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What would she kill herself with? Her hair? Plus, Ninian would obviously feel sorry for everyone if she killed herself...poor soul...

Hey, give her a break, she's tired all game long.

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Key word: if. That is like saying: if both Lucius and Oswin can survive a horde of enemies, it doesn't matter if the latter has a couple more points in defenses, etc.

Thing is, Raven and Kent DO have better offense than Erk, and by writing your paragraph you basically implied that these situations exist (I daresay there's quite a few of them - Cog of Destiny or Genesis anyone?). Focusing on the tie does not negate the win.

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And Raven and Kent do better against pretty much everything else, and both can also use effective weapons to rid of Armors.

Also, Erk does not necessarily add enemy phase attacking to the team. I could already do it without him. It's not a unique trait of his. Assuming a team of 10 combat units, he just adds like 10% of that benefit. However, there is only one best unit per phase, and Ninian multiplies that "best" by two.

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No, Erk hardly ever has the best possible action. His offense is worse than top tier units, and he heals less HP with a lower staff level than pretty much everyone else, including but not limited to Priscilla and Pent. He is never the best.

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Eh? So if people focus 100% on one job, they do not need any assistance? You realize such logic implies that Erk needs more assistance than, say, Raven, since Erk does two jobs and Raven only one?

Ninian allows a thief to steal and back off the same turn, or to end a player phase outside an enemy's range, to be able to steal next turn without having to crawl into range first. That's pretty cool, since if a thief were to be attacked, his counterattack would be pretty balls, and often hurt EXP rank due to being at 20/0.

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Good thing that there is simply no need, no incentive for Ninian ever to get attacked. And yes, there is combat, which is important, but it hardly helps Erk, since without him I could still do combat perfectly fine. Adding Erk merely adds another combat unit, adding Ninian adds the best possible player phase action. I could do the former with a lot of units, and it doesn't add much if any at all to begin with, but the latter obviously always results in a significant improvement.

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What you stated has little to do with what you quoted anyway:

It should also be noted that Ninian increases people's mobility, something that Erk cannot simulate at all. She can dance for people who have been dropped after rescuing, or simply dance after they already moved and did something. She can make Hector seize a turn earlier, making the chapter a turn shorter.

Basically, Ninian has potential to give normal people up to 6 mov extra, so 12 mov total. That's pretty damn amazing.

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Yes, Ninian does add more experience. I even outlined it in the very piece you quoted: EXP you would not have gotten otherwise. Anything Erk kills on whatever phase can be killed by about anyone, and I would have gotten the EXP. Anytime Erk heals someone, I could have done it with another healer, and I would have gotten the EXP (this one does not apply always such as with combat, but very often it does). However, even if Ninian's dance does nothing at all for any other aspect of the team, it adds 10 EXP, and no one else could have gotten me that piece of EXP.

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Matt was merely an example that showed that a unit that has relatively few Atk can become an attacking monster if needbe. Adding more Atk is adding more offense. Saying attack->dance->attack is better downplays the value of Fila's Might, but it makes the normal dancing better, so it doesn't take away from Ninian's value overall. What you conveniently don't mention is that adding more Atk means less rounds of combat and therefore less counterattacks (so it adds defense too), and it uses up less weapon uses (so you get more out of your expensive/rare weaponry). It may seem little to you, but all of it is stuff that Erk has nothing to say against.

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If we didn't care at all, we wouldn't have Dart and Farina at the bottom of tier lists, we wouldn't be bitching as much about Lyn and Eliwood's Heaven Seals, and we would just be assuming higher end weapons all the time rather than most of the time.

The truth is, funds became easy, but not a guarantee five star category such as Combat. Ninian adding a good 30k to that overall cannot be shrugged off as "lol funds is easy". You also forget that funds is interchangable: the more funds you have leftover, the more you can trade in for better weapons to better tactics, or for better staves to better durability and EXP, or for an Earth Seal so that we can use four Knight Cresters.

Every bit you have leftover can be used to your advantage in another area, and Ninian gives you quite a chunk of it.

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Archers need to go near enemies to do what they need to: attack. Enemies are seldomly on their own, so the use of an archer during a turn basically implies that you will need people surrounding them in order to not lose effiency. Ninian can dance or ring PCs from a lot more spaces, since PCs are at your disposal, while enemies are AI-controled.

Archers have more mov? Rath does, but Rebecca and Wil only have more once they have promoted. But it's completely nill compared to the flexibility advantage for Ninian I just gave.

Uh, Ninian's dances add flexibility to your frontline for more good than her own. There will rarely if ever be a case where her dance is just there to protect herself, and if there is, it's still a net positive for her overall since she still added to EXP rank and gave someone an extra action (that could have been killing the last enemy with Ninian in range).

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Only if people use their full move all the time and leave Ninian behind on purpose, but as I said, the benefit of Ninian dancing is so great that it's better to stay near Ninian for it. It more than cancels out LOL USIN ALL MA MOVE. She can also dance for people in small support triangles/chains so that they can advance faster, then keep assisting a slower group after that.

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Also, if Ninian's mov is really a problem, you can give her the Boots.

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His joing time advantage is countered by the fact that Erk is using up EXP (and therefore levels and stats) that others could have gotten, even in Lyn Mode. Had I not used Erk, everyone else would have been stronger. And he's also using tomes before the Silver Card even exists.

Best healer? Even if that mattered, he isn't. Both Priscilla and Serra are better units than Erk, and unless you give Erk beneficial treatment while denying them the same (for example, giving him a Guiding Ring earlier), then he's not surpassing them in any aspect really. He can use higher end tomes, but Serra and Priscilla can use much higher level staves, which add extra utility value and all. And then indeed Pent comes and makes him more obsolete, etc.

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Who cares, it's one chapter where all that matters is getting treasure and keeping enemies from killing you or getting the throne. The only thing you need to do to maximize your tactics benefit for that chapter is kill Denning before the chapter is over. Erk's contribution to this chapter is extremely minimal, considering you can field a ton of units, and they can all do pretty much the same thing.

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Priscilla and Serra both have a million other good units to support. Guy, Oswin, Raven and Sain all want a Priscilla support if they can have it, and all four of these have trouble getting full supports if Erk snags the space away. Lucius wants a Priscilla support as well if Serra isn't in play/is full. You might bring up that Erk gives Priscilla better bonuses or something (which hardly matters, because Priscilla isn't entering the fray at all before she promotes, and afterwards she'll still be healing), but the difference between Erk/Priscilla bonuses and other unit/Priscilla bonuses is much smaller than the difference between these other units not getting supports and them getting a Priscilla support.

For Pent, that only helps really late, and Canas (who has a decent shot at being in play, being lower High/upper Mid) wants to support him as well, so again it's not merely gain for Pent, since he would still often have a support were Erk not there.

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Ninian doesn't really care for supports since she doesn't fight. If you were arguing for someone like Lucius, who is giving Raven bonuses he otherwise wouldn't have, this point might matter, but Erk isn't helping his partners getting supports or bonuses, merely replacing others.