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Eirika ties with Seth for most number of chapters in the gaem, and she’s good in all of them. She’s one of your best attackers early on, featuring high Spd + Rapier + h4x Seth support + generally the highest non-Seth level, as the earliest joining unit.

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Then Ch. 10 comes, and with it comes Gerik. He’s supportless and on a lower level than Eirika. Weak. They have about the same Att and Def, while Gerik has more Hp, but Eirika has more Spd, more Res, way more Avo, and a h4xy Prf stabbing device.

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Then, before Ch9, you are asked to route split. Both our units would prefer Eirika route, but fact is that Ephraim route is taken 50% of the time (as no route is clearly superior). And this hurts Gerik a bit, but Eirika so much more. Gerik now loses 3 chapters (10-12) to gain levels and supports, but Eirika loses 6 (9-14). Seth, who would otherwise take Eirika will now be either have 2-3 support spaces filled with fail if they support Eirika, or rather turn to someone else. The others all come during the route split, so she can only start building them from the latter half of 15. Then Gerik comes into Scorched Sand with Tethys and probably one of Joshua/Ross, while Eirika either broke up a support chain or is supportless.

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What level are you using for Eirika? With A Seth, she barely reaches 15 base Atk at 20/0, and there's no other supporters for her around other than Innes and Tana, neither of which are ideal supporters for her (and Innes didn't even have stage time with her yet). Gerik has 14 Atk when he joins.

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Rapier gives her 22 Atk, but Gerik can use pretty much any sword he wants to thanks to his huge ass Con lead, for example with a Steel Sword he already ties said 20/0 Eirika, and if he uses Blade weapons he trumps her.

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I suppose Eirika wins offense against stuff Rapier helps against, but for her own safety that would be mostly horsies, because Armors always have WTA against her.

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And she wins against stuff with 10-14 AS. But Gerik wins against anything outside of that range, as when Eirika tries to match him in weapons, her Avo lead shrinks (Steel Sword, for example, costs her 5 AS and 10 Avo).

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But then Eirika levelcaps and becomes priority zero for killing things, so all she does is giving support bonuses. Gerik in the meantime gains supports, so he ties that, but he's also at a lower level than most of the team, so he gains more.

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In addition, Gerik can promote at any point he wants to. He could promote when he joins and act as a prepromote, or he can kill stuff unpromoted and then digivolve when the time is right. He also has a choice what to promote to, and gain either hAxes or horse + bOwns.

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Of course, Eirika's Sieglinde in endgame is pretty bad news for Gerik, but Gerik can also use Audhulma by then. He shares it with uh...Joshua and Marisa, I guess? Both of these would also give him support bonuses, so he's fine with them being in play, and they can pass it along to each other and each get their share. Or when they're not in play, it's as much his as Sieglinde is hers. Everyone else who can weild swords will stick to lances or axes, simply because those have more Mt and much more convenient ranged attack (speaking of which, Hand Axe or Bows >>> whatever Eirika has for ranged)

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plus there's Devil Axe for super fast hAxe EXP (which Hero Gerik can use as well, so that he has potential to S either axes or swords).

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Eirika’s got a pretty large head start on Eir Route anyway, so all this does is somewhat equalize things, rather than handing advantages over to Gerik. Eirika rejoins and they’re on about the same level, instead of Gerik joining and Eirika being considerably higher. Except that, now Gerik’s been around for 2 chapters already, but was performing below average in those chapters (pretty far behind most others on levels, no supports, etc), while Eirika still has her superior earlygame performance to back her up. So overall, it’s not going to come out to be much different.

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And no, Seth still supports Eirika. His next best option for an A is Franz, but Eirika support is considerably faster than Franz support, so it’s helping him more before Eirika leaves after Ch. 8. Then Franz is more helpful for 8-14, and then Eirika rejoins, and they’re the same for the last leg of the gaem.

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The difference which swings it in Eirika’s favor is the fact that she probably won’t be able to get full supports if she is denied Seth, whereas Franz has Forde, Gilliam and Natasha to pick from, on top of the fact that Seth still has room for a B with him. Switching Franz over to an alternative > leaving Eirika with an empty slot, especially when the alternative wants Franz over its own alternatives, as is possible with all 3 of them.

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Also, while you’re right in saying that Eph Route is played 50% of the time, this does not mean that Geirk and Eirika are used on Eph Route 50% of the time that they’re played. The fact that both of them are substantially worse on Eph Route makes them considerably less likely to be played in the first place when it is taken; you’ll see Eir Route Gerik/Eirika’s much more often than their Eph Route counterparts.

Thus, their Eir Route versions retain more weight, and whichever one wins there, probably wins overall, unless the other one was winning by a far larger amount in the Eph Route minority scenario, but obviously, that isn’t the case.

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You missed Forde, whom I was giving her a C support with.

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Tana is the same thing, just 1 chapter later.

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They’ve got about the same base Att, but Eirika has a 5 point Spd lead, vs Gerik’s 8 point Con lead. Ofcourse, as always, Spd > Con. W/ Steel Sword they have about the same Att and AS, but then Eirika can switch to Iron, Killer or Rapier to double fast things, while Gerik can’t. Both are going to kill a 30 Hp/5 Def/8 Spd Fighter, but only Eirika can kill a 30 Hp/5 Def/12 Spd Mercenary.

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Blades are little help to Gerik. The only things they would actually make a difference against, are the same things that the Rapier is effective against.

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They have WTA over Gerik too, so I don’t see your point. Both face WTD, but Eirika’s better at killing them, so she wins.

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It shrinks, but it hardly disappears, so I don’t know why you conclude that she’s suddenly losing. Her Avo lead is still about twice as large as Gerik’s Hp lead, and she also has 0.5 more Def, and 4-5 more Res.

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A levelcapped Eirika with superior combat abilities is still better than a noncapped Gerik, in the same way that Seth is still your best unit in the earlygame, despite having by far the lowest Exp gains.

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Gerik does indeed gain supports, but the bonuses he’s reciprocating to Tethys are largely worthless; obviously she can’t attack, and she’s probably taking the fewest attacks out of any unit you have, and no matter how tanky she gets, you want it to stay that way, since she can’t counter anyway.

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Gerik’s also potentially making Ross/Joshua worse if he has to go with them, since they have considerably better options which they could’ve taken instead of Gerik, had Gerik not been played. If that’s the case, then the bonuses he reciprocates to them are cancelled by the fact that they could’ve gotten even better bonuses had he not been played.

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So Gerik gains support bonuses himself, but those bonuses are inconstant, and can’t always be there. Normally this is cancelled by the advantage of the support stats given to other units, but in this case, Gerik lacks that advantage. So just how much are his supports rly helping him? Well, less than Eirika’s are helping her, forsure.

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This makes him better instantly, but makes his growth slow down alot; he’s better ATM but worse later. Overall, it’s not helping him.

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You forgot Colm and Seth, and any GKs who manage to S Rank Swords. Gerik has ample competition for the Audhulma, and what’s better, three of its other potential users (Colm/Joshua/Marisa) suffer from low Att, and are going to want all 30 of its uses if they can get their hands on it. Thus, anytime Gerik kills anything with the Audhulma, he’s depriving another unit of those same charges of it, and it’s no net advantage to him.

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and the Rapier probably gets Hammerne’d.

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That’s pretty lol. Even assuming the chance of backfire is as low as 10%, 21 Gerik doubling a 10 Def/20 Avo/5 CEV enemy w/ the Devil Axe, has about a 5% chance of critting and suiciding. Since the Devil Axe has 20 uses, then if Gerik uses all 20, this would mean that he will, on average, suicide atleast once in the process of expending those 20 charges. So if you do that, then let me get a party ready to throw for Eirika, since you're pretty much solidifying her durability w1n.

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Again, level doesn't matter for performances. Level has no effect on gameplay whatsoever except that the more you have, the less EXP you gain, and you're closer to capping. That's no real advantage whatsoever.

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What it does do is give the player incentive to kill things using Gerik. Against a lot of enemies, this being FE8, Gerik is performing about as well as your other units, like all these weakess Steel Lance Pegs in this chapter. So if you have a choice between Gerik killing and another unit killing, there's two reasons for Gerik to kill, and one for others (they both kill the threat of the enemy, but Gerik killing adds more EXP, thus more stats).

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Of course, you would throw the Seth/Titania case at me, where it seems I'm penalizing other units twice for gaining less EXP. Except this is not Gerik vs those other units, it's Gerik vs Eirika. Indeed, it's good for those other units that they can afford to give Gerik more kills if that means more efficient use of EXP, but it doesn't help Eirika's case any.

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Then, if there was any disadvantage to Gerik having priority at all, there's another reason: healers. At this point, your main team must be running miles ahead of friend Moulder/Natasha, due to the game being pretty much at its easiest. Often *chink* can be heard, if your units in question do not dodge in the first place, which means these two have little to heal. You could provide them with healing by intentionally leaving others away from support partners or forcing WTD, but that is horribly inefficient. Gerik does no such thing, he's still good, and provides healing opportunity.

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As if Seth cares which of the two Light affinities he's getting earlygame. He's immortal, and if he's fighting, he's probably a good mile away from the group abusing his 8 movement. Therefore, earlygame has no significance on this at all. Midgame does, however, since Seth already loses a bit of steam there.

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So, since Eirika needs Seth more, she is getting him? That's an advantage to her? Nope. That's no excuse for leaving Seth's other potential partners such as Cormag and Garcia out of the loop.

When you're taking Ephraim route, Seth wants A Franz/B random not named Eirika. It's his best option, it's better for said random not named Eirika, and it's better for Franz. That >>>>> being better for the unit you are defending in this debate + being better for Seth for a few earlygame chapters where he's immortal. And yes, since Seth has the desired Anima affinity, others do want him.

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Nah, this debate is about the sum of their worth on both routes, and both routes are given equal weight in general. The fact that they are worse on those routes is irrelevant for that. What you said would be viable if we were considering Eirika's or Gerik's worth as support partners for other units, but this debate is about Eirika and Gerik's debate themselves, so they have to be assumed in use. And since 50% of the time we are going Ephraim route, this debate is 50% about that.

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It's a rather huge presumption that Forde is in use and supporting Eirika. She's her second slowest support, only beating Vanessa. One of his favourite supporters, Franz, a God tier, shares the Knight Crest promotion with him, and then Kyle is another desired supporter for Forde since they share 5x together and it's his fastest support. Even more likely are they to take each other on Eirika route, where Ephraim (their next fastest option) is no option for them.

Overall, it takes a lot of likely circumstances not to happen in order for Eirika to get Forde in her support list.

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More like two chapters later. She's there in Ch9, but to save all the houses she and Vanessa need to take off in different directions right away, and Eirika has no wings to follow suit. And Tana's general flierness is going to hinder the support from building and sticking throughout the game, even moreso than Seth's horse is. Or Forde's.

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So overall, in Gerik vs Eirika comparisons on Eirika route, assuming Eirika is fully supported is a stretch. Their Atk tie solely stems from that though - if Eirika's supporters give her the slip, then Gerik suddendly wins Atk...

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Maybe if the leads were exactly the same (i.e. 5 con vs 5 spd), but in this case it's 8 con vs 5 spd, so it's about even.

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And it's growing smaller due to Eirika's level cap, and the Atk lead by a lot when Gerik builds supports while those leave Eirika for asskicking.

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Also, Fighters usually have more HP than that.

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Nah, they help against anything in the window that neither or both doubles. That's definitely not only Knights and mounties.

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Both are suddendly facing likely odds to get hit, over the 50% hit treshold, so Eirika's Avo lead is no longer helping her taking no damage. Instead, Gerik's concrete durability wins. So now it's just "better at killing" vs "better at living". Then Gerik can use Armorslayer to kill, but Eirika has nothing to save her from defending worse, so she loses.

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Seeing as Avo and Res were all Eirika had on the defensive versus a solid 6HP, that's pretty painful for her case.

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That's because Seth is immortal and unbeatable, which overrides having worse EXP gains by far. Raping everything + gaining little EXP > doing average and gaining average EXP. At this point though, Gerik is about as good as Eirika if not better, and will only get better, and Eirika is nowhere near unbeatable and has even lower EXP gains than earlygame Seth. Indeed, she loses.

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What are you talking about? Tethys definitely wants supports badly. Lots and lots of the time, your units are equipped with 1-range weapons (Gerik and Eirika themselves have little choice on this before promoting), so anything 2-range is gonna go uncountered a lot to begin with. This means that Tethys is equally well off as others in that regard. Then there's quite a few ballistae in Eirika route, such as in 10 and 13, and a few status staves in the same chapters. Tethys pretty much relies on the Avo she has to survive, so the more she has the better. It allows her to move closer to the fray and thus to dance more and help more. In 14, for example, you're packed tight in the castle and there's quite a few Longbows out there, so there's no way to counterattack those without losing a lot of efficiency, so Tethys support is awesome.

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All of Joshua's options except lolL'Arachel are Ice affinity, which means crap Wind/Ice bonuses (full Hit and Crt Avo is exactly what he does not want). Gerik at least gives him full Crt, which is EXACTLY what the Swordmaster wants. So he's worse off during the chapters he has bonuses with those before Gerik joins, but once the C kicks in, he's grateful that Gerik is there to support him and give him what he needs.

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For Ross, both Amelia and Ewan are terrible and not likely in play, so he's already relying on both of his 2 other partners to be in play to get a full list at all. Lute is very likely to be in play, less likely to want him (Vanessa gives Anima/Anima lesbian peggasex, Arthur is her fastest, and Lute definitely wants Def + Avo over Avo + more offense from Ross without the Def).

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Garcia is middle ground to begin with, since he is one of these few people who fail to double lategame, and then his list is jampacked with other units to support him, so he doesn't mind Ross gone much, even if it's his favourite.

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Nope, "can't always be there" works against Eirika moreso than Gerik, as outlined.

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Colm is a thievery man. Anytime he's off thieving (like in 16 and 19), he's not gonna take Audhulma with him, so he'll be out of that.

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Seth is as likely to have S lances as S swords - he uses swords more early on, but most of the game he's using lances for more power, and then he only has Javelin for ranged, so lances is much more likely. For the Great Knights, that goes even more due to their access to Hand Axes AND Javelins.

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So Gerik takes away Audhulma uses from others, but Rapier gets reparation with no drawbacks at all, despite the fact that each of its 3 unique uses could be used on a good 5-6 other S-rank weapons as well as Ephraim's Reginleif, Brave weapons, Warp staff? Double standard much. So nothx to lategame Rapier.

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Anyway, Atk/Spd leads really don't mean anything lategame when both Audhulma and Sieglinde rape everything. Faster shit like Gwilfilgigysfs get OHKOed, slower stuff like Baels get doubled by both Gerik and Eirika (Gerik has a better shot at OHKOing middle ground monsters though, and can use bows on Draco Zombies, so he edges out).

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Yeah, the thing is, Devil Axe Gerik doesn't double. Or if he does, he can carry someone around, and he doubles nor hits nor crits.

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It's an existant option, that only needs to last for a few turns to build up considerable axe level. Often enough he can do it without hurting efficiency at all. That + exclusivity of Nidhogg washes away any kind of S-rank lead Eirika has with Prf Sieglinde vs Audhulma/Garm/Nidhogg.

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Maybe you’re about to complain that 18 is too high, and that those units won’t be on those levels. In that case you’d do well to remember that your own opener pegged Eirika at 16 during Ch. 10, so I think raising the party average by 2 levels over the next 3 chapters, assuming *less* than one level per chapter, is perfectly fair. If anything I’m using a softer standard than you yourself were going by. Unless you’re about to turn around, eat your own words, and say that your opener was a typo, and you rly meant to make Eirika L10 or something.

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lol, you can’t turn the fact that a unit takes more damage into an advantage, though this is a valiant attempt at it. But without even discussing that, consider that Natasha/Moulder are easily L10 by Ch. 13, so if they’re having trouble finding things to heal, just go ahead and promote them and let them raep shit along with everyone else. There goes that argument. No need to use a crappy unit like Gerik so that they’ll have something to heal.

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Nah, Seth can get one of those houses easily.

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Tana’s mobility is if anything aiding the support’s speed. I can’t think of anymore instances after Ch. 9 in which flying far away from the main group is necessary at all

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Eirika’s getting A Seth without question. All she needs is a B support after that, and she’s got Tana, Forde, Innes and Saleh all lined up for that. Between those 4 there’s no problems at all with finding her a B.

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Those others you named have other options that they’d want more except Kyle, so if it comes down to it they’re just switching over to others rather than leaving Eirika with an empty slot

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The difference which swings it in Eirika’s favor is the fact that she probably won’t be able to get full supports if she is denied Seth

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Um, talking about 2 range doesn’t make a convincing case for Tethys needing defensive supports. The fact that you have numerous others who can’t counter 2 range makes it more likely that the 2 range enemies will target them over Tethys.

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2. She can often remain 3-4 spaces back away from the rest of the group on the enemy phase and still be just as useful useful.

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3. The player will actively do his best to prevent her from getting attacked, whereas he wants fighters to be attacked providing they have the qualifications to turn those attacks into more dead enemies.

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1. No, Crit is still not impressive at all. Att is still more important than Crit.

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Lute definitely doesn’t care about switching from B Vanessa to B Ross. -1 Def, ohnoez.

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Garcia’s above middle ground with Ross in the picture, since Ross provides him with superior supports.
*numbers*
Ross and Garcia both boost each other’s worth significantly when played together, so when they’re played at all, that’s more often than not the case.

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All that other stuff except the Reginleif is obtained very late by comparison to the Rapier, which is there from the Prologue onwards, so it’s all still going to be in good shape while the Rapier is close to breaking. Therefore it’s the Rapier which needs a Hammerne more.

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Then again, you do get a second Rapier in Ch. 9, so it might not need a Hammerne after all.

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Audhulma rapes everything, sure, but again, it’s doubtful that it’s Gerik who’ll be using it, while it’s certain that it’ll be Eirika wielding the Sieglinde, so Eirika has the advantage there.

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So now you want Gerik to be not killing things in order to boost his Axe rank? Even more offensive w1n for Eirika, yaye. That easily cancels out any gains he might get from using Garm later.

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“Nor hits nor crits?” You do realize that you don’t even build WEXP for a miss, so Gerik missing with the Devil Axe is just a complete waste of a turn, right?

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And even not doubling, that makes it so that Gerik has an average 50% chance of suiciding atleast once, instead of the average guarantee that he had before. That’s better, but still extremely lol (I repeat, 50% chance that Gerik kills himself).

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There’s not any kind of Devil Bow that Gerik can use to spam up to S Bows, and if he uses Bows exclusively in order to not S Swords, he turns into a Sniper, and we all know the problems associated with that. So lol @ him using Nidhogg.