Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Support Optimization Guide
By Holothuria (Jon Chown)
[Toct] Table of Contents
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Contents:
[Toct] Table of Contents
[Chp1] Chapter 1 - Guide Information
[Gttg] Guide to the Guide
[Sftc] Supports: Factors to Consider
[Csrl] Class Role
[Csaw] Character Strengths and Weaknesses
[Rvob] Relative Value of Bonuses
[Sgbs] Self-Given Bonuses and Stacking
[Rcpt] Reciprocity
[Oagc] Overall Group Composition
Okay, it's a little silly: writing a guide about a very narrow aspect of a
five-year-old game. Well, I just took up the game, and the truth of the matter
is that I'm a big, uncontrollable data processor, and this is the sort of
information I obsess over. No, Sacred Stones probably isn't hard enough that
optimizing support relationships is necessary to beat the game, even on hard
mode. Since I'll be thinking about it anyway, I figure I might as well make
public the conclusions I reach. At present, I am only submitting this guide
to GameFAQs, so it it turns up elsewhere, I'll get in a big, irate huff.
Questions, comments, corrections and all that fun stuff can be sent to me at
holothuria at hotmail dot com.
This guide will be put into two chapters. The first will discuss much of the
thinking and math behind my way of looking at supports. The second will
outline the best options for individual characters. If I get around to it, I
may add a third chapter that discusses some possibilities for well-optimized
five-, eight- and twelve-man teams.
The support system can be dazzling (okay, baffling) at first. There's been
plenty written about it already, so I'm going to skip the basics of how
supports are gained and what they do. If you need more of a primer, I
recommend neonclover's guide. However, here, for handy reference, is a brief
description of the bonuses available:
Attack - increases damage done
Defense - reduces damage taken
Hit - increases chance to hit
Avoid - reduces chance to be hit
Crit - increases chance to get a critical strike
Crit evade - reduces chance to be hit with a critical strike
Note that all bonuses apply to both physical and magical attacks, so, for
example, a defense bonus actually increases both defense and resistance. Also
for handy reference, here are the bonuses offered by each elemental affinity:
There are three offensive affinities, each offering all three offensive bonuses
and one defensive bonus. They are fire, light and wind. There are three
defensive affinities--anima, ice and thunder--giving all the defensive bonuses
and one offensive bonus each. The odd man out is dark, which has two each
offensive and defensive bonuses.
[Sftc] Supports: Factors to Consider
As we attempt to optimize supports, we'll have to consider a number of factors.
Here's my attempt to enumerate them, in rough order of importance:
1.Class role
2.Character strengths and weaknesses
3.Relative value of bonuses
4.Self-given bonuses and stacking
5.Reciprocity
6.Overall group composition
Okay, maybe it's not quite that many factors, but let's take a closer look at
each.
[Csrl] Class Role
Every character has a job to do, and each job benefits from certain statistics
more than others. It's important to align each character's supports to give
the best stats for the job or jobs to be done. Need an example of what I'm
talking about? Take a look at Tethys; she's purely a utility character, with
no attack ability of her own. Therefore, there's not much reason to use her
supports to try to beef up her offensive capabilities. At the other end of the
spectrum are characters who deal damage purely from range and shouldn't be
subject to many enemy attacks, and so who don't need much in the way of
defenses. Note that very many of the characters in the game can fill more than
one role, especially if branching promotions are taken into consideration. An
arrangement of the class roles I'll refer to, in order from most offensive to
most defensive, follows, with a brief description of each role.
Ranged damage - deals damage to enemies not adjacent to the character
Melee damage - deals damage to enemies adjacent to the character
Tank (physical or magical) - serves as bait to enemies, absorbing incoming
damage
Utility - may include staff use, dancing, stealing or anything else that isn't
direct combat
“Wait,” I hear you asking, “Shouldn't the tanks be the most defensive? It's
their job to be hit and not take much damage!” While that's more or less true,
tanks--we hope--get a chance to counter-attack, and they frequently have a
secondary role mopping up wounded enemies. “Utility”-role characters, on the
other hand, frequently cannot counter-attack and use abilities which don't
benefit from offensive bonuses much, if at all.
[Csaw] Character Strengths and Weaknesses
Tying in closely to class role is an individual's ability to perform that role.
A damage dealer may have good chances to hit and crit, but if he's only
laying down piddling amounts of smack, he's of little value. Rather than
building up his crit rating further, it's best to support him in ways that
increase his attack damage, and that actually increases the value of his
already good hit and crit odds. Similarly, it doesn't matter how much damage a
character can do if he dies to the first sneaky skeleton to pitch a javelin
his way.
For offensive roles, the basic rule is to build on strengths by covering
weaknesses; if the weaknesses are covered, build on strengths by building on
strengths. In terms of defenses, however, most characters are intrinsically
specialized--they stand out in avoid or defense or resistance--and it's often
better to build on what they've already got than to try to balance things out.
If you're looking for a general rule, give avoid to damage-dealers and defense
to tanks. This aspect of support optimization is perhaps best discussed on a
character-by-character basis.
[Rvob] Relative Value of Bonuses
This is where the promised math starts to come into things. I'll start with a
blanket statement: all else being equal, offensive supports are better than
defensive ones. Why? Because defensive bonuses work against each other; the
higher a character's defense, the less valuable avoid is to him, and vice
versa. Meanwhile, offensive bonuses have a kind of synergy, each making the
others more valuable. Oh, and crit evade is junk. . . . but more on that
later.
To counter my own point, defense can actually feed damage output, by allowing a
character to survive and counter-attack against more enemy attacks.
Generally, though, the characters best at doing that have high natural defenses
already.
So, on to that math. On the offensive side of the ball, we've got three
numbers to evaluate, and the support system gives them this equivalency: 0.5
attack, 2.5% hit or 2.5% crit. Ignoring for a moment enemy defenses, a
character's average damage can be roughed out thus (remember to convert
percentages to decimals):
hit(crit * damage * 2 + damage)
For example, a character with 85% chance to hit, 15% chance to crit and 20
damage would have this math:
Note that each number is multiplied by each of the others, meaning that it's
more beneficial to have a variety than to stack one bonus exclusively. Your
crit chance and damage are effectively lowered by having a lower hit chance,
but that can be made up by the extra damage from crit chance. . . . to a point.
Similarly, the best hit and crit odds in the world are worthless if you can't
do any damage in the first place.
(Incidentally, if you follow the math in that example, you'll find that the
crit bonus is worth the most, followed by the hit bonus and then the attack
bonus. However, the difference is not extreme, and the gains are relative to
this example.)
The lesson? Find a balance. High-skill, high-luck characters (such as
swordsmen) will have plenty of hit and crit already and should probably take
the extra points of damage where they can get them. Meanwhile, axe-wielders
usually suffer from bad hit percentages and could use that boost instead.
As far as defensive stats go, the proportions are similar: 0.5 defense or 2.5%
avoid or 2.5% crit evade. Between defense and avoid, the comparison is pretty
easy. If an enemy would otherwise average 10 damage, it would instead do 9.5
with the defense bonus or 9.75 with the avoid. At 20 average damage, you'd
wind up taking 19.5 after the defense gain or 19.5 after the avoid. In other
words, defense reduces damage more if you're already taking little damage, but
avoid does more if you're likely to take big hits. (If you're wondering, 20
remains the break-even number at higher support levels, because both bonuses
increase linearly.)
Bottom line, characters with high defense should look for more defense, while
characters with low defense should seek avoid. And, again, there's not much
reason to go looking for both, unless the character needs a whole lot of help
(Rennac and Dozla might fit the bill) or just doesn't have any better options.
But what about crits? Nobody wants to be insta-gibbed. Very true, but there
are two counterpoints to be made. First, defense and avoid both reduce the
chance for you to be one-shotted anyway. Second, enemies with high crit chance
are few and far enough between that they can be handled on a tactical level.
Instead of planning supports around them, use terrain, initiative and the
weapon triangle to handle them. Okay, for those of you doing link arena, crit
evade is probably a much more valuable bonus. . . . but you'd probably decided
that for yourself already.
[Sgbs] Self-Given Bonuses and Stacking
Two quick facts to point out. First, fractional support bonuses are rounded
down. 2.5% crit chance is rounded down to 2%. Second, a character gains his
own support bonuses. If a fire affinity has an “A”-level support with a wind
affinity and they're in range of each other, they both gain the “A”-level
bonuses for fire and wind.
The relationship between those two facts? You can use a character's own
affinity bonuses to keep him from losing those half-point gains. For example,
if a dark affinity has a choice between a fire affinity and a light affinity,
his attack, hit and crit bonuses would be the same with either one. However,
at “A” level, the light affinity would give him 1.5 defense, which would round
down. The fire affinity, on the other hand, would offer 7.5% avoid. Because
the dark affinity is also giving himself 7.5% avoid, that .5% wouldn't be
rounded into oblivion. Thus, the choice comes down to either 1 defense or,
essentially, 8% avoid.
This is rarely a reason by itself to support one character over another, but it
can act as a sort of tie-breaker in some cases.
[Rcpt] Reciprocity
Supports are a two-way street, so it's a good idea to try to arrange them to
provide the best bonuses to both involved warriors. And that's about all there
is to say about that.
[Oagc] Overall Group Composition
“What?! How can group composition be so far down the list? You are some kind
of syphilitic halfwit!” Okay, I hear you. But the simple truth is that there
are no characters in Sacred Stones that are so weak that they have no practical
use. There are no Jogurts here. If you prefer to pick your team first and
then plan supports around it, I'm not going to stop you. I simply prefer to do
the best I can for every character in my little guerrilla army, which means
taking all the best supports out there.
[Chp2] Chapter 2 - Characters
In this section, I'll take a look at things a little more specifically.
Characters are listed alphabetically.
Statements about stats are based on “average final stats,” as provided by
Woolylambkin in his character guide. They are based on multiplying the
character's stat growth percentages by the number of levels the character can
gain, and then adding back starting stats and promotion bonuses. Pre-promotion
stat caps are not taken into account, but I have yet to find a situation where
this leads to an average being more than a point over--and in those cases, the
stat is likely to be capped by endgame, anyway. Note that if you promote
before level twenty or don't reach the level cap after promotion, your stats
will likely be lower.
All supports for every character are ranked by what's best for that character,
not necessarily the best match for the two characters mutually. After the
ranking number, there's another number before the supporting character's name.
That second number is the number of “best bonuses” the support will give the
character whose entry it is. For example, looking at the first character on
the list, Amelia, you'll see that her first four supports--Ross, Neimi, Franz
and Ewan--all have “3”s before their names. This is because they all give
Amelia attack, crit and hit, her “best bonuses.” Duessel only has a “1,”
because his anima affinity means that he gives Amelia the attack she needs, but
the rest of his bonuses are defensive and not the sort you should be looking
to give her.
[Amla] Amelia
Possible classes: recruit, knight, cavalier, general, great knight, paladin
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, ranged damage
Affinity: thunder
Comment: Don't be fooled by the 800 pounds of armor the knight branch wears;
Amelia is a damage dealer, no matter how she's promoted. Her defense is just a
little better than standard for a melee fighter, and her health is good but
not great. Decent strength, high skill and good speed all point toward damage
dealing as a primary role. Her defenses are probably good enough to stand up
on their own.
Best bonuses: attack, crit, hit
Support rankings:
1.3 Ross (fire)
2.3 Neimi (fire) - Loses out to Ross because he can make better use of Amelia's
thunder affinity.
3.3 Franz (light)
4.3 Ewan (light) - Franz might enjoy thunder more.
5.1 Duessel (anima)
[Artr] Artur
Possible classes: monk, sage, bishop
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: magical tank, melee damage, utility
Affinity: ice
Comment: Good skill, magic power and speed all mean Artur can do some damage.
As a bishop, he also has some of the best resistance in the game. Low luck
means that his avoid might suffer, so defense might be a better option.
Best bonuses: crit, defense, attack
Support rankings:
1.2 Tethys (fire)
2.2 Cormag (fire) - Needs ice bonuses less.
3.2 Neimi (fire) - Needs that ice even less.
4.2 Joshua (wind)
5.2 Lute (anima) - Still a good option, and the best if you want Artur to be
virtually impervious to magic attack.
[Colm] Colm
Possible classes: thief, assassin, rogue
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: utility
Affinity: light
Comment: Colm has great speed, skill and luck, but his strength is low. You
shouldn't need to worry about his hit chance at all, but he needs damage. Crit
can be a good pick-up, too, especially since the assassin's “silencer” ability
is tied to crit chance. If you're worried about his fragility, look for
avoid.
Best bonuses: attack, crit, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Neimi (fire) - She has everything he's looking for. It's meant to be.
2.2 Moulder (anima) - attack and avoid
3.2 Rennac (dark) - crit and avoid
4.1 Kyle (ice)
5.1 Marisa (ice)
[Crmg] Cormag
Possible classes: wyvern rider, wyvern knight, wyvern lord
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, ranged damage (Danger! See comment.)
Affinity: fire
Comment: First, the “Danger!” note: there's a glitch that can cause the game to
freeze if a wyvern knight's pierce ability activates on a ranged attack. If
you go the wyvern knight route, either leave the javelins at home, or read up
on the situations in which the glitch occurs. Now, Cormag . . . is kind of a
mixed bag. His stat caps are kind of low with either promotion, and he winds
up with only moderate skill and speed--and low luck. If you want him to deal
damage, it's going to take a little bit of everything as far as support
bonuses, although it's worth noting that pierce is a very strong offensive
skill. On the tanking side, Cormag has very good h.p. and decently high
defense, which he can build on with even more defense from supports. Be
warned, though, that his resistance is very low, and he'll get mauled by
magicians.
Best bonuses: crit, defense, hit
Support rankings:
1.2 Tana (wind)
2.2 Artur (ice)
3.2 Natasha (ice)
4.1 Duessel (anima)
5.1 Seth (anima)
[Dzla] Dozla
Possible classes: berserker
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: thunder
Comment: Dozla, poor Dozla. He's a wrecking ball when you first get him, but
his stat growth is pathetic, and he winds up a bit of a glass cannon. On the
one hand, his h.p. and crit are very high, but, on the other, nearly everything
else is low. As an axe-user, he'll need help with hit, to take full advantage
of his high crit chance. For defenses . . . well, you can stack some defense
to make it passable, or you can stack some avoid to make it passable. Since
we're starting low, avoid is probably the better option. The good news is that
he has something to gain from any support available.
Best bonuses: hit, avoid, attack
Support rankings:
1.2 Rennac (dark) - Dark stacks well with thunder.
2.2 Garcia (fire)
3.2 L'Arachel (light)
4.2 Ewan (light) - Probably needs thunder's defensive gains less.
5.2 Myrrh (wind)
[Dusl] Duessel
Possible classes: great knight
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, ranged damage
Affinity: anima
Comment: Duessel's stats are pretty middling all around, except his high
constitution. He's a fairly customizable guy who can turn into a decent damage
dealer with offensive supports, or into a decent tank with defense or avoid.
Note the operative word: decent. Defense is actually more to his advantage,
but he has a hard time finding it.
Best bonuses: hit, defense, crit
Support rankings:
1.2 Cormag (fire)
2.2 Ephraim (fire) - Probably needs anima less than Cormag.
3.2 Knoll (dark)
4.2 Amelia (thunder)
[Erka] Eirika
Possible classes: lord, great lord
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles:
Affinity: light
Comment: Winds up very much like the other swordsmen, but with less crit and
more defenses. And a horse. High skill, speed and luck mean that she
shouldn't have trouble poking her opponents, but she needs more attack and crit
to deal out the damage. She can get into the “pretty good” range for either
avoid or defense (including resistance), if you feel worried about using her on
the front lines. She really only has one bad option for supports, and that's
Innes.
Best bonuses: attack, crit, avoid or defense (yes, I cheated)
Support rankings:
1.3 L'Arachel (light) - Attack, crit and defense. Since Eirika is also light,
this stacks a little better than Ephraim's fire.
2.3 Ephraim (fire) - Attack, crit and avoid. On the other hand, he might make
better use of Eirika's light affinity.
3.2 Saleh (wind) - Can probably make better use of light boosts than either
Tana or Forde.
4.2 Forde (wind) - Only wins out over Tana by having the same movement type as
promoted Eirika.
5.2 Tana (wind) - Still not a bad support by any measure
6.2 Seth (anima) - Attack, defense and avoid. At this point down the list,
we're starting to get too defensive.
7.1 Innes (ice)
[Eprm] Ephraim
Possible classes: lord, great lord
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, ranged damage
Affinity: fire
Comment: With respectable stats across the board, Ephraim can make a strong
damage-dealer or a strong tank. Or probably both at the same time, really.
His speed is slightly low, so bank on defense over avoid. Where offense is
concerned, attack and crit are likely more valuable than hit.
Best bonuses: crit, defense, attack
Support rankings:
1.3 Eirika (light)
2.3 L'Arachel (light) - Ephraim's fire is worth more to Eirika, since she's
purely offensive.
3.2 Forde (wind) - Again, he beats Tana on movement type.
4.2 Tana (wind)
5.2 Myrrh (wind) - She doesn't need the offense Ephraim's giving off.
6.2 Duessel (anima)
7.1 Kyle (ice)
[Ewan] Ewan
Possible classes: pupil, mage, sage, mage knight, shaman, druid, summoner
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: melee damage, magical tank
Affinity: light
Comment: Ewan is pretty strong offensively no matter how you train him. Down
the shaman path, he can use some hit, as dark tomes are the magical equivalent
of axes. If you make him a mage, crit and damage are more valuable.
Defensively, he's got good avoid and resistance, so there's no harm in picking
up either one--but he probably doesn't really need a lot of help in that
direction.
Best bonuses: crit, attack, hit
Support rankings:
1.3 Ross (fire)
2.3 Tethys (fire) - Needs Ewan's light less than Ross.
3.3 Saleh (wind)
4.1 Dozla (thunder)
5.1 Amelia (thunder)
[Ford] Forde
Possible classes: cavalier, great knight, paladin
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage, physical tank
Affinity: wind
Comment: Mostly good but not great stats. Hit shouldn't be an issue, unless he
becomes a great knight and takes up axes. His strength is slightly low, so
I'd look for attack first, and then crit. Forde's defense is low, so look for
avoid instead if you're worried about his durability.
Best bonuses: attack, avoid, crit
Support rankings:
1.3 Ephraim (fire)
2.2 Vanessa (anima)
3.2 Franz (light)
4.2 Eirika (light) - Franz has fewer good options than Eirika.
5.1 Kyle (ice)
[Frnz] Franz
Possible classes: cavalier, great knight, paladin
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage, physical tank
Affinity: light
Comment: Almost a clone of Forde, Franz has higher strength and lower skill.
That means that he might prefer crit and hit to attack. Really, with his
support options, he should take whatever offense he can get.
Best bonuses: crit, hit, attack
Support rankings:
1.3 Forde (wind) - Franz's only offensive support.
2.1 Gilliam (thunder)
3.1 Amelia (thunder) - Has better options than Gilliam.
4.1 Natasha (ice)
5.1 Seth (anima)
[Grca] Garcia
Possible classes: fight, warrior, hero
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: fire
Comment: Garcia's a fairly stock damage dealer. He's got high strength and
good skill but low speed. He'll wind up with five more strength as a warrior
than as a hero, so the offensive support choices might change depending on
which direction you go. Either way, he's using axes at least part of the time,
so hit will do him good, and crit will serve him well. His only defensive
standout is h.p., but given his low speed, it's probably best to pursue defense
over avoid.
Best bonuses: crit, hit, defense
Support rankings:
1.2 Neimi (fire)
2.2 Ross (fire) - Ross is (slightly) less offensive than Neimi, so he needs
Garcia's fire less. She's also a better fit logistically, as a primarily
ranged fighter.
3.2 Gilliam (thunder)
4.2 Dozla (thunder) - He and Garcia both are mainly axe-users, so it doesn't
make a ton of sense to have them side by side on the field.
5.1 Seth (anima)
[Gerk] Gerik
Possible classes: mercenary, ranger, hero
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, ranged damage
Affinity: thunder
Comment: One of the best all-around characters, Gerik has good offense and
defense. Class strength caps keep his strength down, so attack might be a
priority, and a bit of hit would be good if you make him an axe-wielding hero.
He's stout defensively, but avoid isn't his strong suit; stack defense
instead.
Best bonuses: attack, defense, hit
Support rankings:
1.2 Tethys (fire)
2.2 Ross (fire) - Has less use for thunder than Tethys. Sort of.
3.2 Joshua (wind)
4.2 Saleh (wind) - Needs thunder defense bonuses less than Joshua.
5.2 Marisa (ice)
6.2 Innes (ice)
[Gilm] Gilliam
Possible classes: knight, general, great knight
Primary role: physical tank
Other roles: melee damage, ranged damage, more tanking
Affinity: thunder
Comment: And the Tank of the Year Award goes to . . . Gilliam has the highest
defense in the game, and his h.p. should cap. Attacks bounce off him most of
the game, but if you think he needs to be harder, go ahead and pile some more
defense on. His strength is high, but his skill is on the low side, so look
for hit and crit.
Possible classes: sniper
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles:
Affinity: ice
Comment: Poor, poor Innes just isn't that good. He can be a power early on, as
a promoted character in a largely un-promoted world, but his bad stat growths
eventually catch up with him. Since he's exclusively ranged, I wouldn't worry
about his defenses; honestly, you couldn't make them good if you wanted to.
His hit chance should be pretty good, so look for attack and crit instead. He
has a lot of good options for supports, but, unfortunately, he's toting the
unpopular ice affinity.
Best bonuses: crit, attack, hit
Support rankings:
1.3 L'Arachel (light)
2.3 Eirika (light) - Might need ice less.
3.3 Tana (wind)
4.3 Joshua (wind) - Might need ice bonuses less than Tana, since she has a
lower speed cap and lower defense.
5.1 Gerik (thunder)
6.1 Vanessa (anima)
[Jsua] Joshua
Possible classes: myrmidon, assassin, swordmaster
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles:
Affinity: wind
Comment: Sort of the opposite of Innes: a strong character with few good
support options. He fits the swordsman mold pretty squarely, with high hit and
crit but low strength, and a reliance on avoiding for defense.
Best bonuses: attack, avoid, crit
Support rankings:
1.2 L'Arachel (light) - Boy, she's turning up in a lot of top positions, isn't
she?
2.2 Gerik (thunder)
3.1 Innes (ice)
4.1 Marisa (ice)
5.1 Artur (ice)
6.1 Natasha (ice)
[Knol] Knoll
Possible classes: shaman, druid, summoner
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: utility, melee damage, magical tank
Affinity: dark
Comment: The often maligned Knoll really has some pretty good offensive stats.
The trouble is that his low health and pitiful defense mean that he'll snap
like a twig under physical assault. If only summon would appear out of thin
air to take hits for him. All he should need offensively is hit--which is
good, since he has exclusively defensive supports. Defense is what you'd look
to stack to make him a magical tank. . . . and he's getting it no matter what
you do.
Best bonuses: hit, defense, crit
Support rankings:
1.2 Natasha (ice)
2.1 Lute (anima)
3.1 Duessel (anima) - These two could go either way, really, as they're both
anima and both need hit, crit and avoid. Lute gets the edge because I think
all three stats are more valuable to her.
[Kyle] Kyle
Possible classes: cavalier, great knight, paladin
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, melee damage
Affinity: ice
Comment: With high h.p., decent defense and a defensive affinity, Kyle is the
“tankiest” of your three cavaliers. He's actually not bad with a weapon, too.
His luck is low, and his skill is only average, so look for hit, especially if
you plan to have him take up axes, and crit after that. If you want him to
tank, defense is probably preferable to avoid, but he can get away with either.
Possible classes: troubadour, valkyrie, mage knight
Primary role: utility
Other roles: ranged damage, melee damage
Affinity: light
Comment: Here she is, to most popular girl in school. Everyone wants to pal
around with L'Arachel, but what does she really need? Not much, truth be told;
she's a statistical behemoth, with a likelihood to cap magic power, speed,
luck and resistance and come pretty close with skill. (That's all if you don't
promote until level 20, naturally.) The trade-off is her vulnerability to
physical attacks; she has very low defense and some of the worst h.p. in the
game. That latter also prevents her from being a foolproof magical tank, I
think. Since she's wholly a utility character for the first half of her
career, I prefer to seek defensive bonuses first, focusing on avoid especially,
to keep her around for the higher levels. If you feel the need to bolster her
offense, look for a balance, with hit as the lowest priority.
Possible classes: mage, sage, mage knight
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: utility, melee damage
Affinity: anima
Comment: Lute is a troubling case. She has all the same weaknesses as
L'Arachel--low defense and abysmal h.p.--with only about half of the
advantages. She has high magic power and speed but low skill, so look to shore
up her hit percentage first, and then consider crit. Her resistance is all
right, but I'd look for avoid, to build on her natural speed.
Best bonuses: hit, crit, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Ross (fire)
2.3 Knoll (dark) - Lacking the damage bonus of fire.
3.2 Artur (ice) - Wins out over Kyle because the anima bonuses are better for
him.
4.2 Kyle (ice)
5.1 Vanessa (anima)
[Mrsa] Marisa
Possible classes: myrmidon, assassin, swordmaster
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles:
Affinity: ice
Comment: Marisa doesn't have any surprises as a swordsman. Low strength, high
skill, high speed, etc. If there's one thing making her different from Joshua,
it's that she's got high luck, so . . . um, well, in terms of supports, it
doesn't mean much. You're still looking for attack, avoid and crit.
Possible classes: priest, sage, bishop
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: utility, melee damage
Affinity: anima
Comment: Ugh. If there's one word to describe Moulder's stats, that's it.
Ugh. It's hard to say what he wants to be, let alone what support bonuses he
needs. His skill and speed are good, as is his con (for a caster), which
suggests that he ought to be focused on dealing damage rather than healing
after promotion--especially considering his low magic power, which is about the
only stat that benefits healing. His defense and resistance aren't going to
win any battles, and his avoid is hindered by his low luck. Where does that
leave us? I suppose that attack ought to come first, and then probably avoid,
for some much-needed survivability. His hit should be good enough naturally,
especially if he's using light magic, so crit is probably his third priority.
Best bonuses: attack, avoid, crit
Support rankings:
1.2 Vanessa (anima)
2.2 Colm (light)
3.2 Gilliam (thunder) - Beats out Syrene for logistical reasons.
4.2 Syrene (thunder)
[Myrh] Myrrh
Possible classes: manakete
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: physical tank, magical tank
Affinity: wind
Comment: As long as her dragonstone is functional, Myrrh is a raging beast on
the battlefield. She does massive damage and is extremely difficult to kill,
and she gets big stat boosts. Of course, that's all well and good, but it
creates two problems as far as supports go. First, while she still has the
stone, offensive bonuses don't do her much--if any-- good, because she's just
too powerful to need them. Second, once the stone breaks, she turns into a
pumpkin. Offensive bonuses are worth even less, since she can't do any
attacking, and her tanking ability drops quite a bit. Still, defensive bonuses
are the only real option, but it may be best to plan around who needs her wind
affinity instead of what Myrrh needs.
Possible classes: cleric, bishop, valkyrie
Primary role: utility
Other roles: magical tank, ranged damage, melee damage
Affinity: ice
Comment: Given her meek appearance, you might be surprised to learn than
Natasha is the best magical tank in the game. Well, she is. She's got very
high resistance and very high avoid to go with it. She's also got the magic
power to be a good healer, and it's only her low skill that hampers her as a
damage-dealer. Since she'll be using light magic, her hit rate is still
decent, so look for crit. There's not much else she really needs, but I
suppose a little more attack and avoid never hurt anyone.
Best bonuses: crit, attack, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Cormag (fire)
2.2 Franz (light)
3.2 Joshua (wind)
4.2 Knoll (dark)
5.2 Seth (anima)
[Nemi] Neimi
Possible classes: archer, ranger, sniper
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: melee damage
Affinity: fire
Comment: Neimi goes straight down the checklist as a damage-dealer, with good
strength, skill, speed and luck. As a ranged damage-dealer, she shouldn't have
to worry about coming under attack too often, so look to maximize her damage
output with attack and crit. If she can pick up some avoid, it'll supplement
her natural dodging ability.
Best bonuses: attack, crit, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Garcia (fire)
2.2 Colm (light)
3.2 Amelia (thunder)
4.2 Gilliam (thunder)
5.1 Artur (ice)
[Renc] Rennac
Possible classes: rogue
Primary role: utility
Other roles: melee damage
Affinity: dark
Comment: The biggest chump on the list, Rennac has just plain lousy stats.
Speed is his only good stat. He's as hard as a sponge and as strong as a
butterfly. Hence, he can only really be relied on for his lock-picking and
stealing skills. The slightly good news is that his own dark affinity can do
him a lot of good. It's got the avoid he needs to keep breathing and some hit
and crit to keep his damage afloat. Of course, attack would help him more than
the hit probably. To prioritize, I would look for avoid, attack, crit and
finally hit.
Best bonuses: avoid, attack, crit
Support rankings:
1.3 Tethys (fire) - Everything Rennac needs.
2.2 Colm (light)
3.2 L'Arachel (light) - Needs dark less than Colm. Maybe. Slightly.
4.2 Dozla (thunder)
[Ross] Ross
Possible classes: novice, fighter, pirate, warrior, hero, berserker
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: fire
Comment: Ross is solid all around, but the only job he can do really well is
dealing damage. He's like a better take on Dozla, with slightly better
survivability and much better damage output. His strength is plenty high
(unless you make him a hero), but his skill is slightly low, so look for crit
and hit. Avoid is probably a little better than defense, if you're worried
about him surviving on the front lines.
Best bonuses: crit, hit, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Garcia (fire) - Just what Ross is after.
2.2 Ewan (light)
3.2 Amelia (thunder)
4.2 Gerik (thunder)
5.1 Lute (anima)
[Salh] Saleh
Possible classes: sage
Primary role: ranged damage
Other roles: utility, melee damage, magical tank
Affinity: wind
Comment: Perhaps more than any other character who comes already promoted,
Saleh suffers from having few levels to gain stats. His growth rates are
perfectly all right, and I'm sure he'd be comparable to the other characters if
you promoted them all at level ten, but assuming you don't, he winds up just
on the low side of average in nearly every regard. It's hard to say what to
give him, since he has neither strong strengths nor weak weaknesses. Any
offensive gains should help, although hit is probably the least valuable. He's
sound enough defensively that keeping him alive shouldn't be a problem--and he
can make a passable magical tank in a pinch--so it's hard to value one
defensive stat over the other.
Possible classes: paladin
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: anima
Comment: Seth has decent offensive stats, but his h.p. and defenses are low
enough that you'll have to worry about him getting mauled by counter-attacks
later in the game. Look for avoid first, to help keep him on his feet--er, on
his horse, anyway. After that, crit and attack are probably best.
Best bonuses: avoid, crit, attack
Support rankings:
1.3 Cormag (fire)
2.3 Garcia (fire) - Has less use for Seth's anima affinity.
3.2 Franz (light)
4.2 Eirika (light)
5.1 Natasha (ice)
[Syrn] Syrene
Possible classes: falcoknight
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: magical tank, ranged damage
Affinity: thunder
Comment: Syrene has the weakest final stats of any of the fliers, but that
doesn't make her an outright bad soldier. She's got good skill and speed, so
all she really needs in order to become a decent combatant is some attack. She
has the best resistance of any non-caster, so you can turn her into a magical
tank with some defense bonuses; for general survivability, though, avoid is
probably the better choice.
Best bonuses: attack, avoid, defense
Support rankings:
1.3 Vanessa (anima)
2.3 Moulder (anima) - Loses to Vanessa due to movement type.
3.2 Gilliam (thunder)
4.2 Kyle (ice)
5.1 Tana (wind) - It could be argued that the cumulative offensive gain of wind
is better than the defenses of the previous two.
[Tana] Tana
Possible classes: pegasus knight, wyvern knight, falcoknight
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: wind
Comment: Tana is likely to cap strength and speed, and she'll get close with
skill and luck. All that together means that she's a reliable damage-dealer
with a good avoid chance. Her strength cap is a little low, though, so hook
her up with some attack, and then throw in some more crit and avoid to make her
a powerhouse.
Best bonuses: attack, crit, avoid
Support rankings:
1.3 Cormag (fire)
2.3 Ephraim (fire) - Has better options than Cormag.
3.2 Eirika (light)
4.2 Syrene (thunder)
5.1 Innes (ice)
6.1 Marisa (ice)
[Tths] Tethys
Possible classes: dancer
Primary role: utility
Other roles:
Affinity: fire
Comment: Tethys dances. She doesn't attack. She doesn't tank. Sooo . . . she
doesn't need offensive support bonuses at all, for anything. And she doesn't
really need a lot in the way of defenses, since she shouldn't be getting
attacked. The lesson is, pair her with people who need her fire affinity.
However, since we're ranking supports here . . . Avoid is really her only
decent option, and defense is the only other one.
Best bonuses: avoid, defense, crit evade
Support rankings:
1.3 Marisa (ice)
2.3 Gerik (thunder) - Same. Has better alternatives than Marisa does.
3.3 Artur (ice) - Has better than Gerik does.
4.2 Rennac (dark)
5.1 Ewan (light)
[Vnsa] Vanessa
Possible classes: pegasus knight, wyvern knight, falcoknight
Primary role: melee damage
Other roles: ranged damage
Affinity: anima
Comment: Not quite the offensive star Tana is, Vanessa is still an able
fighter. She offers no surprises for a pegasus type: attack is a good starting
point, followed by avoid and crit.
