Fire Emblem Skills So Terrible I Question How The Series Got This Far

[@Faerghast]

OMG i for real just uploaded a Fire Emblem video in November I know its been a month but I needed to sleep for many days. Please leave a like and comment to help boost it in recommended!!! yay Also check out Mythril's channel here: kzbin.info/door/gZyhzVQU0PL4r4lisv7u5w

[@yeorelz]

Sleep, you deserve it.

[@danny18894]

The King 👑 is back 👏🎉

[@munchthemunchkin65]

Fr fr

[@RAGNATHEBLOOEDGE]

Maeby, you can do a video speaking of the most ugly classes, no skill or gameplay only the style,

[@Rabbitlord108]

I think the most boring skills are the ones from Heroes that make enemy units unable to be damaged. It just seems so uninspired.

[@danny18894]

I'd give an Honorable Mention to Fire Emblem 8's skill "Sure Strike" it's exclusive to the sniper class and it's a level % of making the attack hit , So the class with the best Hit rate gets a skill to always land hits? Makes sense.

[@Rabbitlord108]

That's the textbook definition of overkill.

[@Joey3264]

yeah it is redundant

[@dacemuzik4ever]

It has special animation, no? I remember the arrow turn into white lightning strike. It's very cool to see.

[@danny18894]

@@dacemuzik4ever Cool or not all it does it make the attack land , Something that snipers really don't have a problem doing.

[@noukan42]

​@@danny18894i can see an use in Link Arena againist some very evasive characters. Or at least i could if snipers in Link Arena where a good idea in the first place.

[@unboundsky9999]

I’d like to shout Cyril’s version of the Aptitude skill. Aptitude gives 20% extra growth to each stat which sounds good until you learn that Cyril has really low base growths, so the boost aptitude gives just gives him growths that are roughly on par with other characters. He basically just doesn’t have a personal skill.

[@johnfsenpai]

What's even the point of making an aptitude personal skill? I could kind of get it for villagers in Awakening and Fates who could give it to their children, but having it as a personal skill is just the same as changing his growths

[@miked5163]

God I fucking hate Cyril

[@troyii435]

@@johnfsenpai Exactly! I was always feeling the same way lol

[@davidgeorge1943]

Same thing goes for Anna in 3H, where her personal skill grants +5 Luck. That's literally it, just an increase to her base stats.

[@comfyghost]

​@@johnfsenpai maybe it's to indicate to the player that the character has good growths, potentially growths that make up for not having a real skill. …which if so, makes cyril's bad growths even more embarrassing.

[@sunkeyavad6528]

Weak *personals* are always a huge disappointment. Personals are great for making the units more unique and enabling special builds. Imo, they should always be on the strong side and have no duplicates with any other unit. Multiple character locked skills, like Three Houses had via hidden talents is also a great idea for the same reasons. Very unfortunte that most of 3Hs hidden talents weren't that good. Hoping for more of that and better in the future.

[@tayclark42]

Cough cough lockpick cough ashe cough

[@CarbonMalite]

I would rather a detrimental pers. skill over giving them essentially nothing if it makes the unit more fun to play with.

[@JR384]

Imagine having Hidden Talents in games like the GBA titles, where things like the Runesword exist (and correct me if it's mainline) where most fangames will just make them have their elemental affinity in the first place; so using the Runesword enough would give somebody with the proper Hidden Talent access to using Dark Magic. Something like that.

[@thomasquesada7248]

@@tayclark42Raphaël personnal is still worse lol

[@xBox360BENUTZER]

Not just 3 Houses, Engage personal skills are atrocious too. They are all way too weak to differentiate units when said units dont have a unique class anymore in modern fire emblem games.

[@Perdix64]

I feel Knife could’ve been useful if they were given to Archers, so they at least have an option to defend at close range.

[@michaelgum97]

Along with making knives better, like making them 1-2 range and letting you forge them.

[@Perdix64]

@@michaelgum97 I feel that if you were to have it be something they automatically switch to when they’re being attacked at 1 range, I feel that’ll be a lot more useful.

[@Rabbitlord108]

​@@Perdix64Yeah. Having them be a weapon Archers can have that they will automatically use when hit by a melee attack would actually make sense.

[@OctAugNov]

I feel like "knife" would have been useful if it gave them access to the ability to steal as well as open chests without a staff.

[@Perdix64]

@@Rabbitlord108 it’d still be pretty weak, but it’d be better than to just have them stand there and take it.

[@chaosamber7719]

The worst part about Bane as a Bond Ring skill in Engage is that the same batch of Bond Rings features Elincia and her Mercy skill, which works just like it did in RD (you always leave foes at 1 HP) If you're that desperate to give kills to weaker units, then there's really no contest

[@cosmicdunsparce]

I got my first Elincia S ring on a recent run and thought "why would I ever use this?"

[@Fermin-hw5pd]

I think Mercy is worse, and if you think about it, there has to be at least 1 person who has lost a unit because of this

[@shadenox8164]

@@Fermin-hw5pd No one is equipping mercy without a plan to let a weaker unit swoop in and get the XP.

[@Fermin-hw5pd]

@@shadenox8164 You can unequip skills in Radiant Dawn? You couldn't in PoR

[@Mickymicmike]

@@Fermin-hw5pd You could unequip skills in PoR, but you would lose the skill permanently rather than get a scroll for it like in RD.

[@arctic7465]

The one niche for Selena's personal is the arena. The enemies are strong enough that they can survive a crit. You can set up Selena's partner to be a crit bot and Selena helps deal damage.

[@yaboykirby7789]

Problem with Arena is you don't get to select weapons and there's no way that I'm aware of to guarantee or even make frequent that Selena (or her partner) will go in the arena. I think the best utility I got out of Selena's skill was very late game going against generals with Armor slayer. Sometimes there's a bunch of generals you want to kill quickly but you don't have enough units that do enough damage. Say your partner crits and does 3 damage then Selena can crit and deal 20x3 damage. Of course you still need a crit bot partner (although it doesn't have to be high bond), it's still unreliable even if you have one, it's still really situational and even when you really need it you could probably fix the situation by using similar strategies without using Selena's skill. In the end I won't use Selena's skill in a way that actually helps at all more than once or twice a playthrough and I've made my peace with that

[@arctic7465]

There is an accessory when worn will always have that character work at the arena. You are dependant on characters with classes that have innate crit. There is a couple of skills that boost your crit rate but the big one death blow isn't easy to get in Conquest. @@yaboykirby7789

[@ResurgentRaven]

​@@yaboykirby7789You can get the arena shield from the accessory shop which gives its user a high chance to go to the arena. You can also use different skills to increase crit rate, such as Death Blow and Gamble.

[@gameboyn64]

The arena shield accessory makes that character appear very frequently in the arena. Selena will show up if she is their highest support partner.

[@Alb410]

Accessory

[@kingdyste5289]

I think Etie's personal skill, Energized, is also one of the worst personal skills. It has a very situational effect (healing with an item, so a staff won't work on her), the effect's really minor (it couldn't be at least Str +3 or 4?), but the biggest issue is that it's given to Etie, a player-phase focused archer with poor durability, who you generally don't want to make her use her turn on something that isn't an attack for a skill that'd only be useful for enemy phase most of the time.

[@luxiwayfarer369]

I guess her be able to regain her turn when using an item would have been too strong lol.

[@degreeskelvin3025]

That's y i benched her immediately

[@boredomkiller99]

​​@@degreeskelvin3025her personal skill isn't the reason to bench her. It is mostly that she is irrelevant once Panette as Panette is a better Etie since both usually want to go warrior where Etie is a little faster and has sliver bow access eventually while Panette has better bulk, strength and dex. Unlike previous games speed is easier to fix and dex actually matters. Still Etie is useful on maddening for the first third of the game due to fliers being strong and you only getting one other bow user before reclassify and promo

[@boredomkiller99]

Funny enough Etie's personal skill isn't even the worst since you can at least set it up situational with a dance or situational counter situations by taking advantage of terrain and her default covert typing. There are some personal skills that are more difficult or worthless

[@researchinbreeder]

​@@boredomkiller99Tbh bc of how Dual Assist works, fielding both as Warrior is perfectly valid imo. And for me personally, I use Panette for her Wrath/Vantage set (the Leif variant, because Resolve doesn't matter), so Etie doesn't have to compete with her in the first place for me usually.

[@Will_Parker]

Corrosion was absolutely just an enemy skill that they left for players to get access to. In that case it's a fantastic skill for the enemy units, it makes even the lowliest unit dangerous enough you might avoid them so you don't lose a good weapon.

[@silentdrew7636]

Similar thing with knife, it exists just to reward promoting your own sage.

[@ariwl1]

I practicaly jumped out of my seat when you mentioned Engage - Bane. I thought that one was useful at first so I had it on rotation for a while, but when I figured out how it actually worked and saw it was repeatedly screwing my units over I had a fit. XD

[@Crowns6327]

Another one from 3H that didn't get mentioned is Battalion Renewal (another healing skill? It must be a coincidence /s). It's not a personal skill but it just feels like the most backwards skill design possible. For Battalion Renewal to activate your Battalion has to be below 1/3 endurance *but not broken*. This means once it's in Battalion Renewal range you can often at most only take 1-2 hits before your Battalion breaks. The catch? Since the skill is a healing skill you quite literally need to take damage for it to do anything. So in the absolute best case scenarios you might be able to get it to proc a single time in a map before your Battalion breaks. By nature the Battalion skills encourage you to not take damage to prolong the time they're active. But Battalion Renewal quite literally cannot activate unless you're taking damage. It just doesn't make any sense

[@guilhermedalcin1136]

You could use it to heal from using relics without a crest. Not a game-breaking use, but still.

[@Crowns6327]

@@guilhermedalcin1136 Which would be all well and good if it wasn't for the fact that Manuela of all people is the only crestless unit with Battalion Renewal and she's not exactly a first pick for relics (or combat at all). And even then recoil damage is beneficial a lot of the time anyways.

[@backgroundnpc9631]

It sounds like something you're not supposed to have activated at the start of the battle. Once you take a few hits and get your battalion chipped down, then it will start healing you personally. I'd guess thematically Manuela has it so she can be a frontline healer taking occasional potshots but continue using her turns to heal other units while her injured battalion allows her to recuperate (assuming she survives taking the hits it would require to activate it). That's also probably supposed to be your cue to pull her back a little; if she stops taking damage at that point her injured battalion would theoretically bring her back to full. Given Manuela's fragility and how monstrous enemies can get in 3H, it still doesn't sound like it would work well, but I think I can see where they were going with it.

[@Crowns6327]

@@backgroundnpc9631 Except that most B rank Battalions (the most common type to have past the early game) have 75 dura meaning she needs to take 100 damage before she gets free heals. Meaning she'd need to get healed anyways (most likely several times) before it's active since she has less than 100 hp and by the time it drops down into the activation range she most likely won't see more than 2 maybe 3 combats before it turns off again.

[@backgroundnpc9631]

@@Crowns6327 Yeah, figured. As I said, it doesn't sound like mechanically it lives up to the thematic intent. If I was forced to make it work I'd maybe say just don't recover her battalion for a battle or two, or give her one of the weaker low-durability battalions to trigger it earlier since she's likely not a strong enough fighter for a high-tier battalion anyway. But I easily admit that's grasping for straws. It kinda feels more like someone came up with the skill, didn't like it or maybe they were afraid it was too strong and nerfed it, then they wanted to get rid of it but didn't want to waste it, so they just tried to think of who they could foist it on from a story perspective.

[@legacytag]

I remember back in the day of Fates online where Azama would basically be used with both counter skills with max HP to basically guarantee that you will take out on of the enemies 5 units before you died, making it more like a 4v4 there

[@jacobmorris6357]

Imagine that with renewal. He would be even harder to kill and be able to counter even more

[@Ziizoe]

I like how Path of Radiance added animations for like 4 different sage models both map and battle, with crits, just to nerf 2 characters. Soren's 2 critical knife animations would be the most obscure animations in the entire game if not for the crit magic sword at 2 range crit from a general or sword knight or probably Ashnard from the bonus maps, I can't say I've ever seen those.

[@ohandthefracking]

they were too pressed to make Calill best magic user for the virtue of her having reasonable for her join time staffs rank so instead they came up....with this....

[@thomaswood8405]

Bastian's crit looks a lot like Lord Ike's and Greil's regular attack. I wonder if female sage knife animation is also reused from somewhere.

[@alecneal602]

I love how Raphael's personal skill gives a tiny amount of health in a game where healing is everywhere. very ebin.

[@ResurgentRaven]

Gives a tiny amount of health in a game where his weapon efficiency gives a healing combat art at B rank that's basically a multi use elixir.

[@alecneal602]

@@ResurgentRaven godddd i completely forgot about healing focus, which he's 100% getting if he's a main investment unit

[@Brass319]

I have only seen it proc once and it did not affect any important damage thresholds

[@simplysolus8916]

Lynderhardt's personal skill is why I made him a tank at one point. :) It actually saved me prior to that since there are those lengthy walks from enemy to enemy when you are 75% done with a map. Also, frees up an item slot.

[@Toastguy716]

Linhardt’s personal skill is actually a little more useful when you’re trying to retreat on a budget, which usually happens to me toward the end of maddening runs when you’re strapped for cash and don’t get too great of level ups or stat boosters. Also, if you invest enough into him defense wise (or are against mages that will deal chip damage to him but murder your party) he can make for a good chokehold unit that can allow your other units to farm exp while he’s healing.

[@twigz3214]

I mean with the amount of gold three houses gives you I doubt you’ll ever be strapped for cash. The skill isn’t helpful on Lindhardt since unless you excessively grind he’ll never want to be attacked on enemy phase since he won’t hit hard back and will often be one rounded. Even if he is hit you’d prefer him to physic than to wait and heal an amount of hp that’s irrelevant. The meta is one round and get one rounded in late maddening, and it’s not hard to get your characters to do the former while he supports with set up chip, physic, and warp.

[@rolando_j_]

It's use isn't the point, as it's a completely passive ability. It literally works based on being completely passive. Which is fine as choices are choices and doing nothing is a choice. It's a strategy. But make it something useable, how about a self-healing free cast of heal onto the unit. The skill should reflect an attribute skill that the unit excels at for it be useful and max HP is not in any mage's wheelhouse. A free heal would be based on their magic stat. Contrast this to Mercedes' skill, she gets a self-heal based on how much she heals and she isn't nerfed by using Fortify which will almost invariably completely heal her at any damage level. The skill could have been something like "raises his magic stat by 10% for each turn he uses wait." This would have elevated him to a late map powerhouse. Typically, Linhardt has mediocre magic growth for a mage unit, so this kind of personal would invoke a strategy of paying forward. This is unit that has warp, so imagine how far his warp would be if his person skill worked in this manner. Instead, you get a self-heal skill on a unit that probably shouldn't be taking damage because he's 10% isn't going to save him. I'd take 10% speed or somekind of avoidance, maybe cumulatively increase a proc of miracle. The actual point of a personal skill is that it should have a benefical strategy that you can use, and there isn't one with Linhardt's skill.

[@VeXJL]

WHOOOOOO ARTHUR MENTION!!! Oh wait... I think it might be worth mentioning how Azama's personal skill is less of an actual personal skill for him as a player unit but more of a TUTORIAL in Chapter 8 to introduce the effects of personal skills. Combine that with the dialogue of Hinoka's group in the same chapter oh so subtly tutorializing how desert movement works by having Setsuna the Archer being the only one getting stuck in the sand... It's kinda just too funny to take seriously once you notice.

[@nekonomicon2983]

My blood pressure slightly goes up when i see the enemy has a 1% to crit me.

[@PsychoPenguin1919]

always a bummer when a favorite unit just has a useless personal skill. RIP Linhardt

[@shadenox8164]

I mean he was still really good, at least it wasn't actively harmful.

[@xTxCxMx]

It's not even that terrible. If you watch the footage he shows, in it there are a lot of fights that linhardt would live with like, 2hp left, meaning if you'd used the skill to heal up some chip the turn before it would have been pretty good. It isn't a strong skill, but it gives him an extra option and that can matter. Definitely one of those skills that can sometimes come in clutch (especially if you're doing some sort of challenge) but normally doesn't matter in gameplay.

[@actuallizard]

Something I kind of like about knife sage in PoR is that it acts as your reward for raising your own mage vs using the prepromote. The prepromotes coming with knives incentivizes you to raise your own mage if you want a staff sage. This is a neat reward for raising a unit instead of using a prepromote compared to some of the prepromotes around this era that are just better than raising a unit from scratch. Obviously still a pretty bad skill in terms of what it does for a unit though lol.

[@stormfallvalkyri8389]

Why soren is the best

[@zyxyz2056]

narration: "Linhardt's Doze Off" video footage: *currently showing Linhardt's skill on-screen, where it's clearly visible that its name is Catnap* 🤔🤔🤔

[@ziomah8648]

When Bane was mentioned I knew I wasn't the only one who reseted and dropped the ring the moment it left a single unit alive after 2 consecutive procs.

[@Wiimonkey2]

Very cool video! The skills you mentioned in the 3DS games were particularly interesting to me. I hadn't really thought about how those skills would function in practice. I've got to give a passive shoutout to the Mercy skill from RD though. I can only imagine how many players brought Elincia into battle in Part 4 only to realize she was suddenly incapable of killing anything.

[@ghaithshafie9970]

when i reached that point i was like BITCH how the fuck did you miss with a 100% hit rate? i didn't know she had that skill at the time.

[@user-jw2it4qf2r]

You can simply unequip it, though, and she becomes a killing machine, or you can keep it on if you want to train a weaker unit. The only detriment to it was that they snuck it on her without telling the player. (There seems to be a reply to this that I can't view so sorry if I just said the exact same thing they did)

[@d3-ll754]

"There are no Skills in FE4 or FE5 that feel useless or like an outright detriment." I'd definitely single out FE5 Accost, personally. Making an effect like that an actual command in his later games instead of a proc chance is the best decision Kaga ever made. It can be a problem even for an incredibly bulky Unit like Dagdar, and it can just totally ruin a Unit like Selfina if she happens to have gained a lot of HP somewhere along the way (and when Crusader Scrolls let you damn near cap every single stat on a Unit, the odds of that happening are high unless you're just actively avoiding using either Selfina or the Scrolls).

[@johnfsenpai]

But FE5 was the last FE made by Kaga though

[@Kruggov]

He meant in TearRing Saga and Berwick Saga. And I agree, in both of those games Charge/Deathmatch are like THE "this guy dies NOW" skill. Doubly so in Berwick Saga, where your options for ORKO's are so limited.

[@davidmejia5740]

Accost in Thracia (not sure if it also did this in Genealogy) had the potential to very actively grief you by making siege tomes and ballistae attack you twice.

[@free_pistols]

Nah. Accost is good. Some players intentionally use it to break siege tomes and ballsitae alot quicker.

[@aetherius6221]

You wanted accost on extremely bulky units with questionable offense/accuracy anyway so this rarely mattered

[@GhostintheMachine25]

I think Elincia needs and honorable mention for her Radiant Dawn skill Mercy since she could never take someone below 1hp unless you removed the skill which the game gave no indication about her having it until you keep dropping enemies to 1 and put the pieces together.

[@tsf9600]

I dunno, you should definitely check out every new unit you get before deploying them and not spotting Mercy sounds like player oversight. Mercy also has a practical, if not as practical as straight damage, of letting you feed exp to other units. Sure, we'd probably prefer having Mercy off by default for Elincia but it not straight useless like other skulls (like Glare being nigh impossible to land, for example)

[@redfoxoffire]

@@tsf9600 The thing with this case is that when you use Elincia in part 2, she doesn't have Mercy. It's only when she comes back in part 4 that she magically has it, but at this point she's not a "new unit" so players won't think they need to check her skills.

[@LiroRaeriyo]

i find mercy to be one of those extremely funny personality derived skills, except that i corrupt the skill by giving elincia a venin edge so she enemy phases and brings a bunch of enemies down to 1 HP and poisoned, suddenly mercy is no longer merciful when you are death sentencing enemies.

[@klissattack]

I was playing the hack "Bells of Byelen" and they have a skill on a unit that causes fog of war. I benched that dude so fast

[@cheesenjackers4888]

ahhhh but the growths.... you dont even need a master seal

[@klissattack]

@@cheesenjackers4888 I just hate fog maps very strongly

[@mrkisukes]

Etie's personal in Engage. +2 Str for 1 turn after using a heal item. Not accessible to get the +2 since you need to have the dmg already, and it being only for 1 turn means it's only an enemy phase boost unless you dance her for another action. And when Etie is a very fragile unit, this is just awful, it's literally an objectively worse version of Alfred's personal skill, and that one is already not very powerful.

[@claudevonrunningman]

Shoutout to Izana’s peacekeeper in Fates causing all units (including allies) within two spaces to deal -2 damage. I guess it makes it easier for him to res rank some stuff, but overall he makes it harder for your units to kill the enemies

[@jamesmattila-hine1133]

One thing I wish that personal skills did is actually grow with the unit. There are some skills that are great at the start of the game but just drop off. If the skill grew with you could still have a powerful skill at the end while it not being broken at the beginning

[@VallaPhantasm]

It's funny that Linhardt's personal ended up here when I made a build centered around it, Renewal, and Seiros Shield to regenerate his HP to keep Quick Reposte active

[@ivanbluecool]

Guess next will be how Fe handles special classes and who gets the special skills to do more damage. I got a lot to say how echoes failed so hard with the amiboo system so many unique classes wasted

[@Rabbitlord108]

So it's going to be mostly talking about stuff from Fire Emblem Heroes?

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodLurker]

Honestly surprised there was no mention of Parity. I genuinely cannot think of a single use for disabling support bonuses

[@JR384]

Ngl you'd think Parity is something they would drop on bosses and other enemy exclusive characters to prevent it like that.

[@peterh2223]

In POR, yeah where TF it real In RD… it’s actually very nice lategame because Auroura Borealis

[@Kilo6Charlie]

​@@peterh2223nice? Isn't it functionally required in the endgame of RD? I recall it making the endgame really boring for me, which isn't a good thing really. Edit: after seeing the very next comment, disregard, I was thinking of Nihil.

[@sharpeylogic2907]

Parity is like a second, budget Nihil for the Ashera fight in RD, so it has its use there. Otherwise it's useless for the entire game lmao

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodLurker]

@sharpeylogic2907 I...never even considered that. Imma have to try that!

[@humanbeing44]

Izana's personal is -2 damage to both sides, that hurts alot on bosses or other tanky enemys

[@yowieyahoo]

i was just about to bring up his personal lmao. it's not the worst since it has a pretty small aoe and reduces enemy damage but still isn't great

[@RoboticEdward]

9:50 No one cared who I was until I put on the *emblem ring that gives me the skill known as "Bane"*

[@Silith13]

My Bunet build (not good but hey). Edelgard ring can make him go through engage turns really fast by utilizing rising storm. Then with Celica's inherrit skill and his personal he can sometimes engage 3 times in 6 turns. It's decently powerful but of course not better then alternatives. It is however pretty unique to him.

[@MinoriGaming]

A couple skills I think deserved to make the list, imo, all from Engage: Adaptability: Leif's infamous engage skill that honestly isn't horrible in a vacuum, but ultimately has some pretty icky interactions with a lot of situations that make it quite hard to see the positive effects of. Automatically switching weapons to have weapon triangle advantage is nice idea in theory, but its habit of switching to Leif's personal engage weapons with their high weights and low hitrates, especially the Master Lance, often ends up being an active detriment to a unit's durability and damage output on enemy phase. The fact that it's a common and popular strategy to never watch Leif's B rank bond cutscene to keep him capped at level 9 bond truly says a lot about the viability of the skill. Charmer: Fogado's personal skill and one with an effect so unbelievably niche it's frankly ridiculous. If Fogado enters combat with the same enemy units two times *in a row*, he inflicts -10 crit on that enemy. Fogado is very much a player phase unit and not a frontliner, as his personal class uses bows primarily, so the most common situation this *might* take effect is if he shoots a unit on two player phases back to back, or if he is danced to attack the same unit twice. Even then, Charmer only matters if that enemy unit A. can counterattack and B. has a crit chance in the first place and C. isn't dying from the first attack of the second combat. Back at You: Oh hey look it's Fogado's other personal skill would you look at that. Speaking of niche activation circumstances, Back at You comes up more often than Charmer, but even then not by much. As a bow unit, Fogado isn't doing much counterattacking as archers are rather rare in Engage especially compared to its love for tomes, daggers, and tomahawks, all of which can attack Fogado from his blindspot unless he's placed at the very edge of their range, and all he gets out of it is a heavily dialed back version of Vengeance that can only be activated on Enemy Phase.

[@foehn2567]

Funnily enough, back at you have successfully activated four times in my 4 “use all unit play through” Only one of them mattered, and it was a crit. He died soon after. Also, ignoring a lot of his only other use: Levin sword.

[@supervolcanobladerharris131]

Adaptability works for some crit builds with a forged killer axe and a forged killer bow as long as you don't obtain the master lance but even still if your unit is strong enough to overall than adaptability will actually help you as it will prevent the enemy from breaking you and ruining your enemy phase especially considering how if you have a spear in your inventory, you won't equip the master lance since it has worse stats. Not saying it's a good skill but its most certainly worse than the other two you mentioned.

[@Cubonz]

A skill I've never really been able to utilize is Seal Movement, Dimitri's Budding Talent for Riding in Three Houses. After battle, it decreases Mv by 1 for 1 turn. I get the idea: attacking, then canto out of range. But if you attack an enemy, you generally want to kill them on the same turn, or at least set up a kill for Enemy Phase. As such, I never really saw reason to equip it over other skills.

[@thomasquesada7248]

Well yeah because 3h is an easy game most of the skills are just worthless And that’s made even worse by Them existing along darting blow which by the way was buffed from +5 to +6 in TH because they got the very smart idea of standardizing all the blow skills to +6 which completely killed armored blow (+10) and warding blow (+20)

[@g.n.s.153]

Banshee and Encloser are much better ways to seal an enemy's movement. At least Dimitri doesn't need it at all to be good but it pathetically weak.

[@Neonlight3934]

A note about Raphael, Raphael luck is so low that the chance of skill procking enought in a time frame That's detremental is lower than missing a 100% in Fe6. And you have multiple turns to negate it (like Devil Weapons). In a nutshell, this might be the most nothing skill ever created in the franchise because of how low the chance of doing anything and that that anything has any impact is. Seriusly, I'm not being hyperbolic about the Fe6 100% miss comparison.

[@Korhi]

I think in a 80 hour playthrough he procced his personal skill 2 times ever.

[@slenderMax28]

​@@Korhi It happened once in my Golden Deer playthrough and I was honestly confused when it did

[@chariciard]

I just think it's hilarious that his skill has the same name and effect as Velouria's from Fates but they changed the 10HP flat recovery to 10% max HP which is considerably worse lol

[@Lanz-ri8qp]

I find Serenas skill actully rlly good in arena

[@comeandtakeit36usa70]

Hear me out . . . Raphael as a cleric to have Goody Basket, Renewal, Pavise and/or Aegis, Armored and/or Warding Blow, Miracle, plus Raphael’s high defense growth, and being a cleric supplementing his fairly high luck growth, too.

[@xTxCxMx]

I too pray at the church of raphael. It's such a funny meme build. definitely inefficient, but the fact that it even works at all is hilarious.

[@CatsLilaSalem]

Linhardt his skill works in practice only when he falls behind and can't do anything, and on top of that he has to have taken damage. And most things oneround him anyway, when using him as an healer

[@UnemployedWorkr]

I think that Cyril having Aptitude as a personal skill is terrible. It worked in the past cause it added onto a units growths or could be used in inheritance or whatever. If it’s a personal skill that can’t be removed or passed to anyone else, they just wasted Cyril’s personal skill slot to say “this unit has pretty good growths” I guess it isn’t actively detrimental like most of the ones you just covered but even something like Bunet’s Seconds? does something unlike Cyril’s aptitude.

[@thomasquesada7248]

Cyril could have gotten underdog to give the same message but without wasting a slot

[@TheWizardMus]

Cyril also has lower growth rates to account for him having aptitude so he just doesn't have a skill because they balance out into nothinf

[@valemontgomery9401]

Cyril’s Aptitude is an incredible skill in Awakening and Fates, allowing trainee units to take strides in levels and pass that potential off to child units… As a personal skill, it’s worse than redundant. Not only could they have just given Cyril the extra growths internally, but it also means Cyril basically doesn’t have a Personal Skill. It gets worse when you realize that 3H auto levels don’t take Aptitude into account, forcing you to recruit him early with none of the flexibility that other units get

[@haihuynh8772]

Could have given him guaranteed stats increase instead.

[@TheGamersState]

You know what would have made Selena's skill better? If there's 2 enemies on the field (Like at 7:15) the skill would allow Selena to make a critical on the 2nd unit out.

[@therealsamtheman]

You mean she could attack the back up unit instead??? That would be insane I love it

[@luxiwayfarer369]

If we are looking for consistency, instead of waiting for her ally to make a crit, she would deal more damage if she is in attack stance with an ally, to break through the reduction of damage put on attack stance. I'd like to believe this is fair enough (more broken would have been allowing her to double if her attack stance partner can't. Might be neat with Wary Fighter on the partner lol)

[@Xertaron.]

I feel like Underdog should be innate part of a Villager, perhaps as a passive bonus from the class itself. It makes no sense as a skill. Arthur's is not a frontliner so if you don't unnecessarily expose him you won't notice negative effects of his skill - he's only marginally bulkier than Charlotte. They're meant to lead the charge, make an opening and let others clean up so no enemy can threaten them on enemy phase. Supports in Fates grant a lot of dodge so it's only a problem if he's unsupported. Selena's skill can sometimes clutch a kill against bulky enemy, Azama's skill is bad but Azama himself is a great unit so it's not a big deal. Among the worst are Kagero's personal skill Shuriken Mastery - not only it's enemy phase only skill on a unit with meager bulk, but she joins right after the chapter where you fight most enemies with shurikens/knives. The damage she deals back is ok since she takes a lot of it, but applying debuffs she receives on enemy is almost never useful, since she's using shurikens as well and their debuffs do not stack. In my current playthrough, I managed to trigger this skill once by complete accident, 7 chapters after recruiting her. Another would Flora's Icy Blood, which basically Kagero's skill but worse - it works against all weapons, but not at 1 range, inflicting -3 spd and -3 skl debuff, which most knives do not apply so the debuffs does not overlap. Problem is it can only trigger if Flora is below max health - a unit that is both frail AND slow - so it's more likely for her to die than trigger this skill.

[@gameboyn64]

If i remember correctly, another issue with shuriken mastery is that kagero still takes the debuff for getting hit which sucks.

[@jdblue9460]

Personally i think Linhardts skill of Catnap is really useful. Its useful when there are a ton of enemy mages with powerful magic because, other than Flayn, Linhardt is the only other character that has the highest resistance to magic! whenever there are a ton of mages i need to take down i would have linhardt attract them or waste powerful spells and once the enemy is in range or run out of powerful spells i would have a physical unit take them out.

[@rockowlgamer631]

I think marianne's personal skill was a bit situational at best, can only passive heal if she's near riding or flying units.

[@nekonomicon2983]

Considering how OP flying units are in Three Houses her skill does seem a lot better. Only problem it takes awhile before you'll reach that point. I guess you could just go for Cavalier class until then.

[@squatch1565]

I’ve never liked the skill Fortune. Blocking crits is nice, but it just doesn’t seem all that useful besides a quick 3K gold. Now, if the Devil Axe was in the game and the skill nullified that drawback, it would be great

[@dryzalizer]

Yeah fortune's gold value is huge. TRS has a unit that negates the devil weapon effect, I guess you could call that their personal skill and it's really cool.

[@aetherius6221]

​@dryzalizer zeke :( my beloved...

[@davidgeorge1943]

It might sound a little strange, but I can think of three Personal Skills: Jean's Expertise, Cyril's Aptitude, and 3H Anna's Business Prosperity. Expertise/Aptitude boosts all of an equipped units growth rates, and we all remember how that turned out for Donnel, but since they can't be removed, you can just ignore them entirely. As for Business Prosperity, it just grants +5 Luck. That's it.

[@FlameUser64]

Jean's Expertise is actually very interesting and makes him an interesting unit, because it specifically increases class growth rates. iirc, it doubles them. This lets him hyperspecialize in a way that's unique compared to other units.

[@darkheart2287]

I know this is a pretty hot take but in spite of how good she can be charloette's personal skill sucks hard it's good against maybe hinoka and oboro and that's it since most generics are males or monsters in conquest and the other female enemies are physically frail magic users or maids

[@radiantherooftellius1138]

I think personal skills add a lot to the person in question and some are def better than others, but its an addition i adore so much

[@crowposting]

Omg my friend and I were just discussing how dumb it is that every character in RD HAS to have Shove and it CANNOT BE UNEQUIPPED. We were discussing porting over PoR saves to RD and how Shove takes up just enough skill space to make some units unusable. WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS? Thankfully you can actually unequip Elincia's Mercy and give her something good.

[@klissattack]

I always got rid of Mercy lol

[@crowposting]

​@@klissattackit's only useful if you're trying to train other units lol I love the idea of giving her lethality, but I'm not sure if that is possible in PoR or RD. It would be funny as heck though.

[@gameboyn64]

Shove and pass are a part of intentional design. If you look at path of radiance mounted units have 5 less capacity than foot units which is the same difference in radiant dawn. They designed infantry units to have 25 capacity and mounted units to have 20 capacity, the same in both games. They also wanted to nerf the broken skills from path of radiance by increasing their capacity cost to 15. This way, in a game with free moving skills, you can't just adept resolve any unit and call it a day. They also did this to further nerf mounted units who in the previous game saw little drawback to having 20 instead of 25 capacity.

[@tsf9600]

​@@crowpostingLethality in PoR and RD is locked to the Assassin class, meaning it's only accessible to Volke, the only Assassin in both games.

[@crowposting]

@tsf9600 damn. My plans have been foiled. lol

[@ScoopsMayCry]

I think corrosion is funny skill (especially when destroying an enemy's weapon on a chokepoint) but completely understand why it's on here. I also wish Personal skills were really good or more impactful, 3H and Engage felt really afraid of making personal too broken so majority feel so useless.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

3 Houses had some good ones. Mercedes and Marianne's were great, ways to top themselves off while doing their jobs. Ignatz' was simple and great, Ashe's was horrible in the context of 3 Houses, but would be a good skill in a different game. Sylvain and Leonie's were solid, Ferdinand could do some neat stuff with his. There were a couple stinkers, but overall I feel like a good chunk of them were right where they should be. Unlike Engage, where the average personal skill does nothing.

[@thomasquesada7248]

⁠@@aprinnyonbreak1290lol sylvain and leonie are just worse alear and veyle and Ferdinand is like pandreo except you go f yourself if you get an hp lvl up the 3H skills are just as bad if not worse by virtue of being terribly designed compared to engage

[@g.n.s.153]

@@thomasquesada7248 ????? How is Sylvain and Leonie worse versions of Alear and Veyle? You could say at least Flayn and Hilda/Seteth. That would make more sense but even then they're not that much worse with only 1 stats off. I think they were pretty great in 3H overall, nothing about them screaem "terribly designed" to me.

[@thomasquesada7248]

@@g.n.s.153 most personal skill in 3H are fine (if you do t count the not unique icons) but they are also real stinkers like Raphael, Ashe , Manuela and then there are skill like Caspar’s « born fighter » which isn’t bad but debuff enemy avoid for some odd reason because Benny make people afraid, the awakening dark mages use curses Caspar gives minus avoid because huh no reason it just doesn’t make sense

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

@@thomasquesada7248 Sylvain and Leonie are a self contained offense and defense buff, which is very different from Alear's, especially since both Sylvain and Leonie have good stats for facing enemy phase. Ferdinand's is also pretty solid, and really, leveling HP is probably only a problem if you're trying to tank entire groups of enemies with him... which you shouldn't do. The average unit has a better personal skill in 3 Houses than in Engage. Most any time a personal skill is detrimental in 3 Houses it's in niche cases, whereas several units in Engage have skills that are a net detriment to using the unit normally, like Diamant or Lapis, and an overwhelming quantity are just very wordy ways of saying "nothing" like Etie getting 2 strength for enemy phase when she chugs a vulnerary. The fact that you are immediately comparing Alear's personal skill, probably one of, if not the best personal skill in Engage, to Leonie and Sylvain's, which are "decent" in 3 Houses really says it all. Plus, don't forget Crests, which are effectively extra personal skills on several units. A lot of THOSE are pretty whatever, but, a few units get some good stuff out of it, and those are always on top of whatever else, like Felix' which rarely doesn't grant +5 mt when attacking.

[@elevate07]

I haven't finished the video but Goody Bag better be on this list. It's so bad that Raphael basically doesn't have a personal skill Edit: 7:28 okay i feel vindicated

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

The sad part is, it's CLOSE to being decent. The % healed is comically small. Raphael has one of the lower Luck stats in the game, so basing it off that is silly. If it was just 10% HP every turn, that would be fine. It would still cut him off from stuff like Wrath, but it would at least be reliable, reduce the tax his huge HP stat can impose on healers, and would contribute to regen builds. Give him SOMETHING.

[@johnathanedwards9054]

I think a personal skill worth mentioning for being bad is Miraculous Save, Kaze's personal skill. It works like Miracle but only for the unit Kaze is supporting in pair up/ dual support and works on his luck stat. It would be better if Kaze had great starting luck or a good luck growth, but his luck growth is only 20% and his base luck is pretty bad at only 4. So in theory, his luck will grow only once every five level ups and it won't be high enough to activate when it really matters. Probably his brother Saizo's Pyrotechnics is worth considering since it works like Savage Blow or Poison Strike but Saizo takes damage as well as any nearby enemies when he goes boom and has a health threshold to activate. A very high risk, high reward skill which may not be worth considering. Nothing to really say about Three Houses personal skills, but maybe Marianne's Animal Friend since she needs to be near a flying or calvary unit for it to activate and if you turn her into a priest or bishop she'll always lag behind them since they have a lot of movement and requires some risky moves. Engage skills aren't really worth talking about, they work well for the character they are on and can be played around with. But if we were talking about the best personal skill in Engage, then I'd probably say Yunaka's Trained to Kill since +15 crit in terrain that increases avoid really plays into her covert unit type favoring terrain to increase their avoid and it stacks with other crit based skills like Ike's Wrath and the sniper's No Distractions making her have a crit rate that could nearly 100% if planned correctly. I knew she was deadly, but I never knew that when she was unleashed she would be my MVP for the run.

[@jjmblue7]

"If you really want to use Donnel..." Of course I want to use Donnel. He's such a good, little doobie!

[@pumpkinlemonadezero9995]

In all my playthroughs of Conquest, I have never ever seen Selena's personal in action. I really can't think of any situation where that shit would be useful in any way, except as a very lucky crutch in a situation that you fumbled yourself into

[@elishamaye3376]

I was just thinking as I went to sleep last night, "I haven't seen a new Ghast video in a while." Glad to see more stuff from you!

[@fla_vee]

Ahh, I didn't notice until now how much I missed your videos and voice. A very interesting topic, most definitely! Glad to have you back~ ^^

[@5h3nn0ng]

Veyle (sees Tellius Knife Mages): "Pathetic" Doesn't help that she is SUPER GOOD with the Soren bracelet not just with the Knife-Tome Proficiency, but also Flare to make her an EP tank AND at best 100% Ciriticals

[@ferintown6628]

A correction to saying reducing enemy crit avoid is good It isn’t. Crits are very bad in fates, you can damage stack much easier than crit stack, and it’s more reliable, also guard guage timing can be ruined by a random crit. Best case scenario of a crit is a unit stealing a kill they shouldn’t, which is bad

[@BowserGuerrero]

Welcome back brother! 💙 Hope that break was what you needed

[@tolotos95]

Tbh, I'm (positively) surprised you didn't mention 'Animal Friend' in the 3H-segment, since I've heard quite a few people mlre or less sh*tting on it

[@HypK799]

What about Thracia 776's charge skill? It continues battles with enemies based on (I believe) HP, which is actually quite useful since most of the characters with that skill are either tanky (Dadgar, Connomore, Xavier) or have ranged attacks (Sara). I'm pretty sure it also avoids adding additional fatigue. The issue is that it activates even if the bearer cannot counterattack, meaning things like ballista and siege tomes continue on these units. It also prevents the player from using ballista to grind (FE5 gives EXP for getting attacked without counterattacking) or from stealing siege time uses.

[@Mary_Studios]

Another thing in Three Houses that bugs me is that Balthus personal skill is that he's good when he has less than half his health but his crest heals him when using combat arts meaning there's a chance that his crest will heal him out of her personal.

[@Souvlaki96]

I’m surprised Elincia’s Mercy from RD/Engage wasn’t on here. It just straight up doesn’t let you kill enemy units. Flourish is pretty terrible too imo.

[@5h3nn0ng]

I think Mercy has its niche in taking out enemy health for so low for underlevelled units to take the kill. But that is just a decent use of it at best

[@Souvlaki96]

Yea you’re right. Flourish is just a FAR worse version of that.

[@sarasaland4709]

Dmitri getting Seal Movement is another notable example. In a game where you want the enemy to die before they gut your Lysithea, why would you ever want to give them move -1? Also it’s Dmitri, he kills the enemy. He doesn’t weaken them.

[@DizzyPW]

I put this skill alongside poison strike... useful.... situationally when facing multi-health bar monsters.

[@Seddyhere]

Surprised Dwyer's personal wasn't mentioned simply for it only working in my castle battles, which you'll likely rarely run into (and with the online not existing, it's even less likely)

[@EM10gamer]

In defense of Underdog, it ACTUALLY does have use in Streetpass battles. A special class unit (i.e. Dread Fighter Donnel or Bride Kjelle/Nah/Noire, since let‘s face it, that‘s probably where Donnel is going to father) at level 1 utilizes this pretty well and can be situationally better than Patience, Prescience, Tantivy, or a rhythm skill. Nothing game breaking, but a genuine strategy nonetheless. You do miss out on Aptitude which is worthless for Apotheosis anywho, Counter, which is great for Streetpass, and I suppose Zeal or Rally Strength? The latter only being useful if you want to make a female child unit a dedicated Rally bot, which, let‘s face it, isn‘t worth it because she won‘t get Rally Spectrum.

[@Mickymicmike]

While not quite as bad as the skills listed here, one that always irked me was Felix's personal Lone Wolf. Even ignoring losing access to gambits, there are E rank battalions that give nearly the same bonus (The Brawler ones) or with Essar Research Group an equal attack bonus while giving other bonuses on top of that. The best argument for it would be if his battalion breaks, but unless you're building around the battalion skills or you forget to replenish them that's unlikely.

[@luthierisbestboy8177]

Could you do a video on the worst combat arts in Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses?

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

I nominate Mighty Blow

[@johnathanedwards9054]

​@@AkameGaKillfan777 I nominate armor crusher.

[@implying8903]

I nominate subdue

[@thomasquesada7248]

Simple enough for TH, nearly all combat arts are worse than jus attacking and killing

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

@@johnathanedwards9054 You mean Helm Splitter?

[@actone4822]

It's a shame Thracia Accost wasn't brought up. Love getting hit by enemies I can’t counter multiple times.

[@free_pistols]

I rarely have issues with it myself. I mostly use it to break siege tome and ballistae alot quicker. Also it helps player phase aggression. Have you seen dagdar with a brave axe ? Ppl should never devalue accost.

[@ascriptmaster]

When I was a kid playing Radiant Dawn hard (borrowed from a friend) I specifically remember Corrosion being surprisingly useful in 4-2. I couldn't figure out a way to clear it conventionally because I was young and bad at the game, so I bunched all my units into a corner of the starting area with grass and face tanked enemies as they slowly trickled in. Since Corrosion got buffed to deplete durability based on level instead of a quarter of level, when Boyd procced it on an enemy soldier the weapon instantly broke and the soldier just stood there and body blocked for me to reduce the amount of damage I needed to worry about

[@robincastlin6321]

I had fun with Bunet's Seconds? when playing Merciless. Basically tried to gain as much luck as possible, max his Engage when eating, give him the 4 neighbours 2nd action Ring and if it procc'd he could re-Engage again as soon as possible. Could even RNG manipulate the procc with the rewind stone. Probably not the *best* strat, but I found it funny to play around with.

[@FireBirdTheEpic]

Shout out to felix's personal which might as well not exist. The little bonus it gives him will almost never outweight the bonuses provided by equipping a battalion

[@supervolcanobladerharris131]

On chapter 3 you only have 3 battalions, so the extra 5 damage is pretty much free and definitely useful as chapter 3 is considered one of the hardest chapters in the game on maddening. After that it's still somewhat useful since it works in the arena combined with his crest and his high strength growth so it's better than some other personal skills but it's still not good.

[@Zach984racer]

Raphael’s could work if he had the highest luck stay. Could keep him healthy, but his stat is just ok.

[@TheWizardMus]

Underdog can have some lategame niche use as a reequip whenever Donny had just reclassed, however on any kids not only is Aptitude better, Lucky 7 gives the same or better benefit without needing the child to have just reclassed

[@myplantsaidno]

Side note but I think Elincia's bond ring in Engage is worse than Sothe's. It makes it so that it is impossible to kill a unit with someone equipped with it. I once accidentally equipped it in arena and the battle wouldn't end because my unit was taking 0 damage but couldn't beat the challenger lol. Great video btw, hope you are doing well, Ghast!

[@ChacoParraco]

That one sucks too but at least is consistent, Bane has a random chance to just screw you over

[@XenithShadow]

Pretty sure it was desgined to assist in leveling up under leveled units by smashing with a strong unit with ring equiped then finishing off with the lower level units. It facilitate easier kill funneling.

[@Saltyoven]

If that's the case you can make the argument that it fulfills a niche to feed underlevelled units exp.

[@ChacoParraco]

At least it has some utility then

[@EXchoco]

I was so confused by so many of the super convoluted requirements for personal skills in engage. Catnap and goofy basket (typo but yknow what it works), a bit of a waste of a skill slot for a character, but whatever, self explanatory enough. They’re also fitting and kind of funny-Raphael brings food to war and Linhardt just conks out at random intervals. At least when it happens I’m like, oh yeah, that happens. They had my dyslexic ahh brain REELING trying to read some of those personal skills in engage tho, harkening back to heroes as a lot of things in that game do. They were stretching really hard trying to turn some of those gimmicks into personal abilities.

[@questmaster01]

While a lot of 3H personal skills were kinda useless, they at least felt fitting for the characters and the quirks they carried with them. Ashe getting Lockpick was kinda eh gameplay wise, but its a nice nod to his backstory. Half of Engage's personal skills felt like random skills in a basket that they renamed after using a lottery system to assign them.

[@EXchoco]

@@questmaster01 Totally! I find them more useful in their simplicity and fitting-ness too, because I will always remember what they are in the back of my mind. I also love lockpick tho and I will fight the lockpick haters because I like getting all the chests on maps and don’t love clogging up my inventory with keys lol

[@orangeslash1667]

In case you are disappointed with Engage I recommend The Last Spell, Triangle Strategy, War groove, or the upcoming unicorn overlord as alternative options.

[@EXchoco]

@@orangeslash1667 Disappointed would be an understatement haha I’m interested in triangle strategy though! I played and enjoyed Octopath recently so I’d totally give that a try

[@orangeslash1667]

@@EXchoco I heard that the reason Shouzou Kaga left Intelligent Systems is that he dislikes the idea of Fire Emblem in 3d, I can see why!

[@variksigurdsson1447]

The fun part of Underdog, is that in Villager Only runs of Awakening, its the GOAT

[@DigitalxGamer]

I think the logic for Bane is to allow units with low damage output to potentially do something huge with their attack. Though even then, I can't really think of any units that would want that anyway. Especially with how powerful the Thief units and Merrin are in this game by default.

[@thomasquesada7248]

Awakening focus deserved to be here +10 crit if there is no ally within 3 tiles is worthless unless juggernauting and even then it is still almost worthless

[@thomasquesada7248]

@Faerghast11 @Faerghast pls ban this impersonating bot

[@doomrider56]

Bane actually would trigger the same way in Radiant Dawn as in Engage. The amount of times my Sothe wouldn't kill due to triggering it was some of the most upsetting scenarios.

[@Subjecttochannel]

I actually enjoyed Lind's personal. I wouldn't go out of my way to trigger it or build around, but if he happened to tale a stray arrow or hit then he could get some decent recovery as my army walked to the next cluster of enemies on most maps

[@bigcountrymxog]

Linhardt's skill actually did help me once. He had taken some damage and was basically on his own and had no vulneraries. While he ran he was able to heal enough

[@CappnRob]

Big disagree on Arthur’s personal skill. Is it bad? Kind of. But worst ever? Nowhere close to Knife or Corrosion. Plus you can share it up with Veteran Intuition either through the skill book or just having Arthur go Vanguard (which suits his strengths quite well as it matches his hero growths with some speed traded for defense). Now you might say “well if it needs another skill to be any good is it really good” and that I say… kind of yeah? Veteran intuition is not in high demand for most characters, Arthur’s only real competition for it would be anyone who goes berserker because of their innate -10 crit vulnerability. Which, hey, funny that Intuition will cover that and Arthur’s own personal skill completely if he goes Beeserker himself, all while boosting the crit rates of himself and his allies against nearby enemies. I really don’t think a skill that can be mended to be negate its drawback or otherwise has a good application can be considered worst ever. As for Divine Retribution, it’s good when Azama wont do much damage to begin with. A tickle with a brass weapon or say half of a huge boss attack can mean a lot. It’s still weird and niche though, because Azama is only available on BR and RV which enemies are much weaker in. Also surprised you didn’t mention Saizo’s because he actively makes himself easier to kill the more damage he takes. Not that Saizo should be holding any line on the enemy phase to begin with but if you misplace him he can easily eat more shit than anticipated because he decided to blow himself up.

[@ryuuronin9852]

Gonna have to disagree on FE 4 having no bad Skills. There is one that was actively harmful to have most of the time: Accost. It activates based on Skill stat, causing another round of combat to play (both you and the enemy). The problem is its basically just the "more" skill: if you are at advantage you win more, if its a disadvantage fight (which you can be forced into often) you lose more. Not to mention since its percent based, you can't control when it happens, meaning sometimes you'll send him in to chip a boss, only for him to take more damage than you were accounting for, or you calculated he'd survive enemy phase, but surprise, he got knocked out from an extra round. The only good scenario is when you are able to hit when the opponent can't, so a melee fighting a bow unit at 1 range or vice versa at 2 range. Because then you just do more damage (like say Adept, or Pursuit do.... without the drawback), without risk. The problem: it works the same way if you can't hit the enemy! Enemy archer attacks and your Accost skill procs, congratulations, he's just doing more free damage on you! Pair that with the fact it does literally nothing in arenas, because of how they work, id say this is a largely bad Skill. It's kinda usable on bow units, because you're usually hiding them behind your Frontline anyways, but because of how many wide open plains are in the game, it's really easy for enemy cavalry to move around your Frontline when you don't have enough units early and attack the bow units in 1 range. Units with 1-2 range like Noish do a bit better, but it still has the problem of your opponent getting to hit you twice first if it procs in their phase; not to mention the Javelin is so crazy heavy it's not really a great weapon in that game. Then there's units stuck to 1 range like Beowulf, where it completely kneecaps him. In fact, he held the record for most deaths in my playthrough because of it; making me go back to save him so many times! His Ranger class is so good that once he promotes he can make up for it, but until that point he's just a load: a worse cavalier that keeps giving mages and bows extra rounds on him until he dies! Giving him the Skill was a mistake, and it's why I actively discourage pairing him with Lachesis like so many suggest: because you'll have the exact same problem with Diarmuid but he's starting at a much lower level, making it a longer trip to reach Ranger. Just go with Alec, Nihil is VERY useful in the late game when a bunch of bosses have access to Crit.

[@spiderdude2099]

Literally ALL they had to do was keep the “wont proc if the blow would have killed” part of the Bane skill.

[@chrisf.9595]

No but I saw that one vid OHKOing Xander with Azama's Divine Retribution, and it's the funniest shit I've ever seen

[@DarknessDpa]

To be technically fair, while still niche I still liked Lindharts skill because it does get use from me when moving him up to the next set of enemies and I probably only like it because i like passives that can be used unlimitedly over using a limited healing item.

[@armorbearer9702]

I agree with your list, but Arthur's personal skill may have more use. Arthur's low Luck is a huge problem for most classes Arthur can get into except 1, Knight. As we all know, the knight line focuses on high defense(20%) and HP(20%) growth rate. This builds well with Arthur's own defense(45%) and HP(50%) growths. Against nonmagical attacks, Arthur should be able to absorb the incoming damage even if they do manage to crit him. When he promotes to general, Arthur gets Wary Fighter and Pavise. Wary Fighter. Wary Fighter will ensure the opponent can only attack him once. Pavis will have a fairly good activation rate because of Arthur's excellent skill growth(55%). Arthur's third skill will be Gamble for max crit chance. The remaining two slots is user choice. Because the General class can obtain a B in axes, he can use the weapons you mentioned(5:11). This will make Arthur a formidable tank that has a high damage potential similar to Benny except higher crit chance. Arthur can obtain the knight class line with a Friendship Set with Benny or a Partner Set with Effie.

[@Xan4591]

I'm a little surprised Felix's skill (possibly Catherine's too) didn't show up. Combat in 3H usually assumes you've got a battalion equipped for extra stats. Sure, Felix gets +5 power (and Cath takes 5 less damage, I think) when they don't have battalions, but the loss of other stats just to use them doesn't seem worth it. At best, it's something to proc if their battalions run out.

[@plentyofpaper]

Underdog is quite potent. You can keep the criticism of it requiring a level 15 villager, for Awakening anyway (level 10 in Fates.) But +15 Hit and Avoid is no joke, especially in a game where you can just reset a promoted units level basically at will. As far as bad skills in FE4 and 5, there are some real stinkers. Misfortunate is... a tough skill to utilize. Arthur being exposed to crits is just an unavoidable reality, misfortunate or not. I found the most effective use for him was as a support attacking Berserker, utilizing a Tomahawk for safe ranged attacks, and Killer Axe when supporting adjacent units. Still, these aren't early game weapons, so it's a rough time until then. FE4: Charge: (Attack Speed-Enemy's Attack Speed+(HP/2))% of activating another round of combat. Only activates if character's HP is above 25 I think this is the only skill in the series that's truly detrimental on any unit. Randomly engaging in another round of combat is just a recipe for disaster. It helps that it won't activate if your HP is below 25, but it can still result in getting hit more often than you were expecting, meaning the unit will be at much higher risk than normal. FE5 made this non-random, it always activates if and only if the user has higher attack speed and HP than the opponent. It's still a double edged sword. It makes it so the unit will potentially get hit more often, and I personally tend to forget about it which screws me over. But it can legit be planned around and reliably used to the players advantage. FE4: Nihil: Nullifies sword skills and critical hits (and weapon effectiveness by proxy) It's a good skill in later games. But FE4 has extremely few enemies that have abilities this nullifies. I forget the number, but I think it's less than 5 for the entire game. FE5 skills were never really useless. They ranged from "mediocre perk" to "fantastic." Also, "Mercy" from Radiant Dawn was... a problem. It's only useful when attempting to catch wild Pokemon.

[@tsukinoakuma]

Maybe Bane could be put on a unit that has low Str/Mag, but high Spd/Dex? That way you proc Bane often with minimal chance of actually missing out on a kill.

[@laggalot1012]

Path of Radiance: Tempest. Boyd starts with it, and I believe one more character does as well. Doubles Biorhythm effects. Biorhythm is one of the Tellius games's most annoying mechanics to work with and Boyd is already inconsistent as is. Tempest hinders him more often than it helps him. Shade and Provoke are also interesting to look at for both games. They're not bad skills in concept, but NOBODY KNOWS HOW THEY WORK. They probably don't hurt to use, (heck, Provoke in early PoR on Shinon is actually kinda nice, since he's remarkably bulky that early on,) but you just can't rely on them much. Radiant Dawn: Mercy. If you know how this skill works, it needs no explanation. Making a unit completely incapable of killing is only good for feeding another unit, and nothing else, and makes your unit woefully inflexible.

[@waynemidnight7454]

Shout out to Izana's personal skill from Fates. I forget what it's called, but every enemy and ally within 2 spaces of him deals -2 Damage. Which would be okay for making your units a little tankier... but, there's 2 problems. 1, it effects your units too. 2, Izana joins your party so late that you've probably gotten a few units that are already tanky enough to the point where enemies dealing -2 damage to them isn't really a big deal. Sure, I guess it let's Izana live longer against enemies, and I think he has Miracle and Renewal too, but you'd be better off keeping him away from your units if they're about to fight...

[@sandwich1313]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Elincia’s Mercy skill

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Have you done a video on the best skills?

[@uncannydanny5682]

I think you forgot the earned skill Shadowgift, learned by Witches in Fates. I find it pretty useless because it's says that it gives the wielders the ability to use Dark Tomes whenever they use Tomes/Scrolls, yet the ONLY Dark Tome that's available is the Nosfuratu. Sure, it deals respectable damage and can restore HP by a certain amount, it cannot make you do follow-up attacks, criticals, and activate offensive skills. TBH, I find Moonlight a better option. Allso, the Strength stats of the Sages while wielding knives in Path of Radiance are pretty low, so I don't see why ANYONE reasonable would make them use those. -_-

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Witches also have a built-in Avoid bonus like Swordmasters do, so you're completely negating that bonus and then some, all for a very situational tome that can't double, crit or proc offensive skills. Sorcerers are slightly more durable, so they're a better fit for it anyway.