# 5 - Florina (Blazing Sword)

                   Oh hooray! Another frail rescue-bot that was in the same spot as Karin and Vanessa in Mekkah's Top 30 Best Fire Emblem Units Countdown. If personal experience actually meant anything Florina wouldn't be on here since the RNG Goddess likes to screw me over when it comes to the FE 7 Pegasus Sisters. Despite all that Florina is still a fan-favorite when it comes to Pegasus Knights for reasons other than shipping so it stands to reason that she has merit when it comes to the game.

                  For starters, Florina has the advantage of Lyn mode, which means that her 5 base strength and 40 % strength growth won't hinder her as much as it could in theory. Florina will be able to gain levels murdering mercs and mages while also providing much needed rescue utility that is so helpful in shaving off turns. According to dondon151, Florina is also a great candidate when it comes to the stat-boosters one finds in Lyn mode. (He's talking about the Seraph Robe in chapter 6 and the Energy Ring in Chapter 10. Also, here's the dondon151 source that I'll be quoting several times in this post: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23766&page=5)

                As I alluded to earlier, Florina is a rescue bot so naturally her rescue utility must be taken into consideration. Dondon151 gives a great description of what her flying utility can do from that same link that I just provided:

Chapter 16: Florina, with Lowen's assistance, can drop Marcus across the cliff on turn 1.
- Chapter 17x: Florina skirts Fargus's trigger zone and can talk to him on turn 4. If she rescues someone on turn 1 and drops him on turn 3, a player can also obtain the Short Bow and one of the Sleep or Lancereaver.
- Chapter 19x: Florina and Fiora can cut across the mountains while rescuing Hector. An effective strategy is dropping Erk, Lucius, or Canas on a mountain on turn 2 and having them easily ORKO the Javelin knights near Aion on enemy phase - Kishuna does not appear until turn 3.
- Chapter 21: Florina and Fiora can more easily visit the Elysian Whip village and the Pure Water vendor.
- Chapter 23: Fliers can carry combat units and thieves over desert terrain.
- Chapter 24A: Fliers can visit the Earth Seal village in 2 turns.
- Chapter 25: Fliers can seize the east gate and visit the Elysian Whip village within 3 turns (2 if Ninian dances).
- Chapter 26: Fliers can easily visit the Hammerne village. They are also needed with any reliable armory visiting strategy.
- Chapter 27: Fliers and Rath have the most movement on the map when snowing, but Rath takes movement penalties from forests.
- Chapter 28x: Fliers traverse the water and are necessary for any sort of efficient clear on this map.
- Chapter 29: Fliers can easily avoid activating reinforcement trigger zones.
- Chapter 32: Fliers, in conjunction with staff users, are necessary for any sort of efficient clear on this map.

 To go along with all of that, Florina can rescue just about every unit that isn't Merlinus. Because of this, she can make even more effective rescue-bot since one of Hector's issues is that he's so fat that only a small number of characters can actually rescue him. Well, Florina is one of those few characters that can rescue him which is significant considering that Florina's being rated off of her performance in Hector Hard Mode.

 
                   Like any Pegasus Knight, Florina has great resistance which is nice considering all the mages that Hector Hard Mode likes to throw at you. Case and point: Cog of Destiny. In Hector Hard Mode Cog of Destiny throws 10 shamans, 5 mages, 7 monks, 1 sage, 3 bishops, 3 druids and 10 valkyries at you. Holy crap! It's the second coming of the Grandbell Empire. Some of those magic users also have irksome status staves designed to piss you off if you don't have the right tools to deal with them. Also, there are several important bosses in the later game who are powerful magic users that Florina can deal with too (Ursula, Kishuna, Kenneth, Sonia, Limstella and Nergal) or at the very least can take an actual hit from. This is one of many reasons why Florina totally outclasses characters like Heath and Vaida despite the fact that they have better defense than her. 

                      That being said, Florina does come with some major disadvantages too. As I mentioned earlier when quoting dondon151 her strength sucks and her 40 % strength growth isn't high enough to compensate for it. In addition to low base strength she also has a constitution of 4. That's low enough to suffer attack speed losses from every lance in the game that isn't a slim lance. Florina loses 4 attack speed from an iron lance, 7 attack speed from a javelin and 9 attack speed from a steel lance. To quote dondon151, Florina has a plethora of early-game offensive problems that stem from having either poor atk or insufficient AS due to her 4 unpromoted con. An example of this problem can be illustrated against an 18 HP, 3 def, 5 AS Iron Lance PK in chapter 16. 7/0 Florina has on average 11.4 atk, 12.3 AS with Slim Lance and 14.4 atk, 8.3 AS with Iron Lance. Florina doubles but misses the 2HKO with Slim Lance, and 2HKOs but does not double with the Iron Lance.

Two popular characters that I really don't like. Boy would I love to Aether their faces off.

                 
                   Also, in addition to her crummy offense, she's also pretty frail. Most enemies in Chapter 17 can kill her in 2 hits. Many of these enemies will have weapon triangle advantage over her too. Florina's growths in HP and defense are the same as Rebecca's, which I consider to be a bad thing. (I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me, but in due time I shall make my case known to the Fire Emblem community). A 15 % defense growth is atrocious and a 60 % HP growth isn't very good either. Fortunately Florina gets a + 5 HP and a + 2 defense promotion bonus that helps with these issues.

                 That being said, Florina's pros definitely outweigh her cons. I make not like her, and I probably won't use her in any future FE 7 runs but that doesn't take away from the fact that she's an objectively good unit that deserves to make this list.