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All Light magic users end up with staves anyway. As long as you don't go into other tome magic users I don't care.

I'd say that usually there's a lot of crossover between light magic users and staff users, especially in GBA land where monks and clerics both class up into bishops. If Renault didn't come promoted I don't think he would be in the running for worst. He even comes with a divine tome as well as his fortify staff.

Best: I'm split on who to give best to. Part of me really wants to give it to Artur, since the slayer skill is awesome, and while Artur isn't the only one who can class up into a bishop, he's your only monk so he's a light magic user from the beginning and will probably reach the bishop class before any staff users if you use him well. Slayer makes light magic do effective damage against monsters, and in Sacred Stones, the last chunk of the game is pretty much all monsters. On the other hand, Sacred Stones' availability of legendary weapons knocks down slayer's uniqueness a bit. On the other other hand, Artur and Lucius are pretty similar in stats, with Artur being sturdier in HP, Def, and Res, while Lucius is speedier and more magical. Their averages have them both capping magic anyway. So I'd give the thumbs up to the one who can get slayer. I think I will give best to Artur.

Worst: Yeah, I'm voting for Dierdre. At least you get to use Renault as much as you can since you have him through endgame. He's also a decent healer if you need one at that point... which you probably won't, but still. It's written on the wall for Dierdre, the plot says it was never meant to be.

Best: I got a toss for this one. There is Lucius, Artur, and Linoan. Each have their good points on this! However, given availability and everything nice I will give it to Artur. He gets the choice of going to Bishop, though for me I choose to send him to Sage. I dunno I prefer that class over Bishop even though Slayer is a handy endgame skill. I always have Moulder for that.

Worst: Dierdre may not be the best for what she is around for, but you do get to use her a lot longer than Renault. So Renault, sorry for being a Bishop. But only a couple chapters to be used? Yeah...sorry but worst.

Alrighty then. Time for the hotly contested Light magic user huh?

Best: Alright immediate bias here. Artur. He is absolutely bonkers. His growths are great for a light magic user, and can promote into the mighty Bishop class. Which gains Slayer. And rapes about 99% of the game he's in. Does anything else REALLY need to be said?

Worst: Renault. I like Dierdre better. Why? If you think about it, she's REALLY similar to Micaiah. High magic, res, and I think she gets good Luck? Don't remember. She also comes with an HP stealing tome if memory serves. Either that or Aura..wait you can choose. Yeah I'd always choose Rezire, simply because she CAN survive a hit. And when she hits back, it's going to HURT. A lot. Renault can't do that. Sure he can tank a few hits, but his usefulness ends pretty much there. I admit that he's fairly useful as a late game staffbot should you need it(and with characters like Lucius and Serra, why are you needing him?). I won't deny that he can possibly be a cool unit, and he has some of the coolest backstory that could be explored in a REALLY awesome way but...As much as I love the guy, Dierdre beats him. And to respond to FD about Dierdre shitting all over Celice's starting stats: Maybe she does, but she makes up for it by giving Minor Narga, which along with Major Baldo blood, makes Celice into an absolute monster. Moreso than Sigurd in most cases. If memory serves, Narga gives Res, which a physical unit like Celice needs. At least till get gets Tyrfing. I do realize that magic users aren't the most common enemy, but when they show up, you'll love having that extra Res. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you derp. Ignore this. Vote as explained later is now Dierdre for worst. I thought Dierdre got Rezire. Turns out it's Julia! Reasons for Renault getting the thumbs up? Like FD said, he can actually take a hit. His magic may be crap but he's got good utility as a staffbot if nothing else. He's still pretty bad though. Dierdre needs to be babied though. She may hit like a truck as I mentioned, but unlike Micaiah who has other uses other than lolThanibomb, but other than that...she's kinda crap. Barring giving Celice minor Narga and res...I just can't find much good in her unit wise.

And this ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you don't do your homework.

Ok. I want to say how much I loved how this week went. This is what I want to see in topics on a week to week basis. We had ties for best and worst this week. This makes me so happy. PLEASE keep this up.

This weeks topic is: Dark Magic user

Salem's pretty good, actually. Wouldn't call him great, necessarily, but he hits really hard with Dark Magic (but conversely, isn't likely to double) and comes with a C rank in Staves, which is enough for Magic Up and Sleep. If you put in the effort, he can reach an A rank in staves, which is a big deal in FE5. He takes that effort to make particularly good though. FE5 is also the only other game in the series where Dark Magic users can use Anima magic as well.



Agreed. s**t will go DOWN if someone calls Niime worst.

Best: Tharja

Can we talk? Dark Magic got a face lift in Awakening. I usually don't find Dark Magic to be all too great in most FEs. It's heavy and gimmicky so often, weighing down a lot of the users more than you'd like. Last year I voted for Niime and it was largely due to her ability to use ranged staves and her weapon ranks so well rather than just potency with Dark Magic.

And then it became ******** amazing in Awakening. And weapon weight was no longer a thing. And Nosferatu was purchasable again for the first time since FE6. But on the world map instead of just certain maps.

Cue your first recruited Dark Mage in that game who has great growths in the stats you'd actually want them placed in: Magic, Speed, and Defense (best stat distribution on a Dark Magic user, basically; although Pelleas's spread is pretty good too - but a lot of other things mar him). Sounds like a dream. And then she starts with a Nosferatu tome on hand before they're purchasable to get you out of binds as necessary until you can buy it on the world map.

Perfect. ********. Storm.

The one stat that might seem shaky and important is Skill at first. And then you look at the Dark Mage skills: Hex and Anathema fix any problems she was having in that category quite nicely, and provide a free crit boost once enemies start having that 10 crit avoid removed, too.

Let's not get it twisted though: Tharja is a good unit on her own merits; her growth rates are distributed excellently, she has good availability, and gives good stat boosts in Pair Up to magic users and physical units alike (who's going to say no to Defense?). She might very well be the best Dark Magic user in the series on her personal merits alone. But what completely seals the deal for her is how insanely good Dark Magic itself is in Awakening. It heralded the return of sustainable Nosferatanking (something not around since FE4-6, and it was Light Magic for the Jugdral entries), but without reducing your speed and evasion from being heavy, better yet. And then it brought along some insane goodies like the free-crits tome, Ruin, purchasable brave magic, Waste, and the only siege tome in the game, Mire (but it can't be reliably bought, so we won't count Mire, really). And Dark Magic users can use regular magic too in this game? Hey look, now they can use triple-effective Wind Magic on enemy fliers to devastating effects just like normal magic users.

I love Henry to death, too, but he's substantially slower (enough for the difference to matter above Normal Mode) and has poorer availability (which means having to catch up on supports). Tharja wins it by a pretty substantial margin. You could argue Canas can pull off some interesting tricks with Luna, but it pales in comparison to being virtually un-killable for the entire game with Nosferatu and pulling just as many crazy stunts between Ruin, Waste, and possibly Mire.

No contest, as far as I can see. I could go on about why Tharja has this, but I think that's enough.

Worst: Sophia

Some things never change.

Best: I have to agree with Tharja and Rhys about Tharja. To be honest, whenever I use Dark Mages, I feel like they are the tank magic users compare to the rest of the magic users. And although Canas did really well, Tharja did better than him because her defense was good. Her resistance is good thanks to the Hex and Anathema that FD mentioned. As for the accuracy, if promoted to Dark Sorcerer, the Vengeance did help out the accuracy.

Worst: I haven't play FE6 to see how Sophia is, so I'm giving my vote to Knoll. Whenever I used him, he seems to be slow and made me feel like he's a knight disguised as a dark mage to me. sweatdrop His attack isn't quite good and his defense doesn't help him survive, even if you have other units to help him.