GamePress

Do Archers Suck?

Why do archers always have low tiers on this site? What makes them unfavorable units? I hover between 16 and 17 in arena so my competitive understanding of this game is limited.

Asked by PantsWizard3 months 1 week ago

Report

Answers

Just because they're placed low in order of tiers doesn't mean that they're bad. People favour some underwhelming units and turn them into crazy/tanky units, like:
Klein
Gordin
Leon
Setsuna

All these units listed above possess certain traits that make them very unique. Setsuna is a speedy unit that can quad very easily, but requires premium/expensive skills. Leon/Gordin are units that can tank a lot of physical damage and can be dangerous with an Ignis bomb. Klein is more of a mage tank.

Ive recently seen a Gordin with +45 Def before Buffs, I feared for my life...

Do you think I could build a +atk -hp Nina to quad like Setsuna?

Well no not really. Setsuna is easily accessible as she is in the normal summoning pool and for her to work properly, she needs to be +10 merged. Nina would be a great option, but she's in the 5* pool which indicates that you'll need some merges to make Nina work properly. Nina does have Spd, its just that she needs Brave bow and Merges and premium skills.

Setsuna builds I see are run like this:
Brave Bow,
Swift Sparrow/LnD,
desperation,
Odd Atk Wave
Flashing Blade seal

There's one detail that lets Nina to turn the tables without merges.

Our OP has one of the absolute ideal IVs to use this build:
Brave bow
Fury!
Desperation
Spd ploy!!
Def ploy or flashing blade

And there you are. If you can't quad with 35 spd, ploy them. If 35 with a ploy isn't enough, Setsuna+10 would probably need +spd to quad, at which point you might be suffering some atk issues that even Nina can potentially circumvent using def ploy.

Archers are still very potent ranged units, but the armor meta prevents them from reaching their full potential. Being a speedy archer doesn't really help if your attacks do nothing against a physical wall, especially if they can counterattack.

The three distinct archers I would consider meta-defining would be Bride Cordelia due to her high offense, Brave Lyn due her movement and ability to negate DC, and WF! Hinoka due to her unparalleled mobility and Warrior Princess.

So first off, no they don't suck. B!Lyn was meta-defining from pretty much her first appearance to not all that long ago. However, they do have a couple drawbacks. First, they are ranged so they have lowered BST. Secondly, most units favor defense as their preferred defensive stat, so they have a harder time than mages do. So that's why they are lower on the tier lists, usually. But no, they don't suck, they can be absolutely amazing.

Well, first off; Don't take the tiers too seriously.
While they are vaugely right, there are often problems with them, and a low tier unit is ofter very capable of taking on a high tier one, if you build/use them well.

But in general there are two things that mages have better.
The first is that most melee enemies, who are prime targets for 2 range units, have higher def than res. So mages do more damage

The second reason is because there aren't many archers with great unique weapons. While they do have good weapons like the Brave Bow and Firesweep bow, they often fall a bit short.

We need more strong unique bows, and a refinement for Nidhogg.

No, they're all good. Ask me about any one of them.

It is very important to understand that the tier list is an arena offense tier list, which means arena scoring weighs heavily into a unit's tier placement. Archers other than H.Jakob have low BST, which means they cannot help but score lower, which gets them placed lower on the tier list. They are highly potent combatants and wielders of the only ranged brave weapon aside from Dire Thunder.