Top 15 Underrated Units Part 3

# 5 - Gordin (FE 3 Book 2)

So here's a character that doesn't get talked about very much, but should. Gordin in Fire Emblem 3 Book 2 is a surprisingly good unit. Gordin starts the game off with the ability to use every bow except for the Parthia (which is this game's Regalia Bow). And he joins you in the first level of the game. Gordin makes for a good candidate for the Arms Scroll because then he'll get to use the Parthia Bow, which doubles experience gains. Once he does that, his levels will skyrocket which in turn leads to him snowballing into a great unit. There are also plenty of enemy Wyvern Knights for Gordin to shoot down in FE 3 Book 2 which enhances his overall usefulness. It also helps that he has good base stats too. 

# 4 - Tobin (Shadows of Valentia)



About a year ago I made the "Rate the Unit" polls for Echoes in both Main and Nino's Magical Circlejerk (back when it was called that). I still remember how disappointed I felt as I saw people consistently call him "mediocre" and give him a low rating. Nino's Magical Circlejerk gave him a 7 /10 as his highest rating: 



And here was what main gave him as his most popular rating:

So the best rating that he got was a 7 / 10. Just like Lethe, it is obvious that Tobin is underrated. The biggest reason for this is that Tobin is often judged based off his performance as an archer. It's sad that this is the case because archer isn't his best class. Heck, it's not even his second best class. There are two other classes that Tobin shines in. 

First, there's his performance as a mage. Mage!Tobin is actually very good. With a small speed boost from the Lion Head Tobin can start double attacking enemies right away with a simple Fire tome. At Level 6 he'll learn Excalibur, which is a spell that gives + 20 Crit, which is a great way to take advantage of his high skill. As a Level 5 Sage Tobin will learn Physic, which is super helpful. So even if Mage!Tobin can't keep up he's still benefiting the team. Mage!Tobin is at least an 8 / 10.



Counter Argument: "But I've used Tobin as a mage before and I'm not convinced he's all that special."

Well then you're in for a real treat, because Tobin shines very brightly as a Mercenary.  When I went back to dig up the popular consensus for these characters I found a statement that Ronaldo made when we were doing the "Rate the Unit" polls for Tobin. 




Here's where things start to get trippy: I just beat Echoes again and I made Tobin a Mercenary. I completely forgot that Ronaldo even said this and I ended up doing this exact strategy on my own. The only thing I did differently was forge Tobin a Zweihander and then switch off between a Zweihander and a Brave Sword during the Endgame. 

So basically I can confirm that what Ronaldo says is true. Tobin's earlygame offense with the Lightning Sword is nothing short of incredible as he'll be killing virtually everything in one round of combat. Once the Lightning Sword falls off you can replace it with a Zweihander and he won't have to land crits (although that is a bonus since the sword gives him + 10 Crit) and if you need to, you can switch the Zweihander for a Brave Sword for maximum critical hit carnage. After seeing what I've seen Merc!Tobin do I find Ronaldo's 9 / 10 rating to be accurate. As the saying goes: "Never count Tobin out".


# 3 - Marcia (Radiant Dawn)


PLOT TWIST! There are actually four characters that I put on this list of my own choosing. Originally it was just Chrom, Lethe and Tobin but then I started thinking about the list some more and I swapped Gaiden!Est (who would have made it on the previous post) in exchange for Marcia's Radiant Dawn counterpart? Why the swap? Both Pegasus Knights are underrated, but Radiant Dawn Marcia is more underrated in my opinion. 

We all know how powerful Marcia was in Path of Radiance and we the fanbase have rightfully concluded that Marcia's Radiant Dawn counterpart isn't as good. But here lies an interesting question: How nerfed did Marcia get between games? The answer: Not as much as you'd think.



It's true that Marcia suffers a similar setback to Lucia in that her availability isn't good. But Marcia does have her strengths too. Her offense in the early parts of Part 2 are actually pretty good. She's a good candidate for Adept, which will give her additional extra attacks. She benefits tremendously from transfers, which boost her strength, skill and speed. The faster Marcia can cap her skill and speed, the more worthwhile the Bonus Experience to her is. 

Marcia's flight utility is also super helpful in the chapters that she's in. In 2-3 (Geoffrey's Charge) she's your only flier. She's actually a good candidate for the Horseslayer since there are a lot of cavaliers in that chapter. Her flight utility is also of value during the Part 2 Endgame. Then in 3-9 Marcia's flight helps her deal with that map's elevation. Your cavaliers have to take extra turns going the long way around since they can't climb higher elevations and your infantry units lose movement whenever they climb. Neither of these are issues for Marcia. Once again you could make the argument that Geoffrey's Paragon should go to her.



There are also two routes in Part 4 where her flying can be of use: Micaiah's Route, which has the notorious desert map. And Elincia's Route, which has the Swamp map. The usual issues people bring up with Radiant Dawn Marcia are her strength and defense. Her strength is a problem that can be solved with forges and Adept. Her defense will never truly be great, but you can at least give her Nullify. 

Marcia admittedly requires effort and investment in Radiant Dawn. The question one should ask though, is if she's worth it. As you could already deduce by this list my answer would be "Yes".

# 2 - Dew (Genealogy of the Holy War)


Dew is a deceptively useful character. When one takes a look at his stats it's easy to dismiss him as kind of worthless. After all, his base Strength of 3 is awful, his durability sucks (28 HP, 1 Defense and 0 Resistance at base is yucky) and he doesn't even start with Pursuit! What gives? He's also a foot unit in a game whose maps are ridiculously large. So with all those negatives going against him how could he wind up with the # 2 spot for an Underrated Unit list? 

The answer is simple: Combat is not where Dew's value truly lies. Dew has a utility that nobody else has in the first generation: He can give anyone all the money he's got. And he can steal an enemy's money too. When Dew's utility is properly utilized he can help several units in your army promote faster. Remember back in Part 1 where Alec, Noish and Midir were brought up? This prepubescent sugar daddy can hook them up with all the gold they'll need. Lachesis and Azelle also appreciate all the extra gold he can bring. When you've got numerous characters whose promotions and access to quality items are dependent on him you start to see the value. 

  

Quite frankly it doesn't matter what Dew's combat is, because he has a niche that nobody else has in Gen 1. By funding your army Dew manages to contribute FAR FAR more than a significant percentage of most of the cast. 


The Most Underrated Unit: Wendell (Every Game He's In)



When it's comes to underappreciated in at least the main Fire Emblem group on Facebook (and Guyden as well) I can think of no other unit who deserves the # 1 spot more than Wendell. Why? Because he isn't just good in one game; He's good in pretty much every game he ever appears in. Quick question: Is there a Fire Emblem game where Wendell sucks? 

What are Wendell's defining characteristics across the Archanea games? Good - Great bases, a good staff rank (I remember Ronaldo telling me that he's a warpbot in FE 1 in addition to being a powerhouse) and good reclass options in both the DS remakes. As a fun side note here's something dondon151 said about Wendell about 3 years ago on Reddit:

"In my FE11 H5 0% LTCs I always reclass Wendell to dracoknight and forge a +5 MT Iron Lance that I label the Pope Stick.

This is because he's the only guy that can handle the Master Seal hero in chapter 10." 

Now to be fair I should point out that this entry is mostly specific to main and Guyden. Outside of those two groups...Wendell's actually pretty well recognized. It's eye-opening to see what everyone else has to say about him. For example, tvtropes.org has a lengthy section on how stupidly powerful he is in FE 1 under their Game Breaker section:

" Wendell is an example in and of himself. Recruited at chapter 5, Wendell comes with insane base stats, including a ridiculously high base speed of 14, and access to every single non-exclusive tome and staff in the game. Defensively, he starts with fairly high HP and Defense stats, which is enough for him to take on a lot of punishment during the enemy phase all the way into the late game. 

Offensively, due to the mechanics of FE1, Wendell is capable of at worst 2 rounding every single enemy in the game, including a notable performance of being able to go toe to toe with Gharnef at base stats. For a Mage to be as good as Wendell, they basically need to promote, something that is only achieved very late into the game due to the availability of the item, and the promotion mechanic of the game. 



While there are better sages later on in the game (such as Boah (who is essentially Wendell, but better) and Gotoh), the combination of his early join time, combat, and utility of Wendell ended up defining the ridiculous standard of prepromote in the entire series, which ended up with him getting nerfed in every single one of his future appearances, with lower base speed, higher enemy stats, changes in the weapon rank mechanic, and the revamp towards promotion mechanic all being done just to make him less of a dominant unit."

When TV Tropes is declaring that you defined the "ridiculous standard of prepromote in the entire series" I think that's worth not just taking notice of, but also worthy of our admiration. 

Moral of the story: Don't mess with the Pope!