So, I was going through my barracks color coding my units with the new favorites system when I got to Exalted Chrom. I pulled up his page on here 'cause I didn't remember what IVs mine had off the top of my head. (He's +attack/-speed.)
The page made the mistake of saying his resistance was "beyond salvageable". So I did math. They're absolutely wrong and Exalted Chrom is completely insane.
Assuming neutral (17) res:
+3 from Fury makes 20
+6 from Fortify Cavalry in horse emblem or Res Tactic in a mixed team makes 26
+5 from Sealed Falchion makes 31
If he's +10, that goes up to 35.
If he has an ally support, that goes to 32/33 if +0 and 36/37 when +10.
If it's wind season, he has the blessing, and Gunnthra is on his team, that's another +4!
And if you decide to summoner support him, that's another +2!
Fortify buffs, wind blessing, and an active Sealed Falchion bring base kit +0 neutral res Chrom to 35 res without ally support. +10 is 39 res without ally support.
With full ally and summoner support, he can come to 39 res at +0 and 43 res at +10!
Adding Drive Res (+3) or Ward Cavalry (+4) can bring him even more res! And if you're in horse emblem, you still have two open c slots for Wards, so you can have +8.
And if you really want, you can toss a Res +3 seal on him!
Absolute max with neutral res/base kit/res seal/active sealed falchion/fully buffed, a +10 Exalted Chrom comes to a whopping 39 visible res and 54 in combat. At +0, he comes to 35 visible, 50 in combat.
For a res bane, just subtract 4 from that dang superbane.
If he's ever a bonus unit again, it can go even higher, too, with that bonus giving another +4. Didn't count that in the math because who knows when that will happen.
In conclusion, Exalted Chrom can get some pretty crazy stats and buffs fix everything. Whatever boon and bane you get on him, he can be really, really usable.
You can make the same argument for any unit. If you go +10 with complete buff support, any weak stat can be fixed.
The question is how much do you get out of your investment? How much do you need to sacrifice in other stats to bolster that weak stat?
In most cases it's just not worth it even if it's theoretically possible.
True, but in this instance, we're basically not investing anything. Even just base kit +0, he's likely to be on a horse emblem team, so fortify is a reasonable assumption for one of his allies to have.
Gunnthra, being one of two cavalry units with blessings so far and having a degree of base kit synergy with Exalted Chrom, would be reasonable to place on the same team, so her wind blessing is also a reasonable investment.
His default Sealed Falchion is already really good and he is likely to activate its effect.
Fury is his default a skill and pairs well with his weapon, keeping it active.
That's already more than double his original stat and puts him at a very solid 35.
The only investment here is having Fortify cavalry on his team, having a Gunnthra, and using her blessing on Chrom.
That's my point.
Chrom can get very usable stats very quickly. Resistance was just my example, as his lowest base stat. All of his stats can get to similarly fantastic levels.
And more resistance means he can fight dragons more easily with his Sealed Falchion if they happen to hit him, if nothing else.
Don't dwell so much into the word "beyond salvageable". Any stats from any unit can be salvaged with +10 and buffs, the problem is that about half of the res, as you proposed, is not from chrom himself, many units with "salvageable" res would be able to go way further than chrom in similarly easy set up. And I am sure that gamepress just wanted to contrast out the stats in the context of optimum IV. Whether you got bane in res or not you can still salvage it in this way.
No unit, with the exception of true solo challenges, will ever exist in a vacuum. Assuming he is on a four unit team is reasonable. Any team that doesn't support each other to some degree probably shouldn't be a team. And horse emblem is a very common team type.
But alright, even just by himself, base kit, +0, no seals, he still gets +8 res from fury and the Sealed Falchion. That's still a very usable, if underwhelming, 25 res.
This wasn't a "buffs fix everything for every unit" post, it was a "Exalted Chrom can easily get lots of stats to the point where his worst stat can actually be a good stat really easily" post.
And that's why I also gave the numbers for +0 in the post. +0 is still ridiculous. +10 is just even more so. It's also why I gave totals for the less investment before I tried to go nuts with Wards and such, so people could see just how easy it would be to get decent stats before I tried to max out his res to a degree he definitely doesn't need.
Actually, you are right, with that res with just a bit of support, he can fight and take one hit to double dragons reliably when below 100% hp. It is not even hard to reach that. In the context of IV as well, it should be considered in this way because not many unit can pull it off and has the need for it like chrom. It's just that when you went to mention +10, ally/summoner supports, arena/TT bonus etc, my brain switched into thinking "damn that's quite a stretch". My bad.
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