwhelming. B rank in axes and lances is nice, but you want to be able to use the buyable and forgable silver weapons. Weapon ranks being so troublesome makes the 3 arms scrolls surprisingly contested in a casual playthrough, so I do disagree a bit about arms scrolls. I’d definitely recommend new players abuse steel weapons as much as possible for weapon rank, especially if they want to use a character they like long term. Weapon ranks is the one thing that bonus exp can’t fix. It’s actually why I’d say Nephnee struggles so much out of the gate. Her bases and level are fine, but E lances kills it and is what makes her so investment heavy.
Not sure if its intentional, but I'm getting 12 midrolls plus an ad at the end. I remember you mentioning YT placing ads on your stuff automatically, and this seems a little excessive. Just figured I'd say something. Will actually watch the video later after my shift, midrolls or not lol.
So I set up my midrolls manually for the last Big Tier List vid and TH-cam overrode my preferences with a bunch of extra midrolls anyway so like...I don't even know how to fix this at this point lol
I’m about to finally play Path of Radiance and this helps a lot with what to already expect from the units I will be using and such, not sure which in the end I will use overall since every experience is different but all of these guides are really useful even years later
Yeah, Ike isn't a great unit in this game by any means, but at least he actually promotes at a decent time. Roy is on a whole 'nother level of garbage.
@@aetherius6221 You get him as a bonus character for beating the game I believe 3 times? I could be wrong about the exact amount of times but he isn’t actually recruitable in the main game no.
@@TriAzF I know he's like a secret character in RD if you put a heron in mov range but I'm almost completely sure he isn't in POR after looking it up after this video
@@aetherius6221 he is playable as a bonus character in Trial Maps after clearing the game 3 times. I just looked it up. You are correct in the sense that he isn’t playable in the main story though
AcTuAlLy mekkkkkkkah sothe is the best unit in path of radiance because he comes with BlOsSoM, a skill which increases growths, which are the BEST thing ever in fire emblem! Take a look at afa drops Nino! Sothe even joins at a generous level 1 33% into the game, meaning he can grown quite well. Titania bad cuz she steals sothe’s exp. Rolf is very similar to sothe, so he should be put into the no brained at least Jokes aside, I really like these character guides as well as the tier lists recently, I love hearing insight and other people’s perspectives about this awesome franchise, keep it up, king!
Rolf shouldn't get any BEXP, give his BEXP to Mist, she makes the decicions for them, she'll know how to divide it between them better than any of us can.
These character guides are great and I wish that Nintendo would re-release PoR so that I can actually put the advice in to action. pls nintendo the PoR/Radiant Dawn rerelease is in no brainer tier
Of note since this guide is geared towards hard mode, shouldn't Ike be in a special recommendation, as only he can damage the final boss's first form without Nasir or grinding Ena levels. I know swords are not great in PoR, but Ragnell (yes, I know it is available for 2 chapters only basically) ensures Ike can preform extraordinarily well, and he has some of the best growths, I understand for LTC or speedrun purposes it might not be great to use Ike, but this is hard mode and not having Giffca or Tibarn to damage the first form puts Ike's recommendation to use at a premium, I do not think it bumps him to no brainer, but an in-between tier for that high need to be used on that boss
I'm not sure I would really call Mist and Rhys investment takers since they draw from their own XP pool (unless you bonus xp them for some reason). I think they'd fit better in utility.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 if your very patient enough you can boss abuse exp on the chapter Rolf and Marcie joins. Just heal every time Rolf gets hit by the javelin or someone else to tank is close range Knight killer spear. I used boyd to level him up a bit to an increase his ax skill. Could do the same with Marcie if you trade her a javelin. As long you make sure to step away a bit so the boss can heal a bit so you don’t kill him by accident you can go as long as you want till someone lands a critical.
Longtime Fire Emblem player here; first time getting to play through PoR, never got to as a kid :/ ty for this guide man, I'm catching up on missed childhood moments with this 🙏
Watching these things are so interesting, because in my playthrough Oscar was an absolute liabilities with no defense that I dropped ASAP, and Marcia showed up and failed to contribute at all for a few chapters so I benched her. Meanwhile Shinon was a dodgetank god, with surprisingly good def as well. Ah, the joys of RNG!
Thank you so much for putting Marcia and Jill in "No Brainer" while keeping non-Titania paladins like Oscar in "Good (Investment)". Jill and Marcia are by far the most busted growth units. Even pretty damn good ones like Oscar and Kieran still pale in comparison at times. In a game where you face joke enemies with 2x effectiveness while having access to Bonus EXP, the only thing that can truly stand out is flight. I had a friend play this game for the first time. He was on Normal Mode, but the advice I gave him was "Dump everything into Jill and Marcia." He had a screwed Oscar I'm pretty sure, but Jill and Marcia did so much work for him, and the kind of work that only fliers can do. He said to me, "I don't know what I would be doing if you hadn't told me to power-level Jill and Marcia." Tanith also was really funny because her generic Falcoknights probably did more work in that run than Oscar. He was super sad that Reinforce didn't come back in Radiant Dawn.
This is in particular why I cannot rate Oscar as an S tier unit, Paladin is nice and all, but his growths aren't actually that impressive, the only real defining trait about Oscar is his Earth affinity, but if he ain't killing, dodging isn't really something I want to put him into favor. Having Oscar and Titania on the same tier is just a mismatch, one is just broken throughout the game, while the other still requires a decent amount of investments whilst being most of the time behind Titania yet providing the same amount of role and utility, heck, Milftania has better growth rates than Oscar. Not to mention, you actually get a map where Oscar is not on, but Titania is, where she just contributes more than Shinon, Gatrie, and Ike combined. Ridiculous! Marcia and Jill stands out cause there's a lot of maps better for fliers more than it is to be a mounted e.g. the two ship maps, desert map, and hill map and even the ones that being a mounted is fine, Marcia and Jill still add so much flexibility than mounted because of terrain impeding on movement like trees, cliffs splitting the map and "swamp" tiles.
Largo is one of my personal favs for ironman runs. His main issue in normal playthroughs is he doesn't have a horse and it can be hard to find space for him on some maps. If I can deploy him I usually do
Nice list! I feel like Makalov might've been ranked a little harsh, and Soren a bit generously. Soren is pretty bad compared to the other Greil Mercs, I find he's most useful for healing but needs to promote first. Though a healer is valuable enough. Meanwhile Makalov is your fifth paladin, you don't need him but it's such a great class that investing in him will yield good results. Personally, I think I'd swap their places on the list.
Eh, I find the issue is the speed penalty which you can offset to get him rolling with the Speed wing from the previous chapter to help him double more from the start. Which I think the devs did want you to do because the chapter boss you get him has a unique quote for him which is where he gets his "Are you ready to die?" Soren on maddening has magic damage which is very useful against armored or heavy defense units but you will run into his tome breaking a lot. Makalov is not bad but you do have to really invest to get him going with and he starts pretty low level for a knight to master class him to paladin quick. I will agree Mekkkah does get overly negative on just sword units in general with this game and him comparing to Roy...is very unfounded and too hasty of a judgement. Ike isn't as good as high units but he's not a liability like Roy was either, he can be trained and still come out fine even on maddening. With that said, Ike is not as good as Kieran but don't tell me he's Roy levels of weak without reallly digging deeper. Makalov is the argument for potential Master crown since he does start at that level and the promotion would help.
@@nah4467 So true. BUT tbh I still have a bad feeling that IS will cut Makalov from the INEVITABLE remake of POR because of people's tendency to kill him off. Just a theory of mine but just something I'm afraid they'll do instead of making him easier to use.
You should play maniac. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. The biggest difference I think is that there's hardly any bonus EXP, and this might drastically change your opinion on some of these characters.
Honestly the way I play Fire Emblem games is I choose the characters by how they look design wise and their personalities rather than looking at stats. Not sure if you can get away with that on hard mode or not, I tended to beat the games once and not come back to them. Only recently did I start replaying them again and I might actually give hard mode a shot.
Any new or inexperienced players should ignore the comment on healers. Not using healers at a low skill level is going to lead to a very unpleasant time.
It's sad that FE 9 is such a rare game so you kinda have to download a ROM if you wanna play it. The minority of the players can play on the original hardware and know they supported the devs with a purchase.
Agreed! I am very lucky to still have my GameCube and original copy. I am living with a friend so I can’t set it up to play but when I get my own place I plan on having the GameCube hooked up with this easily available ASAP! In the meantime I am emulating because it is such a nostalgia trip!
It's nice to support the devs for a job well done... Unfortunately, Nintendo in general (Not necessarily IntSys alone) doesn't seem to go for distributing their own games without putting a timer on it, and to expect the consumer to wait for God-knows-how-long for a re-release or remake without the use of Roms. (Even then, remakes shouldn't necessarily be complete replacements for the rarer originals)
I know unit consistency is what we should judge units on, but a lucky Nephenee is BROKE!! She is going to be turbo fast no matter what, but with good strength and skill growths along with that can make her kill things insanely well. Late game the dragons can bring her to wrath range very easily, then she can equip the Laguz guard to not get second hit from them to go on a wrath rampage. Mine even got enough magic level ups to get to about 11 magic to use the flame lance well and hit on resistance where it helps. Is Mekkah better than me? Yes. Is Mekkah right with his list? Yes. Does Nephenee suck and take a lot to make work? Yes. Is it fun if/when you get there? YES! (Also she tends to get better strength than Mia along with the better, stronger weapon so that’s cool)
I just got dolphin working on my laptop and I wanted to be able to play a PoR with the bands and all of the 2nd play through stuff unlocked so I did a poor speed run of the game to beat it in about 10 hours (in game time). I used every character in the no brainer category (plus Ike). I realized I had extra bonus exp so I also leveled up Elincia just for more Magic to help with her staves!
My casual run is at chapter 19. I am using: Ike, Boyd, Oscar, Mia, Soren, Jill as my Main Units (Hopefully getting them to 20 for transfer bonuses if I can figure out how to play radiant dawn with them). I am using some characters for supports/utility; those are: Mist (I want to try to beat the Black Knight), Titania, Stefan, Rhys, Reyson, Sothe (the way he’s been levelling he may have Str, Skl, Spd, Def all capped before level 20)
Honestly, I think the only unit I would change on this whole list is Mist from Okay to Good Investment. If you give her the two arms scrolls you get (and tbh there isnt high demand for arms scrolls in path), she can use the Sonic Sword at Base Valkyrie and will almost certainly 1 round every enemy but fast classes with it. She also then gets the highest mov for a healer until Elincia. Considering her crazy combat, move, and Black Knight fight utility....I think maybe Mist should get a bump. I have always recommended Mist to new FE9 players and not one has told me they thought it was a bad investment, so at least I have some anecdotal evidence to support this.
I'm skeptical that any new player would know to identify a unit as a bad investment after the fact, exactly because anyone can be made viable. Tell them that Rolf is good if you invest in him and I doubt you'd get negative feedback on that either.
She could move to a new category: Good (tremendous investment). Jokes, Mist is not better than the other okay characters on this list. Nephenee and Makalov are way better than her and also labeled "okay," so Mist doesn't really have any claim to moving up to "good." This game barely needs any healing by the time Mist promotes because of the lack of difficulty. By the time she promotes, you physic staves can cover all healing, so her moment isn't even much of a benefit. She's not a great combat unit. What, she gets 1 good 20 use weapon and gets 2 shot? She's not good.
@@fangiscool1 lol personally would've placed Nephenee into high effort like Rolf but that's a whole other matter since her bases are legitmately garbage even by PoR standards, no javelin access at base and needs an energy drop minimum to actually do things. Lol the reason you'd invest into Mist is for a mobile rescue user since Elincia doesn't even come around until Clash which is like 6 maps after. Sonic Sword is far from the reason you'd invest into Mist tbh and even that's kind of a meme. Makalov is anything I probably would've argued for higher since BEXP outside of maniac is fairly generous where u can get him some stats and then master seal and profit.
@@typhooncarter I'm not sure if you're trolling or not. you can dump a few bexp levels onto Nephenee, give her a forge, and she's killing things on her join chapter. I can see Mist's rescue staff utility. I've never spammed staves that much on her to do that. You have to play really slowly and/or dump tons of bonus experience on Mist for her to be mounted or B rank staves, even compared to Nephenee. She always just gets left behind for me. At least foot combat units can kill stuff in the beginning of chapters.
Honestly I would move Oscar up to no brainer. There's no real reason to not use him as he joins very early, has decent bases/growths, Earth affinity, and is one of the only two mounted units you will have prior to Chapter 9.
Bow Knight Astrid is absolutely busted and her with Canto makes her even stronger. Kiran is good but he suffers from a harsh condition of not being Titania.
Just use both Kiran and Titania? You're giving all of your promoted cavs axes anyways, so they all become Titania more or less. And that's a good thing.
I think I agree for the most part with this list. good job. One thing I will say is that Nephenee and Mist with investment scale very well into the late game. Once you get Runesword, Mist really takes off. She is strong with the Sonic Sword as well but she is still rather frail so she cant take much punishment on enemy phase without the constant vamp from Runesword. With Investment Nephenee is about as good as Ike except she has spears not swords which pre Ragnell is significantly stronger. . I should also mention that if you choose to invest in her she is good candidate for the Resolve scroll when you get it. Wrath + Resolve = gg. Also my opinion of Boyd rather low. He has a lot of HP and STR sure, but he is still made of tissue paper, because he has some of the worst defense growths of any unit in the entire game and very low starting defense. Mages also almost do true damage to him and he doesn't dodge worth a damn. He also has such a bad start in HM. Like holy cow is he just borderline unusable early. He gets doubled by nearly everything and monopolizes Rhys. Soren has the benefit of being able to double reliably early and most units dont have a ton of resistance. He also dodges much better than Boyd So I always have a much easier time feeding soren kills to get him up to speed than Boyd.
I'm surprised you put most the laguz in the "good no investment" tier, since the biggest problem with them is you can't control when they transform, like you can in radiant dawn. At least in RD, laguz can still counter attack in human form, so they excel better in RD.
What do you mean? Like cut her from the story? You could cut pretty much anyone from the story and/or gameplay (besides ike and elincia I guess) and rework it without too much trouble.
If Mist was axed, who would take on the Medallion? If Ike did it would take away one of his character flaws and push him closer to being too perfect. But if they didn't keep the Medallion close to Ike for some time, the impact of what it means to his family would not hit as hard to him nor to us, who care about Greil's family due to our large exposure to them throughout the story.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 The medallion is pretty important in Path and the backbone of Dawn's story, especially so to the history of Tellius as a whole. By cutting it in Path you are removing the primary motivator for the Mad Kings war, the overarching scheming by a certain individual happening in both games, the reason why Ike is motherless, why Greil founded the mercenaries and why he was hunted by Daein. Removing the medallion from it's current place in the story would disrupt way more than I think you are considering.
@@EZog58 ok, let me rephrase: themedalion doesnt need to be the backbone of everything. Path of radiance's story isn't good because the medallion is in it, it's good because it's Ike's story of growth and revenge. I said that the medallion could get cut because I think in every fire emblem, "the fire emblem" could get cut. The stories in these games aren't great because of a macguffin, they're great because of themes of war and growing up. In fact, the most impactful fire emblem stories are probably the ones that have the least to do with the emblem itself -- Thracia 776, Geneology, and 3H.
Every time I've played through this I've carried Rolf through and always hate myself doing it. Like I want all the brothers but the amount of soft resets I have to do to make Rolf halfway usable is ridiculous!
Me: I respect and and appreciate all of Mekkah’s arguments here Also me: every single game of FE9 I play somehow ends with Goddess Naphenee and I will hear no slander against her
Radiant Dawn would basically need an entirely different usage list format since units that are busted early on become complete garbage towards the end.
I think the best way to do this for Radiant Dawn would be to do 2 separate lists, one linking characters in their perspective acts in 1-3, then one listing everyone for acts 4 and finale
@@sielklavar That doesn't quite work for the Dawn Brigade, and their part 3 chapters are the hardest because the units that carried them through part 1 fall off a cliff.
@@thereaIitsybitsyspider which is why those characters would go into a category like "okay" with him talking about how they drop off terribly in chapter 3, kinda like how he mentions that Shinon and Gatrie are really good early game, but drop off (especially Shinon) upon their return
@@sielklavar It would be an absolute crime to put Sothe and Volug in the okay tier on a usage tier list. The amount that they carry in part 1 cannot be understated.
@@thereaIitsybitsyspider I meant to say good not okay, that's my bad, but the point still stands that it would still work fine for the format. Both Sothe and Volug would be good (no investment) on this list for being really good at recruitment, but dropping hard later on
I largely agree with this one, my only real comment is that I'm not sure if Brom is really out of the High Effort section, I'm not sure he ever really pays off anything you put into him. I'm not super experienced with him, though, maybe I've missed something. I also have the likely fringe belief that Volke is the rare Thief that is better than his class and worth using on any map, due to great stats, effective weapons in Stilletos, and an interesting niche in his relatively high Con.
Good point on Brom. I'd probably say the same for nephenee as well, even if wrath is kinda cool. Her bases and growths just aren't good at all, and I'd use anyone in that tier over those 2.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 I agree with Brom, but I'm not quite sure with Nephenee. Fan of her, but she's definitely bottom tier in PoR, but her growths aren't that bad. She has the 2nd highest speed growth, only 2nd to Zihark and Mia, and you can just forge her an iron lance if you are willing. If you aren't LTCing or anything, you can do the stealth prison map without being detected and by virtue, you can easily make Marcia the same level as anyone you have previously invested into, and immediately promote her on the ship map. You can use some on Neph or Jill (dumb argument, I know, this is purely hypothetical and have intent on using anyone) and make anyone viable on join time, obviously Jill is the better option. In fact, Nephenee outright has an almost 100% to cap her speed and complete 100% if given the knight ward. Again, she's still shit, but you can definitely use her more than Mia or Zihark since better weapon type, forged javelins are also a thing. Ad nauseam now, she's shit, her bases are not good and E rank in lance, but her growths are fine, she's practically a tankier Mia with better weapon type that joins slightly later. If you think Mia is where she should be, then Neph should be too. If you don't, then she should follow her. That's all I'm saying.
@@lofnforseti8447 That's a good point. I think I consider Mia slightly more useful because deployment slots aren't that big of an issue when she joins and she can be a decent filler unit. But by the time Nephenee shows up, you'll want to focus the brunt of your training into Kieran, Oscar, Marcia, and then Jill in the chapter right after. That's the point where I'd drop Mia as well, but at least she gets some time to be used. To me, Nephenee joins and is immediately outclassed. However, I didn't know you could give her the knight ward--thought that only worked on cavs and armor knights, so yeah, maybe she isn't bad.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 Deployment slots is fine if they can effectively contribute effectively, but she really doesn't. You are talking about Mia's short-term viability, but even then, she's still largely irrelevant. Her joining chapter, she can't do much, the defense chapter, why would you even put her in front? And by doing so, she cannot gain combat exp. The shore chapter is like the only map she might do well enough, but just because there's axe users in the beach to the village doesn't ensure her viability because she can die to the myrmidon and mage there. Nephenee actually has deployment slots in the next chapter since you can deploy everyone and again, the point of this video was not overall efficiency over usability. She's shit, but salvageable. She's no Wendy, Donnel, or Nino, she's Neph in a game where you can work towards her without going snail pace. There's a reason why they are in Okay (Investments), because they actually need investments to be remotely functional.
@@lofnforseti8447 Mia is an interesting case. The utility she has initially gives her an opportunity to easily gain 2-3 levels, easily, and if in those levels, she gets a few lucky points of Strength or especially Defense, she immediately becomes far more valuable and considerable for long term use. If she doesn't, she's an easy bench (or sac if you roll that way), so you don't really lose anything for trying. I like units like that, getting a good Mia might not be statistically likely, but it's always possible, and having the environment to roll for it safely is exciting.
I think the Demi band only gives a penalty to their stats, some stats they dont even lose points in, I think they lose like 2 speed 3 strength 2 skill and some others? I'm not sure on the exact numbers but I know it's not half
Half is FE10, the Demi Band in FE9 is an absolute no-brainer, especially on Tigers or Dragons, who have the raw stats to ignore the penalties, and don't mind being slowed down as much as cats or hawks. Even on cats or hawks, though, it's an auto-include. Lethe is really the only even semidebatable case, because she starts maps transformed anyways, but really, that's just opportunity cost of not using it on anyone else, and her getting less out of it than any other Laguz.
Guess I misspoke, didnt know that the transformation gave set bonuses so the demi band will always subtract the same amount, guess I'm more used to Radiant Dawn transformations, it's the one I played first and the one I've played more, sorry Mekkah
Honestly Titania started to fall off, starting to struggle to hit and kill as consistently... She didn’t struggle with any of these things until THE FINAL CHAPTER. And I could forge an axe for her to give her better hit and damage.
Honestly I always thought Ranulf should be higher. He has much more strength than other cats and hits hard, while still being fairly tanky and speedy. Great balance of str/spd/def.
I just replayed this game and used torgod, and he capped strength, lmao. I was like, well, no speed penalty is nice, but could you actually just get speed level ups? No? Okay, thanks
Surprised not to see Lethe in No Brainer. Not having 2-range does put her a step below the mounted gods, but she's so powerful for when you get her and doesn't fall off until pretty late. It's so hard to use her wrong, and even at a slack pace I find she's transformed right up until the map is basically cleared out.
She has a bit too much trouble one-rounding enemies even a few chapters after she joins, and the ones she can are usually weak enough that you can just use units who actually gain some exp for killing. Even if she could kill everything, her bulk isn’t too good, and each battle she’s in gets her closer and closer to being a glorified shove-bot for the rest of the chapter. Plus, no 2-range really hurts when every fight needs to count for something. She’s good, but she isn’t *that* good. I could imagine her maybe being in no-brainer, but you’d have to overcrowd the tier with other units like Oscar and Stefan.
I feel like Ike should be in the no brainer tier. In a tier list setting, he should be lower, sure, but this is a recommendation guide effectively and if someone needs one, then they should train Ike, 100% of the time, because otherwise they could get softlocked.
It says something when only one character is in high effort also I think Oscar might should be in no brained due to how easy it is to train him and give like 4 levels in chapter 8 with bexp also I think Jill is the best candidate for the boots
@lookslikedekulink maybe but I wouldn’t call her as bad as Rolf due to having some good combat when trained and she Dosent take as long to train her as opposed to Rolf I think tormod should of went in there tho
@@dawnellecarr1137 I think he needs that bexp in Despair and Hope, because the map is hard and it solves his exp problem. Boyd on the other hand suffers more due to the weight of axes. Even on Day Breaks, he still may get doubled.
You didn't mention giving Keiran a Killer Axe and using Gamble! In all seriousness though I'm almost done with my first playthrough of this game and my favorite/most used units by far have been Mia and Astrid.
Agree with the list except for two things. I'd probably put Boyd in no brainer, he's that strong, and even at the start he's good. The only flaw he has is the lack of a mount. Then I'd put Makalov up with Astrid, or move her down. She joins in 13 at level 3 iirc, him in 15 at level 10. Both are under leveled with bad weapon types, but he has the better bases, and swords are better than bows. Chapter 14 won't make much of a difference, it's the desert map where you want mages, fliers, and laguz. Not much for her to do there. Meaning you only really have chapter 13 to try and overtake the Stat lead makalov has on her. Honestly I'd just put them both in ok with investment. Neither can compare with the units in good.
@@cursedbumblebee3731 I've never found Boyd's defense to be an issue, but you're right about him having doubling issues some times. Maybe leave him where he is. But I'm not changing my mind about Astrid being about the same as Makalov. Paragon won't help her close the gap between her and the other units. And Hand axes are a non factor, since Makalov also gets them at promotion, and he can promote as soon as you get him, and thus use them sooner. I don't think Astrid's late game performance makes up for her early game flaws. Hence why moving her down is what I would do.
@@kyraevermoon5544 In regards to Astrid, if this was a tier list I would agree. But it isn’t. Its saying that with investment, Astrid will be a good unit, whereas with investment Makalov will be an okay unit. The fact that you need to train them both as their fairly bad in the early/mid game when you first get them is irrelevant to how they are after they are invested in, which is what the category difference is about.
Boyd is susceptible to getting killed on enemy phase, especially early game. His con is too low so the axes slow him down to the point he can't double most units, and he misses a ton. Kieran has similar problems with accuracy, but not quite as bad. Thing with Astrid is she keeps paragon after promotion, so even though Makalov needs roughly the same xp for promo, Astrid levels way faster as a promo'd unit. She's also the only viable bow user which gives her a niche that makalov, or the other cavs don't have. By the time you get makalov you already have 2-3 paladins, and makalov doesn't have anything to differentiate himself from the rest. Swords are just strictly worse than lances and axes, while bows are a different niche. Training makalov is also tougher since he can't enemy phase out the gate, and he has no range unlike astrid. Of course Makalov has the better base stats, he's lvl 10 while Astrid is level 1. Astrid gets 9 more levels than he does. Makalov does have slightly better growths than astrid though, a lot of astrids growth is wasted on mag. However due to the extra levels, Astrid will be faster and much more accurate, and her strength will only be slightly lower once makalov has promo but that will be offset by having axes over swords. Main use case I see for Makalov is if you like him, or if Kieran or Oscar die, otherwise its just another investment for a weaker version of something you already have three of(Kieran, Oscar, and Titania).
After some playthrough, here is some thought about my PoR experience: -Paladins and fliers is so good in this game, this is the only game that i want to fill my team as many of them as possible (except that Makalov asshole, no wonder why Astrid abandoned her noble life to be a knight) -I don't like Laguz in general. They are strong but need to transform to combat and don't have any 2 range option. The only laguzs i usually use is Reyson and Mordecai (for smiting mount units) -I have mixed feelings about early access pegasus knight: They are really good in theory but in practical, my early access pegasus knight (except Vanessa from fe8 because somehow when i play fire emblem, every green hair girls got blessed in stats growth) always got screwed in strength. In one playthrough, my Marcia only have 12 strength even i trained her 20/20 before promoting and after 5 levels as a Falcoknight, she didn't gain a single point of strength and at that point of the game, 12 strengths can't even damage things. Yes i can still use them as a transporter but in some levels where the unit pool is limited, i would rather bring others unit instead. -I actually don't like Boyz even when in PoR he is better than RD because somehow my Boyz always gets screwed in speed. He gains speed so bad that nearly every enemies in the second half of the game can double him - Jill is a goddess, you get her pretty early and get full guard in chapter 16, give her bexp then she can solo the game by herself -Personal skills learned from Occult scrolls are suck except Aether and Sol
eeeeeh a beast is a little strong there. She ended up good later but she would die as soon as an enemy looked at her in the first chapter she's in like a cleric. Hell I think Rhys would take a punch better than her when she first joins. Still Paragon was really good and she would get really strong later with the investment.
@@nah4467 She takes some babying to get to promotion, but giving her axes means you have another axe mounted unit, which is about the best class you can be in FE9.
@@astracrits4633 TBH if they leaned more into her coming into her own as a knife and being a vet by that point *and* gave her similar transfer bonuses that Sothe does, I think she would have been a much better unit.
Ngl Oskar is such a little shit in my first playthrough. Dude has leveled STR once from level goddamn 1 to 11 Imagine my shock when I learned he has a 45 growth in it. Can’t wait for fixed growths
I hate RNG in games. I remember playing Disgaea 3 (Strategy RPG, like FE) and I missed at 99%, three times in a row. The biggest load of BS I've ever come across in RNG history.
Doubling with siege tomes isn’t some kind of crucial benchmark that nobody else can meet. Unless he can do something impressive like kill powerful enemies or enable quicker and easier clears with that, you’re going to need a better argument.
@@Edgeperor so 1 less enemy for you front line units to worry about or the ability to save an exposed healer if you fuck up isn't useful like the only trainable mage that I could getting consistently is illyanna or caliel bastion can do it at base and clash is a pain in the ass
I would agree with 100% benching Rolf if it wasn't for the fact that you can zero risk, minimal resource grind him to about level 9 with his starting bow on the boss of the level you get him on. Admittedly it does take time but if you get a decent archer out of it then it isn't a complete waste.
Mekkah I'm loving these character guides! In my opinion it's a lot more fun to talk about units in this format. It's more combat focused, which is easier to understand compared to the more vague efficiency focused. But at the same time, movement and stuff is still taken into account.
It also feels much more practical since a grand majority of players won't be playing to LTC, it's a really good format
@@Xenoks01 This is what I like about Mekkah in comparison to some other TH-camrs *cough* FED *cough*. Most of his Three Houses videos are all about LTC instead of actually playing through chapters. That's cool and all but I would say that most that play these games, especially the first time through, don't do an LTC run.
@@michaelellis772 what is LTC?
@@Icemario87 You probably figured it out by now but it stands for low turn account, basically the equivalent to speedrunning
@@Toxin-56 You're right, I did. Low Turn Count. What a totally different way to play.
6:37 - Titania
8:52 - Marcia & Jill
10:17 - Tanith
11:59 - Reyson
14:33 - Oliver
14:46 - Ike
16:07 - Boyd
16:48 - Oscar
17:54 - Soren
19:54 - Kieran
21:17 - Astrid
23:35 - Gatrie & Shinon
24:53 - Lethe, Mordecai, Muarim
27:37 - Stefan
28:40 - Calill
29:58 - Ranulf
30:41 - Haar
31:31 - Geoffrey
34:08 - Rhys
34:46 - Mist
36:33 - Mia
37:17 - Ilyana
38:09 - Nephenee
39:14 - Brom
39:52 - Zihark
40:29 - Makalov
41:20 - Tormod
42:45 - Devdan
43:12 - Janaff & Ulki
43:34 - Tauroneo
44:02 - Lucia & Bastian
44:59 - Largo
46:12 - Elincia
47:11 - Rolf (also 3:40)
4:36 - Volke & Sothe
5:30 - Nasir, Ena, Naesala, Tibarn, Giffca
Real mvp
He didn’t talk about Oliver
@@quocthai3757he said all that needed to be said.
Nice to see Oliver getting the respect he deserves
truly the best character in path of radiance, where he is playable
I guess, but really he should be in a tier of his own tbh
Sarcasm?
@@tacosir when is he playable? Trail maps?
Definitely agree with this guide, Titania "falls off" because she has competition, she's like Seth but with actual people who can get to that level. Marcia and Jill are some examples of that.
Titania's weapon stats are still VERY high when you first get her. You can easily get her lance to A rank in about 8 maps, and since Titania has the 2nd highest availability in the whole game, she can get S rank for Axes and A rank Lances. Titania just needs a couple of energy drops to keep her strength high, since her average strength is like 18 on level 20 paladin.
Ah, I see. No explanation for Oliver needed.
His beauty defies explanation
I would give some credit to Tauroneo, he's basically invincible when he shows up, and continues to body people for the rest of the game. Of course, that was my recent experience giving 0% growths a try. I'd imagine since I capped him, he is still quite usable in a casual run too.
Without the incentive to remove skills in FE9 and Tauroneo having arguably the best skill in the game, I completely agree with you. He's a beast.
Taureneo comes at a very good time in Maniac Mode. You just need a Dummy to keep the Fodder occupied.
Something that also makes Titania busted is her weapon ranks. It always strikes me how slow weapon ranks build in PoR, and unless you’re super conciseness about using steel weapons/blades, it’s difficult to build weapon ranks. For example, in my iron man, Rolf didn’t get S bows until endgame (which is worth it. Double is great. Nothing beats wrath-resolve, 7 might, 4 range Rolf).
Titania will get A rank in both lances and axes super fast, meaning that she’ll be an rare silver weapon user for a lot of the game. The weapon rank issue is part of Haar always feels underwhelming. B rank in axes and lances is nice, but you want to be able to use the buyable and forgable silver weapons. Weapon ranks being so troublesome makes the 3 arms scrolls surprisingly contested in a casual playthrough, so I do disagree a bit about arms scrolls.
I’d definitely recommend new players abuse steel weapons as much as possible for weapon rank, especially if they want to use a character they like long term. Weapon ranks is the one thing that bonus exp can’t fix. It’s actually why I’d say Nephnee struggles so much out of the gate. Her bases and level are fine, but E lances kills it and is what makes her so investment heavy.
You can use iron to boss torture an enemy for weapon ranks.
Not sure if its intentional, but I'm getting 12 midrolls plus an ad at the end. I remember you mentioning YT placing ads on your stuff automatically, and this seems a little excessive. Just figured I'd say something. Will actually watch the video later after my shift, midrolls or not lol.
So I set up my midrolls manually for the last Big Tier List vid and TH-cam overrode my preferences with a bunch of extra midrolls anyway so like...I don't even know how to fix this at this point lol
The Golden Sun music always makes me smile
I know right?
@@UltaFlame amazing music for an equally amazing game
I’m about to finally play Path of Radiance and this helps a lot with what to already expect from the units I will be using and such, not sure which in the end I will use overall since every experience is different but all of these guides are really useful even years later
I'm currently playing it "blind" on Maniac, so this will be extra fun to watch!
Glad to see Ike is higher then Kieran
I guess this is a joke considering Mekkahs older video of the Ike vs. Kieran debate. If not, then Mekkah said that every row is sorted by availabity.
@@aureliodeprimus8018 clearly a joke
Well duh, when he gets Ragnell+Aether he’s pwnage incarnate
@@Hats502 he raeps the competition XDDD
PWNAGE INCARNATE
"Ike is comparable to roy..."
Ohhhh no you didn't...
Yeah, Ike isn't a great unit in this game by any means, but at least he actually promotes at a decent time. Roy is on a whole 'nother level of garbage.
@@astracrits4633 roy wouldn't be so bad if he promoted earlier. That's all that is holding him back.
@@geno_xi That's kinda the point of my previous comment.
@@astracrits4633 you didn't acknowledge his okay growths because in reality they aren't that bad an actually decent
Ike has good bulk & offense so he is fine & he also promotes early.on the other hand Roy lacks in offense & is a bit squishy.He promotes very late.
Oliver's beauty is a destructive force in PoR
wha
Wait is he even playable or is he there for the meme
@@aetherius6221 You get him as a bonus character for beating the game I believe 3 times? I could be wrong about the exact amount of times but he isn’t actually recruitable in the main game no.
@@TriAzF I know he's like a secret character in RD if you put a heron in mov range but I'm almost completely sure he isn't in POR after looking it up after this video
@@aetherius6221 he is playable as a bonus character in Trial Maps after clearing the game 3 times. I just looked it up. You are correct in the sense that he isn’t playable in the main story though
AcTuAlLy mekkkkkkkah sothe is the best unit in path of radiance because he comes with BlOsSoM, a skill which increases growths, which are the BEST thing ever in fire emblem! Take a look at afa drops Nino! Sothe even joins at a generous level 1 33% into the game, meaning he can grown quite well. Titania bad cuz she steals sothe’s exp. Rolf is very similar to sothe, so he should be put into the no brained at least
Jokes aside, I really like these character guides as well as the tier lists recently, I love hearing insight and other people’s perspectives about this awesome franchise, keep it up, king!
Rolf shouldn't get any BEXP, give his BEXP to Mist, she makes the decicions for them, she'll know how to divide it between them better than any of us can.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 HOW did I not think of this, this is genius AND canon!
Sothe with Stiletto is murdering generals in level 26 Hard at 17 with most stats maxed, I agree here.
Forgot to mention that the No Brainer Oliver is the super buff maniac mode one
I got 14 midrolls, I don’t really mind personally, but I think that you said something about letting you know when that happens in a previous video?
I got 10
I have 12
These character guides are great and I wish that Nintendo would re-release PoR so that I can actually put the advice in to action.
pls nintendo the PoR/Radiant Dawn rerelease is in no brainer tier
My favorite *totally official* rerelease of Tellius is the Dolphin version
:)
Literally just look up “Path of Radiance emulation” and you should be able to find something
Of note since this guide is geared towards hard mode, shouldn't Ike be in a special recommendation, as only he can damage the final boss's first form without Nasir or grinding Ena levels. I know swords are not great in PoR, but Ragnell (yes, I know it is available for 2 chapters only basically) ensures Ike can preform extraordinarily well, and he has some of the best growths, I understand for LTC or speedrun purposes it might not be great to use Ike, but this is hard mode and not having Giffca or Tibarn to damage the first form puts Ike's recommendation to use at a premium, I do not think it bumps him to no brainer, but an in-between tier for that high need to be used on that boss
I'm not sure I would really call Mist and Rhys investment takers since they draw from their own XP pool (unless you bonus xp them for some reason). I think they'd fit better in utility.
Mist definately is.
She pretty much needs BEXP investment to be a worthwhile unit, unless you spend dozens of turns grinding staves.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 Her level doesn't really matter except to get her to promotion, but I guess using the master seal can be considered investment.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 if your very patient enough you can boss abuse exp on the chapter Rolf and Marcie joins. Just heal every time Rolf gets hit by the javelin or someone else to tank is close range Knight killer spear. I used boyd to level him up a bit to an increase his ax skill. Could do the same with Marcie if you trade her a javelin. As long you make sure to step away a bit so the boss can heal a bit so you don’t kill him by accident you can go as long as you want till someone lands a critical.
@@FoxyAreku if you want to kill the Black knight your going to want Mist to not skip those level ups so she can handle herself when the 3 adds show up
The Radiant Dawn list should be interesting.
started playing the series with this one and i used your guide. It helped a lot-
Longtime Fire Emblem player here; first time getting to play through PoR, never got to as a kid :/ ty for this guide man, I'm catching up on missed childhood moments with this 🙏
Path of Radiance vid with Golden Sun music
Mekkah you really know the way to my heart
Watching these things are so interesting, because in my playthrough Oscar was an absolute liabilities with no defense that I dropped ASAP, and Marcia showed up and failed to contribute at all for a few chapters so I benched her. Meanwhile Shinon was a dodgetank god, with surprisingly good def as well. Ah, the joys of RNG!
Thank you so much for putting Marcia and Jill in "No Brainer" while keeping non-Titania paladins like Oscar in "Good (Investment)". Jill and Marcia are by far the most busted growth units. Even pretty damn good ones like Oscar and Kieran still pale in comparison at times. In a game where you face joke enemies with 2x effectiveness while having access to Bonus EXP, the only thing that can truly stand out is flight.
I had a friend play this game for the first time. He was on Normal Mode, but the advice I gave him was "Dump everything into Jill and Marcia." He had a screwed Oscar I'm pretty sure, but Jill and Marcia did so much work for him, and the kind of work that only fliers can do. He said to me, "I don't know what I would be doing if you hadn't told me to power-level Jill and Marcia." Tanith also was really funny because her generic Falcoknights probably did more work in that run than Oscar. He was super sad that Reinforce didn't come back in Radiant Dawn.
This is in particular why I cannot rate Oscar as an S tier unit, Paladin is nice and all, but his growths aren't actually that impressive, the only real defining trait about Oscar is his Earth affinity, but if he ain't killing, dodging isn't really something I want to put him into favor. Having Oscar and Titania on the same tier is just a mismatch, one is just broken throughout the game, while the other still requires a decent amount of investments whilst being most of the time behind Titania yet providing the same amount of role and utility, heck, Milftania has better growth rates than Oscar. Not to mention, you actually get a map where Oscar is not on, but Titania is, where she just contributes more than Shinon, Gatrie, and Ike combined. Ridiculous!
Marcia and Jill stands out cause there's a lot of maps better for fliers more than it is to be a mounted e.g. the two ship maps, desert map, and hill map and even the ones that being a mounted is fine, Marcia and Jill still add so much flexibility than mounted because of terrain impeding on movement like trees, cliffs splitting the map and "swamp" tiles.
He shouldn't BE fighting! Look at him, he's a fucking baby! He's so smol. :D
TFW you have worse bases and availability than Wendy but you're in a much easier game with BEXP.
It's not my favorite ship, but Rolf and Mist is so cute. She gon' protect her man!
Can I just say Nasir with wrath/resolve is really good if you gave aether to Ike
No...Wrath/Resolve goes to Rhys. (Nosferatu) You're welcome.
So this guide is great and all, but man that Golden Sun music was clearly in no brainer.
Rolf is the absolute God of nuking the shit out of a single unit Player phase in a game where Enemy phase is the only thing that matters
Largo is one of my personal favs for ironman runs. His main issue in normal playthroughs is he doesn't have a horse and it can be hard to find space for him on some maps. If I can deploy him I usually do
Nice list! I feel like Makalov might've been ranked a little harsh, and Soren a bit generously. Soren is pretty bad compared to the other Greil Mercs, I find he's most useful for healing but needs to promote first. Though a healer is valuable enough.
Meanwhile Makalov is your fifth paladin, you don't need him but it's such a great class that investing in him will yield good results.
Personally, I think I'd swap their places on the list.
Doesn't stop people from killing Makalov.
Definitely agree
Eh, I find the issue is the speed penalty which you can offset to get him rolling with the Speed wing from the previous chapter to help him double more from the start. Which I think the devs did want you to do because the chapter boss you get him has a unique quote for him which is where he gets his "Are you ready to die?" Soren on maddening has magic damage which is very useful against armored or heavy defense units but you will run into his tome breaking a lot. Makalov is not bad but you do have to really invest to get him going with and he starts pretty low level for a knight to master class him to paladin quick. I will agree Mekkkah does get overly negative on just sword units in general with this game and him comparing to Roy...is very unfounded and too hasty of a judgement. Ike isn't as good as high units but he's not a liability like Roy was either, he can be trained and still come out fine even on maddening. With that said, Ike is not as good as Kieran but don't tell me he's Roy levels of weak without reallly digging deeper. Makalov is the argument for potential Master crown since he does start at that level and the promotion would help.
@@nah4467 So true. BUT tbh I still have a bad feeling that IS will cut Makalov from the INEVITABLE remake of POR because of people's tendency to kill him off. Just a theory of mine but just something I'm afraid they'll do instead of making him easier to use.
You should play maniac. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. The biggest difference I think is that there's hardly any bonus EXP, and this might drastically change your opinion on some of these characters.
Honestly the way I play Fire Emblem games is I choose the characters by how they look design wise and their personalities rather than looking at stats. Not sure if you can get away with that on hard mode or not, I tended to beat the games once and not come back to them. Only recently did I start replaying them again and I might actually give hard mode a shot.
Any new or inexperienced players should ignore the comment on healers. Not using healers at a low skill level is going to lead to a very unpleasant time.
I don't understand why Torgod is not a no brainer. I mean he is the main character of the game, right?
Not with that face
I'm surprised you didn't mention Elincia using a rescue staff to help the low move units keep up. Great video
Where is the pwnage incarnate tier and why isn't Ike in it
You seriously had me search for a few minutes how to unlock Oliver. Twice.
It's sad that FE 9 is such a rare game so you kinda have to download a ROM if you wanna play it. The minority of the players can play on the original hardware and know they supported the devs with a purchase.
Also I was 3 when it came out, so I definitely couldn't play it at release lol.
Agreed, PoR is my favorite game of all time and I would kill to play it on orginal hardware
What I wouldn’t give for just a simple port of the tellius games to the switch
Agreed! I am very lucky to still have my GameCube and original copy. I am living with a friend so I can’t set it up to play but when I get my own place I plan on having the GameCube hooked up with this easily available ASAP! In the meantime I am emulating because it is such a nostalgia trip!
It's nice to support the devs for a job well done...
Unfortunately, Nintendo in general (Not necessarily IntSys alone) doesn't seem to go for distributing their own games without putting a timer on it, and to expect the consumer to wait for God-knows-how-long for a re-release or remake without the use of Roms.
(Even then, remakes shouldn't necessarily be complete replacements for the rarer originals)
I know unit consistency is what we should judge units on, but a lucky Nephenee is BROKE!! She is going to be turbo fast no matter what, but with good strength and skill growths along with that can make her kill things insanely well. Late game the dragons can bring her to wrath range very easily, then she can equip the Laguz guard to not get second hit from them to go on a wrath rampage. Mine even got enough magic level ups to get to about 11 magic to use the flame lance well and hit on resistance where it helps.
Is Mekkah better than me? Yes.
Is Mekkah right with his list? Yes.
Does Nephenee suck and take a lot to make work? Yes.
Is it fun if/when you get there? YES!
(Also she tends to get better strength than Mia along with the better, stronger weapon so that’s cool)
Definitely gonna take notes to help my friend with his blind playthrough of FE9
Using Rolf on Maniac Mode was insanity, looking back on it now.
Is that even possible without bonus xp
I just got dolphin working on my laptop and I wanted to be able to play a PoR with the bands and all of the 2nd play through stuff unlocked so I did a poor speed run of the game to beat it in about 10 hours (in game time). I used every character in the no brainer category (plus Ike). I realized I had extra bonus exp so I also leveled up Elincia just for more Magic to help with her staves!
My casual run is at chapter 19. I am using: Ike, Boyd, Oscar, Mia, Soren, Jill as my Main Units (Hopefully getting them to 20 for transfer bonuses if I can figure out how to play radiant dawn with them).
I am using some characters for supports/utility; those are: Mist (I want to try to beat the Black Knight), Titania, Stefan, Rhys, Reyson, Sothe (the way he’s been levelling he may have Str, Skl, Spd, Def all capped before level 20)
Shinon should be in both Good (No investment) and High Effort
Then Gatrie should be in both No Brainer and Okay (No investment)
My brain agrees but my heart think he should be in his own tier called "kill him off"...
Shout outs to my boi Bastion for being the only prepromote that still needs investment to be an Okay unit
He was moved to no investment
Honestly, I think the only unit I would change on this whole list is Mist from Okay to Good Investment. If you give her the two arms scrolls you get (and tbh there isnt high demand for arms scrolls in path), she can use the Sonic Sword at Base Valkyrie and will almost certainly 1 round every enemy but fast classes with it. She also then gets the highest mov for a healer until Elincia. Considering her crazy combat, move, and Black Knight fight utility....I think maybe Mist should get a bump.
I have always recommended Mist to new FE9 players and not one has told me they thought it was a bad investment, so at least I have some anecdotal evidence to support this.
I'm skeptical that any new player would know to identify a unit as a bad investment after the fact, exactly because anyone can be made viable. Tell them that Rolf is good if you invest in him and I doubt you'd get negative feedback on that either.
@@SharurFoF in the easy games no unit is bad whit investment tho.
She could move to a new category: Good (tremendous investment). Jokes, Mist is not better than the other okay characters on this list. Nephenee and Makalov are way better than her and also labeled "okay," so Mist doesn't really have any claim to moving up to "good." This game barely needs any healing by the time Mist promotes because of the lack of difficulty. By the time she promotes, you physic staves can cover all healing, so her moment isn't even much of a benefit. She's not a great combat unit. What, she gets 1 good 20 use weapon and gets 2 shot? She's not good.
@@fangiscool1 lol personally would've placed Nephenee into high effort like Rolf but that's a whole other matter since her bases are legitmately garbage even by PoR standards, no javelin access at base and needs an energy drop minimum to actually do things. Lol the reason you'd invest into Mist is for a mobile rescue user since Elincia doesn't even come around until Clash which is like 6 maps after. Sonic Sword is far from the reason you'd invest into Mist tbh and even that's kind of a meme. Makalov is anything I probably would've argued for higher since BEXP outside of maniac is fairly generous where u can get him some stats and then master seal and profit.
@@typhooncarter I'm not sure if you're trolling or not. you can dump a few bexp levels onto Nephenee, give her a forge, and she's killing things on her join chapter. I can see Mist's rescue staff utility. I've never spammed staves that much on her to do that. You have to play really slowly and/or dump tons of bonus experience on Mist for her to be mounted or B rank staves, even compared to Nephenee. She always just gets left behind for me. At least foot combat units can kill stuff in the beginning of chapters.
Honestly I would move Oscar up to no brainer. There's no real reason to not use him as he joins very early, has decent bases/growths, Earth affinity, and is one of the only two mounted units you will have prior to Chapter 9.
All I’m going to say is wrath resolve Rolf is clearly a no brainer.
I prefer gamble Rolf with a killer bow but any Rolf build is better than none
AMAZING TASTE! I love wrath resolve Rolf :))
Something to watch on my next work shift, and then write a way longer comment about \o/ Mekkah be praised! \o/
Yay! Path of Radiance!
The best fe game imo
Bow Knight Astrid is absolutely busted and her with Canto makes her even stronger.
Kiran is good but he suffers from a harsh condition of not being Titania.
Just use both Kiran and Titania? You're giving all of your promoted cavs axes anyways, so they all become Titania more or less. And that's a good thing.
@@neog8029 Petrine is a cool looking bad guy but DAM did she draw the short straw for this game. Titania woth the Poleaxe was a force to be feared
Axe is so good in this game so you want as much as axe users as possible so why not use both?
I think I agree for the most part with this list. good job. One thing I will say is that Nephenee and Mist with investment scale very well into the late game. Once you get Runesword, Mist really takes off. She is strong with the Sonic Sword as well but she is still rather frail so she cant take much punishment on enemy phase without the constant vamp from Runesword. With Investment Nephenee is about as good as Ike except she has spears not swords which pre Ragnell is significantly stronger. . I should also mention that if you choose to invest in her she is good candidate for the Resolve scroll when you get it. Wrath + Resolve = gg.
Also my opinion of Boyd rather low. He has a lot of HP and STR sure, but he is still made of tissue paper, because he has some of the worst defense growths of any unit in the entire game and very low starting defense. Mages also almost do true damage to him and he doesn't dodge worth a damn. He also has such a bad start in HM. Like holy cow is he just borderline unusable early. He gets doubled by nearly everything and monopolizes Rhys. Soren has the benefit of being able to double reliably early and most units dont have a ton of resistance. He also dodges much better than Boyd So I always have a much easier time feeding soren kills to get him up to speed than Boyd.
FE: PoR and Golden Sun. Great fusion, Mekkah.
I'm surprised you put most the laguz in the "good no investment" tier, since the biggest problem with them is you can't control when they transform, like you can in radiant dawn. At least in RD, laguz can still counter attack in human form, so they excel better in RD.
Honest question. Do you think it would be possible to cut Mist from the Tellius games? I just started to wonder it.
What do you mean? Like cut her from the story? You could cut pretty much anyone from the story and/or gameplay (besides ike and elincia I guess) and rework it without too much trouble.
If Mist was axed, who would take on the Medallion? If Ike did it would take away one of his character flaws and push him closer to being too perfect. But if they didn't keep the Medallion close to Ike for some time, the impact of what it means to his family would not hit as hard to him nor to us, who care about Greil's family due to our large exposure to them throughout the story.
@@EZog58 just cut the medalion out of the story. It isn't even really that significant. Or make leanne be holding it when ppl find her in serenes.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 The medallion is pretty important in Path and the backbone of Dawn's story, especially so to the history of Tellius as a whole. By cutting it in Path you are removing the primary motivator for the Mad Kings war, the overarching scheming by a certain individual happening in both games, the reason why Ike is motherless, why Greil founded the mercenaries and why he was hunted by Daein. Removing the medallion from it's current place in the story would disrupt way more than I think you are considering.
@@EZog58 ok, let me rephrase: themedalion doesnt need to be the backbone of everything. Path of radiance's story isn't good because the medallion is in it, it's good because it's Ike's story of growth and revenge. I said that the medallion could get cut because I think in every fire emblem, "the fire emblem" could get cut. The stories in these games aren't great because of a macguffin, they're great because of themes of war and growing up. In fact, the most impactful fire emblem stories are probably the ones that have the least to do with the emblem itself -- Thracia 776, Geneology, and 3H.
Every time I've played through this I've carried Rolf through and always hate myself doing it. Like I want all the brothers but the amount of soft resets I have to do to make Rolf halfway usable is ridiculous!
Cant wait for the Shadow Dragon and NM ones. Keep up the great work!
Me: I respect and and appreciate all of Mekkah’s arguments here
Also me: every single game of FE9 I play somehow ends with Goddess Naphenee and I will hear no slander against her
Radiant Dawn would basically need an entirely different usage list format since units that are busted early on become complete garbage towards the end.
I think the best way to do this for Radiant Dawn would be to do 2 separate lists, one linking characters in their perspective acts in 1-3, then one listing everyone for acts 4 and finale
@@sielklavar That doesn't quite work for the Dawn Brigade, and their part 3 chapters are the hardest because the units that carried them through part 1 fall off a cliff.
@@thereaIitsybitsyspider which is why those characters would go into a category like "okay" with him talking about how they drop off terribly in chapter 3, kinda like how he mentions that Shinon and Gatrie are really good early game, but drop off (especially Shinon) upon their return
@@sielklavar It would be an absolute crime to put Sothe and Volug in the okay tier on a usage tier list. The amount that they carry in part 1 cannot be understated.
@@thereaIitsybitsyspider I meant to say good not okay, that's my bad, but the point still stands that it would still work fine for the format. Both Sothe and Volug would be good (no investment) on this list for being really good at recruitment, but dropping hard later on
Golden sun in the background ? Nice.
I largely agree with this one, my only real comment is that I'm not sure if Brom is really out of the High Effort section, I'm not sure he ever really pays off anything you put into him. I'm not super experienced with him, though, maybe I've missed something.
I also have the likely fringe belief that Volke is the rare Thief that is better than his class and worth using on any map, due to great stats, effective weapons in Stilletos, and an interesting niche in his relatively high Con.
Good point on Brom. I'd probably say the same for nephenee as well, even if wrath is kinda cool. Her bases and growths just aren't good at all, and I'd use anyone in that tier over those 2.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 I agree with Brom, but I'm not quite sure with Nephenee. Fan of her, but she's definitely bottom tier in PoR, but her growths aren't that bad. She has the 2nd highest speed growth, only 2nd to Zihark and Mia, and you can just forge her an iron lance if you are willing. If you aren't LTCing or anything, you can do the stealth prison map without being detected and by virtue, you can easily make Marcia the same level as anyone you have previously invested into, and immediately promote her on the ship map. You can use some on Neph or Jill (dumb argument, I know, this is purely hypothetical and have intent on using anyone) and make anyone viable on join time, obviously Jill is the better option.
In fact, Nephenee outright has an almost 100% to cap her speed and complete 100% if given the knight ward. Again, she's still shit, but you can definitely use her more than Mia or Zihark since better weapon type, forged javelins are also a thing. Ad nauseam now, she's shit, her bases are not good and E rank in lance, but her growths are fine, she's practically a tankier Mia with better weapon type that joins slightly later. If you think Mia is where she should be, then Neph should be too. If you don't, then she should follow her. That's all I'm saying.
@@lofnforseti8447 That's a good point. I think I consider Mia slightly more useful because deployment slots aren't that big of an issue when she joins and she can be a decent filler unit. But by the time Nephenee shows up, you'll want to focus the brunt of your training into Kieran, Oscar, Marcia, and then Jill in the chapter right after. That's the point where I'd drop Mia as well, but at least she gets some time to be used. To me, Nephenee joins and is immediately outclassed. However, I didn't know you could give her the knight ward--thought that only worked on cavs and armor knights, so yeah, maybe she isn't bad.
@@vishuprathikanti9352 Deployment slots is fine if they can effectively contribute effectively, but she really doesn't. You are talking about Mia's short-term viability, but even then, she's still largely irrelevant. Her joining chapter, she can't do much, the defense chapter, why would you even put her in front? And by doing so, she cannot gain combat exp. The shore chapter is like the only map she might do well enough, but just because there's axe users in the beach to the village doesn't ensure her viability because she can die to the myrmidon and mage there. Nephenee actually has deployment slots in the next chapter since you can deploy everyone and again, the point of this video was not overall efficiency over usability. She's shit, but salvageable. She's no Wendy, Donnel, or Nino, she's Neph in a game where you can work towards her without going snail pace.
There's a reason why they are in Okay (Investments), because they actually need investments to be remotely functional.
@@lofnforseti8447
Mia is an interesting case.
The utility she has initially gives her an opportunity to easily gain 2-3 levels, easily, and if in those levels, she gets a few lucky points of Strength or especially Defense, she immediately becomes far more valuable and considerable for long term use.
If she doesn't, she's an easy bench (or sac if you roll that way), so you don't really lose anything for trying.
I like units like that, getting a good Mia might not be statistically likely, but it's always possible, and having the environment to roll for it safely is exciting.
I think the Demi band only gives a penalty to their stats, some stats they dont even lose points in, I think they lose like 2 speed 3 strength 2 skill and some others? I'm not sure on the exact numbers but I know it's not half
Half is FE10, the Demi Band in FE9 is an absolute no-brainer, especially on Tigers or Dragons, who have the raw stats to ignore the penalties, and don't mind being slowed down as much as cats or hawks.
Even on cats or hawks, though, it's an auto-include.
Lethe is really the only even semidebatable case, because she starts maps transformed anyways, but really, that's just opportunity cost of not using it on anyone else, and her getting less out of it than any other Laguz.
Yeah half shift sucks, wish we had the demi band back, and maybe even more than one of them in FE9
I said Demi Band halves transformation bonuses., which according to my sources it does. serenesforest.net/path-of-radiance/classes/transformation/
Guess I misspoke, didnt know that the transformation gave set bonuses so the demi band will always subtract the same amount, guess I'm more used to Radiant Dawn transformations, it's the one I played first and the one I've played more, sorry Mekkah
Honestly Titania started to fall off, starting to struggle to hit and kill as consistently...
She didn’t struggle with any of these things until THE FINAL CHAPTER. And I could forge an axe for her to give her better hit and damage.
Honestly I always thought Ranulf should be higher. He has much more strength than other cats and hits hard, while still being fairly tanky and speedy. Great balance of str/spd/def.
I feel like I recognise the first guy in okay (no investment)
Loving the golden sun music
I just replayed this game and used torgod, and he capped strength, lmao. I was like, well, no speed penalty is nice, but could you actually just get speed level ups? No? Okay, thanks
Surprised not to see Lethe in No Brainer. Not having 2-range does put her a step below the mounted gods, but she's so powerful for when you get her and doesn't fall off until pretty late. It's so hard to use her wrong, and even at a slack pace I find she's transformed right up until the map is basically cleared out.
She has a bit too much trouble one-rounding enemies even a few chapters after she joins, and the ones she can are usually weak enough that you can just use units who actually gain some exp for killing. Even if she could kill everything, her bulk isn’t too good, and each battle she’s in gets her closer and closer to being a glorified shove-bot for the rest of the chapter. Plus, no 2-range really hurts when every fight needs to count for something. She’s good, but she isn’t *that* good. I could imagine her maybe being in no-brainer, but you’d have to overcrowd the tier with other units like Oscar and Stefan.
Devdan is not in "No Brainer"? Are you kidding Devdan? Devdan fights like ten men, who fight like 10 men!!!
Nah mate you're thinking of Danved. Different guy.
I wanna see a transfers bonus tier list video
YES
I feel like Ike should be in the no brainer tier. In a tier list setting, he should be lower, sure, but this is a recommendation guide effectively and if someone needs one, then they should train Ike, 100% of the time, because otherwise they could get softlocked.
It says something when only one character is in high effort also I think Oscar might should be in no brained due to how easy it is to train him and give like 4 levels in chapter 8 with bexp also I think Jill is the best candidate for the boots
Tbh, Mia couldve gone there as well.
@lookslikedekulink maybe but I wouldn’t call her as bad as Rolf due to having some good combat when trained and she Dosent take as long to train her as opposed to Rolf I think tormod should of went in there tho
He is pretty good, but he loses out on some levels when he leaves for those couple earlygame chapters
@kanamies yeah he does suffer a bit from those lack of 2 chapters for exp so I guess that’s why he is in good investment
@@dawnellecarr1137 I think he needs that bexp in Despair and Hope, because the map is hard and it solves his exp problem. Boyd on the other hand suffers more due to the weight of axes. Even on Day Breaks, he still may get doubled.
Are you using Golden Sun music?!?!
You didn't mention giving Keiran a Killer Axe and using Gamble! In all seriousness though I'm almost done with my first playthrough of this game and my favorite/most used units by far have been Mia and Astrid.
Agree with the list except for two things. I'd probably put Boyd in no brainer, he's that strong, and even at the start he's good. The only flaw he has is the lack of a mount. Then I'd put Makalov up with Astrid, or move her down. She joins in 13 at level 3 iirc, him in 15 at level 10. Both are under leveled with bad weapon types, but he has the better bases, and swords are better than bows. Chapter 14 won't make much of a difference, it's the desert map where you want mages, fliers, and laguz. Not much for her to do there. Meaning you only really have chapter 13 to try and overtake the Stat lead makalov has on her. Honestly I'd just put them both in ok with investment. Neither can compare with the units in good.
Boyd's defense stat is really bad also he usually doesnt double. Also i think u forgot that astrid has paragon and gets hand axes at promotion
@@cursedbumblebee3731 I've never found Boyd's defense to be an issue, but you're right about him having doubling issues some times. Maybe leave him where he is.
But I'm not changing my mind about Astrid being about the same as Makalov. Paragon won't help her close the gap between her and the other units. And Hand axes are a non factor, since Makalov also gets them at promotion, and he can promote as soon as you get him, and thus use them sooner. I don't think Astrid's late game performance makes up for her early game flaws. Hence why moving her down is what I would do.
@@kyraevermoon5544 In regards to Astrid, if this was a tier list I would agree. But it isn’t. Its saying that with investment, Astrid will be a good unit, whereas with investment Makalov will be an okay unit. The fact that you need to train them both as their fairly bad in the early/mid game when you first get them is irrelevant to how they are after they are invested in, which is what the category difference is about.
Boyd is susceptible to getting killed on enemy phase, especially early game. His con is too low so the axes slow him down to the point he can't double most units, and he misses a ton. Kieran has similar problems with accuracy, but not quite as bad.
Thing with Astrid is she keeps paragon after promotion, so even though Makalov needs roughly the same xp for promo, Astrid levels way faster as a promo'd unit. She's also the only viable bow user which gives her a niche that makalov, or the other cavs don't have. By the time you get makalov you already have 2-3 paladins, and makalov doesn't have anything to differentiate himself from the rest. Swords are just strictly worse than lances and axes, while bows are a different niche. Training makalov is also tougher since he can't enemy phase out the gate, and he has no range unlike astrid.
Of course Makalov has the better base stats, he's lvl 10 while Astrid is level 1. Astrid gets 9 more levels than he does. Makalov does have slightly better growths than astrid though, a lot of astrids growth is wasted on mag. However due to the extra levels, Astrid will be faster and much more accurate, and her strength will only be slightly lower once makalov has promo but that will be offset by having axes over swords.
Main use case I see for Makalov is if you like him, or if Kieran or Oscar die, otherwise its just another investment for a weaker version of something you already have three of(Kieran, Oscar, and Titania).
Is oliver actually playable or is he hear as a joke?
He's playable on trial maps as far as I remember. Shiharam (Jill's dad) is also payable on trial maps.
Really great video to sleep to
After some playthrough, here is some thought about my PoR experience:
-Paladins and fliers is so good in this game, this is the only game that i want to fill my team as many of them as possible (except that Makalov asshole, no wonder why Astrid abandoned her noble life to be a knight)
-I don't like Laguz in general. They are strong but need to transform to combat and don't have any 2 range option. The only laguzs i usually use is Reyson and Mordecai (for smiting mount units)
-I have mixed feelings about early access pegasus knight: They are really good in theory but in practical, my early access pegasus knight (except Vanessa from fe8 because somehow when i play fire emblem, every green hair girls got blessed in stats growth) always got screwed in strength. In one playthrough, my Marcia only have 12 strength even i trained her 20/20 before promoting and after 5 levels as a Falcoknight, she didn't gain a single point of strength and at that point of the game, 12 strengths can't even damage things. Yes i can still use them as a transporter but in some levels where the unit pool is limited, i would rather bring others unit instead.
-I actually don't like Boyz even when in PoR he is better than RD because somehow my Boyz always gets screwed in speed. He gains speed so bad that nearly every enemies in the second half of the game can double him
- Jill is a goddess, you get her pretty early and get full guard in chapter 16, give her bexp then she can solo the game by herself
-Personal skills learned from Occult scrolls are suck except Aether and Sol
Only briefly looked at the list. 8 wonder why Haar is not in no brainer.
Wrong game
I hate how dirty they did Astrid in FE10, she was a beast if you put a bit of BEXP into her in 9 and in 10 she's just... useless.
eeeeeh a beast is a little strong there. She ended up good later but she would die as soon as an enemy looked at her in the first chapter she's in like a cleric. Hell I think Rhys would take a punch better than her when she first joins. Still Paragon was really good and she would get really strong later with the investment.
@@nah4467 She takes some babying to get to promotion, but giving her axes means you have another axe mounted unit, which is about the best class you can be in FE9.
They also did her character dirty in FE10.
@@astracrits4633 TBH if they leaned more into her coming into her own as a knife and being a vet by that point *and* gave her similar transfer bonuses that Sothe does, I think she would have been a much better unit.
@@simonjenkins7278 no that would be broken
Golden sun ost is making me feel alive not going to lie. Good lord its been so many years since i played the game.
I’d say tauroneo should be in no brainer but that’s just from my personal experience.
He’s a general. He can’t move.
nice
Nephanee is a god
GOLDEN SUN OMG
In my first hard mode attempt i benched titatnia never used her only used ike for like the first 8 chapters and he was lvl 20 so fast lol
...why would you do that?
Honestly respectable
I love you, but 14 ads seems like a bit much
Ngl Oskar is such a little shit in my first playthrough. Dude has leveled STR once from level goddamn 1 to 11
Imagine my shock when I learned he has a 45 growth in it. Can’t wait for fixed growths
I hate RNG in games. I remember playing Disgaea 3 (Strategy RPG, like FE) and I missed at 99%, three times in a row. The biggest load of BS I've ever come across in RNG history.
Rolf worked out really well for my in the long run. Had him outclassing Shinon in no time.
for your interest, if you lvl up with bonus exp you can only lvl up 3 stats max
Bastion can double with seige tomes he is underrated unit because he can't use staffs
Doubling with siege tomes isn’t some kind of crucial benchmark that nobody else can meet. Unless he can do something impressive like kill powerful enemies or enable quicker and easier clears with that, you’re going to need a better argument.
@@Edgeperor so 1 less enemy for you front line units to worry about or the ability to save an exposed healer if you fuck up isn't useful like the only trainable mage that I could getting consistently is illyanna or caliel bastion can do it at base and clash is a pain in the ass
Soren, Ilyana and Calill also can so that's isn't the point
@@sanae99.9.9 he can do it at base they can't
@@blankblank6214 they can't but they have time to be trained and it isn't hard at all
I would agree with 100% benching Rolf if it wasn't for the fact that you can zero risk, minimal resource grind him to about level 9 with his starting bow on the boss of the level you get him on. Admittedly it does take time but if you get a decent archer out of it then it isn't a complete waste.
Seeing Fire Emblem but hearing that beautiful Golden Sun track is weird. Fuck I need to play Golden Sun again
titania is pretty much female seth
4:05
Didn't you mean "it takes a while to get him Rolfing?"
I'm sorry, I'll leave now
Oliver can't be recruited in path
Danved and Oliver aren't in the SSSSSSS+++++++++++++++ EX SUPER tier
Danved isn’t in this game. Only Devdan is in FE9
Nephenee isn't in the lower echelons. I'm happy.