Axe Fighter Tier list - Unit Design 101 Follow-Up

[@slashspade]

When I saw Osian in the thumbnail being the only S tier, my first thought was "oh great, Halvin is gonna be in the bottom again". Im really glad that my boy Halvin is getting the respect he deserves here. He only gets mentioned because he gets you the brave axe and then is bench fodder. He's actually really good. Vantage is interesting to work with and a 4 Pursuit multiplier means he will get a lot more crits than you would think. Not that Osian's 3 isnt a lot too, but it means that Battle Axes are that much better in a doubling Halvin's hands. Halvin is pretty good. People should check him out more than they do

[@JaidynReiman]

Halvan is just a case where Osian so badly outperforms him that Halvan gets overlooked. That said, the last Axe Fighter tier list I saw didn't put Halvan in bottom. I think it put him in B which still is respectable.

[@MommyRexacuse]

Halvan is unfortunate just a case of being a solid combat unit in a game where you only need a few combat units

[@a_sign_of_zeta]

on Rinkah with "what's the endgame? where does she go?" Oni Chieftain with primarily the chapter 14 bolt axe, which alone is strong enough that she does do good damage and kill while also being bulky, and who else in birthright is using that bolt axe? comes in the same chapter that Ryoma is first playable so Rinkah becomes the secondary combat unit

[@arikaaa69]

Dang you completely forgot about Charlotte huh, the quintessential Nohrian berserker. She definitely falls into the same tier as Arthur as she needs some time and love before she really gets rolling, but roll she does. Like Arthur she can pick up Sol and immediately Heart Seal to berserker to up her survivability, without the crippling chance of getting crit by literally anything. She also has a really funny personal that makes her particularly good at smiting hoshido fliers specifically, but she gets the +4 damage and 20 crit against other female enemies too. Edelgard and Hilda are missing too, but they’re understandable since even if 3H wants you to put them into Axe classes, you can really do whatever so putting anyone there into these kinds of tier lists can be awkward. Anyway, Charlotte is the axe unit of all time. That’s all

[@roseyrock2068]

I think your lack of love for fates is showing here a lot. Arthur is a fantastic support unit being one of 2 (and the only one to show up early) source for the berserker pair up bonus (5 str and 3 spd) and your best option for low investment rally strength. As for Rinkah she is in my opinion one of the most interesting and important units in all of birthright, she has fantastic bulk early and her offense while seemingly low is actually on par with other hybrid units. She transitions into an almost unkillable oni chieftain that can deal very steong magic dmg with thw bolt axe which only she will likely be able to use unless you reclassed hayato (based) or hinata (not based). Rinkah also has arguably the moat sought afyer marriage out of all the female birthright units, her pair up is fantastic and takes ryoma from likely u killable to actually unkillable and gives him access to one of his best classes in blacksmith. Anyway love you, bye.

[@Venomdrad]

The list is missing FE Fates Charlotte, she'd probably be in the "RNG" tier. Trained she's a high-risk but powerful Berserker. Dunno how she is as a hero, never tried that. At worst since she can still make a good pair-up bot even if not really trained. In Revelation, she has a mediocre start for the point she's recruited but can still do Berserker and pair-up. Other people have mentioned Rinkah but to add my observations... Generally, they are right about the Oni Chieftain build with Bolt Axe/scrolls since its genuine niche few units can do in Birthright. There aren't that many axe/club users in BR. Really wish we got another playable Oni Savage. Her father could have joined as pre-promote maybe. Anyways, I usually make her a Blacksmith, give the high-crit Great Club and a speed pair up. She becomes a tanky Berserker of sorts. In Revelation Rinkah is not very good though. You get her early, but she needs grinding to get anywhere due to her pitiful bases. If you do grind her up, she has some new options thru supports with the Nohrian characters like Charlotte and Keaton, get fighter access, and go to town as an actual Berserker with axefaire. I would put the FE12 Barst in solid/reliable tier since his growth spread is the best of the axe fighters you get, and his bases are solid for that point. I don't really know of any other axe fighters that can turn out as well as he can besides Kris. If you're playing female Kris, who can't go fighter, then Barst is your best bet. FE Engage Anna is weird... you can actually make her work as a Warrior, just an unconventional one. Yes, her magic is higher than her strength and she is better as Sage/Mage Knight/High Priest. However, Anna can make Warrior work well with bows specifically the Radiant Bow (magic) and chain-attack support. She can do a lot of damage to enemy wyvern knights early on.

[@NotBoeDusky101]

I think RD Boyd should be a tier lower because he is an investment cost of bexp and and very much relies heavily on speed procs to not get doubled and a shot at doubling but otherwise I agree with everything!

[@slashspade]

Geese Bias here. But Geese has B rank axes at base, so if you condense his training arc into the time from join to Ch. 12x, he can get the 50 weapon xp to cap his weapon rank (and earn 6 or 7 levels too), meaning that he can reasonably be swinging Armads in time for Flaer and the Desert Wyverns. And when are you really gonna be using Armads otherwise? No one uses the legendary weapons so that they dont accidentally break them.

[@pho3144]

I believe in Barst supremacy!!!

[@lsrrr3857]

He's barsted

[@fationmuhollari9768]

Fe11 Barst is for sure 2nd only to Osian. His access to reclassing and forging makes him a monster.

[@smileswithriles]

Echoing some other comments, Rinkah is REALLY good in Birthright. Might be better than Hector and definitely better than Garcia. She can either be a pair up bot or a carry with Bolt Axe. Outside of Rinkah, it’s unfortunate how many games axes spent being mediocre to poor weapons. Plus the fact the best classes are usually lance based for the majority of FE history, oof.

[@Starwars-Fanboy]

Vaike either gets called trash tier or better than Robin. After playing Lunatic and hard mode I think hes a top tier awakening unit. Just below Chrom/Robin, early fliers, Fred and Anna. Hes really good earlygame and has the stats to use Sol and clear waves of enemies. He deserves to be in the Solid & Reliable tier imo.

[@VeXJL]

Arthur (in Conquest) is a case of... his personal skill is absolutely 100% detrimental, but it's possible to stack his Ddg high enough so that he doesn't see Crit from enemies, or if he does see Crit like from Master Ninjas he can just soak the extra damage without much problem. The thing with Arthur is that his bases are only just OK, he doesn't really get to shine until he gets to c-axe rank and gets a few levels. But since he does have extremely good availability, it's something that can be managed. Rev Arthur is tragic though. Horrible start, his only options for one-rounds for a long while are effective weaponry (basically just Hammer). Revelation moment, can never forgive.

[@smileytlj23]

Rinkah in her join chapter with 1 level up in speed and Kaze backpacking can double al the faceless in herjoin chapter. And benefits from the branch of fate allowing you to keep the best level ups into the route split, which if you go birthright, you're feeding uncontested kills to Rinkah and Azura if you're able. Kaze doesn't need to do anything other than support and give speed until Saizo joins. Giving Rinkah the throwing axe in chapter 7 actively enables you to grow your army without grinding as she does enough to chip and gain weapon ranks until chapter 14. By which she's most likely promoted to Chieftain and has uncontested ownership of the bolt axe and giving speed and defense bonus in pair up, which she makes Ryoma unkillable on harder difficulties. Not to mention, she's your best damage dealer until he arrives and can trigger Fiery Blood with an hp tonic turn 1. She's easily top 5 units in birthright prior to Ryomas join time, and still maintains a good support role after that. Quite literally on par or better than Halvan and just shy of Osian.

[@alexmorpheus6762]

I believe in Oshian, Barst and Garcia's son supremacy.

[@Xertaron.]

Awakening units with access to Warrior class - Vaike, Henry, Gaius, Gregor, Basilio, Gangrel and Priam. None of the kids are fighters or barbarians at base, so they can only get it through inheritance. Arthur's stats do kinda suck - his skill isn't high enough to compensate his low luck, so his hit rates will always be shaky, his defense, strength and hp are just ok, and the rest of his stats suck. I do agree that Bord is saved by his C rank axes, he's not a long term unit, but when he's useful he's very good. Iucharba (and his brother Iuchar) does have holy blood, he just doesn't have any inheritance, which is what holds him back. The idea with Rinkah in Birthright is to promote her into Oni Chieftain, give her horse spirit and she can wall very effectively, while chipping enemies at 1-2 range and eventually winning by attrition, since enemies don't start threatening her until very late in the game. In Rev she's one of the worst units in the game - if you want a tanky mage, then Hayato is right there and she struggles to even get exp, because enemies in Rev are tanky and her str is so low. Beck is an imposter here - not only he isn't infantry, but he doesn't even use axes :D

[@itstheblandman8734]

19:30 I’m surprised you didn’t mention the halberd here, being able to one-shot lance cavs in chapter 4 and 7 with roughly a 60/40 odds to do so is pretty nice to have! Don’t get me wrong they don’t move up a tier or anything 😅 but it does give them some utility that no other units at the time have besides a Marcus that got lucky with his speed growths or a crit from the killing edge do.

[@CoqueiroLendario]

...I love marty, dude is an axe figther with armor knight growths (90% HP, 40% DEF and 15% STR the biggest natural defense growth in the game even) so i use him to tank anything physical for loooooong turns and its from the same game where vulnearies heal ALL HP.

[@grauenritter9220]

woodcutter vs soldier tier list

[@MythrilZenith]

Some of the best fighters turn into woodcutters at the end of the war. Truly an admirable profession.

[@FereldenKrogan]

Rinkah should go in better in something else technically,because we use her with magic (tho the bolt axe is still an axe hmmm)... Well,she's still good with some scrolls so I still think she should go there.

[@slashspade]

I don't know engage enough to be sure about it, but I have this feeling that your problem with Boucheron comes from the fact that he has 85% hp personally, so his hp growth is SO high, that its stopping rerolls when he only hits hp and like one other stat.

[@MythrilZenith]

I mean, that's part of it to be sure. He just has a weird statline that DOES NOT work with Engage the way other units' do.

[@hanzou1238]

His problem is that he has a 20% Strength growth and it is very expensive to fix a units low damage. It's much cheaper to run a unit with high strength and lower speed since Speed can be fixed instantly

[@slashspade]

XP, SP, or GP. Everything has a cost to fix. GP, at least, its a transferable currency, so investing in a good weapon is the most flexible solution because you can trade it around your team. ​@@hanzou1238

[@hanzou1238]

@@slashspade Yes a weapon is the best investment but I feel that he needs more than just a weapon to be fixed while there are other units that can fill his role with less effort. I know I am one of the few people that believes that Etie is one of the best early units to use, but since she requires the same amount of XP and SP as Boucheron along with filling a similar role later on I will use her as an example. Boucheron as a level 40 Warrior (assuming fixed growths here) has 28 Str and 31 Spd while Etie at the same level in Warrior has 38 Str and 26 Spd. The Noatun is usually the best axe for MT since it is cheaper than the Silver Axe to forge and only has 1 less might. Boucheron with the Noatun and the Roy emblem for +6 Str has 55 Atk and 31 Spd while Etie with the Lyn emblem before Speedtaker has 59 Atk and 31 Spd. With both having the same weapon and an emblem to fix their stats Etie comes out on top here which is why I feel she is better for his role. Before it is mentioned that her bulk is much worse, yes it is, but with my current Etie having 162 AVO her bulk is basically irrelevant anyway. I feel his biggest problem is that he is in a game where higher Str makes you more flexible as a unit. He would have been much better in 3H where damage was so easy to fix that Speed made you more flexible. Etie in Griffin which has much worse strength still has more strength at 30 while now passing him with 32 Speed meaning her emblem is now freed up so someone else can use Lyn while Boucheron still needs Roy for the strength, or Eirika I guess for the true damage, and while Boucheron works well as a high crit unit Panette beats him in that as well.

[@ScubaLuigi]

FE11 Barst being just in solid & reliable feels wrong, he might be the strongest unit in the game. His high bases carry the team for a long time, and axes are really good against most enemies. His HP is also notably higher than other units, letting him take at least one more hit than every other unit in the army. Most importantly, his luck isn't garbage. Barst is so good he's a reason to keep deploying bord, cord, and ogma. Around ch7 they'll collectively give a +15 hit/avoid boost, and for the second half of the game a +30 hit/avoid boost, on top of his already above-average bulk. And people say dodgetanking doesn't exist in FE11. It's not like you're dragging around garbage units to boost barst, either, they benefit a lot from this support too. Bord, notably, is known for his 10% speed growth but his base speed of 7 prevents him from being doubled by most enemies. Hero class on promotion makes him not even slow anymore too.

[@jierdareisa4313]

TLDR: Hector is a free deploy so he'll always have some sort of contribution, but past the early game that contribution will be minimal. Whilst I used to be pretty high on Hector, I'm not quite as enthusiastic about him anymore... He becomes very outclassed, very fast by a lot of units. The main thing he has over other filler axe infantry are his high Defense, which is a bit more useful than Dorcas' & Bartre's high HP, and the Wolf Beil which is more available and more accurate than Hammers/Halberds (though only 2x effectiveness, which often prevents him from reaching 1hit-KO thresholds). Still, after a few chapters he becomes mostly a saddlebag: he's tanky against physical enemies and hits fairly hard, yes (though I'd rather use Oswin if I'm ever in need of these qualities for, say, choking a point), but he's inaccurate, has infantry movement, is slow, promotes super late and gets shredded by Magic. That makes him usefull filler in the early game, but from the mid-game onwards I don't really see what he's contributing to any team.

[@marinerb]

FE6 is my most played FE game and Gonzales is a lot better than Geese. I would put Geese in Filler & Fodder, all of his stats are just kinda low for the point of the game you're at and as a berserker Gonzales is just so much better. You probably want to use your first Hero Crest on Rutger or Dieck, but if you don't want to use the second one on whoever you didn't promote with the first one, Gonzales is probably the next best option due to his incredible strength and speed and because his promotion gives a massive +5 skill. Geese just doesn't have anything particularly important that Gonzales doesn't, so you aren't promoting him until Chapter 16 if you're not doing a challenge run or specifically using Geese, and by that point it's a bit too late to make him competent as a level 1 berserker. He's okay in an iron man where you've lost all your better hero crest options or as a filler unit to fight an enemy or two, but he's probably the 4th or 5th best Hero Crest unit in a game where you get 2 for the first half. The other unit I have a few things to say about is Rinkah, she's one of the better units in Birthright. Defense is *very* important in that game due to low HP values and the high levels of enemy spam, and Oni Chieftain Rinkah with a bolt axe and possibly a magic pair up can solo entire sections of a lot of maps while your other units focus on the main objective. Ryoma obviously instantly becomes your best unit the moment he joins but I think Birthright is a lot more fun if you don't just solo the game with him, and if you're actually playing instead of mashing end turn, Rinkah can pretty easily become your secondary or tertiary combat carry, and does a more reliable (in terms of not dying, but you do have to be okay with missing a lot) job at it than many of your options in a lot of situations. I would put her in Solid & Reliable.

[@jierdareisa4313]

I love ALL MythrilZenith videos!!!! ❤

[@naotoueda2838]

FE11 Bord would be much better if early halberd exists. I think only with online you can have access to it before the secret shop Sure, hammer is good, but FE11 is also has a lot of cavs, so Ridersbane, Rapier and Wingspear are better.

[@lsrrr3857]

16:30 You are mixing up Johan and Johalvier, Johan is the mounted one, Johalvier is the infantry one

[@quickpawmaud]

You forgot the greatest Axe Fighter in history your boy Dean he blows that loser Osian out if the water.

[@fationmuhollari9768]

Berwick? I'd say the same a few years ago but it's not fire emblem. It's such a different game.

[@quickpawmaud]

@@fationmuhollari9768 every Fire Emblem has differences. Berwick is just a bit more different. Also I never said it was Fire Emblem just said Dean was an Axe Fighter. If FE1 and FE2 can be considered both Fire Emblem though they are extremely different from each other.

[@fationmuhollari9768]

@@quickpawmaud Then we can agree that Dean might be the best axe user in history considering what a brutal game Berwick is.

[@ViciousSal]

BEck is probably so confused why he's here between all these axe users with his swords, bows and ballista =p

[@MythrilZenith]

@@ViciousSal wasn't he brought into FE12 as a Berserker, same as Jake and Darros? Or was he a made a horseman? Heck if I can remember.

[@boonsaplenty3924]

​@@MythrilZenith Beck was made a Horseman in New Mystery of the Emblem. Simple mistake though, no worries

[@ViciousSal]

@@MythrilZenith Darros has indeed become sail and is now a Berserker. Why a sail is needed in an active volcano is a mystery though. Jake is a warrior with cracked growths (not Wolf/Sedgar level, but still cracked) BEck is a horseman now, and mentions the products to create ballista ammo has been depleted worldwide.

[@TheBigHerman007]

I must have had bad luck with my Boyds because he hasnt been my favorite unit in my FE9 playthroughs.

[@MythrilZenith]

Boyd is mixed and I debated where to put him, but he tends to be better more often with relatively less work than the units below him so I didn't feel comfortable dropping him down without making an entire new tier. Maybe I should have.

[@jeffthejeffebruh3356]

Definitely a growth dependent unit in the early game but you can avoid that by giving him the chapter 2 speedwing. 1 point of strength and Boyd is off to the races. His higher base strength and immediate access to axes means that he'll deal more damage per hit and his higher base health allow him to survive as a frontline unit in the early game, better than Oscar or Ike, his lower base defense at 5 compared to Oscar's 8 also means he still keeps the fighter trend of dealing and receiving big hits. With Boyd's best performance being chapter 8-17. By the time chapter 17 rolls around your mounted carry units have probably promoted and can clear maps by themselves but Boyd's growths still allow him to contribute from time to time.

[@theboihilbirt1277]

Not see Charlotte or Hilda in list, make this list a F tier in my eyes

[@alexmorpheus6762]

Ross > Garcia

[@jierdareisa4313]

Yo, what's the music at 19:30?

[@MythrilZenith]

@@jierdareisa4313 it's all music from Fire Emblem Awakening. I want to say that's from ID - Purpose but I can't remember.

[@jierdareisa4313]

@@MythrilZenith I quite liked the piece with the choir singing the Fire Emblem theme in the background :)