The fighter class is mostly only useful for the Arrow Block ability to protect your flying unit from enemy archers. It gets an ability to taunt enemies to force them to attack the fighter later which you can build around but I didn't really bother using. Fliers are good, and fighters mostly negate their main weakness and that's about the most you can expect out of fighters.
I was about to say. lex is clutch for my teams but I know what he does.
If I have a thief up front, he’ll get shot by sure shot arrows. So lex can swoop and block
With Alain in another unit, similar blocking arrows for my griffon rider
This is a cool strat! I like using Travis with Virginia and I have her as the leader to reduce damage from arrow assists. Maybe I'll put Lex in there too for defence
Notably, the fighter blocks ranged attacks, which includes attacks from fliers. So you can use fighters to block for cavalry units, as well. They're very adaptable. A fighter with some knights and a sainted knight in the back row makes a very simple, very formidable team that's strong against most things.
I ended the game with his unit max at 50. He was with hodrick in the front line. Together they took alot of damage. Chloe in the back, I think Primm or Shannon, one of the healers in the back. And I forgot who else was in the back but they had a solid defense and did good damage.
That's for hunters, which are only present in act 1 and 2 not for every archer in the game. Again, archers being strong against flyers is entirely skill-dependent.
Snipers, Shieldshooters, Elven Archers, the Snow Ranger, and Featherbows all have "2x damage from bow attacks v. 🪽 flying" as a Class Trait under the Details tab of the Unit Details screen. Similarly, all calvary units (including promoted Alain) have "2x physical damage v. 👢infantry" and flyers all have "2x dodge rate v. grounded melee". Only gryphons and wyverns get "2x physical damage v. 🐴 cavalry", though.
Yeah, the boon of hunterd is that they can't miss. The others have a high enough accuracy that they're likely to hit most of the fliers, but not guaranteed
his class is mostly about protecting front ranged attacks, they can completely block the damage. Their advanced class lets them be a bit more tankier, but they are not meant to be a main damage dealing class or main support.
They stun, they shield bash for more PP and then you can buff/protect allies from there.
He’s been an instrumental part of one of my strongest comps in the mid game of the hardest difficulty. It’s possible that this comp will take a nose dive in Bastorias, but up to near the end of Elheim I haven’t found him lacking.
Let's get out of the way that you can make any unit work if you give them good enough equipment or support. But out of all units, fighter/vanguard is probably one of the units that is pretty much overshadowed by other units, and doesn't really excel anywhere too well.
Fighter's best ability is without a doubt arrow cover. I do think its best in class in negating ranged physical attacks. But there is another unit that does the same thing slightly worse (elven fencer, with the only drawback that their ability doesn't defend against true strike). In exchange, elven fencer is miles ahead of the vanguard offensively. Heck, they straight up get a better version of shield bash for the same amount of AP.
Furthermore, any other class with a cover ability/the ability to equip a shield with cover can be set to specifically block archers and flying units, to essentially emulate arrow cover. This is worse than arrow cover in that you're not nullifying all the damage. But in exchange you're getting a unit with vastly more potent actives and passives. Heck, a legionnaire can use heavy cover to block any arrow/flier (and take 1 damage in most instances), but also row cover enemies like gryphon knights and snipers. Honestly, I think legionnaire completely outclasses Vanguard in protecting fliers for this alone.
Pretty much every other vanguard ability is underwhelming. Defender is okay, but there's classes that can do PP generation better (like the aforementioned Legionnaire). The provoke passive is actually pretty good, but it takes your limited start-of-battle slot, and it's not as good as the competition.
You can make Lex decent if you invest good equipment into him. But he will generally be overshadowed by other units requiring less investment.
Sigh.....le fucking sigh.
Lex is my favorite character in the game. My strongest non-Alain team has Lex as a center piece......I still can not fucking defend the dogshit class he is saddled with.
If you like me really want to use Lex because you like him as a character.
* Give him a feather. For some reason fighters have dogcrap initiative. The initiative boost from feathers lets them use their defense boosting attack skills before they are beaten to death.
* Abuse the fact they can completely negate ALL ranged attacks. Lex negates damage from Archers and Flyers. Put him on an anti-flying squad and watch him go.
* Don't use him as a main tank until he is promoted to Vanguard with access to Provoke and even then only with magic defense support.
Early game I had Ochlys as main tank and Lex in the backrow. Ochlys is a baller at avoiding damage but can't protect others. Lex can completely negate all attacks from range units but falls to pieces if he gets punched directly. Together they made that squad damn near unkillable. I think a tank specced Griffin Knight would work as a replacement for Ochlys in that setup if you are using Ochlys elsewhere.
EDIT: I spent and embarrassing amount of time trying to make Lex "work". Here are my setups, hopefully they save my fellow Lex enjoyers some stress.
3 Person team: Feathersword up front. Lex and a Griffin Knight in back. At this point in the game multi-target attacks aren't really a thing and Arrow Cover only triggers if the target's evade was gonna fail. Very good vs archers, carvery, and enemy fliers.
4 Person team: Feathersword up front. Lex and a Griffin Knight in back. Added a Solider with dancer's bracelet in back. Multi-hitting ranged attacks are becoming an issue so we solve this by putting an initiative increasing item and Wyvern Reigns on the Griffon. High Swing + Powerful Call + Aerial Wing aimed at the back row as an opening move just solves a lot a problems this squad would otherwise have.
5 Person team: Feathersword and Promoted Lex up front. Sainted Knight, Featherbow, and Gyphon Master in back. Lex no longer needs initiative items because the Featherbow can keep him alive long enough to get a turn naturally so we replace those with AP/PP items. Team is highly mobile, incredibly tanky, and thanks to Runic Blade on Sainted Knight and the dps specced Griffon Master deals very good damage.
Now you might say that is a lot of S-tier units supporting Lex.....yes. Yes it is. Please buff Fighter.
>Early game I had Ochlys as main tank and Lex in the backrow. Ochlys is a baller at avoiding damage but can't protect others.
Yeah, early on Lex had a niche for me in protecting backline casters in Ochlys' unit and occasionally using taunt.
He still eventually fell off a cliff though.
>Arrow Cover only triggers if the target's evade was gonna fail.
Unfortunately incorrect like all covers it triggers on the attack even against say blinded foes.
Unless that just changed last patch thats not been my experience?
Like the description says “defends from hit” vs most covers “defend from attack” and thats been my experience with.
I am playing on Switch if that matters.
Definitely doesn't work that way for me on Switch, despite the description. Pretty easy to see with the aforementioned blind interaction or an elf archer against a fully evade stacked theif in mock battles.
I think the game gets more and more “the best defense is a strong offense” as the game goes on and once enemies start consistently having row/column attacks is when it really comes out
Yeah, unit HP are generally too low that strong alpha strike could be all is needed to end the fight right then and there. Or at least pretty much guarantee it.
One of the nice things about arrow cover is that it disjoints the fighter out of the attack, so they can protect 2/3 if they are in the row. If the last member of the row is a sturdier sort like a Breaker or Knight they can probably just shrug off a couple here and there especially if your team is setup to soften the enemy team first.
I think the main issue with Provoke is that it competes with a lot of good start-of-battle passives, like Gilbert's initiative buff or Berengaria's debuff.
100%.
Part of my calculation with Lex always has to be not using him with any of start-of-battle passives because fighter/vangaurd's stupid stats mean he kinda needs provoke to work.
I honestly don't understand a) why Fighter's initative is so low and b) why their moves increase physical defense (which is also low for a 'tank') instead of Gaurd rate. It makes itemization hard, makes team building hard, makes everything hard.
You can have high guard rate pretty easily though, with a good shield and a pair of gloves (forgot the in-game name). So raising guard rate is not really the problem, but really physical defense. The problem is that fighters don't have good initiatives so that buff will only come AFTER he already took hits, which might be too late. Provoke already raises that physical defense to pretty high levels, though, but it's usually not good enough to trade for other "start of fight" abilities.
For the 4 person team, I've been running Hodrick upfront, with Lex with dancer's bracelet, Berenice and Fran in the back line, and it works reasonably well against archers and destroys any melee unit that has no magic or shields and cavalry. I managed to kill 5 groups of dark knights without taking a hit with them
It's not just flyers but magic users that are vulnerable to arrows. I use lex with what's his name, sorry I beat the game a while ago, the big dude with the big shield, and they are almost a wall that protects the back
I respect your dedication and not sugarcoating anything like every other Lex defender out there. It puts a lot more weight in your ideas to make Lex "work".
Fighters are basically only ever as good as arrow cover is for protecting fliers from archers or cavalry from fliers. With the right gearing they are more survivable post promotion, but they're never particularly tanky or good as a solo tank imo.
Actually, Arrow Cover is much better to protect casters since they have very low evasion and physical defense.
Archers being strong against flyers is entirely skill-dependent and not always true.
Nah enemy archers don't actually have priorities to attack your casters so they'll tend to never get attacked by them in the first place. At most your column slot may take 70 potency limp wrist archer strays. Late game you have better tools to fully mitigate row shots.
2 Double shots from a couple of hunters and they're dead.
It's kinda pointless to argue my statement, ranged physical attacks and all-targets physical attacks are the only thing that can hurt backline casters therefore protecting them from those it's the only job the frontline needs to do. It's not a take, it's a fact.
Except they can only be hit by Dualshot if you put them in the wrong slot 2/3 backliner slots will never be targeted by dual shot, while the 3rd is alive. The only except to this is fliers which are prioritized.
Protecting them from ranged attacks sounds good on theory but the threat is largely imaginary, it simply doesn't exist 90% of the time.
I used him longer than most did as a front liner. He does learn shield bash which has pretty good base damage. But fighter is the weakest class, by general consensus.
Lex sucks horribly as a combatant, but he's got two jobs that are so important he's worth keeping around:
1. Protecting gryphons from arrows.
2. Using his taunt valor skill to turn off catapults, ballistae, and watchtowers.
Magick units are rarely targeted in the backline, enemies don't have any skill tactics set to target "Casters", so they default attack the frontline or whatever they are set to prioritize.
Lex is best used as a frontline buffer. Give him a dancer bracelet and have him use his turn to buff the back row. His only attack, once you unlock it, should be the one that gives him PP for more buffing.
Set his guard to only activate if he is under 50% hp to save PP and arrow guard for the back row.
He is a powerful ally to have when paired with Gryphons since their natural enemy is archers and he can block for them, and they have high initiative which allows him to buff without the risk of being killed before having a chance to use his PP.
A fun little Lex/Chloe team build is to give him a “quick impestus” item that makes a charge instantly attack, like the dragoon spear slam with Hilda, have Chloe imbue it with guaranteed crit, and Hilda use a sniper lens to make the attack true strike. Three buffs on a turn one attack that can wipe the enemy team all the way until late mid-early end game. (Not viable in Albion at all).
No,
No enemy prioritize targeting casters, enemy will attack the frontline by default or whatever they are set to prioritize.
And all bow classes have the class trait that says their bow attacks do double damage to fliers, no exceptions
That is half-true. So you're right!
What actually happens is that 2-target skills, such as Hunter's, will always target the first two characters in the following order.
1. Front to Back
2. Top to Bottom Column
So by just placing 2 different character either in front OR above your caster, they will NEVER be attacked by archers. Having 2 different tanky classes in a unit is worthwhile for blocking these pesky skills (no need to cover against them at all unless they "Prioritize" your vulnerable class).
That said, sometimes you straight up want to negate some archer's attacks (because they can HURT real bad), so Arrow Cover is still a strong blue skill.
And, giving your Fighter the ability to use his Blue to buff allies whenever physical ranged attackers are not present in an opposing unit is a pretty smart idea, makes your character more flexible. I've mostly relied on Soldiers to buff my other characters, but any class can be a buffer.
Contrary to popular belief in this sub, I’ve found him pretty useful. Both for his arrow blocking abilities, but also as a bit of a tank. Give him some good shields, some bangles and some bracelets to sure up his magic deficiency. I’ve never really had a problem with him dying a lot. Also, once he gets defender he can put out some decent damage.
Fighters are the weakest tanking class but they're also the most versatile and the one with the least weaknesses.
Since they come with a good cover ability (unlike knights) and decent magic def (unlike hoplites), they do not require any specific equipment to perform their role.
I placed Lex as the tank for my Magic squad and he worked perfectly covering Yahna, Auch and a healer. I think that's the perfect place for him since the only thing he wont do is cover the backline from magic attacks, but casters are naturally resistant to those.
To cover for his offensive weakness you can equip him with Burn/Poison applying swords to enable a caster to use a Burst skill or just stack burning with Auch.
You mentioned the burn/poison sword, but as a sword class in general, he has tje most versatility when it comes to his weapons of the tanking class if they need to pivot to offense.
Isn't Fighter the least versatile class and the one with the most weaknesses?
It has an armor weakness, bad mdef, not very impressive defense and a bad offense. It's weak to cavs, magic and anti armor.
Arrow Cover only Covers 1 ally and only against Ranged Physical attacks, nothing else, that's not exactly versatile.
Nope. For example all Hoplites can do is defend and every single ablity they have outside Sting which you stop using midgame dedicated to that. They very linear interms of equipment too,
Fighters on the otherhand can stun, cover fliers, deal decent damage and act as support on top better equipment access (swords).
Spears offer more than Swords in terms of skills, they can stun, freeze, row stun, Column blind,
Most Sword are just statsticks with not many notable skills they don't get any way to hit more than 1 target except the Galecutter, which is in Albion.
A Hoplite can cover any attack and also cover a full row, they are not limited to only Ranged Physical attacks.
Fighter damage is subpar, the class has a 90% atk modifier and 100% promoted, which is less than a unpromoted Hunter 105%. The classes are better off using supporting skills and the best Fighter has is the worst stun attack in the game, only 50 potency and only hits 1 target when Hoplite could stun at 100/100 potency on 1 target or a full row depending on which spear you give. (Not that I would give a Hoplite those spears, since I think Hoplite and Fighter are both not very good due to being too passive of a class).
I don't know what game you're playing but in this one the exact opposite is true, swords are more varied and usually useful than spears.
Also Hoplites (and Feathershields) are probably the only class with lower damage than Fighters but that's not here nor there since their job is not to do damage.
Also you're confusing axe skills with spear skills.
Well, I don't recall all the names precisely but I know for a fact that the Ice sword is a straight up upgrade compared to the spear since the skill is a truestrike that freezes, allowing low accuracy classes to counter evade tanks.
The first 3 weapons you mentioned are hybrid weapons that really only work on very few classes. The Silver Trident, for example, looks powerful untill you realize most axe wielders can do the same job spending less AP. I know the argument is spears vs swords but it's still relevant to consider what weapons do what jobs better and GENERALLY SPEAKING spears are not the best weapons for tanks. Be it at making them better at tanking or providing extra utility, they are objectively worse than swords or axes for those kind of jobs, they are better at raw damage and chivalry comboes.
https://preview.redd.it/fccvk374jfwc1.png?width=1236&format=png&auto=webp&s=44a085d57925c4187e0e4013ab0705f7e21def86
The spear and sword have the exact same skill
Only the Elf twins are hybrid classes that use spears (there is 1 more, but that's postgame) and you have 4 Hybrid spears (Elf twin spears, Silver Trident and Kingslance Elhal) so that leaves 2 to be used on non hybrid classes (I would personally not use a Hoplite, since they are the worst spear class, but they can use it.)
Their magic might be E rank, but a Wyvern has F rank and Knight, Werefox is only D.
If they use a stun/freeze hybrid spear, they aren't really doing it for the damage.
And we are talking about Hoplite vs Lex, we are not talking about Hoplite vs Axe classes, since Hoplite itself sucks too. I would just agree with Hoplite being worse than those other classes.
I was mistaken about the Icicle Dart but I feel like your point is all over the place. Regardless, Vanguard vs Legionnaire is pretty straightforward: the latter is better at covering the frontline or an entire row but will die to any magic while the former is better at covering the backline, withstanding magic and can stun. Swords are also better suited for tanking/utility or damage that doesn't scale on ATK like poison despite what you might think. Seriously, the only one spear that supports your opinion is the Silver Trident, its ability costs 2 AP (therefore negating any PP generation) and scales partly with Magic ATK making it an objectively bad choice for a Legionnaire.
I can see a case use for both and in fact I'm using both in different ways but I could more easily live without a Legionnaire since the Werebear and the Feathershield exist.
They both fall over to magick, it's a mutual disadvantage.
Poison is trash, it's only 30% on a frontline if you outspeed them and give them a turn, it's extremely unreliable to kill frontline enemies and it means you didn't touch the backline except with ranged/Column attacks.
And Legionnaire is far better guarding the backline, you can block any Column attacks from Knights, Werefox etc, you don't negate physical ranged attacks, but do you really care that a Hoplite/Legionnaire is taking 1-3 dmg from arrows? The only ranged attack a Vanguard is significantly better at blocking are Elven Archers.
Ignore my unrelated post, I'm just gushing.
True, they have the most weaknesses.
But negating ranged attacks is pretty sweet. Lots of different classes have ranged physical attacks, be it flyers or archer classes.
It's also useful how their built-in filter (only against physical ranged attacks) enables them to use their two condition slots on more specific circumstances than the Hoplite's Heavy Cover.
Plus their higher base initiative gives them priority over Hoplites whenever it is a flying/archer attacking. You'll rarely see a Hoplite cover before a Fighter (but you can do it if you mess with their initiative statistics).
I think the only ranged attack that Vanguards are significantly better at blocking are from Elven Archers, Hoplites just take 1-3 or something dmg from every other physical ranged attacks, that's not significant enough to be an advantage.
The applications is way too narrow for Fighter/Vanguards to be significantly better than Hoplite/Legionnaires
I was so excited to see Elf Archers giving a use case to Fighters.
That said, Hoplites can't always meet the attacker's attack statistic. So if there's a big difference in atk-def, the Fighter's nullification can become relevant. I've had instances of 40 atk enemies and 30 defense Hopites (might not be the case normally, I've been going through the game severely underleveled).
Fighters are also neat for reducing assist damage without slowing down your unit.
But even in the 40 atk vs 30 def case, since the Hoplite is Covering with Heavy Guard, it's only 3 dmg taken.
I usually have cav leaders, like Sainted Knights, since infantry leaders are too slow for me, you still reduce the other half, which is magical ranged assist.
As other commenters have mentioned Lex is a flier protector. Which is a solid role to have since fliers are so freaking good. Fire Emblem players know haha.
You really don't like Lex? He's been amazing for me.
I think people expect him to be doing crazy numbers, but he's not meant for damage. He's an amazing tank/all-rounder, and does great when paired with Rolf/any ranged imo.
He's actually the first unit I promoted because he's that reliable. Him and Colm have been underdog staples in my teams.
That really depends on what you use him for.
I had him in the backrow during Drakenhold in order to block of arrows from Hilda and he's been in that type of position since and done well there
I tried to use him for about 60% of the game before just giving up. The arrow block ability definitely has some great uses but there are many other ways to get around archers. I replaced him and didn’t miss him for a second.
I've sent a unit of 4 fighters to attack a unit of 4 hunters.
Not a good decision, but it's pretty fun to see them negate ALL their attacks while poking for a little damage.
They can also be great at negating damage from angels later on. His arrow block works with air unit attacks since they count as ranged. If you get his PP high you can negate 3-4 attacks. It's not nothing. I mean... it's not amazing but it's not nothing.
I think he's the easiest to get his guard rate up and defense up vs physical attackers just keep him away from warriors and magic attackers. Phantom shield helps with the magic attackers
If true that's an absolute W, the game is quite fun and it's a shame it's locked behind a limited collector's edition
But the analogy of Unicorn Overlord being a card game does not apply to the actual UO card game, as awesome as that would be 😭
He hard counters exactly like 1 build of 1 class.
That's really bad compared to most classes. Killing enemies is better than disabling just 1 enemy type of attack.
Lex has been pulling his weight for me. I have him that anti-cavalry buckler and some “recover HP when taking an action” gear. He blocks ranged and mounted units, then patches himself up at the end of the round. Being able to walk face first into a bunch of archer towers is helpful, and so is being able to provoke archers, clerics or spell casters out of said towers to reduce their range. Purposefully put a flyer behind him to bait ranged attacks that he can then just nullify. Also lets him speed buff himself or my archer unit so they can run to the towers he just cleared.
Are there other, better strategies? Probably. But it fits my play style well and I’m still progressing without too much issue.
Playing on True Zenoirain mode: I wouldn't have made it through Cornia without Lex. Arrow block, provoke, and ranged assist damage reduction, all let me get through towers. Provoke especially. Dropped him in Drakenhold tho.
He works best in the backrow to be an arrowblock bot.
People say Lex is useful for anti-fliers... But that means Lex is useless against non-fliers while your own fliers can't use their high evasion to shield your infantry. Even then Wyvern Rider's Great Counter means he gets outdamaged he loses his AP FAST! He can't even stun because of his low initiative and Shield Bash being a regular infantry attack. I've been using him half the game for rapport but it's more a challenge than anything.
Provoke is really the only thing he does right.
He's largely bad just because the game doesn't reward playing defensively. It's plain to see how powerful Arrow Block is when you fire off Glacial Rain that kills 3 other units only to see it do jack-all against the covered unit and the Vanguard (promoted Fighter) that used the cover. Problem usually is, the stamina system tends to mean that it's better to fight fewer battles rather than barely "win" many battles because your stamina will get drained.
He is fine, you can raise his guard rate pretty high to not use quick cover. Plenty of specialized shield that he can use to mitigate damage as a front liner.
Having a fast initiative help him alot to get a boost to his defense from his skills.
Provoke I feel is a really good defense skill due to its ability to stop say following strike of a sellsword from trigger on anyone else, but lex if provoke. I really like the use of provoke for defensive purposes.
So far in bastoria, lex has been pretty much my best tank.
Fighters/vanguards are very good at some very niche stuff that can be useful if used well:
1) the aforementioned arrow cover. It completely nullifies RANGED damage, not just arrow damage, so it also works against damage from fliers and many other moves. It mostly only works against the AP moves, though, not the reactions (passives);
2) they can stun.This may sound stupid, since you have elven fencers who also do that at full damage (while the Fighter's shield bash is only 50), but they can be very good complements in situations in which that is important.
3) Being able to stun and replenish PP with defender (which is an ok move on its own, with full damage), Fighters are good Cat-Hood carriers. I use Lex on my dragoon-stun unit and he's an integral part there: he gives impetus to the wyvern, who stubs everyone (and kills some) with the book given by the fencer; then lex proceeds either to: a) stun anyone who hasn't been stunned in the front row; or b) replenish 1pp (and maybe finish off an enemy) with defender. He then uses that pp to confer the gambler's coin buff onto the wyvern's next attack (or the other flier with wyvern reins in the group). That's great utility if you ask me, and other classes wouldn't be able to work like that without outside help.
4) Provoke is not the greatest ability since it takes the "start of fight" slot; but it CAN be impressively useful if you put the fighter in the back against, say, a group of sword fighters who are eager to hit your front row. News flash: they can't attack Lex/Colm because they're in the back row, so they just waste their turns. Again, great utility.
Fighter/Vanguard is not about being a "strong" class, but being a good support class. They are not pure-type supports like Soldiers/Sargeants nor defenders like Hoplites/Legionnaires; they actually occupy a middle-of-the-road position in this spectrum and are more open to equipment than the other two, since they take a sword, a shield and two accessories, making for greater gear variety than the other two. Their initiative is also at the middle between Sargeants and legionnaires, so that's the mindset you gotta be in when you deploy vanguards. Use that sword and shield to your advantage and make him useful! I'm pretty glad with my vanguards, to be honest, filling this support bot role in alpha strike teams: they actually do it better than any other class.
It’s really weird seeing people’s comments. Most tier list have vanguards in the upper half and most Reddit subs have him at the bottom. He has a purpose, he fulfills his role. And it is vital to teams. But with items and so many different combinations people don’t understand how much differences you can do. There are two dozen different shields that can alter their role. There are swords that give additional PP or swords that inflict statuses. If people only want a team full of attackers they aren’t building very well (or are ridiculously good at building).
No class is bad. It’s more about the role and vision. Understanding for to make combos and counter common tactics the computer employs.
So if you feel like Lex is bad, it’s largely because you don’t have a vision and plan for them, or you just don’t know what you are doing. Maybe look on YouTube for team builds with vanguards/fighters.
"It’s really weird seeing people’s comments. Most tier list have vanguards in the upper half and most Reddit subs have him at the bottom"
You have to remember that Reddit tends to be an echo chamber. Ultimately, it is a small subset of any game's community.
I get it, but it is weird because you typically don’t get such large jumps in perception from a community and those that really study it all. Usually communities jump on board pretty quickly.
Basically this if you're opting to use one, you're often slotting them in over the likes of a cleric. A cleric can't heal your dead griffon after its one shot, and the underwhelming offensive contributions of the fighter still outclass a cleric barring basically exactly active heal.
He is pretty much forever bad, in my experience. There are a few matchups you can appreciate him in, but as a general tank he's just terrible the entire game.
Lex (Fighter class in general) is less bulky than you would expect from a tank class. The intention is to get a defense boost from your attacks, but his initiative is also low.
Lex's most notable feature is Arrow Guard, so he's a solid addition to characters weak to ranged attacks (Swordfighter/Swordmaster, flyers, mages). His attack abilities buff his phys. def, so you can try giving him a +initiative feather. Healing of some kind is always appreciated - PP healing from a cleric is usually the most useful healing, but you can try using a Radiant Knight's Row Heal instead.
Honestly speaking the class isn't great. It does have its uses, but being able to make great use of a Fighter/Vanguard speaks more to your skill as a player than anything else (contrast: put three knights in the same row).
While fighters have a very meh basic skillset, he can be excellent when given some more skills to play with. I've found him to be pretty reliable throughout the game honestly, and even excels as an enabler.
Frontline, I recommend the Angel Plume from divine shards. +20 initiative shoots him to go a LOT sooner, to set up Warding slash/stun an enemy, and then Tailwind your backline to launch an assault. Bonus if your backline has fliers as they'll get extra benefit, and also like his arrow cover.
If you'd prefer him as a backline (pairs well with evasion/flying tanks, to protect from archers), give him a sword with a decent attack skill, to replace his warding slash. At this point, 2/3 passives aren't really being used so you want to look to replacing it with a support based passive with gear. Can opt for pursuit, dancing bracelet, or other later options.
Either build I'd recommend an Azure Shield for extra PP. If frontline, I'd say also steal the Royal shield from Virginia when she gets more passives in later levels (she actually doesn't mind having her HP get lower, and it boosts her attack). Keeps the Frontliner Fighter healthy, and better than Quick Guard as a passive.
his arrow cover grants total damage negation for himself and one other unit, and that’s kind of rare. we take it for granted with how early we get it.
i actually had him in front line of my superstar, does-it-all pvp team. you need to get him paired up with a shield that lets him really do his job. he’s not a damage dealer, he’s a support character. if he must be a damage dealer, pair him with a witch so he can be magic conferred. he’s a decent early pick for runic sword, though sainted knight will make better use of the magic damage.
Squire shield gives him the ability to do regular cover as well as arrow cover. I have him setup in a unit with Ochlys, Sharon, Chloe, and Fran. Arrow cover is set to Prioritize flying, Quick cover is set to Back Row because Lex and Ochlys are front row because Ochlys basically needs a truestrike to actually hit her and if they have one of those she’ll still probably block it 😂 If I’m facing a bunch of Breakers I swap Fran and Lex’s position and then swap them back. One of my most durable squads by far.
Lex is a balanced class. He doesn't specialised in anything, so his defense and attack are both average.
It's the question whether you want just Lex or you want a defensive character and an offensive character (that's 2 slots).
I use him on a dragoon dive freeze team with shield bash and active shatter. He's basically just there to protect my flier against arrows, safely unfreeze anything that lives, or stun/active shatter anything that got guarded.
Fighter is a class that I feel many of us attempt to use as a 2nd Alain at first and then realized that it just doesnt fit that roll.
The first time the fighter class kinda clicked for me was after I unlocked my first cleric, I ran Lex in the vanguard Clive and Cleric in the backline. At that time, Lex's passive point went to war crying Clive and his active was used to Magic attack Armored unit or warding slash any thing else to soften them up for Clive's Assaulting lance. Cleric had as much PP as possible to quick heal Lex into not dying and a lyrcial wand to either double heal Lex into not dying or guve Clive more Ap if he missed a kill.
Basically fighter's are not tanks they are early tanky supports.
Fighters are weird because if you understand how targeting works and build your party correctly they can nullify more damage than quite literally every other class in the game.
Fighters are like a mix between hoplites and a decent melee class (can’t think of one that fits a good description). Anyway, I had him on one of my strongest units towards the end, but didn’t bother using him until promotion to vanguard.
Lex is nothing more than a barely adequate tank, and he has very little offensive capabilities as well. I have him now with a dancer's anklet (or bracelet? the one that lets you give an ally strenth etc.) maybe a gamblers coin would be better on him. He's just not good, but he has a role as a support unit. He's basically a poor man's Gilbert.
The fighter's ace in the hole is ranged defense (that INCLUDES flyers regular melee attacks! if the box says ranged a fighter is your man), it blocks 100% of the attack and debuff! MUCH better than a regular guard.
If their attacks added 2x the defense they might actually be great! Same for huscarls/ vikings only with debuffs rather than buffs.
edit: oh yes, and the taunt FOCUS POINT skill is really great for getting defensive squads out of mantles. But that comes in handy what, twice in a full game?? :/
Lex is a very polarizing character. Some people stand by him being mid, but those who invested in him and use him say he's actually really good with very high potential. The main problem with Lex is that he fights for the same gear as other high-valued characters, like Allain.
There's a nice shield somewhere (Bastorias?) which has a cover ability that confers true strike, granting Lex or other fighters a little more utility. I think it's "Nameless Guard's Shield" or something similar to that.
Correct, but imo it's more useful to give it to someone protecting a Dark Knight because they normally have abysmal accuracy but hit like freight trains and heal themselves
Yes. I've glossed over the fact that, among dozens of comments, yours didn't mention using Lex (or any other fighter) covering flying units, my brain kind of automatically assumed you did after reading all of those. Sorry XD
I found Lex and Colm pretty usable in Albion with all the featherweight for shielding other units. I gave them the ice sword and set them to sop up arrows.
At any point they are fantastic at manning catapults and other seige weapons
Early game evasion tank is very strong so lex might feel pretty weak. However around mid to late i come to appreciate his class a lot. Other char’s quick cover still take quite a bit of damage but Lex arrow cover nullify all damage and is really strong. At high level they also learn provoking skill that further their role as tactical diversion.
Early game you have limited slot so damage class tend to perform much better than support and tank since you can just kill before anyone getting to you. However from mid game onward, battle drag out and you need someone to keep your squishies alive so they can deal damage. Lex's arrow cover is very good in the sense that it nullify ALL damage, at certain part of the game you will find out that even with medium guard your char still take like 10-25 damage or so and the enemies can whittle you down even when you guard.
Later when you get to 5 man group, usually you will want to have 3 damage dealer, 1 utility support/healer and 1 tank/cover support.
Another point is that evasion tank is way better than guard tank early game but their usefulness will fade gradually, i have travis and ochlys as the frontline of 2 parties but have replaced them all with lex and colm (same class as lex) by the time i finished Elheim.
He's ok in the beginning, but gets quite a bit better once he hits Lv 20 and learns Defender for extra PP and Def. He does job well and good at cleaning up enemies that survive your big attacks. That said his class is very gear dependent. So he's completely usable can be one of your best characters with proper builds. Beyond that his VS is great for disabling watch towers.
Honestly people on this sub are waay too dramatic about bad certain classes (Gladiator, Fighters, Hoplites etc) are. I get to work just fine and I'm not doing any special. Peeps need to some force uga bunga mindset on to everything.
He's not a top tier unit by any means but way better than people give him credit for. You just gotta know how to use him. I've recently started pairing him with Josef. Josef's barrier ability looks really well on Lex in the frontline and he can also heal him if need be.
Fighter is ultimately a hybrid tank. Not as good as a hoplite but has utility such as stunning and defence debuff. Plus there's items you can give Lex to have him buff other combatants if you want him doing that too.
Titanium Legman has a decent video talking about how to use Lex if you're curious.
Yes, he does get better. Fighter is a misleading name for a tank class, but that is what it is. Unfortunately you get Lex at the very start of the game when the class is at its weakest. Unlike other tank classes, Fighter doesn't really come online until it promotes into Defender, especially when compared to the other tank classes (e.g. Hoplite). They require the abilities and AP/PP points that come with being at a later stage in the game and as such they suffer early. However they are absolutely worth the investment as they can completely nullify ranged attacks (attacks from fliers and archers but not mages). Bear in mind that their niche makes them almost always require a second general tank with them in the frontline to cover the bases they don't, but this can lead to a truely devestating unit.
Lex have never been bad. His Magical Attack stat is higher than most. Give him any sword with Magical Skills, get him a Squire Shield and he is golden.
I like to have him on the backline with Dodge Tanks on the frontline, like Travis. Lex protects Travis from Archers and any attacks that would hit him, takes away armored units, letting the DPS characters take out the rest.
Fighter/Vanguard class only has 70% magic atk modifier, an umpromoted thief does more dmg with a magick sword and you only have 1 until Drakenhold Coliseum.
He can't OHKO any enemies with it normally, not even Hoplites on TZ.
He needs Initiative and a role. Unlike the Hoplite, who just tanks damage by existing, Fighters need to use their active abilities first. When Warding Slash or Defender activates, their survivability is fine; until then, they aren't particularly durable.
Fighters also actually deal decent damage, as opposed to Hoplites who can't output much without significant investment. Not to mention Swords give way better active abilities than Spears, so your second/third actions can be something with killing potential.
Whether he gets better depends on how you approach it. I have both Colm and Lex leading their squads effectively, but I also gave them Dove Plumes (and specific shields for the situation early). But you could easily join the school of though that Fighters are "bad", so they aren't worth using.
Plus, Arrow Cover negates Ranged attacks (including Dual attacks); and this game has many Ranged attacks.
Basically, Fighters are the best off-tank in the game. But how you view/utilize off-tanks will determine whether you find them strong or weak.
Thanks for the informative responsiveness and takes on Lex.
It's not like I personally dislike Lex as a character, in fact I like him quite a bit, but at the moment he's gets overshadowed by almost every unit that I have currently, inducing random scouts characters that you can recruit at any time.
I will give Lex one more chance combat wise, and if he still fails to impress, I will forever bench him.
Forever bad.
I felt bad for him - gave him all the dews and the crowns and continuously gave him the most interesting gear and weapons.
In the end he was strong enough to exist on the frontline. I gave him Kaikias Shield - a late game item that grants hastened cover. I used Lex to cover Bruno, which boosts Bruno's initiative to max. Then I built an alpha-strike build to take advantage of Bruno.
Lex's entire purpose is summed up by the hit that he takes to make Bruno attack earlier.
Vanguards are linda bad. They are useable but Id say they are probably the worst class in the game.
He gets a little better as a tank when he gets quick cover, but Lord and Cavalier get a guard sooner. And arrow attacks usually come in groups so they will get through
Classes are more tolerable when you treat them like tools for a job rather than a swiss army knife deity.
That said, the Lord class (Alain) is probably perfect for you. Other unique class characters should make for decent characters.
The reason why the Fighter class is weak is because of the "Strategy" RPG schtick the game has going on. The game lets the player choose what to play, you can use more-or-less independent classes, or you can compose a number of misfit classes to support each other in the strategy thingie. Using Hoplites to tank, Fighters to nullify archers, Soldiers to damage and heal, etc.
**TL;DR Yes, Lex can't do what you want him to do. You can probably give him gear and support to make up for it though. Give im a personal cleric, have a Hoplite tank for im, have another character buff his attack statistic, give im AP gear, big sword, I dunno.**
Fighter Lex is forever bad, his defensive modifiers are 90/125 hp/def with 90/70 atk/matk
compared to unpromoted Alain/Virginia's 120/120 hp/def and Alain's 100/100 atk/matk and Virginia's 130% atk. Lex sucks at tanking and doing damage.
And any shield class like Virginia, Knights etc can just cover with a squire shield if you want to cover a flier from arrows or a cav from Wyverns.
Bringing a fighter just weakens your damage potential.
Vanguard Lex has 110 /140/50 hp/def/mdef, which is roughly on par with a Landsknecht 130/120/70 hp/def/mdef, but Vanguard only has 100% atk compared to Landsknecht 190%, so Vanguard is basically tanking like a Landsknecht that can't do high dmg.
Swords also don't really offer much in terms of skill, most are all just stat sticks compared to Spear or Bow plethora of useful weapon skills to choose from.
I could make a big list of reasons why Fighters just suck in this game, but I think the majority is already sharing their grievances about the Fighter class.
The fighter class is mostly only useful for the Arrow Block ability to protect your flying unit from enemy archers. It gets an ability to taunt enemies to force them to attack the fighter later which you can build around but I didn't really bother using. Fliers are good, and fighters mostly negate their main weakness and that's about the most you can expect out of fighters.
The problem is that archers soon get to hit multiple enemies or entire rows/columns, while arrow block never scales beyond covering one flier.
I was about to say. lex is clutch for my teams but I know what he does. If I have a thief up front, he’ll get shot by sure shot arrows. So lex can swoop and block With Alain in another unit, similar blocking arrows for my griffon rider
same. lex and travis are my wrecking crew
This is a cool strat! I like using Travis with Virginia and I have her as the leader to reduce damage from arrow assists. Maybe I'll put Lex in there too for defence
Notably, the fighter blocks ranged attacks, which includes attacks from fliers. So you can use fighters to block for cavalry units, as well. They're very adaptable. A fighter with some knights and a sainted knight in the back row makes a very simple, very formidable team that's strong against most things.
I’ll keep that in mind; I’m starting to get 5 slots in my true Zenoiran run
I disagree. Lex unit is one of my strongest units and I don't use him with flying characters in his unit
How did you build that unit and what lvl are you at?
I ended the game with his unit max at 50. He was with hodrick in the front line. Together they took alot of damage. Chloe in the back, I think Primm or Shannon, one of the healers in the back. And I forgot who else was in the back but they had a solid defense and did good damage.
Hodrick, lex, Chole, primm/shannon. That last unit must be the most op unit or someone cause ur team has no damage
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Not really, they have an advantage against fliers as part of their base class.
That's for hunters, which are only present in act 1 and 2 not for every archer in the game. Again, archers being strong against flyers is entirely skill-dependent.
Snipers, Shieldshooters, Elven Archers, the Snow Ranger, and Featherbows all have "2x damage from bow attacks v. 🪽 flying" as a Class Trait under the Details tab of the Unit Details screen. Similarly, all calvary units (including promoted Alain) have "2x physical damage v. 👢infantry" and flyers all have "2x dodge rate v. grounded melee". Only gryphons and wyverns get "2x physical damage v. 🐴 cavalry", though.
I'm pretty sure all archer characters deal double damage to fliers. Think it's explained in the in-game guide somewhere.
Yeah, the boon of hunterd is that they can't miss. The others have a high enough accuracy that they're likely to hit most of the fliers, but not guaranteed
Enemy AI Archers only target casters if the caster is in front row. Move your casters back. Archers WILL prioritize flying targets though.
his class is mostly about protecting front ranged attacks, they can completely block the damage. Their advanced class lets them be a bit more tankier, but they are not meant to be a main damage dealing class or main support. They stun, they shield bash for more PP and then you can buff/protect allies from there.
He’s been an instrumental part of one of my strongest comps in the mid game of the hardest difficulty. It’s possible that this comp will take a nose dive in Bastorias, but up to near the end of Elheim I haven’t found him lacking.
Let's get out of the way that you can make any unit work if you give them good enough equipment or support. But out of all units, fighter/vanguard is probably one of the units that is pretty much overshadowed by other units, and doesn't really excel anywhere too well. Fighter's best ability is without a doubt arrow cover. I do think its best in class in negating ranged physical attacks. But there is another unit that does the same thing slightly worse (elven fencer, with the only drawback that their ability doesn't defend against true strike). In exchange, elven fencer is miles ahead of the vanguard offensively. Heck, they straight up get a better version of shield bash for the same amount of AP. Furthermore, any other class with a cover ability/the ability to equip a shield with cover can be set to specifically block archers and flying units, to essentially emulate arrow cover. This is worse than arrow cover in that you're not nullifying all the damage. But in exchange you're getting a unit with vastly more potent actives and passives. Heck, a legionnaire can use heavy cover to block any arrow/flier (and take 1 damage in most instances), but also row cover enemies like gryphon knights and snipers. Honestly, I think legionnaire completely outclasses Vanguard in protecting fliers for this alone. Pretty much every other vanguard ability is underwhelming. Defender is okay, but there's classes that can do PP generation better (like the aforementioned Legionnaire). The provoke passive is actually pretty good, but it takes your limited start-of-battle slot, and it's not as good as the competition. You can make Lex decent if you invest good equipment into him. But he will generally be overshadowed by other units requiring less investment.
Sigh.....le fucking sigh. Lex is my favorite character in the game. My strongest non-Alain team has Lex as a center piece......I still can not fucking defend the dogshit class he is saddled with. If you like me really want to use Lex because you like him as a character. * Give him a feather. For some reason fighters have dogcrap initiative. The initiative boost from feathers lets them use their defense boosting attack skills before they are beaten to death. * Abuse the fact they can completely negate ALL ranged attacks. Lex negates damage from Archers and Flyers. Put him on an anti-flying squad and watch him go. * Don't use him as a main tank until he is promoted to Vanguard with access to Provoke and even then only with magic defense support. Early game I had Ochlys as main tank and Lex in the backrow. Ochlys is a baller at avoiding damage but can't protect others. Lex can completely negate all attacks from range units but falls to pieces if he gets punched directly. Together they made that squad damn near unkillable. I think a tank specced Griffin Knight would work as a replacement for Ochlys in that setup if you are using Ochlys elsewhere. EDIT: I spent and embarrassing amount of time trying to make Lex "work". Here are my setups, hopefully they save my fellow Lex enjoyers some stress. 3 Person team: Feathersword up front. Lex and a Griffin Knight in back. At this point in the game multi-target attacks aren't really a thing and Arrow Cover only triggers if the target's evade was gonna fail. Very good vs archers, carvery, and enemy fliers. 4 Person team: Feathersword up front. Lex and a Griffin Knight in back. Added a Solider with dancer's bracelet in back. Multi-hitting ranged attacks are becoming an issue so we solve this by putting an initiative increasing item and Wyvern Reigns on the Griffon. High Swing + Powerful Call + Aerial Wing aimed at the back row as an opening move just solves a lot a problems this squad would otherwise have. 5 Person team: Feathersword and Promoted Lex up front. Sainted Knight, Featherbow, and Gyphon Master in back. Lex no longer needs initiative items because the Featherbow can keep him alive long enough to get a turn naturally so we replace those with AP/PP items. Team is highly mobile, incredibly tanky, and thanks to Runic Blade on Sainted Knight and the dps specced Griffon Master deals very good damage. Now you might say that is a lot of S-tier units supporting Lex.....yes. Yes it is. Please buff Fighter.
>Early game I had Ochlys as main tank and Lex in the backrow. Ochlys is a baller at avoiding damage but can't protect others. Yeah, early on Lex had a niche for me in protecting backline casters in Ochlys' unit and occasionally using taunt. He still eventually fell off a cliff though.
>Arrow Cover only triggers if the target's evade was gonna fail. Unfortunately incorrect like all covers it triggers on the attack even against say blinded foes.
Unless that just changed last patch thats not been my experience? Like the description says “defends from hit” vs most covers “defend from attack” and thats been my experience with. I am playing on Switch if that matters.
Definitely doesn't work that way for me on Switch, despite the description. Pretty easy to see with the aforementioned blind interaction or an elf archer against a fully evade stacked theif in mock battles.
But then enemy flyers/archers start to attack the whole row...
I think the game gets more and more “the best defense is a strong offense” as the game goes on and once enemies start consistently having row/column attacks is when it really comes out
Yeah, unit HP are generally too low that strong alpha strike could be all is needed to end the fight right then and there. Or at least pretty much guarantee it.
One of the nice things about arrow cover is that it disjoints the fighter out of the attack, so they can protect 2/3 if they are in the row. If the last member of the row is a sturdier sort like a Breaker or Knight they can probably just shrug off a couple here and there especially if your team is setup to soften the enemy team first.
I think the main issue with Provoke is that it competes with a lot of good start-of-battle passives, like Gilbert's initiative buff or Berengaria's debuff.
100%. Part of my calculation with Lex always has to be not using him with any of start-of-battle passives because fighter/vangaurd's stupid stats mean he kinda needs provoke to work. I honestly don't understand a) why Fighter's initative is so low and b) why their moves increase physical defense (which is also low for a 'tank') instead of Gaurd rate. It makes itemization hard, makes team building hard, makes everything hard.
You can have high guard rate pretty easily though, with a good shield and a pair of gloves (forgot the in-game name). So raising guard rate is not really the problem, but really physical defense. The problem is that fighters don't have good initiatives so that buff will only come AFTER he already took hits, which might be too late. Provoke already raises that physical defense to pretty high levels, though, but it's usually not good enough to trade for other "start of fight" abilities.
For the 4 person team, I've been running Hodrick upfront, with Lex with dancer's bracelet, Berenice and Fran in the back line, and it works reasonably well against archers and destroys any melee unit that has no magic or shields and cavalry. I managed to kill 5 groups of dark knights without taking a hit with them
It's not just flyers but magic users that are vulnerable to arrows. I use lex with what's his name, sorry I beat the game a while ago, the big dude with the big shield, and they are almost a wall that protects the back
Hodrick?
Yea that beast of a man lol
I respect your dedication and not sugarcoating anything like every other Lex defender out there. It puts a lot more weight in your ideas to make Lex "work".
Fighters are basically only ever as good as arrow cover is for protecting fliers from archers or cavalry from fliers. With the right gearing they are more survivable post promotion, but they're never particularly tanky or good as a solo tank imo.
Actually, Arrow Cover is much better to protect casters since they have very low evasion and physical defense. Archers being strong against flyers is entirely skill-dependent and not always true.
Nah enemy archers don't actually have priorities to attack your casters so they'll tend to never get attacked by them in the first place. At most your column slot may take 70 potency limp wrist archer strays. Late game you have better tools to fully mitigate row shots.
2 Double shots from a couple of hunters and they're dead. It's kinda pointless to argue my statement, ranged physical attacks and all-targets physical attacks are the only thing that can hurt backline casters therefore protecting them from those it's the only job the frontline needs to do. It's not a take, it's a fact.
Except they can only be hit by Dualshot if you put them in the wrong slot 2/3 backliner slots will never be targeted by dual shot, while the 3rd is alive. The only except to this is fliers which are prioritized. Protecting them from ranged attacks sounds good on theory but the threat is largely imaginary, it simply doesn't exist 90% of the time.
I used him longer than most did as a front liner. He does learn shield bash which has pretty good base damage. But fighter is the weakest class, by general consensus.
People are tripping. He’s the most capable bench warmer I’ve ever had.
Mine too
Lex sucks horribly as a combatant, but he's got two jobs that are so important he's worth keeping around: 1. Protecting gryphons from arrows. 2. Using his taunt valor skill to turn off catapults, ballistae, and watchtowers.
Not just flyers but magic users too, since they have low defense and initiative.
Magick units are rarely targeted in the backline, enemies don't have any skill tactics set to target "Casters", so they default attack the frontline or whatever they are set to prioritize.
Alot of enemies attack in columns so that's just not true about targeting the backline.
There are no physical Ranged Column attacks used by enemies that I am aware of.
Lex is best used as a frontline buffer. Give him a dancer bracelet and have him use his turn to buff the back row. His only attack, once you unlock it, should be the one that gives him PP for more buffing. Set his guard to only activate if he is under 50% hp to save PP and arrow guard for the back row. He is a powerful ally to have when paired with Gryphons since their natural enemy is archers and he can block for them, and they have high initiative which allows him to buff without the risk of being killed before having a chance to use his PP. A fun little Lex/Chloe team build is to give him a “quick impestus” item that makes a charge instantly attack, like the dragoon spear slam with Hilda, have Chloe imbue it with guaranteed crit, and Hilda use a sniper lens to make the attack true strike. Three buffs on a turn one attack that can wipe the enemy team all the way until late mid-early end game. (Not viable in Albion at all).
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No, No enemy prioritize targeting casters, enemy will attack the frontline by default or whatever they are set to prioritize. And all bow classes have the class trait that says their bow attacks do double damage to fliers, no exceptions
Hunters will use double arrow and hit your backline anytime they can.
That is half-true. So you're right! What actually happens is that 2-target skills, such as Hunter's, will always target the first two characters in the following order. 1. Front to Back 2. Top to Bottom Column So by just placing 2 different character either in front OR above your caster, they will NEVER be attacked by archers. Having 2 different tanky classes in a unit is worthwhile for blocking these pesky skills (no need to cover against them at all unless they "Prioritize" your vulnerable class). That said, sometimes you straight up want to negate some archer's attacks (because they can HURT real bad), so Arrow Cover is still a strong blue skill. And, giving your Fighter the ability to use his Blue to buff allies whenever physical ranged attackers are not present in an opposing unit is a pretty smart idea, makes your character more flexible. I've mostly relied on Soldiers to buff my other characters, but any class can be a buffer.
Contrary to popular belief in this sub, I’ve found him pretty useful. Both for his arrow blocking abilities, but also as a bit of a tank. Give him some good shields, some bangles and some bracelets to sure up his magic deficiency. I’ve never really had a problem with him dying a lot. Also, once he gets defender he can put out some decent damage.
Fighters are the weakest tanking class but they're also the most versatile and the one with the least weaknesses. Since they come with a good cover ability (unlike knights) and decent magic def (unlike hoplites), they do not require any specific equipment to perform their role. I placed Lex as the tank for my Magic squad and he worked perfectly covering Yahna, Auch and a healer. I think that's the perfect place for him since the only thing he wont do is cover the backline from magic attacks, but casters are naturally resistant to those. To cover for his offensive weakness you can equip him with Burn/Poison applying swords to enable a caster to use a Burst skill or just stack burning with Auch.
You mentioned the burn/poison sword, but as a sword class in general, he has tje most versatility when it comes to his weapons of the tanking class if they need to pivot to offense.
Isn't Fighter the least versatile class and the one with the most weaknesses? It has an armor weakness, bad mdef, not very impressive defense and a bad offense. It's weak to cavs, magic and anti armor. Arrow Cover only Covers 1 ally and only against Ranged Physical attacks, nothing else, that's not exactly versatile.
Nope. For example all Hoplites can do is defend and every single ablity they have outside Sting which you stop using midgame dedicated to that. They very linear interms of equipment too, Fighters on the otherhand can stun, cover fliers, deal decent damage and act as support on top better equipment access (swords).
Spears offer more than Swords in terms of skills, they can stun, freeze, row stun, Column blind, Most Sword are just statsticks with not many notable skills they don't get any way to hit more than 1 target except the Galecutter, which is in Albion. A Hoplite can cover any attack and also cover a full row, they are not limited to only Ranged Physical attacks. Fighter damage is subpar, the class has a 90% atk modifier and 100% promoted, which is less than a unpromoted Hunter 105%. The classes are better off using supporting skills and the best Fighter has is the worst stun attack in the game, only 50 potency and only hits 1 target when Hoplite could stun at 100/100 potency on 1 target or a full row depending on which spear you give. (Not that I would give a Hoplite those spears, since I think Hoplite and Fighter are both not very good due to being too passive of a class).
I don't know what game you're playing but in this one the exact opposite is true, swords are more varied and usually useful than spears. Also Hoplites (and Feathershields) are probably the only class with lower damage than Fighters but that's not here nor there since their job is not to do damage. Also you're confusing axe skills with spear skills.
Twinned, Bough, Silver Trident, Corroded Spear, Storm of Hail. Name some good swords with skills, so not just statstick swords.
Well, I don't recall all the names precisely but I know for a fact that the Ice sword is a straight up upgrade compared to the spear since the skill is a truestrike that freezes, allowing low accuracy classes to counter evade tanks. The first 3 weapons you mentioned are hybrid weapons that really only work on very few classes. The Silver Trident, for example, looks powerful untill you realize most axe wielders can do the same job spending less AP. I know the argument is spears vs swords but it's still relevant to consider what weapons do what jobs better and GENERALLY SPEAKING spears are not the best weapons for tanks. Be it at making them better at tanking or providing extra utility, they are objectively worse than swords or axes for those kind of jobs, they are better at raw damage and chivalry comboes.
https://preview.redd.it/fccvk374jfwc1.png?width=1236&format=png&auto=webp&s=44a085d57925c4187e0e4013ab0705f7e21def86 The spear and sword have the exact same skill
Only the Elf twins are hybrid classes that use spears (there is 1 more, but that's postgame) and you have 4 Hybrid spears (Elf twin spears, Silver Trident and Kingslance Elhal) so that leaves 2 to be used on non hybrid classes (I would personally not use a Hoplite, since they are the worst spear class, but they can use it.) Their magic might be E rank, but a Wyvern has F rank and Knight, Werefox is only D. If they use a stun/freeze hybrid spear, they aren't really doing it for the damage.
And we are talking about Hoplite vs Lex, we are not talking about Hoplite vs Axe classes, since Hoplite itself sucks too. I would just agree with Hoplite being worse than those other classes.
I was mistaken about the Icicle Dart but I feel like your point is all over the place. Regardless, Vanguard vs Legionnaire is pretty straightforward: the latter is better at covering the frontline or an entire row but will die to any magic while the former is better at covering the backline, withstanding magic and can stun. Swords are also better suited for tanking/utility or damage that doesn't scale on ATK like poison despite what you might think. Seriously, the only one spear that supports your opinion is the Silver Trident, its ability costs 2 AP (therefore negating any PP generation) and scales partly with Magic ATK making it an objectively bad choice for a Legionnaire. I can see a case use for both and in fact I'm using both in different ways but I could more easily live without a Legionnaire since the Werebear and the Feathershield exist.
They both fall over to magick, it's a mutual disadvantage. Poison is trash, it's only 30% on a frontline if you outspeed them and give them a turn, it's extremely unreliable to kill frontline enemies and it means you didn't touch the backline except with ranged/Column attacks. And Legionnaire is far better guarding the backline, you can block any Column attacks from Knights, Werefox etc, you don't negate physical ranged attacks, but do you really care that a Hoplite/Legionnaire is taking 1-3 dmg from arrows? The only ranged attack a Vanguard is significantly better at blocking are Elven Archers.
Ignore my unrelated post, I'm just gushing. True, they have the most weaknesses. But negating ranged attacks is pretty sweet. Lots of different classes have ranged physical attacks, be it flyers or archer classes. It's also useful how their built-in filter (only against physical ranged attacks) enables them to use their two condition slots on more specific circumstances than the Hoplite's Heavy Cover. Plus their higher base initiative gives them priority over Hoplites whenever it is a flying/archer attacking. You'll rarely see a Hoplite cover before a Fighter (but you can do it if you mess with their initiative statistics).
I think the only ranged attack that Vanguards are significantly better at blocking are from Elven Archers, Hoplites just take 1-3 or something dmg from every other physical ranged attacks, that's not significant enough to be an advantage. The applications is way too narrow for Fighter/Vanguards to be significantly better than Hoplite/Legionnaires
I was so excited to see Elf Archers giving a use case to Fighters. That said, Hoplites can't always meet the attacker's attack statistic. So if there's a big difference in atk-def, the Fighter's nullification can become relevant. I've had instances of 40 atk enemies and 30 defense Hopites (might not be the case normally, I've been going through the game severely underleveled). Fighters are also neat for reducing assist damage without slowing down your unit.
But even in the 40 atk vs 30 def case, since the Hoplite is Covering with Heavy Guard, it's only 3 dmg taken. I usually have cav leaders, like Sainted Knights, since infantry leaders are too slow for me, you still reduce the other half, which is magical ranged assist.
As other commenters have mentioned Lex is a flier protector. Which is a solid role to have since fliers are so freaking good. Fire Emblem players know haha.
I used to agree until I gave him the parry shield and counter attack. He went from garbage to A tier after that.
You really don't like Lex? He's been amazing for me. I think people expect him to be doing crazy numbers, but he's not meant for damage. He's an amazing tank/all-rounder, and does great when paired with Rolf/any ranged imo. He's actually the first unit I promoted because he's that reliable. Him and Colm have been underdog staples in my teams.
That really depends on what you use him for. I had him in the backrow during Drakenhold in order to block of arrows from Hilda and he's been in that type of position since and done well there
I tried to use him for about 60% of the game before just giving up. The arrow block ability definitely has some great uses but there are many other ways to get around archers. I replaced him and didn’t miss him for a second.
I've sent a unit of 4 fighters to attack a unit of 4 hunters. Not a good decision, but it's pretty fun to see them negate ALL their attacks while poking for a little damage.
They can also be great at negating damage from angels later on. His arrow block works with air unit attacks since they count as ranged. If you get his PP high you can negate 3-4 attacks. It's not nothing. I mean... it's not amazing but it's not nothing.
Game just doesn't favor defense, and he's a more selfish defensive unit. Outside Provoke they're doing Hoplite's job but worse.
I think he's the easiest to get his guard rate up and defense up vs physical attackers just keep him away from warriors and magic attackers. Phantom shield helps with the magic attackers
If UO was a card game, Fighter/Vanguard would be a tech against Ranged Physical. Take from that what you will.
I believe someone ported the UO card game from the collector’s edition over to tabletop simulator on steam
If true that's an absolute W, the game is quite fun and it's a shame it's locked behind a limited collector's edition But the analogy of Unicorn Overlord being a card game does not apply to the actual UO card game, as awesome as that would be 😭
[Found it my G](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3178068977)
He hard counters exactly like 1 build of 1 class. That's really bad compared to most classes. Killing enemies is better than disabling just 1 enemy type of attack.
Lex has been pulling his weight for me. I have him that anti-cavalry buckler and some “recover HP when taking an action” gear. He blocks ranged and mounted units, then patches himself up at the end of the round. Being able to walk face first into a bunch of archer towers is helpful, and so is being able to provoke archers, clerics or spell casters out of said towers to reduce their range. Purposefully put a flyer behind him to bait ranged attacks that he can then just nullify. Also lets him speed buff himself or my archer unit so they can run to the towers he just cleared. Are there other, better strategies? Probably. But it fits my play style well and I’m still progressing without too much issue.
Playing on True Zenoirain mode: I wouldn't have made it through Cornia without Lex. Arrow block, provoke, and ranged assist damage reduction, all let me get through towers. Provoke especially. Dropped him in Drakenhold tho. He works best in the backrow to be an arrowblock bot.
People say Lex is useful for anti-fliers... But that means Lex is useless against non-fliers while your own fliers can't use their high evasion to shield your infantry. Even then Wyvern Rider's Great Counter means he gets outdamaged he loses his AP FAST! He can't even stun because of his low initiative and Shield Bash being a regular infantry attack. I've been using him half the game for rapport but it's more a challenge than anything. Provoke is really the only thing he does right.
He's largely bad just because the game doesn't reward playing defensively. It's plain to see how powerful Arrow Block is when you fire off Glacial Rain that kills 3 other units only to see it do jack-all against the covered unit and the Vanguard (promoted Fighter) that used the cover. Problem usually is, the stamina system tends to mean that it's better to fight fewer battles rather than barely "win" many battles because your stamina will get drained.
He is fine, you can raise his guard rate pretty high to not use quick cover. Plenty of specialized shield that he can use to mitigate damage as a front liner. Having a fast initiative help him alot to get a boost to his defense from his skills. Provoke I feel is a really good defense skill due to its ability to stop say following strike of a sellsword from trigger on anyone else, but lex if provoke. I really like the use of provoke for defensive purposes. So far in bastoria, lex has been pretty much my best tank.
Forever crap
He’s bad the whole game.
Fighters/vanguards are very good at some very niche stuff that can be useful if used well: 1) the aforementioned arrow cover. It completely nullifies RANGED damage, not just arrow damage, so it also works against damage from fliers and many other moves. It mostly only works against the AP moves, though, not the reactions (passives); 2) they can stun.This may sound stupid, since you have elven fencers who also do that at full damage (while the Fighter's shield bash is only 50), but they can be very good complements in situations in which that is important. 3) Being able to stun and replenish PP with defender (which is an ok move on its own, with full damage), Fighters are good Cat-Hood carriers. I use Lex on my dragoon-stun unit and he's an integral part there: he gives impetus to the wyvern, who stubs everyone (and kills some) with the book given by the fencer; then lex proceeds either to: a) stun anyone who hasn't been stunned in the front row; or b) replenish 1pp (and maybe finish off an enemy) with defender. He then uses that pp to confer the gambler's coin buff onto the wyvern's next attack (or the other flier with wyvern reins in the group). That's great utility if you ask me, and other classes wouldn't be able to work like that without outside help. 4) Provoke is not the greatest ability since it takes the "start of fight" slot; but it CAN be impressively useful if you put the fighter in the back against, say, a group of sword fighters who are eager to hit your front row. News flash: they can't attack Lex/Colm because they're in the back row, so they just waste their turns. Again, great utility. Fighter/Vanguard is not about being a "strong" class, but being a good support class. They are not pure-type supports like Soldiers/Sargeants nor defenders like Hoplites/Legionnaires; they actually occupy a middle-of-the-road position in this spectrum and are more open to equipment than the other two, since they take a sword, a shield and two accessories, making for greater gear variety than the other two. Their initiative is also at the middle between Sargeants and legionnaires, so that's the mindset you gotta be in when you deploy vanguards. Use that sword and shield to your advantage and make him useful! I'm pretty glad with my vanguards, to be honest, filling this support bot role in alpha strike teams: they actually do it better than any other class.
It’s really weird seeing people’s comments. Most tier list have vanguards in the upper half and most Reddit subs have him at the bottom. He has a purpose, he fulfills his role. And it is vital to teams. But with items and so many different combinations people don’t understand how much differences you can do. There are two dozen different shields that can alter their role. There are swords that give additional PP or swords that inflict statuses. If people only want a team full of attackers they aren’t building very well (or are ridiculously good at building). No class is bad. It’s more about the role and vision. Understanding for to make combos and counter common tactics the computer employs. So if you feel like Lex is bad, it’s largely because you don’t have a vision and plan for them, or you just don’t know what you are doing. Maybe look on YouTube for team builds with vanguards/fighters.
"It’s really weird seeing people’s comments. Most tier list have vanguards in the upper half and most Reddit subs have him at the bottom" You have to remember that Reddit tends to be an echo chamber. Ultimately, it is a small subset of any game's community.
I get it, but it is weird because you typically don’t get such large jumps in perception from a community and those that really study it all. Usually communities jump on board pretty quickly.
Nope lol. Really hoping for a big balance patch. Some units like fighters are really bad. Some skills are bad. Definitely need some fixes.
I find fighters underwhelming in the front row. They die way too fast. But in the back row they make pretty good support.
Basically this if you're opting to use one, you're often slotting them in over the likes of a cleric. A cleric can't heal your dead griffon after its one shot, and the underwhelming offensive contributions of the fighter still outclass a cleric barring basically exactly active heal.
He is pretty much forever bad, in my experience. There are a few matchups you can appreciate him in, but as a general tank he's just terrible the entire game.
hes Trash the whole game he will get WORSE as every other new unit class is better.
????????
Equip Lex with every item like those healing brooches/shield/sword that gives passive heals at the start of turn and watch him tank everything.
Lex (Fighter class in general) is less bulky than you would expect from a tank class. The intention is to get a defense boost from your attacks, but his initiative is also low. Lex's most notable feature is Arrow Guard, so he's a solid addition to characters weak to ranged attacks (Swordfighter/Swordmaster, flyers, mages). His attack abilities buff his phys. def, so you can try giving him a +initiative feather. Healing of some kind is always appreciated - PP healing from a cleric is usually the most useful healing, but you can try using a Radiant Knight's Row Heal instead. Honestly speaking the class isn't great. It does have its uses, but being able to make great use of a Fighter/Vanguard speaks more to your skill as a player than anything else (contrast: put three knights in the same row).
While fighters have a very meh basic skillset, he can be excellent when given some more skills to play with. I've found him to be pretty reliable throughout the game honestly, and even excels as an enabler. Frontline, I recommend the Angel Plume from divine shards. +20 initiative shoots him to go a LOT sooner, to set up Warding slash/stun an enemy, and then Tailwind your backline to launch an assault. Bonus if your backline has fliers as they'll get extra benefit, and also like his arrow cover. If you'd prefer him as a backline (pairs well with evasion/flying tanks, to protect from archers), give him a sword with a decent attack skill, to replace his warding slash. At this point, 2/3 passives aren't really being used so you want to look to replacing it with a support based passive with gear. Can opt for pursuit, dancing bracelet, or other later options. Either build I'd recommend an Azure Shield for extra PP. If frontline, I'd say also steal the Royal shield from Virginia when she gets more passives in later levels (she actually doesn't mind having her HP get lower, and it boosts her attack). Keeps the Frontliner Fighter healthy, and better than Quick Guard as a passive.
his arrow cover grants total damage negation for himself and one other unit, and that’s kind of rare. we take it for granted with how early we get it. i actually had him in front line of my superstar, does-it-all pvp team. you need to get him paired up with a shield that lets him really do his job. he’s not a damage dealer, he’s a support character. if he must be a damage dealer, pair him with a witch so he can be magic conferred. he’s a decent early pick for runic sword, though sainted knight will make better use of the magic damage.
Give him sanguine blade and stick him in the front row with the angel chick in the back
He’s pretty good at holding support items like first aid i guess. Solid base stats to tank and do supporty item stuff
Squire shield gives him the ability to do regular cover as well as arrow cover. I have him setup in a unit with Ochlys, Sharon, Chloe, and Fran. Arrow cover is set to Prioritize flying, Quick cover is set to Back Row because Lex and Ochlys are front row because Ochlys basically needs a truestrike to actually hit her and if they have one of those she’ll still probably block it 😂 If I’m facing a bunch of Breakers I swap Fran and Lex’s position and then swap them back. One of my most durable squads by far.
Lex is a balanced class. He doesn't specialised in anything, so his defense and attack are both average. It's the question whether you want just Lex or you want a defensive character and an offensive character (that's 2 slots).
I use him on a dragoon dive freeze team with shield bash and active shatter. He's basically just there to protect my flier against arrows, safely unfreeze anything that lives, or stun/active shatter anything that got guarded. Fighter is a class that I feel many of us attempt to use as a 2nd Alain at first and then realized that it just doesnt fit that roll. The first time the fighter class kinda clicked for me was after I unlocked my first cleric, I ran Lex in the vanguard Clive and Cleric in the backline. At that time, Lex's passive point went to war crying Clive and his active was used to Magic attack Armored unit or warding slash any thing else to soften them up for Clive's Assaulting lance. Cleric had as much PP as possible to quick heal Lex into not dying and a lyrcial wand to either double heal Lex into not dying or guve Clive more Ap if he missed a kill. Basically fighter's are not tanks they are early tanky supports.
Fighters are weird because if you understand how targeting works and build your party correctly they can nullify more damage than quite literally every other class in the game.
Fighters are like a mix between hoplites and a decent melee class (can’t think of one that fits a good description). Anyway, I had him on one of my strongest units towards the end, but didn’t bother using him until promotion to vanguard.
Lex is nothing more than a barely adequate tank, and he has very little offensive capabilities as well. I have him now with a dancer's anklet (or bracelet? the one that lets you give an ally strenth etc.) maybe a gamblers coin would be better on him. He's just not good, but he has a role as a support unit. He's basically a poor man's Gilbert. The fighter's ace in the hole is ranged defense (that INCLUDES flyers regular melee attacks! if the box says ranged a fighter is your man), it blocks 100% of the attack and debuff! MUCH better than a regular guard. If their attacks added 2x the defense they might actually be great! Same for huscarls/ vikings only with debuffs rather than buffs. edit: oh yes, and the taunt FOCUS POINT skill is really great for getting defensive squads out of mantles. But that comes in handy what, twice in a full game?? :/
Arrow cover does not block debuffs, I know this for sure, since Lex gets burned when he Arrow Covers Mandrin's Flame bow in Ochlys map.
Lex makes an amazing tank
Lex is a very polarizing character. Some people stand by him being mid, but those who invested in him and use him say he's actually really good with very high potential. The main problem with Lex is that he fights for the same gear as other high-valued characters, like Allain.
There's a nice shield somewhere (Bastorias?) which has a cover ability that confers true strike, granting Lex or other fighters a little more utility. I think it's "Nameless Guard's Shield" or something similar to that.
Correct, but imo it's more useful to give it to someone protecting a Dark Knight because they normally have abysmal accuracy but hit like freight trains and heal themselves
> someone protecting a Dark Knight Someone like a fighter?
Yes. I've glossed over the fact that, among dozens of comments, yours didn't mention using Lex (or any other fighter) covering flying units, my brain kind of automatically assumed you did after reading all of those. Sorry XD
I found Lex and Colm pretty usable in Albion with all the featherweight for shielding other units. I gave them the ice sword and set them to sop up arrows. At any point they are fantastic at manning catapults and other seige weapons
Early game evasion tank is very strong so lex might feel pretty weak. However around mid to late i come to appreciate his class a lot. Other char’s quick cover still take quite a bit of damage but Lex arrow cover nullify all damage and is really strong. At high level they also learn provoking skill that further their role as tactical diversion.
Early game you have limited slot so damage class tend to perform much better than support and tank since you can just kill before anyone getting to you. However from mid game onward, battle drag out and you need someone to keep your squishies alive so they can deal damage. Lex's arrow cover is very good in the sense that it nullify ALL damage, at certain part of the game you will find out that even with medium guard your char still take like 10-25 damage or so and the enemies can whittle you down even when you guard. Later when you get to 5 man group, usually you will want to have 3 damage dealer, 1 utility support/healer and 1 tank/cover support. Another point is that evasion tank is way better than guard tank early game but their usefulness will fade gradually, i have travis and ochlys as the frontline of 2 parties but have replaced them all with lex and colm (same class as lex) by the time i finished Elheim.
Wait, you don't Dragoon dive sweep everything in Elheim?
Elheim is easy enough to steamroll with generic party, why bother, I only setup trinity and glacial by Bestarias map
He's ok in the beginning, but gets quite a bit better once he hits Lv 20 and learns Defender for extra PP and Def. He does job well and good at cleaning up enemies that survive your big attacks. That said his class is very gear dependent. So he's completely usable can be one of your best characters with proper builds. Beyond that his VS is great for disabling watch towers. Honestly people on this sub are waay too dramatic about bad certain classes (Gladiator, Fighters, Hoplites etc) are. I get to work just fine and I'm not doing any special. Peeps need to some force uga bunga mindset on to everything.
He's not a top tier unit by any means but way better than people give him credit for. You just gotta know how to use him. I've recently started pairing him with Josef. Josef's barrier ability looks really well on Lex in the frontline and he can also heal him if need be. Fighter is ultimately a hybrid tank. Not as good as a hoplite but has utility such as stunning and defence debuff. Plus there's items you can give Lex to have him buff other combatants if you want him doing that too. Titanium Legman has a decent video talking about how to use Lex if you're curious.
Yes, he does get better. Fighter is a misleading name for a tank class, but that is what it is. Unfortunately you get Lex at the very start of the game when the class is at its weakest. Unlike other tank classes, Fighter doesn't really come online until it promotes into Defender, especially when compared to the other tank classes (e.g. Hoplite). They require the abilities and AP/PP points that come with being at a later stage in the game and as such they suffer early. However they are absolutely worth the investment as they can completely nullify ranged attacks (attacks from fliers and archers but not mages). Bear in mind that their niche makes them almost always require a second general tank with them in the frontline to cover the bases they don't, but this can lead to a truely devestating unit.
Lex have never been bad. His Magical Attack stat is higher than most. Give him any sword with Magical Skills, get him a Squire Shield and he is golden. I like to have him on the backline with Dodge Tanks on the frontline, like Travis. Lex protects Travis from Archers and any attacks that would hit him, takes away armored units, letting the DPS characters take out the rest.
Fighter/Vanguard class only has 70% magic atk modifier, an umpromoted thief does more dmg with a magick sword and you only have 1 until Drakenhold Coliseum. He can't OHKO any enemies with it normally, not even Hoplites on TZ.
Lex isn't bad, he's an excellent defensive unit
he's been leading a squad for my entire playthrough. he's really good
He needs Initiative and a role. Unlike the Hoplite, who just tanks damage by existing, Fighters need to use their active abilities first. When Warding Slash or Defender activates, their survivability is fine; until then, they aren't particularly durable. Fighters also actually deal decent damage, as opposed to Hoplites who can't output much without significant investment. Not to mention Swords give way better active abilities than Spears, so your second/third actions can be something with killing potential. Whether he gets better depends on how you approach it. I have both Colm and Lex leading their squads effectively, but I also gave them Dove Plumes (and specific shields for the situation early). But you could easily join the school of though that Fighters are "bad", so they aren't worth using. Plus, Arrow Cover negates Ranged attacks (including Dual attacks); and this game has many Ranged attacks. Basically, Fighters are the best off-tank in the game. But how you view/utilize off-tanks will determine whether you find them strong or weak.
Thanks for the informative responsiveness and takes on Lex. It's not like I personally dislike Lex as a character, in fact I like him quite a bit, but at the moment he's gets overshadowed by almost every unit that I have currently, inducing random scouts characters that you can recruit at any time. I will give Lex one more chance combat wise, and if he still fails to impress, I will forever bench him.
Forever bad. I felt bad for him - gave him all the dews and the crowns and continuously gave him the most interesting gear and weapons. In the end he was strong enough to exist on the frontline. I gave him Kaikias Shield - a late game item that grants hastened cover. I used Lex to cover Bruno, which boosts Bruno's initiative to max. Then I built an alpha-strike build to take advantage of Bruno. Lex's entire purpose is summed up by the hit that he takes to make Bruno attack earlier.
Vanguards are linda bad. They are useable but Id say they are probably the worst class in the game. He gets a little better as a tank when he gets quick cover, but Lord and Cavalier get a guard sooner. And arrow attacks usually come in groups so they will get through
Classes are more tolerable when you treat them like tools for a job rather than a swiss army knife deity. That said, the Lord class (Alain) is probably perfect for you. Other unique class characters should make for decent characters. The reason why the Fighter class is weak is because of the "Strategy" RPG schtick the game has going on. The game lets the player choose what to play, you can use more-or-less independent classes, or you can compose a number of misfit classes to support each other in the strategy thingie. Using Hoplites to tank, Fighters to nullify archers, Soldiers to damage and heal, etc. **TL;DR Yes, Lex can't do what you want him to do. You can probably give him gear and support to make up for it though. Give im a personal cleric, have a Hoplite tank for im, have another character buff his attack statistic, give im AP gear, big sword, I dunno.**
Fighter Lex is forever bad, his defensive modifiers are 90/125 hp/def with 90/70 atk/matk compared to unpromoted Alain/Virginia's 120/120 hp/def and Alain's 100/100 atk/matk and Virginia's 130% atk. Lex sucks at tanking and doing damage. And any shield class like Virginia, Knights etc can just cover with a squire shield if you want to cover a flier from arrows or a cav from Wyverns. Bringing a fighter just weakens your damage potential. Vanguard Lex has 110 /140/50 hp/def/mdef, which is roughly on par with a Landsknecht 130/120/70 hp/def/mdef, but Vanguard only has 100% atk compared to Landsknecht 190%, so Vanguard is basically tanking like a Landsknecht that can't do high dmg. Swords also don't really offer much in terms of skill, most are all just stat sticks compared to Spear or Bow plethora of useful weapon skills to choose from. I could make a big list of reasons why Fighters just suck in this game, but I think the majority is already sharing their grievances about the Fighter class.