Part 82: Mozu
Mozu
Villager (HS: Archer)
Heart Seal Classes: Effie (Knight), Nyx (Dark Mage)
Personal Skill: Forager (Recover 20% of max HP at start of turn if on Woods, Mountain, Waste, or Field terrain)
Growths* (With Base Class):
HP: 40% (50)
STR: 50% (60)
MAG: 15% (15)
SKL: 60% (70)
SPD: 65% (75)
LCK: 55% (75)
DEF: 45% (55)
RES: 40% (40)
*With Aptitude's 10% boost
Mozu is this game's villager/trainee archetype, which is to say a helpless child with atrocious base stats who when forced to fight will grow stronger at an incredibly fast pace. Or well I guess she might not be a child? The localisation of Fates aged every character up an adult, I'm not sure how old she was originally.
If you've ever played Awakening then don't expect Mozu to function much like Donnel. Villager is an actual class in this game with competent bases and promotion options, rather than a joke option you're meant to reclass out of the instant you can. This means you can keep Mozu as one all the way up to level 20 and promote her into an actually good class that uses lances, but it also means that unlike Donnel Mozu won't suddenly become great the moment you reclass her. She is also unlike Donnel in that even with her high growths she's still got the stats of a glass cannon, so unless you reclass her into something bulky she'll always be strong and fast yet fragile, unlike Donnel who will soon turn into a giant ball of capped stats.
I still think she's way better than Donnel is though, at least in Conquest! Donnel is a unit that starts off bad and ends up good in a game where every unit ends up good but most don't start off bad, but in CQ Mozu has a proper niche of her own thanks to her access to four different Hoshidan classes. As an Archer she'll quickly grow into a unit with amazing power and speed when attacking on player phase, and even passable enemy phase thanks to Conquest's love of tight maps full of corridors to attack over. She'll definitely outclass Niles in terms of raw stats once she gets going, although she does have to actually get going which is easier said than done. She can promote into either a Sniper for more sheer power and excellent skills, or a Kinshi Knight for flying mobility and the ability to use lances in exchange for slightly underwhelming stats and a bow weakness. If you keep her as a Villager she can eventually promote into a Merchant to gain access to the Profiteer skill, which gives her a luck% chance of finding Gold Bars at the end of the first 7 turns of a map. Given her high luck stat she's likely to find at least one or two per map, which is helpful in a game with otherwise limited funds. She can also combine the Quick Draw, Bowfaire, Spendthrift, and Life and Death skills from all across her class tree to make a build that does absolutely insane damage in certain situations and straight up one round or one shot bosses if you have the EXP and resources to swap around her class a bunch.
Mozu's biggest problem is, as hinted by her paralogue, her Tragic Start. Her bases are awful and her best class option requires spending a Heart Seal on her, something you won't have a lot of for a while. She'll need some combination of tonics, forges, and support partners to do any real damage on her own, and even with a bow to attack safely from a distance she's not going to have an easy time killing anything. Her joining chapter isn't a bad place to feed her EXP considering how little EXP anyone else will get from defeating the underleveled enemies there, but even if you don't care about turncounts or anything it's still a lot of time and effort. But a Mozu who's been chipping away at enemies with her bow should start to come into her own in Chapter 10, conveniently one of the game's hardest chapters where bow users are most appreciated. And even a level 1 Mozu can one shot Pegasus Knights with a forged Bronze Bow and maybe a tonic or a good support partner, so if nothing else you can use that chapter to train her up.
As for her reclasses, Knight is very fun if you want a bulkier Mozu, and Dark Mage sucks. Although I did make her one once when I did a silly reclasses run on Normal mode. She wasn't very good but I had a great time using her, and that's the real battle.
Oh and Forager is a skill that exists I guess? Situational healing skills are never great, especially on a squishy unit like her, but it's better than nothing.
TL;DR:
Pros
- Amazing growths make her very useful in the endgame
- Unique access to many different Hoshidan classes, all of which provide her with great skills
- One of the few units in CQ able to learn the Profiteer skill
- Likely to be your strongest bow user once she escapes from her bad bases
- A great mother for any non-magical child thanks to Aptitude
- Passes the Archer class to her husband or Effie (or Nyx but why would you do that...)
Cons
- Atrocious bases, requires babying or forged weapons & tonics to become self sufficient
- Needs a Heart Seal to be properly useful
- Terrible pair-up stats in her base class and bad dual attacks make it somewhat annoying to raise her support level if you're not using her as a combat unit
- Unlikely to be very good defensively even in lategame
My Rating: You're a good apple!
theshim" post="518289326 posted:
Mozu is cool though. Does need babying, and compared to Donnel she suffers doubly thanks to not being able to reclass and gain 5-8 points in every stat and her growths with Aptitude merely being great instead of ludicrous, but she's generally a worthy investment for me. Doubt I would go for it on Lunatic, though, she'll have a lot of trouble getting up to a point where she isn't constantly exploding. Archer access in Conquest is real good and she can pass it along to quite a few people who would also greatly appreciate it, and she makes one of the best moms thanks to being able to pass down Aptitude. My first run of each route I made her Queen, because it amused me to do so, and because she deserves it.
Walla" post="518291130 posted:
I've soured on Mozu as a unit. She just takes too much investment compared to others. If you Heart Seal her immediately then she's much more capable, but she'll still want tonics and forges to be competent for several levels still. She grows into an insane unit if you put in the work, but I prefer units who are immediately useful. Passing on Archer to Niles, Effie and even Nyx can be great, but it's a shame her kids are stuck with Villager.