Top 5 Worst Lords List

# 5 - Eliwood

Why He’s Here:

• Poor Bases & Growths: Eliwood’s base stats are not impressive. 18 HP, 5 str, 7 spd & 5 def translate into him having issues double attacking, inconsistently killing (at best) and not having the greatest durability. In fact, some people will tell you that 18 HP and 5 defense puts Eliwood in the same ballpark as Matthew, Rebecca & Nils. His growths aren’t anything to write home about either. 45 % strength, 40 % speed and 30 % defense means that his level-ups at best are a coin flip which doesn’t do him any favors meaning that Eliwood is doomed to be mediocre for the entire game.

• Poor Weapon Choices: For most of the game Eliwood is locked to swords. This creates two problems for him. The first is that he’ll be lacking 1 - 2 range (and it’s not like we’re going to give him the Runesword or Light Brand either) and that he’ll have weapon triangle disadvantage against the vast majority of enemies in the game.

                       He at least gets a rapier, which is pretty weak in comparison to Wolf Beil and Mani Katti. On its own its still okay though. At the end of the game he gets Durandal which reduces his Attack Speed by a whopping 7 which is enough to get him double attacked in situations where he probably wouldn’t. The only way to offset that is with Body Rings but there are better candidates to give that to.

• Late Promotion Time: Pretty self-explanatory. All GBA Lords promote really late in their games. It means that there will be a long stretch of the game where Eliwood will be held back.

                        To Eliwood’s credit he at least gets better promotion gains than Hector and Lyn. Getting a horse means that he’ll have higher movement which lets him go from Point A to Point B quicker. Granted, this doesn’t mean as much since his combat still isn’t good and having 7 move means that he has 1 less move than every other promoted mounted unit but hey it’s something. He’s also capable of rescuing every playable character in the cast sans Merlinus. Eliwood will also get lances so his 1 - 2 range problems go away.

# 4 - Marth (Shadow Dragon)

One of the most understated ironies in the franchise stems from the fact that the only time a game that Marth starred in that got an international release featured the weakest version of Marth to date.

                     Marth is on this list due to his poor base stats. A lot of people have noted that he tends to rely on the prologue which doesn’t exist on the hardest difficulty of Shadow Dragon (which is what his performance is being rated off of). Marth will have difficulty double attacking and his damage output will have issues. Marth also has similar issues to Eliwood and Lyn meaning that he’s sword locked in a game full of enemies who use lances and he won’t have much 1 - 2 range if any at all.  

Fortunately Marth does have a few good things going for him. He has exclusive access to the rapier, which can be forged. He also will always have at least 7 movement and will most likely get boots too. He’s also the only one who can visit villages which means that he alone can net you a lot of stuff. The Falchion that he gets at the end is also helpful.

# 3 - Lyn (Blazing Sword)

Why She’s Here:

• Poor Weapon Choices: Like Eliwood Lyn is sword locked in a game full of lance wielding enemies. This means that she’s going to suffer a lot of weapon triangle disadvantage. Unlike Eliwood though, Lyn gets lolsy bows after promotion which means that she won’t get 1 - 2 range like he will.

                       So basically she’s going to have issues with range. If she uses swords she can’t attack things from a distance which means that she’ll have to take a counterattack from an enemy unit (see below for why that’s especially bad in her case) and she won’t be able to respond to enemy attacks from a distance. If she uses bows she won’t be able to counterattack close range attacks during the enemy phase. At the end of the game she’ll get the Sol Katti, which has more weight than might. Unlike Eliwood, Lyn’s speed will be high enough to offset the attack speed loss but that 12 might is pitiful. A Silver Sword has more might than that.

• Horrible Defense: “16 HP, 2 def are arguably the worst physically defensive bases in the entire game, and 70% HP, 20% def growths do not compensate in the long run. It would have been forgivable had Lyn been able to attack on player phases without risk of counter, as units like Erk and Lucius have similarly atrocious physically defensive bases but also the option to attack safely at 2 range, but Lyn is locked to swords and thus requires healing after most attempted attacks barring a miss or an OHKO.”  (Source: dondon151 https://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?/topic/23766-fe7-character-ratings/&page=3)

                            You know you’re doing something wrong when freaking Nils has more defense than you.

• Late Promotion: She’s a GBA Lord so her promotion time sucks.

                         The only reason why Lyn isn’t further down this list is because she can double attack everything, has a great prf rank weapon (the Mani Katti) and has Lyn mode to get level-ups in. Outside of that, she’s a garbage unit.          

# 2 - Micaiah (Radiant Dawn)

Why She’s Here

• Horrific Durability: Micaiah somehow manages to have even worse durability than Lyn. Most non-magic enemies will kill her in a single hit. This means that she won’t have an enemy phase which reduces the amount of experience that she’s going to get. Her HP is also not very good either.

• Terrible Speed: In addition to having the worst durability I’ve seen from a Fire Emblem lord her speed is also pretty terrible too. Micaiah took dodging lessons from Gohan and also fails to double attack anything.

                      Your next line is “but Micaiah can Thani nuke everything. That makes her better than some of the other lords on this list.” Until recently I would have agreed with this line of thinking, but then dondon151 changed my mind with this little blurb:

 “Part 1 does not have a whole lot of units that are weak to Thani, and often when there is a unit weak to Thani, Micaiah is both not the best option to deal with them nor is she logistically able to handle them without assistance.

For example, in chapter 1-3 there is literally 1 armor knight that you need to kill, and he's backed up by an Iron Longbow archer that can OHKO Micaiah at any tile from which she can attack the armor knight with Thani. In chapter 1-6-1, the armor knights come in groups and the weakest ones OHKO her until L13 on average. In chapter 1-6-2, the cavaliers come in groups and have canto, so they can easily gang up on Micaiah.

Thani's power is also insufficient without huge investment. HM has a flat -5 combat EXP cut and this severely hurts the potential of any growth units, Micaiah included. She needs +3 atk on base to OHKO 1-3 armors, +7 atk on base to OHKO 1-6-1 armors, and +12 atk on base to OHKO 1-E armors. Supposedly this is easy with an 80% mag growth, but the problem is that Micaiah has no enemy phase and is very often pitching in chip damage, which is not earning her the big bucks EXP-wise.

Better alternatives for armor killing exist at every turn. Sothe doesn't have the durability of wet tissue paper and 4HKOs the 1-3 armor with his Kard. He also has +2 mov and no movement penalty through thickets relative to Micaiah. Tauroneo and Zihark reliably kill armors in 1-6-1. Tauroneo and transfers Jill take care the boss in 1-6-2. Muarim obliterates the boss is 1-7 (who, by the way, has a Storm Sword that will blick Micaiah until 20/1). Nailah, BK, Muarim, and Tormod all exist for the romp that is 1-E.

Second, staves. Some players like to justify training Micaiah so that she becomes a better staff user in part 3. This really isn't necessary. A 5-range Physic that heals ~20 HP is pathetic, but it suffices for even the most efficient part 3 strategies. Mend staves are available if you need to heal more than that, which is about as much as you need anyway on any unit that's not Volug. In this capacity, Micaiah functions like Mist, except there's no Rhys to steal her thunder.”

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/2w3021/character_discussion_fe910_micaiah/)

                         Sacrifice is a cool skill, but it’s ultimately undermined by her terrible HP in addition to being situationally useful. She has an auto A rank support with Sothe...which doesn’t come anywhere close to compensating for her massive flaws. In the end, it’s much more trouble than it’s worth using Micaiah. Too bad you can’t bench her, because I certainly would if I could.

# 1 - Roy (Binding Blade)

                

 Is anybody surprised by Roy being # 1 on here? No? Well neither am I. It’s a well known fact that Roy is the worst lord in the series from a unit perspective. The main reason of course has to do with his notorious promotion time. Roy has the worst promotion time which means that he’s going to go through a huge stretch without gaining any experience. By the time he does promote it’s too little too late.

                           Another element of the game that screws Roy over is that he’s a low movement lord in a game where every map (sans the last one) is a Seize map. This means that if you want to beat the game quickly you’re going to have to get Roy to the seize spot fast. How do you that? By rescuing him of course! This makes Roy an active burden on the player because whoever rescues him will suffer a stat penalty.

                            The only possible redeeming points for him come from the early game axe users that he can pick apart and the Binding Blade. Oh and he has a rapier, which sometimes can be useful? Anyway, Roy is the worst lord because he not only doesn’t contribute much of value, but also becomes an active burden on the player. Moral of the story: If you want to be good then don’t be like Roy.