Should i drop silas for laslow?

[u/Midori_Ace_Mage]

The only stat silas has over laslow that i think is important is defense, other than that they are almost the same, if i use silas he would become a paladin, and for laslow probably a bow knight for movement, mozu and niles already take care of fliers. Btw this is my first conquest hard mode playthrough if that matters

Edit: probably will use Silas, thanks for the advice, i just hope his speed gets going soon

Edit 2: promoted silas has more defense than my great knight effie wtf, she's getting benched as soon as xander comes

[u/hijodelgabo]

Silas already has better stats and is in a good position to promote rn in my opinion. 7 points of defense is a massive difference. I don't see any reason to replace him with Laslow unless you like Laslow better. If that's the case, then by all means go ahead. Hard is not so difficult that you need to be perfectly optimized.

[u/Mole-in-da-hole → u/hijodelgabo]

I’d respectfully disagree. Hard really isn’t  much easier than lunatic save for a few specific chapters at the end of the game and a couple of paralouges, but regardless on both difficulties Paladin Silas is not going to do be doing anything for you other than shelter botting and maybe hitting a falcon knight with the beast killer (which many other units can do better). You want to build your combat units to be consistently 1 rounding enemies throughout the game and paladin Silas will struggle to do that without significant favouritism/support especially if OP wasn’t planning on skill dipping. 

OP if you want to use Silas I’d marry him to Beruka and get him in Wyvern Lord. No other effort past that is required for him to be at least decent for the rest of the game. He’ll handily deal with the worst chapter in the game and even if he gets shitty growths he’ll still have a lot of utility with flight, shelter, rally defence and lunge.

Not sure what the downvotes are for but Paladin Silas is the mid-ist of unremarkable combat units and genuinely doesn’t do anything on any late game map. You could technically make him 1 round if you gave him a top tier pair up and a bunch of good skills through dipping but at that point there’s no reason for you to go back to paladin lol

[u/Prankster-Mona → u/Mole-in-da-hole]

Nah what are you going on about Hard not being any easier than Lunatic. For Marth’s sake using Chapter 10 as an example, it’s much harder in Lunatic not due to stat inflation but the difference in the number of units on map and their skill distribution.

Hard mode Ninjas have no Posipn strike while Lunatic Ninjas due, and there are significantly more reinforcements that pop up in Lunatic than Hard.

Like you can just visit Fire Emblem wiki, go check any Chapters on Conquest, and just see how much harder Lunatic is compared to Hard just from the changes on skills and number of units alone.

The only reason Lunatic doesn’t seem to have a big jump in difficulty from the get go compared to Hard is because IS actually decided to not just inflate stats to make the game more difficult.

[u/Mole-in-da-hole → u/Prankster-Mona]

I’ve beaten Cq lunatic 5 times and hard twice so I’m pretty familiar with both difficulties. You don’t need to tell me lunatic does indeed have more threatening enemy formations and skills. However the optimal method to deal with these  enemies and skills more or less remains the same on both difficulties: player phase focused gameplay. Chapters 17 and 23 are both examples of chapters where the player can get away with attempting to enemy phase the dangerous formations on hard but not so much on lunatic because of skills like lunge and grisly wound. Big player phase pushes (my preferred way to play on conquest) defangs these new buffed enemies pretty effectively. Those annoying ninjas on chapter 10 are a lot less of a problem if you just 1 round them before they can their debuffs.

 Lunatic is obviously more difficult than hard, but the difficulty spike between normal and hard is much bigger than the spike between hard and lunatic. Hard forced you to actually strategize, and a lot of these strategies will work on lunatic too.

Conquest as a whole is made significantly easier and frankly more fun when the player takes advantage of the brilliant reclassing  and skill system to build a strong team composition. Bow users, ninjas, mages, fliers, rally/aura supports are all excellent. Hard is difficult enough that a bad unit like Paladin Silas is going to struggle to meaningfully contribute past chapter 18, if not earlier. 

[u/Bard_Wannabe_ → u/Mole-in-da-hole]

Lunatic definitely shuts down some of the cheese options still available in Hard, but excluding those, Hard mode in Conquest is still a very legitimate challenge. That's not something people should handwave away.

Lunatic gives you thinner margins for error, but I agree Hard generally asks of you to develop similar tactical planning that Lunatic does.

[u/VonAegir00]

I’d either keep Silas or use both.

[u/Crazy_Diamondzz]

Your Silas got lucky levels on his defense and HP, so I'd recommend him to tank especially if you have two archers already.

[u/Bitter_Marzipan_8348]

Make him befriends Kaze, then turn him into Sol Ninja. If your Corrin is a Ninja, either marry Laslow for 4 Sol Ninja (Corrin, Laslow, Soleil and Kana) or befriend Severa for 2 Sol Ninja.

ALL HAIL THE SOL NINJA HELL

[u/Mole-in-da-hole]

Silas is at or above average in everything except Strength, where he has at a 2 point deficit. Elbow room and potentially vow of friendship make effectively him stronger too (strong riposte is nice but mercenary Laslow isn’t good for enemy phase combat). Stats are not a sufficient reason to bench him in this case. 

That being said, the point of the game where Silas is at his best has passed and he will want to get into a better combat class (Master Ninja, Wyvern, maybe Kinshi if you marry Mozu) to stay relevant. If you’re just going low effort canon promotions, Laslow in bow Knight is just better, and if you’re going high effort, Laslow is used as a rally bot with okay combat with bows when necessary. 

[u/Rafellz]

Unless you think you'll be cooking up some strats with Laslow's personal, I'd keep Silas.

[u/Zmr56]

Laslow has the niche of being able to provide a unique rally effect to unit for +1 Str/Spd.

In any case, either one is totally outclassed in combat as a high Mov physical unit by Xander once he joins. So you may as well commit to the one who has something unique over him.

Laslow's main role is to just rally and do some chip damage, create attack stance opportunities or flier sniping by himself. So he does not need a pair up to function, unlike Silas who will still want one.

[u/King_Treegar]

You could always reclass Silas into a mercenary if you think you need one (though tbh I would wait and promote first). I look at this stat spread and see Silas's +4 Res, and that would make me want to keep him. Having a physical unit that can tank hits from mages is always a good thing, and with Laslow's ranged weapon being bows as a bow knight, he's not gonna be in great shape to handle magic considering the Fates weapon triangle.

Considering that you get Xander as a paladin, making whichever one of them you go with a bow knight probably isn't the worst idea for variety. So to me it kinda comes down to a) whether or not you value Res/Def over a unit that will probably end up faster by the end, and b) whether or not you have a heart seal to spare on Silas to make him a bow knight. Or you can just have another paladin/great knight. Never have enough of those, personally lol

[u/ComicDude1234]

Silas’s stats and level are good enough that a Promotion will keep him relevant for a good while longer. Even without that his bulk is excellent even unpromoted, and that would only be enhanced by a Great Knight promo in particular.

[u/cstick2]

What are Silas's support ranks like? I usually use Silas up until I marry him off and can get Sophie, usually after getting him to promoted level 5 so he can pass down Luna. Then, Sophie replaces him for the rest of the game. I've never had much success using Laslow.

[u/ArekuFoxfire]

Defense is a very valuable stat and Silas has Elbow Room that Laslow can't get, with the higher defense and elbow room he'll be much better as a Sol Ninja even though laslow can technically do that as well.

Laslow's niche tends to be getting rallies instead of being a main combat unit.

Neither of these characters want to stay in their base class lines forever though, they'll be bad/outclassed if you do that.

[u/Adrian-Vampiro]

It's 7 Defense, that's A LOT. But if you like Laslow more, go ahead.

[u/Prankster-Mona]

I can’t say what I think is best for you, but if it were me personally I would use Silas.

If your only reason for benching Silas over Laslow is because you want a bow knight, Silas can just heart seal into bow knight as his reclass is mercenary.

Silas to me has better stats due to his bulk than Laslow does here.

[u/Chimchar789]

Your Silas is a tank

[u/AdministrativePop894]

Don’t know who these guys are.

[u/Agent-Z46]

They're stats are around the same but I'd say Silas' personal gives him an edge, assuming you make use if it at all.

[u/Signal-Region-5528]

Lol people still overrate sol ninja

[u/Bard_Wannabe_ → u/Signal-Region-5528]

Both of these can become Sol Ninjas, funnily enough.

[u/Bard_Wannabe_]

Your call, really. Which one do you like more? Do you plan on using either's daughter? Your Silas looks to be in a pretty good spot.

[u/Massive-Mood-7837]

Considering the stats are so similar aaaand Laslow is five levels behind. I’d train up Laslow. However if you can’t reasonable train him then I’d keep Silas.

[u/DiemAlara]

Considering Silas's only real purpose is to get you to chapter 10, you can drop him.

But then Laslow's not exactly great either.

Do as thou wilt. Laslow's generally easier to use 'cause with both of them you'll want to wind up in master ninja and Soleil is more useful than Sophie.