The question here is straightforward. I'm not entirely convinced if it's worth it due to the fact that they need buffs anyway, so the increased stats, wouldn't really count that much apart from those couple of points of spd and atk. The investment wouldn't come towards my arena core, so it would be more of an arena assault/PvE content failsafe.
The mage in question is Tharja, because I'm starting a new +10 cycle which begins with the red color (my first red was Soleil). Since I wanted something that's not a sword, I thought that a mage would be a nice addition. Is Tharja the only thing there or are there any other red mages worth +10?
If it's not going towards your arena core then don't bother, spend the feathers elsewhere. Of course bladetome mages can benefit from extra stats just like everyone else, but practically speaking you're only gonna bring her out to nuke some green unit in arena assault, so it's not necessary. If you wanted to +10 a non sword red unit, just do A!Tiki.
Well, I say it's worth it if you like the unit. If you have no emotion attachment to the unit, then use them for a bit. If you like how they perform, then I say to go ahead. Aside from Arena, max merging a unit, in my opinion, is more of a personal achievement rather than a must have, and even then it's not even a must have for a lot of units.
Bladetome units would appreciate the merges anyway considering merging a unit adds extra speed, which is always nice.
I second this with the same point I always repeat about 5*+10 merges: it's so many feathers, so much time, that the most important consideration becomes your love for the unit and your enjoyment of how he/she plays on the field.
I agree somewhat with your reservation and others' points, though - I hear often that Nino doesn't need +10 to be highly effective because it's all about the buffs, so the same would apply to a red blade mage. Must your next project be a red? A second sword isn't a bad thing - if your first was highly aggressive (ex: Soleil), then maybe Marth or Eirika, and vice versa - consider Hana or Soleil if your first was a support-oriented unit.
Yeah, I guess you are right about that. It's just that I set myself on a color based merging cycle, but after finishing the core team of my favorite and bst efficient units, I kind of lost inspiration.
Maybe it's even time to leave the color based (and logical from a power level standpoint) cycle that I set up and just go for something stupid, like raising Eliwood (who I remember being a god from my childhood) to his maximum potential. Someone like Ares will always be stronger than him, but Eliwood is just too big of a badass.
The thing with red mages is that well.... they're not that good.
There are better green mages, like Nino who can make use of blade time better and have enough magical bulk to survive and proc desperation, unlike tharja whose stat spread is kinda weird. She has more defence than resistance, not the best spread.
If you're looking for a free to play accessible +10 infantry Mage, then Nino should be your best choice.
As someone who is trying to +10 a blade mage (Nino) now, there are a lot of good reasons to. For me the most compelling reasons are that I can't pull my favorite characters or any other copies of my arena core. After saving 180k feathers, why not work on a speedy desperation mage that can do 60 dmg per hit even against triangle advantage?
On top of that I really like bladetome mages. Tharja was my first and I used her a lot in my early arena days. They suit my playstyle so the reasons NOT to invest in Nino became less and less.
But if you want to use it for AA or PVE, no, you don't have to +10 5* a bladetome. You can easily get about +20 damage on them per round so investing feathers at that point is either overkill or a non optimal use of time/resources. For those game modes it's very easy to just build your team to counter the map and if you have 3 merge projects done already I doubt you're having trouble with PVE content to the point where you need a 60-90 damage nuke.
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