Archer and Fencer aside, if someone is having problems with Rosalinde and Eltolinde I don't even know what to tell them. Both are easy S tier characters that slot in anywhere and make any squad immediately better by their presence (especially Rosalinde achieves this earlier).

This game is a hit for me. Currently in elheim at lvl 20 and I’m fascinated by the class diversity. I can’t wait to have more than 4 units in a composition.

I agree with you, Titanium. Elven units are jack-of-all trades units and propably work best when shared with the more specialized units of other countries. By putting Ridiel into my Alain, Lex, Chloe and Scarlett squad their flexibility increased quite a bit. That being said, i actually found a few good niches for a pure elven squad playing on Expert. Their basic strengths (without any other equipment thrown into the mix) are basically anti-air, anti-archer, anti-armored and anti-mages plus effective ranged assists. Their weak matchups lie in cavalry (wild rush), swordmasters (or any unit with true strike), vikings and landsknechts (repeated attacks will hit eventually). Breakers are neutral due to having high enough hp to survive a first wave of actions and they can knock an elven fencer out with one hit if it connects. Basically in true elven fantasy fashion you want them to hit first and be as elusive as possible. Also this is just a minor nitpick, but i wish the game would have the option to save squad setups, so i don`t have to swap every member out manually. I get the idea behind the 10 squads max rule, but i would at least like to quick-assemble a squad, i would like to use quickly.

Oh, this is why the game encourages you to go to Drakenhold first. The player has more time to build up squads of four that can use an elf generalist.

Rosalinde and Eltolinde are definitely one of the best units, insane heals and debuff remover, and Rosalinde's insane starting attack, which stuns them if it hits. Didn't get to really experiment with the elven fencer though.

Did everyone waifu up the rosalinde?

i think that the « problem » with elves is mainly timing. they arrive in a time when most of your units of 4 slots are complete and you want to focus on promoting them rather than upgrading the unit to 5 slots. so you can easily put them aside and think that they’re not that useful. however if you want to use them they actually do the job quite well. i actually run a squad composed of the two sisters and their retainers with the fencers in the frontline and they were unstoppable, if you want a magic focus unit, it works very well.

Very good assessment. That was my conclusion with them as well. Very smart.

Elven Archer's AP magic conferral is a great boost to many physical comps. Also, worth noting, elves can equip the conferral books while also providing healing and cleansing services. Putting them in squads with at least one other utility option like a rogue with a firt aid kit, really opens up a lot more compositions since you no longer need dedicated healers.

Would love a dedicated True Zenoiran tip video. I've applied a lot of the builds you've thrown together and it's helping immensely. But I'm not gonna lie, this difficulty is kicking my a*s.

i love the pacing of your videos i must say. i don’t know how you managed it but you’re realising videos that are linked to the point of the game im at. so im not getting spoiled about the rest of the game but i have tips and options from your videos that i can apply right away. love it 🫶.

I currently have an all elf unit with uniques. The two fencers up front, two archers, and Rosalinda. Rosalinda starts with Rage of Fairies to stun lock a whole row. One archer has a 2 AP charge bow, one archer has cat ears. This takes care of fliers. The fencers are there to help keep opponents stun locked. I am currently in Albion and this unit is cleaning house. It is also excels against Armor troop types.

This certainly helps me with the final unit space positions when I have enough honors after promoting everyone else. I knew from my sister that elves were pretty damn good at getting rid of armor units, but didn’t think about all of the niches they fill in certain groups. Now I really want to know what the bear units can do. Cause from what I’ve seen from images, they seem to be a combo of liegonares, and breakers. And if that’s the case, I may want to make an adjustment to one or two of my squads. Will be looking forward to the beast video now!

The video I've been waiting for that I didn't know I was waiting for.

They are insane. So many units have phys defense late game and their magic attack cuts through them like butter. Can be fancy but cam use them bluntly as well

I kept an elven fencer in the front, worked on his evasion (because of evasive impetus adding +1 ap for every avoid), had him spam mirage stabs and lightning blades. Bro supported his unit heavily and was a great addition to the team.

combine frosttome brand effect on sorceress with high initiative Eltolinde or Rosalinde Elemental Roar and you have a turn 1 aoe freeze against enemy party

It’s all about the commentary 😂. Love it

I wasn't aware that the elves were underrated, but it makes sense. Their classes are technical toolboxes that can vary wildly in usefulness depending on what they are facing, and require the player to know what exactly they are trying to get out of using them, or else be better off with a pure damage or support in their place. It also doesn't help that they aren't too strong versus one another due to their split damage and good magic resistance, leading to a bad first impression. I went out of my way to use them through Elheim, and ended up having great success with a unit comprised of the two sisters, a fencer, and a great knight, which turned out to be a potent yet survivable generalist in all respects. I do struggle to find a proper place for the archers though, despite the game gifting three unique ones.

In addition to being great generalists, the elves do have specific traits that no-one else can replicate. Elven Fencers have Syhic Barrier, which means they canes serve as a backline version of Fighters to protect your flier tank from arrows while dealing good magic damage and debuffs rather than the pitiful damage Fighters do. Elven Archers have Selfless Healing, which synergises very well with Doom Knight. Put a Doom Knight in the front and an Elven Archer and 2 First Aid units, be they soldiers or using the accessory, in the back. Have them both target the Elven Archer and at the end of the battle you’ll basically get a full squad heal. The Doom Knight won’t be healed during the battle so they can deal the most damage possible, but as long as they don’t die they’ll get right back up to full at the end. The Elven sisters are just cracked in general, but they have great synergy with Berengaria, being able to both heal and inflict ailments to proc her Pursuit and buff her Death Spin.

I'm trying out putting two fencers in the front an the sisters an the archer in the back. Fencers doing their thing in the front, elven archer (handing out magical conferral, attacking only enemies at 25% hp and using their at the start of the battle skill only if enemy has shamans), while the sisters mostly do their thing with the usual tactics (at the start of battle heal if team goes in wounded, otherwise the at the start of battle attack). The only problem are true strikes so I'm going to look for some accessories to let the archer guard for others I think.

I certainly agree on your viewpoint about elves. They are like icing on top that makes a delicious cake. As for your squad, best to scatter them and adjust the build to compliment the current squad build.

They are all goated. They provide nice little passive heals without sacrificing damage. Some of them also provide magick conferals which makes mince meat out of tanks.

had a good comp where elven archer in the back, virginia in front, 2 breakers in the back, virgina is a counter tank and royal guard when hp is too low will keep her alive. elf archer and her vertical edge deals with fliers, and prevents debuffs with pure field, breakers deal good dmg to armored and with how much virginia will be attacked and self heal, they get buffed a lot and so when they hit with finishing blow, things die and it chains.

The Sibyl and Augur are immensely powerful at level 30 with elemental roar. It takes all the basics we've built on with the tombs to a new level AND ITS NOT A CHARGED SKILL! Also, since its a mix of damage it doesn't count as a spell so it bypasses any magic reflecting abilities that you see later in the game. I have both the sibly and augur in 2 different groups right now. The more support healing one is with a legionare and josef with big damage dealing units like the viking and swordmaster. The other is behind an upgraded sellword who decimates after the attack goes off. The other units like the fencer i realized can be leaders and support assistance so i put them into my 8, 9, 10 squads that are all assistance based squads to help.

I've tried fencer as support for dodge tank comps and it's not too bad. With evasion gear they can help in front line with another dodge tank, especially against enemy archers. They can use conferral tombs so utility wise not too bad. Elven archers are good for rounding out different comps if you have an extra slot as they do a bit of everything.

I like the Combo Scarlett + Elven Archer at higher levels. Archer starts with Pure Field (Negate one Debuff partywide) Scarlett triggers Passive Miracle returning 1 PP to the Archer, Archer triggers Selfless Heal and heals whole party. All this happens at the start of battle making it superstrong for holding a Garrison for prolonged fights or forages in enemy territory.

*slow clap* Amazing video, and truly wonderful weaving of elf sharing puns.

I hope you cover the Bestrals soon!

If they can fill multiple role, so basically a unit full of elves can fill every role? So they are both good together or in separate unit?

ive formed a squad of all elven units only. Works ok. NO issues. very self sustaining

Mystic Conferral is best on pursuit/retaliation attack squads, since the buff lasts the whole battle. If you for example, go Alain/Landknight/Landknight, you can fit an elven archer in there to confer the Following Slashes. In addition, in these types of comps, you usually run a cleric for sustain which makes you weak to wyverns, but with an archer you have a natural check while still incorporating some sustain. Fencers... idk fam

I'm also still loving this early game varied experiences era, before the community decides that it's really only x,y, and z that are viable. When I get to my True Zenoiran run, I'm fully expecting to run two double sniper squads; meanwhile, I've seen the class rank consistently low among content creators.

Elven archers and fencers are also notable for having ranged/magic assist while contributing off roles (heal and evasion tanking) to units that normally have that, so they can make assists a bit better while keeping the squad viable in general combat.

Its also a way to save a few honors for me. I had 1 hunter and arbalest but wanted to use the honors for other units and saving for 4>5 squads and just used the unique elven archers instead. I know you can grind honor but not needing to grind 60-90 honor is just nice.

Don't elven fencers also provide magick assist like the augur/sibyl do? So if you wanted a full magic assist group with some heartier units in it in case it gets attacked in a tower, they can help with that. (I find the elven archer helps provide healing/magic damage to an all archery ranged assist group, too, with an evade tank yunifi with triple counter and an arbalester using a great shield in the front.)

I have an all elf comp that was pretty rough until 30 and then at 35 got quite strong. It's really just mostly a Eltolinde conferral comp. It's two fencers, two archers and Eltolinde. The fencers are one of 3 non-unique classes that get to use the conferral tomes (the uniques being Rosalinde and Scarlett, not Eltolinde weirdly). Have Eltolinde use her start of battle ability to give back row a debuffs immunity (dodges blindness spammers in late game). Stack initiative on Eltolinde so that she gets roar off ASAP, one of the fencers gives it thunder conferral so it stuns. Then the fencers get to do mirage stab to get their evasion up, the archers wipe debuffs and freeze enemies. It doesn't do too much DMG vs enemies with high mag def, but it wrecks anything with low mag def and in general gets out of most fights with 0 DMG taken, even when taking support damage, because it is based on dodging everything and then big AOE heals with the archers and eltolinde

Question for anyone on elves: Is it better to have lower attack higher magic attack, or higher attack lower magic attack, or do they offset and it really depends on enemy physical and magic defense? Since some characters can add magic attack to regular attack I wasn't quite sure how the mechanic worker? My Elvin fencers don't seem to ever really do high damage.

I'm using a group of the 5 main elves, the 2 fencers as evade tanks, Gal as the elf archer and the sisters, they decimate armor squads and once you hit 30 the fencers really shine as tanks because of mirage strike. Now that I'm in the 30s they decimate any squad they out speed and take no damage.

Elf archers can be pretty good! I used them as party healer since you can have someone with first aid specifically target them at the end of battle to make it a worthwhile party heal. By endgame i used it in tandem with large first aid (party heal) to keep the squad healthy. If i need magic infused attacks i can add it to my front row to deal with armors ontop of their arrows being magic and phys damage. I used Lhinalagos in a squad with alain , amalia, chloe and auch.

I think they are good for back up utility for when you are fighting a bunch of debuffers or damaging enemies. They require a little more planning for a team to work with them

I made a squad with 5 of them Fencer in front on archer Sible and agur in the back.. There natural evasion made it so they didn't get hit and they could nuke everything in sight. There has been very few instances where they would loose out. Think there under rates but like all classes with the right items u can do some insane things. Fencers are similar to rogues so would suggest them to be itemised in a similar way.

Those two unique elves are some of the best units in the game. That AOE spell that hits everyone is so good when used properly. Their passive abilities are strong as well and they also have good stats. The only 'issue' is that they use spears and that their weapon selection is rather limited because they want magic attack on their weapon. The fencer and archer on the other hand are a bit mid. You can make them work, they're just a bit niche and/or the alternatives are better.

They're literally the best classes in the game, so unless you thought they were the best classes in the game then I can tell you the answer is yes. The more controversial take is that Bestrals are severely underrated. The Elven uniques are the absolute best attack units and you should build your best unit around them... or at worst case you throw them in a team to just clean up anything that you don't kill with your main strat. The elven fencer is an incredible conferral unit that doesn't die to ranged assist spam and can frontline evade tank which makes them easily better than having a squishy witch fill the same role and be relegated to the backline... plus they help your other units survive with their ability to grant evade. I had 3 of them in my True Zenoiran run where I mostly ran 3 teams until endgame when I ran 4. Elven Archer I feel less strongly about, but the ability to add an attack buff that isn't limited means you can add two attack buffs to your best unit when they do their nuke... which means more damage output

I have problems with beastman, I can't find a good way to use them

I used eltonia + monica + 3 great knights. I have eltonia as a support and a board nuke to weaken enemies and have the 3 great knights blow through everything with monica running row heal for support and runic blade to kill tanks

I found a lot of success with my Elven Archers with First Aid kits. Set to always save 2 PP and end of combat always first aid themselves -> Selfless Heal the entire party. Can't fully replace a healer in most of my squads but if I can put together a group where the damage gets spread around a bit/minimized usually that's enough to top off everyone at the end of combat. Really appreciated how much using Elven units can simplify party building in the game with the way I've been playing so far (Every level I clear all my squads, sort by level and build squads only out of whatever my lowest level units are)

Augur fits great into my strongest team(mass blind/fire) since she can use magic tomes, and using a spear gives more aoe/debuff options. Im still looking for a place for the other elf types.

Eltolinde was one of my best characters and would wipe entire squads by herself with elemental roar, with the right equipment and tactics setup i was able to consistently get 4-5 stakes before she used elemental roar. 4 ap, the white cat hood, and her AP gain passive were what I needed and i set elemental roar to only go off if she had a certain amount of AP wnd it eas at the top of the list After seeing this i immediately transferred this strategy to rosalinde and she did basically the same thing (used the black cat hood). It's so fun

I like to run an Elven Archer in my Rosalinde squad alongside Arrow Rain Rolf, Sainted Knight + Feathershield frontline. Rosalinde and Rolf being the damage, and Elven Archer being a heal aid to keep the squad up. I can agree that elves need to mix with other established compositions to shine.

Im loving the customization this game has. These elves seem perfect for how i play. They are adaptable, and they can threaten multiple unit types, and they can act as support. Im loving the fact that equipment can be switched out mid battle and elves are the swiss army knives of units.

I actually skipped Drachengard, and went from Cornia directly into Elhiem. It was a ROUGH transition, but I was only a few levels below the enemy. I was so surprised when I went to Drachengard - and found out it was like... level 10.

Apart from Eltolinde/Rosalinde, they initially felt pretty underwhelming to me. Then the mitres appeared, making all 3 archers useful as dps+healer, along with Scarlet's ribbon. The fencers seemed easily overwhelmed, and only delaying the inevitable as enemies. Pretty meh. However, I managed to make something good out of the two named we got. Theorycrafting-wise, being mixed damage stats or roles, all elven character favour crit much more (it works on everything) than raw stat boosters. Then, for fencers, evading impetus (lv.25 ability, +1 AP on evade) turned things on their head. From the moment I noticed, I put my dream of having my thieves do damage in a coffin, making them evasion + first aid specialists. That freed up the 2x lucky coins, which I gave to both fencers, along with a scarf and lapis pendant. The hitherto fragile + average dps characters had just become frontline-capable, with acceptable damage. Basically what I initially sought in my thieves!

I think the only hard to find a home for is the fencer. You can always fit the archer's teamwide healing which I consider better than all the "healer" classes healing because it's easy to force a proc at the end of battles and Pure Field is extremely powerful in Bastorias and Albion. They pair especially well with shield shooters because you can force their 2 healing passives onto the elf. I have forced a fencer into a frontline dodge tank for an all magic ranged assist squad (with a frontline druid wielding the warding staff to reduce the enemies damage), with an entirely defensive setup and the quick guard guantlets. The fencers struggle a small amount in Bastorias and a little more in Albion though. In Bastorias all 4 bestral units pose a different nuisance for the elf fencer in particular, werewolves have insanely high accuracy, wereowls increase magic defense and accuracy/truesight and they're typically better vs. bears but the bears will still just ignore the physical side of their hybrid damage and can guard. In Albion, it's weaknesses are consistent but more pronounced. Basically all the angel units have higher than average magic defense, and have good evasion on top of being flying which cuts grounded units accuracy in half, and 2 of them can guard as well to further reduce the incoming damage from the elven archer. The magic defense is an issue because there aren't any swords that give good physical damage and also boost a small amount of magic so you are basically giving up the magical side of their hybrid damage to target their weaker defense. Albion has a high reliance on truesight and guard bypassing utility so the units/items that can provide that typically push the fencer out of the lineups. This is not to say that the fencers are bad. They are excellent against human foes, they just have bad matchup for the 2 continents in a row and are somewhat regulated to utility during that time.

Taken the nature of the ranged and magic assist leader skills the elves are quite key to capitalize out on them. Both assist skills get stronger the more archer/casters you have in the unit. To get a 5/5 squad of both assist types elves are mighty usefull. For a 5 archer squad i used 2 promoted crossbow units to tank, and on the back line i had Yunifi, featherbow and an elven archer. The crossbow can be quite tanky with the shields they get and you can bounce off their end battle heal on the elven archer to provide full squad healing. The elven archer also gets the ice arrow skill which plays into Yunifi follow up skill. Featherbow around in late game for the blind and pp removing skill in battle and flying movement type on map. Very capable in direct battle and really deadly assist especially on a tower. Similair if you want to max out on magic assist, the elven fencer is quite capable holding the frontline as a dodge tank. And quite sure the only caster type that can frontline in any form. Also Rosaline is also the only magic assist unit who can also provide healing without using item skills.

I like to use elves to complement my mixed attack units, so I can deal both types of damage, specially with some nasty combos of armored and evasive units that show up later in the game. Let me give a couple examples of endgame teams I built: Team 1: Mordon, Nina, Ochlys, Selvie and Eltolinde. Usually I leave Ochlys and one of the breakers in front line to dodge/tank (that is, if the enemy actually hits since Selvie has the Sandstorm staff). It's a very physical team with little healing, so Eltolinde is both there to heal and deal magick damage. Team 2: Railanor, Aramis, Primm, Hilda and Magelian. Hilda and Primm have a Dragoon Dive+Quick Impetus combo, and Primm also has Active Heal to give even more AP. Railanor is set to attack mostly armored units and Aramis is set to hit non-armored. Magelian is there for all-purpose heavy damage, but specially revenge damage. Team 3: Gilbert, Berengaria, Jerermy, Renault and Galadmir. Berengaria and Gilbert provide buffs and debuffs to everyone, while Renault and Jeremy clean up house. Galadmir heals and uses Mystical Conferral on turn 1 and, in case the enemy still resists, Arrow Rain+Hawk Eye on turns 2-3. Of course, these are level 35-45 units for endgame purposes, but most of these characters already have excellent sinergy as soon as they're available and promotable on level 20-ish. All of these characters and their equipment are available before the 2nd half of the game (except for the Arrow Rain bow) and work nicely against bestrals and angels later in the story.

I disagree that they dont want to be headliners. They just take time to be. At least for most of them (sorry elven fencer). Use cases: 1. rosalinde- elemental roar at level 30 is a build around skill. Board nuke that deals physical and magic (can be tome conferralled) without needing quick impetus is awesome. Rage of the fairies is one of the best start of battle abilities in the game (i'd say top 3 and yes elves have the top 3 best start of battle abilities in the game). Use rage of the fairies to stun that wereowl that will dispel buffs to your nuke. Only thing rosalinde is missing is truestrike (get through sniper lens or accuracy boosts before that). 2. Eltolinde- see rosalinde for elemental roar and need for truestrike/accuracy boost. Boon of the fairies is another top 3 start of battle ability as what will screw you over mid-end game are debuffs. this takes care of that while healing any chip dmg you may have. Again another build around unit due to these 2. 3. elven archer- pure field at level 25 is another top 3 start of battle ability for the same reason as eltolinde's boon of fairies. Mystic conferral frees up your limited passive buff for your nuker (like yunifi or hunters with arrow rain) which means unless you need the burn/stun/freeze, you can add on more dmg via gambler's coin or dancer's bracelet to your nuker. Or your soldier is now free to add keen edge. icicle arrow is also good mop-up control. Give her a sanguine bow and she can also party heal and cleanse mid-battle (or a 1st aid kit if you want it post-battle). Elven fencers while not top tier as those 3, are good at protecting your flying evade tanks and can house your conferral tomes. Personally, they are my dedicated conferral tome users. Lightning blade is also good mop up control. the top 3 elven units are basically mid-endgame classes. At that point they become build around classes (eltolinde, rosalinde) or top tier supports you want every party to have (eltolinde, elven archer, elven fencer + conferral tomes).

Vanillaware knows how to make elves.

I particularly like Swap and Rescue valor skills - I slap them on flyers leader and use flying units to tactically nuke enemy base with my slow powerhouse army, to be honest by recalling them from nearest fort

I just beat the game. Had a 5 woman elf archer team and it was my best/strongest team thus far. Two archers in the front were dodge tanks lucky coin, scarfs, and evade. Three in the back. One had a massive heal at the end of the battle, one did spot heaping and the last had powerful call. They did more tik damage Each hit a tiny bit, but magic dmg with high accuracy and they could stay healed up.

Setting up Eltol to get fairies and roll out like 6 attacks with regaining ap and pp is nice.

My main 100% "win every time" unit is Alain and Amalia front line. Rosalinde, Auch, and Rolf backline. Rosalind has ice conferral, Auch nukes, Rolf kills backline with row shot. Alain guards and dishes out great row damage. Amalia of course deletes columns with Penetrate and any high health enemy with Omega Shatter. None of them can be debuffed or afflicted due to equipment.

I think Rosalinde and Eltolinde are both top tier of course with great damage output while Rosalinde has even more damage and Eltolinde has some status cure and healing. Elven Archer is a good support class, Mystic conferral is a good buff, icicle arrow is good control, and it has great debuff cleanse and good healing even if it situational. Great to buff someone who does aoe damage and keep your frontline sturdy and backline not cc’d. Eleven fencer is kinda meh though, it’s alright with fliers to protect them from arrows but think it’s ap skills are far worse than elven archers since most of them are more damage focused and there is a massive lack of good mixed swords (there’s just none). Their damage is also hard to buff since it generally has lower potency on both sides so buffing one damage stat does less that it would for nearly any other class. lightning blade is nice as a good 1 ap stun but wish there was more utility to spend their ap on. Feels like it’s also trying to be an avo tank with some of its passives which it just does poorly compared to thief/rogue and werefox.

I agree the generic elves feel like slot efficient options, rather than specialists that are good at anything in particular. They feel much like soldiers, where I don't really want them taking up a slot until I get 4 or 5 in a squad, in which case, they're never the superstar, but they can be solid support options, given their generalist natures. Particularly, the archers are nice as both mixed damage attackers, anti-air, minor healing, and I believe they (I know the fencers can, but I haven't tried on an archer) can equip the conferral books. This means you can have a unit who can Book conferral (Flame, Thunder, Ice, Sanguine, etc.) as well as Magic conferral with an AP (since it doesn't fight with that limited "on attack" timing), as well as also protecting from debuffs. It is a cleric and a witch for those specific roles, but not as good as either at their job as general, same with being an archer. The sisters, though, can straight up be hard carries that are strictly better than any charge cheese as they have mixed potency on their board nukes (good in this game since it's basically just double potency, and the amounts are barely reduced from a regular attack in either category), get an aoe opening attack/heal, and perhaps most importantly, their nukes are instant, without any other support or cheese. You could even try recast shenanigans if you really wanted (I believe they can equip that item, but don't quote me on that), but you need an owl or some other way to grant pp back if you're using the opening attack (which you should because it gives you fairies, which buff your nuke). Not only are they less vulnerable to the counters like dispels and debuffs, but they also just straight up outdamage most charge attacks, and in cases where they don't, it's overkill anyway because they still one-shot. I guess after all that ranting, I didn't really mention fencers. The passive ranged evade to a teammate is neat. They're alright dodge tanks. Mixed attacking is still cool. They have decent initiative so the stun on their attack can be relevant. They might just be a bit TOO average, tbh. Their kit really just goes in whatever direction you gear them for (which is true for everyone, but theirs kind of feels like it depends on that). And they're just fair units in a game where unfairness reigns supreme. They're still "fine," but is that really where you want to be in a game where other characters are "broken?" They're still cool, though. Love your content and just wanted to leave a comment to help out the video, especially because I kind of like these types of videos (discussing roles of types of units) a bit more than the focus on one class and say how good or bad it is type videos. So I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. Hope you have a great day/week/life/whatever and keep it up with the fun content.

I think the key for the fencer might be using the Old Witch Ring. IIRC, it will nullify a magic attack and THEN give you 2PP. Playing with it. I call this out since it's the only offense class that can equip that ring.

I love Elven Archers mostly because of the debuff immunity. There are plenty of times that it helps *stop* bad stuff before it even gets applied. Best gorls, by far. But still, I usually stick one in an "Archer" group rather than an "Elf" group.

Alaine and Eltolinda have become the backbone of my “immortal” team eltolinda having cures and debuff removals as well as the nuke she gets at level 30? Yeah guess who got the maiden ring

While initially mediocre I think they're really strong late game. I have several powerful units that benefit from elf classes, but they do have some buildup and require some setup for sure.

As someone who is a fan and vet at SRPGs and hearing what the Elven Archer and Fencer can do, im scratching my head thinking how some people find these units underwhelming?

You had items on archer and fencer. They can't actually heal or give barrier at level 20

As someone who exclusively uses unique units and doesn't play with generics the elves were a god send to help me get more competent magic damage dealers in all of my squads and also to give me more options for blocking arrow attacks in my squads. Their dispel abilities are really nice if you want to go with a more "vampiric" approach meaning you're not going to have any healer classes that have dispel in your squad. Their healing rain is the best valor heal skill, it basically just keeps recasting heal II on your squads continuously if you set it up where you're going to engage a lot of enemy units, which is to say right where they have their garrison and surrounding towers. I get why people don't like them though if they're trying to run optimized unga bunga squads that kill the enemy before they even get to act. A lot of the elves' best skills are reactive in nature and completely unnecessary if you're just doing dragoon dive with a cat hood.

Yup, magical hybrid classes capable of having a tool kit of 3 different other classes in one. Allows them to cover weaknesses in existing builds as well as create totally new ones. Options is literally their focus lol.

These are some good points; I might try tossing one or two elves around. Having said that, the sisters are absolutely S tier. I don’t even care about their battle effectiveness, Swap Unit and Rescue are god tier mobility options. Toss Ros into a flying unit and swap her with a heavy hitter when she gets behind enemy lines, then Rescue that unit back to base with El after they do work.

I used an elven fencer as a dodge tank on my 1st play through. Archer and fencer felt mid tho overall. Fencer was ok with its column atk. The sisters tho. Very broken especially with the constant healing and aoe dmg late game with the fairies stacking.

I personally like there idea, cant wait to start playing this game as got finish FF7Ribirth first as I don't play 2 games at once.

I've got them as DPS and afliction set up for Barengaria. If they somehow dont kill the enemy unit, Ren comes in with a refunded pursuit and finishes them off.

the good thing about the elven sister is they work as cleric and mage at once since their healing and magic is absurdly strong late game, double elemental roar is just insane

Unless I misheard you, the game provides you with 2 unique elven archers. There's a guy and a girl. The elves are a great mix of magic skills with physical skills. With most of my 4 unit squads already setup with condition triggers and combos, it's hard to figure out where to add in elves. Right now I have the elves in a 10th unit by themselves to mess with. I have too many uniques and need more honor to get some 5 slots open once I finish promoting everyone. I can't recall all of my benched uniques, but since I have 2 flying units I did bench Celeste, Gammal, and Mandrin for now. I could swap them with other units, but will probably just add them in once I get a few 5 slots open or make them a unit and move the elves into existing units. I want to test out a unit with 1 shield breaker (the crossbow member with the great shield) and 2 fencers in the front. The back would be 2 elf archers in the back or 1 archer and something else. With the range of abilities and stats that the elves have, they are definitely a nice addition. I think all the complaints are from folks who either just want to OP their unit for 1 hit kills (which makes the game not as fun) or have trouble thinking outside the box for interesting synergy builds. I see videos about folks using the Trinity staff for 1 hit nuke squads. Sure that's a cool idea, but if you're just going to 1 unit the game to beat it as fast as possible and not mess around with other squads, then why bother.

rose and elly can't be in the same squad, in fact they can't be in any squad that has got an "at the start of battle" ability, since you can fire only one. For example, Alain has got the initiative +20 for everyone, can't be fired together with elly's or rose's fairy +1 ability since the trigger for both is "at the start of battle". It's never properly explained in the game.

“Passed around and used, NOT like that”

I dunno about expert, but on Tactitian a team of Alain, Virginia, Rosalinde, Yahna and Auch destroyed pretty much everything there is in the game. Rosalinde's 3AP storm buffed by Yahna just either kills most units or softens them up significantly.

Fencers being melee units that contribute to magic assist group damage makes them very good for a squad of 5 casters imo. They can "frontline" while they sit in a garrison and provide absurd magic damage but can actually properly take a fight every once in a while because they aren't just a unit of 5 sorceresses and warlocks and assists are honestly so strong in this game that most of what I do every mission on expert is completely play around them.

I can't honestly believe anyone would think either of the sisters were underwhelming. The fencers? Yes. They really don't have much of a place in optimized groups, but the sisters are both fantastic, and the archers can be used as buffers (haste) and supplemental damage, and even healing. Also, fencers costing 30 honor is ridiculous. They aren't remotely worth that. I would argue that if you're looking for a single unit to fill your "air" striker, then put a Gryphon in the group. They hit groups in the air, get you over all terrain and can self-haste movement. Or just use a Soldier with Javelin, or a Knight with the True Thrust spear. You could also just toss a sister in the group for pure overkill and have access to all of the spears as well as AoE attacks.

I think the main issue with elves is there aren't really a ton of magic weapons they can take advantage of in the mid-game. I'm like 75% of the way through Bastorias and I hardly have any weapons that give both magic attack and a skill to add some extra versatility with said magic stat. Like, both the elven sisters come with weapons that also give them faeries when used, which in turn makes it difficult to switch a new, different weapon onto them, because it'll ruin their dps potential overall. So you can switch on a physical weapon onto elves instead and they'll perform decently enough, but then they simply feel like lesser versions of classes you already have that can dish out far more damage than the elves are able to. I was so excited when I found the Steelspell weapons early in Bastorias, but then realized they only have like 2 more magic than the greatwood ones I already had equipped on them with none of the stat benefits. Like I said, I'm only partly through the game, and I do have most of my elves on a few teams, but unless something changes in Albion, I really doubt that the elves can be considered high tier. Aside from Rosalinde and Etolinde, for obvious reasons, they're just absolutely broken.

I definitely agree. I was somewhat unimpressed by the elven archer until I learned they could equip a lot of the support caster items. An elven archer with a monk's mitre is a quite capable damage/healing hybrid because they have really good magical attack (which healing scales of). And as magical archers, they can do a good chunk to both fliers and armored units. The elven fencer imo has a clear role in any flying comp, pretty much wholly replacing fighters/vanguards. They provide similar protection as fighters to ranged attacks. They can punch through armored units, which flying units can ignore but can't really deal with. Their lightning blade is pretty much just a magical, stronger version of shield bash too. Their passives have very specific use cases, but that's not a problem when you can equip accessories like the conferral tomes. And of course, both of them deal with debuffs that become increasingly prevalent. My main issue with the elven classes is their limited weapon options. Most swords, bows and spears with bonus stats or special abilities deal pure physical damage. So you can't use a lot of weapons without tanking your magical damage/healing. It can make building them incredibly awkward.

Elven fencers are also one of the very few classes that can equip conferral tomes so that's another niche they can fill if your witches are needed elsewhere.

Man. I am already at Albion now and trying to figure out how to use my Angel Units.

Any soldier or wilderness survival expert worth their salt carries a good pocketknife. Chloe and her brothers and sisters in Soldier / Sergeant class and the elves are the pocketknives of the game. To this day (in Drakenhold) My Alain squad still relies heavily on the additional support that Sgt. Chloe offers; she can heal, she can stab a column, she can snipe at fliers and casters. Plus I gave her the Phantom Lance (or w/e it's called) that lets her hurt armor, as well.

Technically speaking, if we treat unisex classes as two separate versions of the same class there’s four generic Elven classes; unlike the other two non-human races, they actually have unisex classes (Elven Archer and Elven Fencer, natch). But it’s the same same for Bestrals (Were-bear/fox/owl/wolf) and Angel (Feather-sword/bow/shield/staff) having four generic options; it’s just they are gender-locked. And of course I am not touching on special classes which only certain characters have; that’s a whole other point not part of this one.

Its weird for the elves to have the lowest amount of classes. All of them are mixed physical and magical yet they primarily have magical attacks. I love using them though. But i wish they had more, like a mounted class, or a class that used axes

didn't know anyone thought they weren't S tier. Rosa and Elto were keystones of my two strongest units. Setting up an elemental roar group is so fun

Well Rosalinde and Eltolinde are like the best casters in the game but I do understand that fencers and archer's hybrid roles can be confusing. I'll say that Elven archers are very simple in the fact that you can slap them in any backline an they'll provide value by being half dps half support with no investment whatsoever. They can become half healers with the right equipment. Fencers are a bit more complex because they really do not excel at anything, they are actually quite weak on their own due to having low damage, no healing and not that much utility either BUT they are perfect for complex support builds thanks to their 1AP multi target attacks with built-in additional effects. They are best suited to use particular accessories to round out a unit's weakness. I have Railanor in my main Alain unit's backline with 4PP, the accessory that applies Guard Seal on the next attack AND the accessory that counters any attack with Poison and Blindness and she makes the unit unbelievably stronger.

The healer and fencers are great. The archers seem to just be worse than both clerics and human archers by trying to be both

Fencers are tricky because they're kind of bad without conferral tomes, and they're not super reliable at frontlining. The archers are weird too, their niche is questionable, but selfless heal is also really slept on. Both classes suffer a lot from being locked to their base weapons though, since their kits are based around magic damage.

2 fencers in front row. 1 archer, 1 auger and Cybil in back row. How hard is that. For me they kick arse. Easy group to put together.

I was hoping there would be more variety in the elves and bestrals. They feel undercooked.

It seemed pretty apparent to me that the Elven classes were good, especially the two uniques. They enable other units so well, and eventually get OP board nukes. People need to look at units under the lens of “what problems can this solve,” or “what can this enable.” And then it becomes easier to see how to use different units.

As a wise dwarf once said "Never tust an elf!"

I have a full elf squad and they’re one of my strongest so maybe I’m missing something lol

My struggle with elven units so far is that their weapon selection is extremely limited. Finding weapons that suit their hybrid magic/physical skills, leaning magical, is annoying for swords/spears/bows. I can't seem to find many more weapons that suit them outside of a few things you find in Elheim.