Part 77: Silas

Silas
Cavalier (HS: Mercenary)
A+ Support Classes: Jakob (Troubadour), Kaze (Ninja)
Personal Skill: Vow of Friendship (+3 damage dealt and -3 damage taken if Corrin is under 50% HP, regardless of position on map)
Growths (With Default Class):
HP: 40% (50)
STR: 45% (60)
MAG: 5% (5)
SKL: 50% (60)
SPD: 40% (50)
LCK: 40% (55)
DEF: 40% (50)
RES: 25% (30)

It's me, Silas! Your old pal Silas, remember? Hey Corrin can I borrow 50 dollars

Silas is a pretty solid dude, both in that he's a great guy and a great unit. It's really hard for a Cavalier to be bad, and Silas's stats are very nice indeed. Fates especially gives Cavaliers a lot of toys to play with beyond the usual high movement and access to two weapon types.

Statwise, Silas is an all rounder with a slight tendency towards power and skill. He's not slow, but merely average joining speed makes it hard for him to make the most out of his default 50% growth, and if you're unlucky he can start to fall behind in the midgame. What truly elevates him above the competition is the class options available to him and his immensely powerful skill in Vow of Friendship. Vow of Friendship augments his already great offense and bulk when Corrin's on low HP. Actually dropping Corrin to low HP can sometimes require a decent amount of setup, and it's not really feasible to keep one of your best units on half health throughout an entire map, but it's still a relatively easy ability to activate. Pairing Corrin and Silas in defensive formation allows you to keep Corrin out in front until they get low on health and then swap them with a superpowered Silas under the effects of boosts from two personal skills at once.

The Mercenary class tree gives Silas some much needed speed that he may sorely need around the midgame. Abandoning a mount and bulk for extra speed isn't a perfect tradeoff, but it's an entirely viable one. Stacking Elbow Room and Quick Riposte equals a Silas who's doing +6 damage on enemy phase, +9 taking into account VoF. As a Hero, Silas can also pick up the Sol skill, which then leads into his most OP build: the Sol Master Ninja.

Becoming a MN requires Silas to A+ support Kaze, which will take a few chapters starting from Kaze's return after chapter 11. What it does is give him access to a speedy class with a consistent 1-2 range option in Knives, which combined with his good natural bulk and Sol results in a fast and hard to kill unit with a chance to heal himself every hit. Dual guards make builds like this a lot more reliable than they sound, especially when the unit in question is attacking twice every round of combat. A Sol Master Ninja Silas with a good support partner and a few tonics and meals can defeat lategame maps entirely by himself with little chance on failure, even on Lunatic!

Otherwise he's still a solid mounted unit who will only start to slow down around the time Xander joins to replace him. You can also promote him early and then swap him out for his own daughter if you want.

TL;DR:

Pros

• An amazing, if situational personal skill
• Great class selection
• Solid growths all around
• A great (if not the only) user of the Sol/Master Ninja combo
• Can be replaced by his daughter if she's well optimised and he's not working out or has been early promoted

Cons

• Somewhat reliant on level up RNG for longterm viability
• Mediocre speed can hold him back in his base class
• Best strategies are reliant on specific supports for class access or certain conditions for VoF activation

My Rating: Probably gaslighting you

theshim" post="518240109 posted:

Silas is generically good in an almost offensively bland way. Sol Master Ninja aside he's just reliable without being super exciting most of the time, though the pairup with Corrin trick gives him +5/-5 on damage before bonuses are taken into account, so he's just a very good frontliner. His biggest weakness starting out is one that Fates really leans on - only 22 hp and coinflip odds means he really relies on those extra passives to help him tank damage for a while. And while Sol Master Ninja is cool and all, it takes a good long while before you can get that running and it costs a few seals.

Walla" post="518242776 posted:

Silas: Silas is either completely mediocre or horribly broken depending on how much you rely on Vow of Friendship and what seals you want to use. Sol Master Ninja has been mentioned, but you could do the same with three other characters and two will use one less seal to get there. He's also probably your best natural Bow Knight. I will always pimp bows in Conquest, especially Bow Knights and doubly so on Lunatic where Inevitable End is a thing. It's not a bad idea to have at least 2 Bow Knights, and Silas will retain everything that makes him good as a Cavalier and only be better. Also for the same amount of seals as Sol Master Ninja you can have Quick Draw + Strong Riposte + Air Superiority + Shurikenbreaker. Add in Vow of Friendship and Elbow Room and he's doing +11 damage on Player Phase, +10 on Enemy Phase with +50 hit/avoid against fliers and ninjas. It's not impossible to have this by the time you fight Hinoka and Ryoma when you need it most.