Paola > Dolph

I believe Paola is > Dolph.

I'm sure that we can all agree that pre promotion,Paola is better than Dolph,y'know,Silver Lances and possible doubling slow enemies.She has 5 Attack over Steel Bow!Dolph,which he doesn't have right away,mind you(He's AK for 12,and likely needs to go AK for 13 to survive the ballistae,then our Macedonian beauty shows up).

Now promotion,I'm assuming Hunter -> General and Pegasus -> Swordmaster.

13/1 Paola
31.6 Hp,11.3 Str,18.2 Skl,20.5 Spd,5.6 Lck,10.5 Def,and 3.6 Res

10/1 Dolph
34.5 Hp,11.75 Str,8.75 Skl,11.75 Spd,3.5 Lck,18 Def,3 Res

The biggest differences you'll notice are Dolph's 7.5 Def,and Paola's 8.75 Spd/9.45 Skl

First,to point out just how big that speed lead is,note that any enemy that Paola cannot double,is guaranteed to double Dolph,and with similar attack,Paola either has an offense lead,or wins/ties Durability at all times.

Secondly,Dolph,despite his Def lead,can generally take one extra hit,so he`s not Roflstomping her.

To look at growths,+ is for Paola,- is for Dolph

+10 Hp,+25 Str,+35 Skl,-10 Spd,= Lck,- 20 Def,and + 5 Res.

So Paola will cement her Offense lead,while Dolph will Keep up his Def lead,While paola gains more Hp.Dolph will never get anywhere close to doubling promoted enemies,and Heroes/Horsemen probably double him forever,heck,against those fast enemies,Dolph might even face hit issues.

So we have better earlygame/better offense vs. Better durability...sometimes.

There are two problems with Swordmaster!Paola:

1- She always has to succumb to an extra hit due to the lack of 2-range
2- She always has WTD.

On top of this, Dolph has the Ridersbanes and Silver Bows to tackle the chapters early and later on (it's possibly Steel Bow or Killer early on). And to really illustrate that he can take an extra round... look later through the game. Like C21.

She doesn't always have WTD.There are a good amount of Horsemen/Heroes/Mercs/Snipers running around,and she gets good padding on her damage when she faces them.

As for taking counters,this game is heavily player phase oriented,else Snipers wouldn't be so good,and Hunter would be a horrible set up due to falling behind in levels at a massive rate.Since Player phase is predominant,and Paola isn't OHKO'd,she can fill a function of a very effective player phase killer.If you want her to have an enemy phase,she can
A.Get healed after attacking
B.Not attack/attack something with low hit or WTD

Either way,he does catch up later on,gaining more of a concrete durability lead,however,he will always deal less damage,however,she still has pre promotion and the before he gets Silver bows where she beats him handily.

Horseman and Paladins are more in Dolph's favor anyway since the Ridersbane gives a significant amount of damage output. By the by, Pegasus Knight!Paola can only double the slowass enemies such as Mages in C15, aside from that she can't double anything without serious leveling.

Heroes might be one of the few people she wins against, but look at the # of them:

- C16: 2
- C17: 1
- C17X: 1, 4 Mercs
- C19: 3 Merc, 4 Hero
- C23: 2
- C24: 1
- Endgame: 2

Now that isn't a whole lot barring C19 where I'll admit there's a good amount. Though later on I'd say Dolph has the upper hand since he actually chops 3-4 Atk off these things. Keep in mind that durability has a lot of weight in this game too, where Dolph would exceed in by the time you hit General.

I never said that Dolph didn't have a durability win,that much is obvious.However,Paola can hold her own,and on a good amount of things,she can manage to stay pretty close to him in that area,atleast early on.Dolph does win lategame,but I would say that Paola's earlygame win has more weight.(When he is a hunter,Dolph's durability and damage are,to put it bluntly,horrible.

Although,to help her durability,Paola can go Dracoknight.She keeps her Lance Rank,so she keeps her Silver lances,and ends up with 14.5 Def and 29.6 Hp.While she drops down to 14.5 AS,she is still doubled less than Dolph,and gains 4-5 Att due to Str and weapon rank to compensate for less doubling.

Ether wrote:I never said that Dolph didn't have a durability win,that much is obvious.However,Paola can hold her own,and on a good amount of things,she can manage to stay pretty close to him in that area,atleast early on.Dolph does win lategame,but I would say that Paola's earlygame win has more weight.(When he is a hunter,Dolph's durability and damage are,to put it bluntly,horrible.

What isn't realized is she only "wins" vs. Dolph for about 2 chapters, possibly 3 pending on how long of a time you're going to sandbag Dolph with levels. Once it's 10/1 it's almost over. You can't just shrug off 45% Def growth that practicaly is a Def level-up every 2 levels. I mean, look at 10/6 Dolph:

Def - 19.95 (20)

That's likely happening by C20. Now take a look at the Paladins here:

Atk - 26-28

BY the way Dolph has 13.6 AS, so rounding up he's only "doubled" (by this I mean only 1 Brave round) by Paladins. That's about 12-16 damage. With 38.7 HP (39) that's about a 2-3RKO. Now a 2RKO is only happening if they hit really, REALLY high with the Atk which IIRC isn't quite possible without a Brave Sword, as of which case its Atk would decrease by 3 (so it's actually about 25 Atk if anything). So look at C21:

40.1 HP | 20.85 Def | 14.4 Spd

Now granted he gets quadrupled by the DracoKnights and Pegasus Knights, but lol @ 0-4 damage at this point. If they're using a Brave weapon anyway.

I... could go on with this, but my point that I'm getting at is that the lategame is pretty crushing here with his superior durability. Even his offense isn't bad considering his effective Mt vs. common enemies. C24 he has Dragon Lance to maim the Mamkutes. Now as for Midgame...

His 18 Def makes a 28 Atk Cavalier in C18 (which it's probably not 18 Def at this point, but w/e) almost a 4RKO. Compare this to Paola who's possibly 2RKOed by these guys.

Although,to help her durability,Paola can go Dracoknight.She keeps her Lance Rank,so she keeps her Silver lances,and ends up with 14.5 Def and 29.6 Hp.While she drops down to 14.5 AS,she is still doubled less than Dolph,and gains 4-5 Att due to Str and weapon rank to compensate for less doubling.

In this route, her lower HP actually is the problem here. To give you an idea Paladins w/26 Atk actually 2RKO on her @ 20/1, though if you're lucky with WTA you can at least suddenly jump this to a 3RKO. But compare this to worst case scenario Dolph who doesn't have WTA and still technically takes hits better than Palla.

The good news is at least in comparison to DracoKnight and Swordmaster you at least get Ridersbane for the Paladins.