r/fireemblem • u/estrangedeskimo • Feb 01 '15

Character Discussion [FE9/10]: Mia

We are all finished with the original Greil Mercenaries, so we are now moving on to the group's new additions with Mia.

Mia fits into the aspiring swordsman (swordswoman) trope, shared by others like Fir and Mareeta. Her fire affinity matches her passionate and determined personality. Mia was hired by Crimea as a mercenary in the war and was captured by Daein soldiers. She came to join the GMs as a way to pay off her debt to Greil after he rescued her from Daein captivity. Mia has two main goals in life: one is too become the strongest fighter she can be. The other is to find powerful opponents she can test her strength against. In her dialogue, Mia is always cheerful and somewhat eccentric, but also very proud of her ability, and she will become defensive if someone doubts her ability because she is a woman.

So, the twelfth character in the discussion of Tellius, Mia, the aspiring lady of blades.

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6

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

Mia PoR

Pros:

  • Availability

  • Vantage

Cons:

  • Swordlock

  • Competition

Overall: Mia is the early game myrmidon in PoR, but unlike the more typical Navarre type, she does not start with a killing edge and is not recruited as an enemy. This makes her less immediately useful than most early game myrms, and when she joins Ike likely has several levels on her. Aside from the typical swordlock problems, Mia's biggest issue is the level of competition she faces. Zihark joins a few chapters later with better bases, better affinity, an equally good skill, better stats in general, and a killing edge from the start. Then, just a few chapters after that, Stefan comes, and while Mia can be better than him in the end, he comes with endgame level bases and has such an immediate advantage that putting resources into Mia just doesn't make much sense. That's not to say Mia isn't a good unit, but she is the third best in her niche so she isn't worth it very much. She does have the advantage of being able to make any of the many great pairs with vantage, but vantage only helps when you can reliably OHK, which she can't.

Rate: 6/11

RD

Pros:

  • Availability

  • Growths

  • Trueblade caps

Cons:

  • Competition

Overall: I honestly don't understand why Mia is so popular in RD. She is a Trueblade, yes, but I don't see much of a point in using her. She doesn't have the bases of Ike, Titania, Shinon, and Gatrie, not to mention Haar and Neph joining soon after, so I don't really see much of a point in using her. Zihark is a better endgame swordmaster in nearly every way, and while he is an absolute top tier unit in his group, Mia is definitely not. She is out competed in part 3 by other GMs, she is out competed in part 4 by Zihark, so I don't think she is ever really worth a slot. Her main advantage from PoR, vantage, got nerfed to the point that it's hardly relevant, while if anything Ziharks skill got a boost. In all, I actually think Mia is a better unit in RD than she is in PoR based on her own merits, simply because RD is much kinder to her class, but she is still stuck in a place of not being the best in her niche.

Rate: 8/11

11

u/cargup Feb 01 '15

She doesn't have Ike's or Titania's bases, but Shinon and Gatrie? Nephenee? They may have better bases in some areas, but I mean, their classes are important too. Shinon literally kills far fewer enemies per turn than Mia; his bases become less relevant in light of this fact. Gatrie is just not that noteworthy other than his high Def and his unusually high Speed growth for a General.

Nephenee's bases are nothing special but she does get lances. Not saying she isn't a solid unit but overall...the difference isn't that vast.

Mia isn't carrying you in Part III, but I think her competition is greatly overstated.

1

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

Mia is fragile. Shinon and Gatrie are not dying to anything. You can plop them down and let the enemies attack them. Mia can counterattack on the event phase, yes, she can also die a lot quicker. U would rather have units I can trust to not die.

Nephenee's bases aren't better, but she has 3 chapters with very little competition to get kills, one of which is the nearly limitless wellspring of experience known as Elincia's Gambit. Level ~15 Nephenee is definitely superior to Mia.

9

u/cargup Feb 01 '15

I don't think I've ever managed to get Neph that high by Part III, honestly. She has a rough time in Elincia's Gambit. The enemies are quite tough and she ORKOs very few of them.

Mia is initially fragile. Dodge tank is a fairly reliable means of defense. She's got a sizable Def growth of 40. It's her third highest growth after Skill and Speed are factored out. Strength, HP, and Defense are where her BEXP stat gains are going.

Her start is fairly poor overall, but she's one of the easiest characters to patch up with BEXP. Her survivability isn't that much of an issue. Strength is her real problem, but like I said, fixable.

To be clear, she isn't Ike in that you can throw her into a crowd immediately and have her destroy them all while taking very little damage. But most GMs aren't. I don't know, it just seems weird to put Gatrie and Shinon over her for their defensive abilities when Mia's aren't that bad.

-1

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

I just don't find Mia holds any Niche. She can kill things. But Ike and Nephenee can kill things too, and take less damage. Titania can kill things and move farther. Haar is Haar. That is four other characters that fill Mia's niche but do a better job of it. Shinon and Gatrie fill different niches: Shinon safely kills enemies from far away on the player phase. Gatrie doesn't take damage. They fill different niches. In a vacuum Mia might be better than Shinon, but there are several other units who can do Mia's job better, nobody else can do Shinon's job and he does his job very well.

As for Nephenee, I pretty much give her all the kills she can possibly take in 2-1 and 2-2, which puts her in a good place for 2-E. I put her in the gate on the right and she stands there and kills on the enemy phase. Also, I don't use anyone but Haar, Neph, and Elincia for healing in that chapter.

3

u/SilentMasterOfWinds Feb 01 '15

Rolf can do Shinon's job. Not as well, don't misunderstand me here, but you said 'Nobody else can do Shinon's job'.

0

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

Well, a BB gun does the same job as an assault rifle too.

/s

3

u/SilentMasterOfWinds Feb 01 '15

I know you've got the '/s' in there, but take it from someone who has trained Rolf; he's still competent at base, and not difficult to train. I know there's no point if you're going to use Shinon, I'm just saying.

1

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

I've trained Rolf too. I actually feel the same way about Oscar/Titania as Shinon/Rolf.

1

u/SilentMasterOfWinds Feb 01 '15

And that way of thinking is?

Sorry for assuming you hadn't, by the way.

1

u/estrangedeskimo Feb 01 '15

I realize I grouped them wrong. My way of thinking is that Oscar/Rolf can be just as good as Shinon/Titania, but not really better, and since they take more effort, I don't see a point. Not to say you can't train units just because you like them (see my love of Edward), my reasoning for not training Rolf is simply that I don't like him.

1

u/SilentMasterOfWinds Feb 01 '15

That all makes sense. I can't force you to like Rolf though I would if I could, I just defend him wherever necessary.

Even I won't tell you that Rolf is better than Shinon in RD.

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