Pssssshhhhhhh

I'll make her live when I play through Hard mode.

If you're losing characters on normal, hard mode will make you cry.

Look I accepted the inevitability of crying a long, long, long time ago.

I wasn't arguing that he was better than Caineghis, I was arguing that Giffca was better than Ranulf. You could argue that Giffca should be on your final team though. He has almost identical stats to Caineghis (4 less health, 1 less str, 2 less luck, 2 more speed, 1 more res).

You won't be needing a Laguz gem in 2 or 4, so you have 3 levels were it should be fairly needed. Thus, you can have 3 characters that you use it on. Using it on a Laguz practically makes it a royal.

So, among the non-royals, who is worth the Laguz gem? I'd say Giffca is the #1 person who deserves it. He is essentially Caineghis for 3 of the chapters (and as you're bound to have some spare Olivie Grass, you can use than and a laguz gem on him in 2 and 4). Edit: Well, Kurth may take the #1 spot who deserves it actually.

Concluding: Giffca is practically equal to Caineghis.

I'm certianly not denying the fact that Giffca w/Laguz gem = Caineghis, but the fact that you potentially have to have 1 Heron and 2 dragons means you may need to suck it up and use the 2 gems on different characters (actually is it even possible to defeat the last boss without a Laguz gem shifted Heron?)

yes, In fact, there are almost no benefits to having a shifted Heron unless you have Reyson. Honestly I just shift the Heron because I can, not because I see any real benefit.

The one thing I really should have done was BXP my Heron so they had useful chants like Recovery.

I've never found any good from the Heron's in my first playthrough, in the untransformed state they were basically OHKO by the last bosses AOE attack.  Maybe if I leveled them up more (or blew some BXP on them) they would be able to survive a single hit when they are untranformed.

And who would you be using besides Reyson in the final chapters?

I don't remember all the stats for them, and typically get the heron mixed up, but I would probably use Rafiel as he is capable of reviving 4 people every single turn regardless of being transformed which is really useful.

I liked Leanne too, so I've probably taken her before too. But in reality, I always use herons, and try to use a chant every turn so they tend to be decently leveled and just pick one randomly. However, I've never gotten one up to level 40 before.

Rafiel is the best heron for affecting 4 units every turn, but his lack of range and lack of canto is sometimes too dangerous for my tastes.  Untransformed Reyson has 1 additional movement point than Rafiel, and tranformed Reyson gains an additional 1 (or 2 can't remember) movement points when tranformed.  This extra movement means Reyson can easily move away from protection, cast his galder and then move back to protection (unlike Rafiel).  I'm pretty sure that Reyson has better stats.

Stats don't mean a ton for Herons, as they should never be attacked.

Anyway, should I give Nephenee Imbue so she can solo this level, or Paragon so she'll probably top out?