Fire Emblem Unit Review Board

[Chase]

Sometimes, the best Fire Emblem experiences seem to be gathered from taking in advice from friends...

 

If there's anything that I've learned from my time playing Fire Emblem Heroes last year, is that the Reborn Community has a lot of great friends who really do dig the franchise and provide a lot of handy tips. Here's a place where you can do just that - bring up a unit, share your thoughts on how they can be optimized or what you think should be done to make them enjoyable to play with, and just talk about why that unit is good or not-so-good in general.

 

If this thread takes off - you should have a list of Fire Emblem characters across all games that can be referred to by people who pick up one of the titles themselves.

 

Kicking off this list is a controversial character that I don't really like, but can absolutely respect as a unit. Peri.

 

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(No, she isn't a Hero at base -or- after heart seal usage...she's a cavalier.)

 

Peri is a young noble girl who serves along with Laslow (or Awakening's Inigo) as Prince Xander's retinue in Fates. She has an incredibly child-like personality in that she's written in a way to where she doesn't truly understand the difference between right and wrong and is often seen fussing about not getting her way. This manifests itself most noticeably in the form of a striking bloodlust, where her servants and any wildlife that are nearby are in serious danger if Peri is bored or upset. Xander employed Peri after a mediocre showing at a jousting tournament, because he was by self-admission attracted to her. Because, Xander is a totally reasonable individual.

 

In comparison to Silas and Xander, Peri is a noticeably faster and more magic-resistant cavalier. She has better weapon ranks than the former, but is eclipsed by the later due to Xander's personal weapon having two range and high might. She also differs from the new knight and the crown prince in that she prefers to use lances as opposed to swords, boasting an impressive C rank in lances at base. She even joins with a Steel Lance.

 

Depending on how much usage you get from Silas prior, Peri has the potential to be the better offensive cavalier in a one-to-one comparison. If Silas isn't close to reaching C rank in swords, Peri probably wins the toss-up from there as she can use Beast Killers to down shapeshifters, pegasus knights, and Vallite/Bandit/Garon's army cavaliers from base. She also can use Killer Lances for a high critical hit chance and Blessed Lances to heal every turn and down Faceless and Stoneborn enemies.

 

Defensively, she is the worst cavalier you pick up despite having the edge against mages unless you have the Hexlock Spear accessible via castle battles or you have gotten lucky and picked one up. The Hexlock Spear accentuates Peri's lean toward magic resistance and definitively establishes her as the physical damage dealer to send after mages. Without the spear, Xander's great physical bulk is too much to go up against and Silas usually turns out fairly balanced with better availability.

 

She shines even less if you are one to use Silas' daughter Sophie. Sophie has the potential to become the best cavalier barring Xander in the game because like her father, her growths are evenly pretty decent across the board. Seigbert, Xander's son, can also get some good resistance, but not if you are playing the game the right way and marrying him to Charlotte.

 

Peri reclasses into a Dark Mage through her heart seal option. It's not a great class for Peri to stay in and she should definitely promote as a Cavalier to either Paladin or Great Knight before considering it. The reason why - is because she can then immediately hop over into the Dark Knight line, where her usage is saved by her sword rank. Through Dark Knight, she can pick up Heartseeker, which lowers her enemies' avoid by 20. Malefic Aura to help her usage in Sorcerer if you want to switch over for the skills, Seal Magic, which is a very good skill for Peri as it hits her opponent for -6 Magic (making her resistance beefier when she fights them), and Lifetaker, which is good for Peri because her kills will not only give her her personal skill stat buffs but also some HP back, which helps improve her survivability by playing aggressively. Sorc, likely at the expense of an Arm's Scroll, gives you Vengeance, which is another good skill for Peri in that any damage she has taken can be used as extra damage - especially if she doesn't have Armored Blow or Lifetaker to beef herself up. I don't see the Arm's Scroll usage as worth it here though.

 

Of her base class, the better class promotion to go is Great Knight. It patches up her poor defense growth wise and gives her access to Luna to deal more damage (increasing her chance to proc her personal) by halving effective Defense/Res (or something like that) along with Armored Blow to reduce physical damage when she initiates combat.

 

Peri has one of the more fun personal skills in the game in Bloodthirst. When Peri kills an enemy, she gets +4 in Strength, Magic, Skill, and Speed. This makes her a very scary enemy phase unit and a good unit for Azura to tail and dance for in order to make use of the boosts. While fun, it may require some strategic setup or relegating Azura to one unit when others may need to be refreshed more than Peri does. All the same, when she pulls the skill off, Peri's usually killing at least two units per round fairly consistently.

 

Recommended Skillset: Bloodthirst, Elbow Room, Heartseeker, Seal Magic, Lifetaker/Vengeance, Armored Blow

 

Recommended Weapon: Hexlock Spear, Javelin, Steel Lance, Iron Sword (if Dark Knight)

 

Recommended Final Class: Great Knight

 

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Closing thoughts: I personally have a predisposition towards Silas and Sophie, so Peri is a benchwarmer for me. Especially after Xander and his son join the party. This isn't because I can't find a way to use Peri at all though, rather than it being a redundancy issue. In order to use Peri well, you must play her aggressively. Doing so however can be a hilariously carnage-filled experience in your favor and is mighty rewarding.

 

She may not be characterized well, but as a unit, she's pretty good. Solid B grade.