A Defense of Clanne

Hey all, just here to hopefully generate some discussion.

I see a lot of people try to write off Clanne as one of the worst characters in the game given that he's in a magic class, but has only a 10% magic growth. Some suggest putting him in a physical class. Most suggest just benching him as soon as possible. I suggest just looking at base stats. What people don't realize is that because of his base stats, Clanne performs better than any other mage you can get in the first half of the game.

For this analysis, I'm keeping it simple, so I am only looking at base stats and fixed growths. To keep it even, I am considering leveling every one of these characters to 10 and immediately reclassing to the same advanced class (in this class Mage Knight, as that's where most of them want to be anyway, or at the very least worth considering). I'm always rounding down for every decimal (even if it's .5 or higher) as I believe this is how the game displays stats, but I could be wrong. If I am, many of these numbers will be +1 as many end up at a .5. I'm calculating these by looking at base stats of character in base class, then leveling them up to 10, multiplying the number of levels by their combined base/class growths in their default class, and then immediately promoting to Mage Knight, and increasing stats equal to difference in bases between Mage Knight and base class. For example, Clanne has a Spd growth of 50%, and Mage gives none, so with 9 levels of Mage (he starts at 1), he gets to 4.5, which means he will gain 4 points of speed at lv 10.

Clanne |Mage 10 |Mage Knight Base:
HP: 25 |STR: 8 |MAG: 11 |DEX: 17 |SPD: 16 |DEF: 8 |RES: 12 |LCK: 6 |BLD: 6

Celine |Noble 10 |Mage Knight Base:
HP: 25 |STR: 9 |MAG: 9 |DEX: 13 |SPD: 13 |DEF: 6 |RES: 12 |LCK: 12 |BLD: 6

Jean |Martial Monk 10 |Mage Knight Base:
HP: 26 |STR: 9 |MAG: 13 |DEX: 15 |SPD: 14 |DEF: 8 |RES: 13 |LCK: 6 |BLD: 6

Anna |Axe Fighter 10 |Mage Knight Base:
HP: 28 |STR: 7 |MAG: 11 |DEX: 14 |SPD: 14 |DEF: 5 |RES: 13 |LCK: 6 |BLD: 6

Citrinne |Mage 10 |Mage Knight Base:
HP: 27 |STR: 6 |MAG: 15 |DEX: 15 |SPD: 13 |DEF: 5 |RES: 13 |LCK: 10 |BLD: 6
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As you can see, of all the early Mage Knight candidates, Clanne boasts the highest Speed, and is tied for the highest Defense with Jean, and has the same or better magic than everyone but Citrinne. This matters quite a bit for the next couple chapters. The earliest you can promote any of these characters to Mage Knight is after Chapter 8 (by buying the Master Seal and 3 Second Seals from the Item Store), so the earliest one of them could be a Mage Knight is Chapter 9. Let's look at the Maddening stats for Ch. 9 Enemies:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/380177-fire-emblem-engage/80325429

Besides Bosses and Fliers, the enemies on this map have 12 Speed or Lower. With 1 additional point of Speed (from food, Tonic, DLC Speedwing, or simply by gaining 1 additional level in either class), Clanne doubles every enemy on the map that isn't a flier or boss, something none of the other mages can do, even with a 2 point speed boost. Additionally, no one on the map can double him except Kagetsu (Clanne needs 2 points of speed to not get doubled by him, which he could get from every one of the above methods besides the level up). Clanne's doubling more than makes up for Citrinne's 4 magic in any case where he does 4 damage or more, which assuming he has the basic fire tome and the basic wind tome, is every enemy on the map besides Ivy, Zelkov, or the Mages/Healers. Note that if you stand him next to Alear, or boost his damage in any way (Food, Magic Tonic, Mag Stat Booster, etc.), he is the best investment for the damage of all mages you can have at this time because he is the only mage who can possibly double.

Additionally, with both the highest Defense, and the inability to be doubled by any enemy on the map, Clanne is a rare mage who can actually be left in combat (with exactly one unit), something the other mages can't do as well due to lower defensive bulk. This will be compounded over time as he's tied with Celine and Jean for the highest Def growth in Mage Knight of these units, and again, is also the fastest. This means few things will double him over the course of the game, and he will be able to take one (rarely two) hits from almost anything the game throws at him (more if they're mages obviously). He also has the highest Dex of all the Mage Knights listed, and another +10 hit from his Passive if he's with Alear, making him the most accurate Mage Knight as well.

Granted, there are clearly some flaws with this method of calculation. To name a few, Celine may be better off in her base class with an additional 2 Magic, but I wanted to keep everything consistent among all parties. Also, Citrinne doesn't get to take advantage of her massive growths because she starts at lv 10. This is also early-mid game, so the growths might eventually catch up with everyone (however, growths are highly overrated, as even something as seemingly massive as a 20% lead would only amount to 4 points over 20 levels, which is about the entire game if you're not grinding xp), and Clanne's speed would just keep going to the moon compared to all but Anna, who would grow at a similar rate because of the same growth, but always lag those 2 points behind.

I played Mage Knight Clanne on my first playthrough (Blind Maddening) and I've done several Maddening playthroughs since then, and he is honestly one of the best Mage Knights in the game. I will say if we go later in the game, Pandreo does start with higher stats all around in High Priest 1 than Clanne at Mage 10 |Mage Knight 1, but Clanne will be higher than Mage Knight 1 by then, so I find they perform similarly. Ivy is legitimately worse than Mage Knight Clanne if you leave her in Base Class because she gets doubled by everything and while she can usually survive the base damage of getting doubled, it only compounds with her poor Luck to increase her chance of getting crit, and she will almost never do more damage with a single spell than Clanne will with a double (nor will Citrinne), but she does fly, so she has that over him.

Obviously, there can be exceptions, especially in situations where Speed isn't much of an issue (Thunder/Elthunder/Thoron and Dire Thunder, where you only care about Magic), and sometimes his bulk won't be enough to survive very strong enemies (though I've almost never seen him get one shot by something other than maybe a boss), but the numbers don't lie.

This is all without taking into account outside resources (besides the one point of speed on Ch. 9, but that's unique to him since no other mage can double the 12 speed enemies even with 2 points of speed investment). Obviously Lyn makes anyone better, but I'd argue she's best on already fast units, because without her help, even the fastest units have a difficult time doubling late game units. Boosters obviously change the numbers, but since they could be given to anyone (including Clanne), they don't really factor into the math, and if something like a Speed booster is used on one of these units, it's probably best on Clanne or Anna, because they can snowball the best with it, whereas the Magic booster is trickier because it can help your one-shot wonders nuke better, but it's actually more valuable if you're attacking twice (unless you're attacking for 0).

Overall, I'm not saying Clanne is the best unit in the game, but I legitimately think he is a contender for best Mage Knight (Pandreo has a broken stat spread, and Clanne still performs similarly to him in Mage Knight, though the numbers will be a bit behind depending on your Clanne's level). This is all without mentioning Clanne has the innate Sword proficiency (so doesn't require any Bond Fragments for Emblem bond) and doesn't need a Second Seal to get there.

TLDR: Numbers don't lie. Clanne is a top tier Mage Knight, or at least can rival the best with no extra investment.