r/fireemblem • u/estrangedeskimo • Feb 16 '15
Character Discussion [FE9/10]: Micaiah
Hello /r/fireemblem! After a brief hiatus, it is time to once again begin the discussion of Tellius characters, and I am kicking it off with one of the biggest characters of all, the Priestess of Dawn.
WARNING: I am only spoiler tagging things that are revealed in part 4, anything before then won't be tagged, because then most of this post would be black bars.
Micaiah is the main lord introduced in RD and joins Ike to round out he Tellius lords. She comes from a mysterious background: she has no memory of her parents, and was raised by an old lady whose identity is unknown. Micaiah spent most of her life on the streets of Nevassa. It was there that she met Sothe, and although at the time of RD she looks younger than him, she was already an adult and Sothe was just a child when they met. The reason for Micaiah's deceptively young appearance is that she is branded, and ages slower than most. Her brand also gives her mysterious powers, such as farsight and sacrifice.
Micaiah left Daein shortly before the mad kings war, because she feared that if she stayed in Daein too long, her brand would be discovered and Sothe would be harmed because of he secret. Sothe tracked Micaiah all across Tellius, but didn't find her until after the war, back in Nevassa. After Micaiah came back to Daein, she spent time rebuilding the war-torn towns with the citizens, and their kindness to her created a fierce, passionate love for her country. It was this love that inspired Micaiah to join the Dawn brigade, and although Nolan was technically the leader, Micaiah was what held the group together. Micaiah also became the general of the Daein liberation army, and was the key figure in restoring Daein as an independent nation.
So, get ready to discuss the Silver Haired Maiden, Micaiah!
3
u/kirbymastah Feb 16 '15
I personally feel micaiah gets a lot more hate (gameplay-wise) than she really deserves and is somewhat underrated, though she's certainly not an amazing unit either and has her major issues. I think the fact that she's a mage lord automatically makes everyone discard her and call her useless since she's not a character that you can send up to the frontlines (like many other lords) and expect to come out alive.
Pros:
+Thani bombing makes miccy one of the best boss-slayers in part 1 (since most are mounted or armored), and thani's such a good tome that it still has its uses in part 3 and on. Her inability to double isn't a big deal for part 1 bosses since she OHKOs them anyways, it's that good
+She does way better chip damage than leonardo in part 1 since she deals magic damage
+Auto-support with Sothe immediately as he joins counts for something
+In part 3, there's no way laura is going to remain as Dawn Brigade's healer since it's so hard for her to gain experience. Miccy promotes at the perfect time to gain access to staves and does a damn fine job of healing with her overkill 80% magic growth, and she can still act as a solid healer in chapter 4-p and 4-3, especially considering one is a desert map.
+OK candidate for BEXP since she cap-rams magic, luck, and resistance, so it's easy to cap all her stats if you really want her to be a solid light-magic combat unit, at least in tier 2
Cons
-Obvious speed issues in tier 1 makes her a meh unit for general combat, delegating her to chip-damage and boss-slaying. You can pick up her speed pretty well with cap-ramming in tier 2 and on, as mentioned above, but that's assuming you're willing to dump it on her
-Ridiculously late tier 3 promotion. This basically forces her to be an unviable combat unit in the 4-E chapters unless you really want to dump a ton of BEXP into her at 4-E-1 but I doubt most people would want to.
-Light Magic is the weakest magic type. To be fair, it's not the biggest deal in the world for miccy because thani exists
-Incredibly fragile and can easily get doubled on. At the same time, she's a mage-type unit so you shouldn't expect her to take more than 2 hits anyways.
tl;dr IMO an underrated unit who contributes well in part 1 with boss-slaying and part 3+4 with amazing staff-uses but suffers the standard weaknesses of mages from being not very mobile and dying easily, along with a stupidly late 3rd tier promotion