Berwick Saga A Tier Characters Part 2

Friendly Reminder: We're still in the A tier folks. That just goes to show how many awesome units there are in Berwick Saga.

Faramir

Kicking off this half of the list is Faramir. As you'd expect of a unit named after a Lord of the Rings character, Faramir is fantastic! The easiest way to describe Faramir as a unit is that he's a myrmidon with higher movement and access to bows. Faramir has an interesting skill set that makes him a unique unit. The first skill that I'd like to talk about it is:

• Celerity: Yep. This game came out around the same time as Path of Radiance and had Celerity. In this game, Celerity gives Faramir + 1 Movement. This gives him 5 movement in a game where infantry only have 4. That may not sound like a big deal, but it does separate him from the rest of your units. Keep in mind that if your mounted units dismount (which happens far more often than you think) they only get 4 movement. 

This means that there will be plenty of maps where Faramir will actually have the highest movement. Faramir will have the highest movement in indoor maps and in maps where there's terrain that inhibits movement. Some ltc vets who've played this game also report that Faramir's movement can help him keep up the pace with your mounted units.

• Iaido: Faramir's next two skills are pretty interesting. Iaido is the same skill that Volo and Faye have. Iaido is a skill that activates whenever Faramir dodges an enemy attack. After dodging, the user of Iaido (Faramir, Volo, and Faye) get a % chance to counterattack, only their counterattack gets a + 33 to their accuracy, and a + 3 Crit bonus. It's pretty useful for dealing damage to enemies, and your three Iaido users use it a lot.

• Parry: Parry is a skill where Faramir can sacrifice some weapon durability in exchange for dodging an enemy hit from a physical weapon. It comes in handy for keeping Faramir alive as it will let him dodge more hits than usual.

• Fortune: This lets Faramir negate critical hits. This skill comes in handy later in the game where enemy assassins have very high crit rates. In addition to negating critical hits, his higher hit rates make him perfect for eliminating enemy assassins.

• Access to awesome weapons: While this isn't a skill, it is worth noting that Faramir joins with a powerful prf rank sword called the Cutlass +. This is a brave sword with a solid crit rate. This sword alone lets him kill a lot of generic enemies in a single round of combat. Add the fact that he can use bows and blades (which both have high damage potential) and you've got a character who can efficiently kill whoever you need him to.

       Another important note on this topic is that Faramir's high starting level means that he can use the best swords and bows in the game at base. This dramatically enhances his combat ability.

• Faramir Rescues Faye: FE Wiki brings up another important quality of Faramir's:

 "If the player is using Faye, then Faramir is even more useful. If Faye's HP is reduced to 0, then Faramir will rescue her and take her off the map, though she cannot be deployed for the rest of the chapter. He will do this as long as he is alive, even if he is not deployed or recruited. The sole exception to this is during the main mission of Chapter 3; if Faye dies on the map, Faramir will be completely unavailable."

 (Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Faramir#Overview) 

Flaws

• Faramir's recruitment requirement is similar to Clifford's. In order to permanently recruit him, you first have to permanently recruit Faye. Faye takes a while to permanently recruit which means that it'll take a while before Faramir permanently joins your side too. To add insult to injury, Faramir cannot be hired until you first hire Faye. This makes it expensive to hire to him.

• If you've paid attention, you'll notice that Faramir's skill set is primarily defensive in nature. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the on one hand, it helps keep him alive in tough situations. On the other hand, there will be times where you'll wish that he had a skill like Adept or Deathmatch.

Conclusion: Faramir lives up to his namesake by being a valuable unit. His movement is excellent and his skillset is useful. He can use pretty much any powerful sword and bow in the game, and he's a good answer to many problems the game throws at the player. Just be prepared to pay a pretty penny for him. I think Sam's quote in The Two Towers sums this Faramir up: "Captain Faramir, you have shown your quality, sir - the very highest."

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Fun fact: There are three characters named Arthur in the Fire Emblem series in addition to an Artur in Sacred Stones. There's Arthur from Holy War:

Arthur from Fates

There's Artur from Sacred Stones

And then there's finally the Arthur from Berwick Saga, who this spot is supposed to talk about:

Arthur (Berwick Saga)

Arthur is a character whose skill set isn’t flashy, but he does have several useful abilities in addition to great stats. FE Wiki points out that, 

          “He ties with Axel for highest strength growth in the game and all his stats are tightly bracketed, making him a very consistent unit. He is also one of the more durable units on the team, boasting impressive HP and defense bases, further enhanced by his high S Shield skill and access to M Shields. Though his base M Shield skill is quite low, his growth is very high and shield skill stats increase at an even faster rate while below 10, and his immediate access allows him to make better use of them than his fellow future Paladins Elbert and Ruby, who can only start building up their skill after promotion.” 

(Source: https://fireemblem.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur_(Berwick_Saga)#Overview)

Arthur shares a skill with Dean in common: Desperation. This is the skill that boosts hit rates and provides additional attacks in exchange for enemies being able to hit you at 100 % accuracy, and reducing your defense to 0. Unlike Dean, Arthur can use shields so he actually can have some defense present when using Desperation. 

Arthur also has Armsthrift. That’s right, this game invented Armsthrift before Awakening came along. #KagaDidItFirst. Armsthrift in this game works the same way as it does in other Fire Emblem titles where it prevents weapon uses from being depleted based on a % chance. This is extra helpful in a game where weapons break based off a percent chance.

Arthur also has a skill called Hurry. This lets him move an extra space in exchange for his turn ending immediately afterwards. Keep in mind that he's a mounted unit, so his movement can get up to 8. Hurry is extra useful in escape maps, as well as situations where you need to get to certain spot on the map quickly. Another point in Arthur's favor is that he promotes quickly and is easy to permanently recruit. This makes him a low maintenance unit, which is helpful when you're trying to recruit multiple members to your team.

The most consistent criticism of Arthur is that his skills become less useful as time goes on, and eventually there will be plenty of other units who can do what he does. Even still, he's a solid unit from start to finish.

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Sylvis

Sylvis is this game's sniper, and she can be fun to use. Her base stats are solid and she has a good skillset. What skills does she have?

1) Aim: Aim is a skill that increases accuracy by 33 in exchange for movement. It's extremely useful in the earlygame where hit rates are low. This skill will ensure that Sylvis will hit whatever enemy you need her to.

2) Overwatch: This skill makes it so that in exchange for movement, Sylvis can snipe an enemy that moves in her range and prevent them from attacking. This is a skill that Sherlock learns at level 7, and she joins with it. 

3) Maim: This doubles an enemy's chances of being crippled during a map. It's a cool skill, but it rarely activates and can only be used 5 times per map. 

4) Hide: This is a skill that essentially makes its user invisible to enemies on certain terrain. This can prevent Sylvis from being attacked at close range if she's wielding a bow. 

5) Deadeye: This lets Sylvis attack from one extra space away at the cost of 15 hit. Considering how valuable hit rates are in this game, it's unlikely that you'll hit anything with this skill, so the extra range isn't worth it. And yes this game also has Deadeye, just like Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

Speaking of close range, Sylvis has access to crossbows so she can actually counterattack at close range. Sylvis also has expert, which lets her use higher ranked bows and crossbows at a lower level. She also joins early on in the game, which means that you'll be able to use her for most of the game.

The main drawback to Sylvis is that she's expensive to recruit. If you are going to use her you'll have to pay a pretty penny to do so. I think she's worth it, but it's still good to know.

Conclusion: Sylvis is a useful bow user. Her lack of enemy phase isn't an issue since virtually nobody gets to counterattack in this game. Her base stats are great, and her skill set is even better. Feel free to try using her, and see what you think.

Kramer

This might be a controversial move putting Kramer this high, but I find him to be an underrated unit when looking at the tier lists for Berwick Saga, so I'm gonna him a shout out here.

Kramer's a fun unit to use whose investment pays off at the end of the game due to his useful skill set. The first skill in his arsenal is Arrowbane. If you recall in my previous post, Elbert has that skill too. Arrowbane is the skill that resets the accuracy for bow wielding enemies and ballista. Considering how insanely powerful those are (and accurate too), having this skill makes him an awesome unit already. It lets him bait out those powerful arrow using enemies, which is really important during the mid to latter portions of the game.

Kramer also has hiker, a skill that lets him climb up cliffs without his avoid dropping to 0. There are a lot of maps in this game that have cliffs, so this skill gets a lot of mileage. Kramer becomes a must have unit on any maps that have cliffs.

His last skill is Knock Away, the skill that knocks shields out of enemy hands. This is helpful for dealing with powerful armored enemies. It can also combo with one of your thief's skills, Steal, which lets them steal those powerful shields.

Another major benefit to using Kramer is his prf rank sword, the Balmung. This is a weapon with very high might, gives a boost in critical hit rates, and provides Kramer with Parry, the same skill that Faramir has which lets him dodge hits in exchange for wearing his weapon down a little. In short, it's one of the best weapons in the game.

Kramer's combat dramatically improves once he obtains the Balmung. I should also point out that you don't get the Balmung until you complete Kramer's character specific gaiden chapter, which is how you recruit him. He's also a simple character to promote too due to the fact that his sword skill grows regularly.

Kramer's main flaws are that his bulk is merely okay, and his starting combat could be better. He can take a hit if he doesn't activate Arrowbane, but he doesn't take a hit as well as Elbert. His starting combat is fine, but it takes him a little bit to get going.

Conclusion: Kramer's a solid unit, whose skillset only gets more useful as the game progresses. He will not disappoint if you choose to invest in him. I was grateful that I trained him, and there's a good chance that you will too.