I would really appreciate people being more openmided when tierlist discourse happens since the community "opinion" has been wrong multiple times before lmao

Importance tier list is:
#1: Are they hot?
#2: Are they hotter than the other hot one?
#3: Are they that fucking hot?
#10: Statgrowth

Nice video. One thing that personally gets to me a lot is watching a tier list that tries to rank units under multiple different criteria. ex: "They don't do anything in LTCs, so they aren't that good." In a tier list that was never defined to have anything to do with LTCs to begin with. Personally, I rank units based on their investment/usefulness ratio, and how their respective tools effect their game. I find that doing an LTC character tier list is kind of redundant, as there is an objective way to get the lowest amount of turns possible (kind of like a giant mathematical puzzle). In contrast to Iron Mans, that have the interesting context of a single continuous playthrough, where anyone can be useful given the status of the run.

Availability, utility, access to that utility without a bunch of setup. Those are the big three in my eyes.

Great vid! One point I'd like to make in response to the common criticism that unit comparisons are elitist and/or contrived is that evaluating things is simply a fun and useful task in and of itself. Learning how to order your priorities and avoid logical fallacies is a very useful skill that WILL translate to your life (Do you buy a new or used car? Who do you vote for? Is it worth paying extra for delivery over pick up?). Obviously the specific criteria we apply to FE units don't really translate, but some of the pitfalls and logical fallacies can appear in a variety of evaluation contexts. Learning that not everything needs to be weighed equally and that sometimes you need to tell yourself hard truths (that FE unit/car that I think looks coolest is going to do a much poorer job helping me reach my goals than other options) are other examples of translating skills. Fire Emblem unit evaluation strikes a good sweet spot of being basically consequence-free, but complicated enough that you can actually learn some of these skills in a fun and safe environment.

Unicorn overlord is interesting with unit evaluation. For most units you just take class into account because you can adjust personal growths and class is like 90% of the stats anyway. But the community gives the Jagen equivalent his own tier because even though he falls off hard, he is required on expert mode for early maps.

I'd say scarcity also plays a role.
You could have a stat and growth wise good unit but if there are 5 other similar units who outclass the first one in their role(more or less slightly) then that would lessen the value of said unit.

I wish I had this video when I was a rabid teenager on message boards

I am personally interested in how the community at large sees availability affecting units, if you want to broach the topic in a later video.

I personally believe in only judging units from their performance on maps they exist in, because obviously factoring growths into the earlier recruits does not mean you have to penalize the later ones for not being there, considering they don't actually have any opportunity cost in their non-existence, but I know that thinking tends to get bashed a lot in the community.

The only objective answer is which unit is the best waifu.

tl;dr:
Are they Bartre?
If yes, unit good
Otherwise, unit bad

One thing I've been thinking about is an objective standard that would better align with what beginner players would want in a tier list. In that regards, I think an "elegance" tier list could funny. In this format, instead of evaluation turn count, we'd be evaluating the number of actions required.

Reliability is one reason I liked Timerra so much. Until Timerra joined the team, my FE:E ironman run was plagued with units getting sniped off from unlucky crits. Her aura changed everything.

Tier lists and unit evaluation are always going to be a big chunk of disscussions in the community, but the most important criteria is the most subjective between every player (and thus not likely to be discussed directly much since the framework is so varied): having fun. This is a game, after all! Some people enjoy the challenge of LTCs, some people enjoy the risks of ironman runs, some people enjoy unlocking supports, some people just want to dump all their bexp on fiona probably. We play these games and have these disscussions because we enjoy them, and that's more valuable than any unit's stats.

A thing I really liked doing in FE7 was maxxing lowen's fire affinity support with Rebecca's fire affinity allowing him to use his defences to reliably hold any choke point with his mounted movement, then letting an archer back him up as. I found it made for a strong quick deploy hold for flanks and off paths I want to push into

My general list for a unit goes

Can they take hits.

Are their growths worth giving them enemy kills.

Can they work support

Do they have a unique power to set them apart.

Are they a dancer unit

And so on. It's can make a bad unit valuable and a ok unit unneeded where I'd choose a dancer unit over a defensive one or give my healer extra chances to level up in the future expecting them to turn into a fighter

Though I'm glad they are trying to balance units out like dancer getting a weapon to defend themselves from olivia to the engage dancer but they are still squishy.

Same with early healers. Wish they would be early magic users not physical users as that would be perfect even if they have bad def stats

I think the reason efficiency is most common is because it's most similar to what you would expect from an average playthrough. A unit being good in efficiency is an extremely strong indication that most players can pick up that unit and have them perform well. Ironman or ltc or draft tier lists are cool, but ultimately only really pertain to those specific runs. Of course, they are still interesting to talk about and might also give us clues about efficiency or such, so they're absolutely still worth having.

the one that's fun to use. next question please

“The least valuable part of a tier list is the image itself” is a bar and a half.

A unit is good when they are Seth