Here are some debating tips from someone who's average at it. It may help you debate more goodly. : D I'm just giving some tips which might be handy in the future.

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Understanding Tier Lists
I'm going to explain the concept and meaning of tiers. Tier lists are a ranking system of Fire Emblem characters in the order of usefulness.

For FE7, this will mean that the character's stats and supports, join time, utility value, and how they affect ranks will be considered when they are ordered. Debater's tier lists you can trust includes those by Inui and Reikken, for example.

Comprehension of tiers:

• Top tier - The characters there are obviously the best in the game. Therefore, they will always be assumed to be a part of your team. However, you cannot use this argument in a debate because circular logic phails.

• High tier - Again, these characters are among the best in the game. However, they may or may not be fielded as the number of units you can use are limited.

• Mid tier - These units are generally good, however, they usually have noticeable faults which prevent them from being a high tier unit. From this tier on, a character's place in your roster is never guaranteed and you should never assume them to be fielded for supports.

• Low tier - Units in this tier have numerous faults and are generally hard to use on the map. They usually have low offense and/or low durability, which hampers their usefulness.

• Bottom tier - The lowest of the low. Usually units in this tier have little to no good points and will sometimes even worsen your team just by recruiting them (eg Wallace and Karla).

And when I mentioned circular logic, this is an example:

"Raven is better than Bartre. Why?
Raven gets used more often than Bartre. And why is that?
Raven's in a higher tier than Bartre. And the reason for that is because:
Raven is better than Bartre."

So, never bring in your's and your opponent's unit tier placement in a debate. However, this tier list comprehension's purpose is to help you choose your units and your units support partners.

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Stat analyses
-Promotion-
1. 20/- for most units.
2. 15+/- for healers and Guy.

Healers benefit loads from promotion as they gain a second function. Guy benefits greatly from the Crt boost.

-Endgame level-
1. 20/10 = Endgame level for most unpromoted units.
2. --/15+ = Endgame level for most promoted units.
3. 15+/15+ = Endgame level for Priscilla and Serra.
4. 20/- for Matthew and Legault.

Number 3 is due to the Valkyrie and Female Bishop class getting EXP boosts for every kill.

-Supports-
Okay, to explain supports, I'm going to use Canas as he is an excellent example of a unit who gets screwed over by his support pool.

Let's take a look at some of Canas's support partners, namely Pent, Renault, and Bartre.

Pent. Pent is a pretty good support for Canas. IcexAnima gives them Def and Eva boosts which are useful for mages. But Pent wants Erk to support with him. Erk is a better unit to field compared to Canas, the support is faster and a triangle can be set up.

Problem: Partner wants somebody else.

Then, a look at Renault. Renault's support bonuses with Canas are excellent. AnimaxAnima = h4x. But that takes 121 turns and Renault arrives in the third to last chapter. There is absolutely no time to set up this support so it isn't happening.

Problem: Support is too slow and partner joins too late.

Now, Bartre. Bartre is Canas's most viable support option but Bartre is low tier and is not generally getting fielded.

Problem: Partner should not be used.

After these problems have been attended to, we take a look at bonuses. I will be using Priscilla as an example, since she has plenty of options. Her two fastest supports are Raven and Erk. However, we will be assuming that Erk's support will be used more often than Raven as the difference between their support bonuses are Erk's gives more Crt and Raven's Hit. Crt > Hit as units are generally quite accurate so Erk is Priscilla's more likely support.

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Ranks
These are among the most important things in debates as we're focusing to S-rank everything. These are a brief description about each rank.

Tactics - How fast you finish the game. Generally, mounted units help this rank as well as dancers and bards, and also units who can kill enemies quickly.

Combat - Ratio of kills to rounds of combat played (excluding NPC combat). Units who don't DA consistently, cannot counter attacks, or have very weak offense are a detriment to this rank.

EXP - Amount of EXP gained. Staff users help this rank a lot due to them not being affected by HHM's EXP cut. Valkyries and female Bishops help EXP with their EXP boost. Thieves, to a certain extent, help EXP ranks as well.

Survival - Nothing much about it. Don't let anyone die and it'll stay at 5 stars. Merlinus seems to be an exception to this rule, though.

Funds - The most important thing I want to go through. Funds rank is determined by : Gold on hand + Total Assets. Your total assets include the worth of every item your army has. So, the Silver Card makes your Funds awesome as you can buy things at half its price and have it at full value. That's why Matthew will always be top tier.

I'm going to skip a lot of calculation and just tell you something about the characters: Every unit you use should have a quota of 27000G worth of items they should use. Lords will go over the limit because of the Heaven Seal so I think there's an exception with them. Dart doesn't get that exception since his Ocean Seal costs 50000G.

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I'll be updating this every once in a while. You may give contributions on this and point out where my logic is flawed or I've made errors. ^^

This message was edited by GhostMember on Apr 11 2008.

quote tomato13187

20/15 on average for units you use? And Prissy & Serra at 20/20. I'm lucky if I get the healers promoted. >_> All my other units get to 20/20 though.

Then again, that's normal mode.

In NM, just assume healers reach 20/20 before your other units, then. >.>

You forgot the ever popular tip to n00bs- PEMN.

Out of curiosity, why are Matthew and Legault assumed to be 20/--? They should be promoting since they retain their stealing and lockpicking while getting stat boosts + level ups. Even though they won't be a main combat unit, they will be getting targeted by opponents and will get EXP from stealing.

quote GhostMember

Number 3 is due to the Valkyrie and Female Bishop class getting EXP boosts for every kill.

Seriously? Wow, I never knew that.

quote FireEmblemFanatic

You forgot the ever popular tip to n00bs- PEMN.

MH proved that wrong earlier in the thread due to no reliable source for enemy stats. <_>

But yeah, I'll make a revision later about personal experience with their units means very little.

@HFS - Perhaps I'll link to a reliable tier list, but I don't want the first post to be more cluttered than it already is.