Crazy how Alcrysts personal skill wasn't even mentioned. +3 strength as long as someone in 2 spaces is attacked is the freesst condition since Persecution Complex. Sure it doesn't completely cover the gap but given his example of Luna adding 5 strength on average, Alcryst now sits a point ahead of Etie in the strength department. And thats not even talking about how Alcryst can actually double things and reliably hit his shots, unlike Etie. By his own admission, Alcryst surpasses Etie in every other stat, how is this even a debate?

I think the dex difference is a huge factor. Etie will be missing a LOT especially because she’s almost always fighting fliers who are fast and dodgy enemies, and not being able to double virtually ever even with speedtaker thus having only one chance to hit an inaccurate attack makes her do less damage on average (in my experience of using both Alcryst and Etie on maddening). Also there’s the fact that Luna procing with a crit (something that happens frequently because of Alcryst’s high dex) will one shot nearly every enemy in the game especially if he has lunar brace through equipping the Eirika ring or with skill inheritance. Etie having slightly higher strength just isn’t enough for me to say she’s worth deploying over Alcryst.

My stance is, Bows are so good in Engage that you can run Alcryst, Panette, Etie, and Fogado on the same team and have them be effective and useful without overlapping contention for rings and resources.

Since you brought it up at the end. I do like using alcryst more because of his defenses. Etie can easily die in 1 round of combat before warrior. Its just not always safe to use her (in iron man). Someone misses a 90 and suddenly she is in range of an unexpected enemy. Alcryst can take almost any single enemy without dying. Also Luna Crits Builds are fun :)

Alcryst with a Killer Bow +5 with a critical-based Emblem branding and Lunar just says I just one shot your ass.

Whats the point in having high str if you cant hit anything/stay alive long enough to use it?

The age old debate, WHO IS THE BETTER ARCHER, Etie or Alcryst. If I had to pick one, I'd take Alcryst for a few reasons: I usually funnel XP into Alear/Chloe early game so Etie will be starved of levels, so Alcryst being lv 10 for free is a huge edge. Alcryst gets STR+3 consistently from his passive and it is easy to play around. If used early game, he will have more STR than etie on top of better hit/durability. Alcryst has higher BLD/SPD and is easier to get into doubling thresholds. He can also proc luna more consistently than it seems because when you double the odds of seeing luna change: Lets assume a few dex levels that Alcryst can easily reach throughout a run: 25 Dex(Early midgame) 25% Chance per individual shot, 43% chance of seeing a single Luna total (Probability calc) 35 Dex (Midgame) 35% Chance per individual shot/57.75% chance of seeing a single Luna. 45 Dex (Lategame) 45% chance of individual/70% (Rounded) of seeing a single Luna. If Luna procs once, Alcryst is smoking Etie in damage, and if we manage his passive (which is easy to trigger if playing at a moderate pace with him behind front line/near them) he has constant competitive damage with her. In my runs I was able to get him to 40-45 Dex by endgame as a main damage unit. Now lets assume you have him using a Brave Bow, things get insane if he can quad: 25 Dex x4 = 68% chance of seeing a single Luna 35 Dex x4 = 82.15% chance of seeing a single Luna 45 Dex x 4 = 90% chance of Luna Even if we ignore STR fixing emblems/options, he can lean into his SPD/BLD and push for a quad luna build off of his kit alone. Lets argue we don't want him doing this and want to avoid Luna all together, at worst Luna is 20-45% chance of extra free damage, and we can just STR fix him by doing: STR+3 (early with well) passive Roy and eventually STR+5 or +6 after CH19 Lunar Brace (with doubling gives him competitive damage, especially if quadding) Bravery + (+5 damage per hit) Roy Ring (+6 STR Bond 20, more when engaged with Rise Above) Ike Ring (+4 STR) Kind of a meme but its raw STR Marth Ring, gives +3 STR, 4 dex/SPD and gives extra attack in engage (more luna chance/consistency) Eirika Ring, Gives Lunar Brace/+ for free and when engaged also gives DAM+3/5, giving him huge damage by using her. Also gives DEX +4, Mag+3 and LCK+10, of those Dex +4 = more Lunas, Mag+3 boosts Radiant bow damage. Both are worse than Fogado though, who has better BLD/Bulk/SPD than either and a more averaged STR on a mounted class that can run Radiant Bow/Levin Sword relatively well :) Math tool used: www.calctool.org/math-and-statistics/probability Marth is an interesting option for lategame, it is a fantastic emblem but it perfectly fits into his kit, fixes SPD/DEX and STR while giving an extra attack, here is what Luna looks like with 3 attacks: 25 Dex = 58% Chance of Lunar appearing (Rounded) 35 Dex = 73% Luna (Rounded) 45 Dex = 83% Luna (Rounded) He can effectively run Roy, Ike, Marth, Eirika, possibly Sigurd/Leif for Brave bow on Speed Taker passive. He could also run Lyn with Lunar Brace and BLD+4-5 brave bow to quad off of SPD+5/SPD Taker from Lyn so he has a lot of viable builds to leverage his passive/bases. Even just triggering his passive consistently and a STR Tonic gives him +5 Damage.

Glad you’re back Adam

Interesting discussion/analysis. I don't think it's fully fair to write off their speed/dex difference as irrelevant in calculating their expected damage though. Yes, if they are both using Lyn then they will both double pretty much anything once speedtaker is fully ramped, but there are going to be a lot of moments over the course of a full playthrough where Alcryst would double when Etie would not, and Alcryst will have more crits and fewer misses. Hard to put a number on how many more times he will double/hit/crit than etie, but if you were to take this into account when calculating their expected damage in the same way you factored in the probability of luna triggering, I'd be quite surprised if Alcryst didn't come out ahead by a solid margin in terms of expected damage per map. That being said, Alcryst still has a significant downside in that you can't rely on luna hitting when you're planning out what to do on your turn, so a lot of that damage may end up going into overkilling enemies. This is partially mitigated by the fact that he's more likely to be able to survive a hit than Etie and doesn't get doubled by everyone and their mom in the early game, whereas if you miss a single attack on an enemy with Etie you can find yourself in trouble very quickly. I prefer Alcryst overall, but see the argument for both (especially if you allow Etie to be a warrior for longbow backup attacks).

To answer the question in the description, my favorite emblem is probably Byleth. Dance of the Goddess is just too good.

Idk why ur prioritising simple strength growth ? Alcryst with only a little speed fixing can reliably double where Etie (without Lyn) will never be able to, he has VERY high dex base and growth so on killer bow will be criting all the time and that’s on top of a high chance of Luna activation giving even MORE damage + his personal is wayy better than Etie’s which is one of the worst in the game. So basically idk why ur focusing on strength growth when Alcryst has wayyyy higher damage output . This also isn’t even mentioning that etie will get one shot by most things and if she doesn’t then she will definitely get doubled on and die anyways

Fogato better than both

Lapis

is this octopath traveler music?

The first time I played engage without knowing how the game works I used Etie, just because of her Str, so I still prefer to use her every playtrough

The actual answer for best mainstay archer is whichever low investment Warrior slots best into your team

Fliers in maddening mode is no joke. There are maps with over ten of them, and some DLC and skirmishes have over 20! Camilla's divine paralogue has INFINITE flier reinforcements!! So frankly, I personally need every bow user I can get in this game. Alcryst, Etiè, Fogado, heck I'll even give Panette a bow! I simply cannot afford to bench or under invest in ANY of them. Which one is best is an entertaining mental exercise, but at least for me it doesn't matter because I need them ALL.

idc who's better Etie has fire drip in Sniper so she immediately clears all

"Etie is better! My waifu is better than your waifu! End of discussion!"

We need to see their stats, ability and available !!

I like them both, but Alcryst probably takes the cake for me just because I like rolling the Luna gacha.

I have always been of the opinion that using both in the army is a great choice. Etie has a lot of flaws but just consistently using her in my first and subsequent runs of the game she has always carried especially with lyn but doesn't need it. She does do best in warrior though not sniper, with a decent perf skill I think she could have been even better but I have found niche cases where it is useful. Al does have a pretty easy way of raising his strength tho with his perf skill

I haven't used etie in a full run before but I think the dex Alcryst gets from rings and potential activities/skill books is worth at least considering. And while I'm sure etie gets good use of it too, the brave bow helps Alcryst proc Luna more times per combat (especially since he'll be doubling with less setup)

Etie's problem is that she has to contend against every unit who can slot into warrior. Alcryst at least is unique as a player phase unit.

Alcryst might only avaerage 5 damage extra per attack woth luna, but you can make that higher if yoh choose to rig luna procs or attack higher defense enemies. If youre willing to do some rng manipulation, alcryst id much better of a boss killer.

ARCHER BATTLE!

IS ANYONE GONNA MENTION VANDER DOUBLE-CRITTING IN THE BACKGROUND?!?!?!?!??!

I think it's worth discussing that RNG in Fire Emblem isn't really ever something that can be factored out. If you have a 35% chance but then you have other things like procs for crits or doubles that could occur, it begins to stack more than just raw stats. Although then again I'm basing this off of other RPGs, such as ParaFlinch in Pokemon. Relying on just paralysis or flinching isn't a great strategy, but relying on both inceases the chances the opponent will miss a turn. Essentually, fine tuning RNG is a strategy, and adding another element that's in your favor to an RNG can change things. Because growths and stuff aren't also guaranteed, yes you can use items if you want them on a unit, but Alcryst will always get Luna without any assistance. Then again Alcryst is my favorite character in the game, that's probably due to me being an anxiety riddled younger brother myself.

Answer Now one cares! Fogado clears.

Meanwhile, me using both. Lol.

I like Fogado more.

Luna crit is more fun and that's all that matters in meta

I think that Etie is ultimately better but I do think she requires a bit more investment and really wants Lyn. She is worth the investment but Alcryst is a bit more plug and play and can make use of a different ring if u want Lyn on someone else.

I love Luna too much. Alcryst all the way.

Defense is important even on archers, you never know when you get rushed in this game. Anyways I am not playing on maddening difficulty, otherwise Etie would be better I bet

Alcryst is more fun to use but i dont think hes better

Alcryst Lyn Killer Bow. Most fun character in the game. Backflips all day.

Etie is stronger and has abs. So... she's better

Its Etie and its not close. All the early lords rely on their procs to be even passable. Timerra is trash regardless of investment (within reason) and Alcryst is too.

The Virgin Alcryst Advocate VS The Chad Etie Enjoyer. Etie has always done a better job for me than Alcryst has for me personally. After numerous runs, Etie has outperformed Alcryst every time (On randomized growths and yes, I have had them in different and same classes just to see how they do throughout my runs). I could also bring in the point of DEF where your Bow users should not be getting hit to begin with, but everyone has different play-styles and it is just something to think about.

No DLC and no special investment or attention into an archer early on: yeah Fagado/Pannete warrior is better than both. No DLC and and some early investment and use of one of Etie or Alcryst early: from the two Etie will be a more consistent phys damage throughout game. With DLC just go solo Tiki map with Etie (or Alcryst) if you want they covert and you can engrave for them not to be hit on avo heal tiles. By endgame Etie needs less in skills/ sp and abilities to do job as in OHKO than Alcryst. Just cheap accuracy fix (bow focus) and canter. Also I ironman so like guessing if Alcryst will kill with a luna proc is a big nono vs knowing exactly how much damage I am getting with Etie.

Every Etie fans arguments: reclassing Etie into warrior, she is better archer than Alcryst. Great, now she is in the class where it's arguably the best landlocked class in engage with high base strength and high build (yeah warrior high base build helps A LOT to offset Etie pitiful bulid), can wield axe, and you compare her against Alcryst, a bow only unit. If you reclass her into warrior then her competitions are Pannete. Etie simps need to learn how comparing units works.

Allorys is so much better. Not even a coemption. Way better personal plus luna with Astra Storm is just plain busted.

I don't get why you're so hung up on keeping Etie a Sniper and calling her "B-Tier", when you can Reclass her to a Warrior watch her performance skyrocket. Warrior gives her enough to Bld to carry Silver weapons, improves her Spd and doubles down on her Str. She's supposed to be a raw Atk monster, not a Crit Fisher. My Etie equipped with a Silver Bow+3 sits at 51 Atk, 26 BASE Spd and more Bld than she needs. She's been an ORKO monster for the vast majority of the game and I didn't even feed her any Energy Drops nor Speedwings. She is an amazing Unit as a Warrior and your refusal to try things out only calls the validity of these "guides" of yours into question, because you're actively giving people bad advice by relegating Etie to a "B-Tier" Unit when she can easily reach "S-Tier" with the proper setup, which you refuse to test. Sorry, but that's a thumbs down from me for spreading misinformation.

Best answer: use neither. In all seriousness though Amber is a straight upgrade to Etie and Fogado outclasses both as a bow user. Alcryst can get Luna funnies and with Marisa S Ring can get Looney Tunes kills that only Timerra can even dream of. I gave him Wrath in my all royals run and he only failed to kill once out of the twelve or so kills including a Wyrm and Mauvier in Chapter 19 I gave him after he got Lethality (I cleared chapter 19 and clicked Warp after that.) It’s like arguing Wil v Rebecca. Both are bad and deserve to hit the bench. End of story.