Character Spotlight: Leah
Leah is the deserved spotlight. She scores well on the popularity poll and is the main character in the first part of The Lonely Mirror.
Background:
Leah is the Princess of Ametona and the only daughter of King Corwin and Queen Loretta and heir to the throne. Leah grew up sheltered by her parents and enjoyed reading literature, hearing fables from her parents, and even learning swordplay from her father.
Tensions between Ametona and neighboring Celyste had always been high, but after things escalated and Celyste attacked her homeland was when Leah had to rise to the occasion to become a strong leader in order to protect Ametona. She sets out to investigate the origin of the conflict at Granrei and learns of her father’s death, inheriting his sword, Majestra. It is there where she decides to follow a messenger of Celyste, Faith, to meet with Prince Joseph and negotiate the end of the war.
Princess Leah triumphed over the White Lions and gained their support, and she arrived at the meeting point to negotiate with Prince Joseph about the fate of their nations. It is learned that a cult, called the Proclaimers was responsible for manipulating a war between Ametona and Celyste in order to gain control of five Sacred Instruments. Leah and Joseph allied to drive them out of their nations.
After Leah and her companions succeed in driving out the Proclaimers and peace is restored, she returned home to Ametona to learn form her mother about Ametona’s ties with the Proclaimers and the importance of the Sacred Instruments in the fate of humanity.
Instead of investing in relations between Ametona and Celyste, Leah spends about five years investing the Sacred Instruments and learning the Proclaimers’ goals. When the White Lions and Prince Joseph arrive in Ametona to chase a trail left by the Proclaimers, Leah joins her previous allies once again in order to help save the world in a humane way.
Appearance:
During the Celyste-Ametona War, Leah is shown to have shoulder length purple hair that is parted by a red headband. She wears lighter armor that is both red and silver with gold trim. When Leah is met again, she loses the headband in favor of a gold circlet around her forehead, and her hair has grown a little longer. Leah armor is broader having silver shoulder pads while having a red vest with gold trim.
Growth Rates:
| HP | Pow | Skl | Spe | Lck | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75% | 40% | 55% | 60% | 55% | 20% | 30% |
Unit Analysis:
Leah’s has one of the best stat growths in the game with high focus on Skill, Speed, and Luck while also having respectable growths in HP and Res. Leah’s Defense growth is her only very weak growth rate, but her Power growth can be unreliable. Given Leah’s stat spread, she will likely play the role of an agile swordfighter early in the game and is capable of double attacking most all enemies and excelling in avoid. She is also the only character capable of wielding the Rapier in the early game, and is the best unit to deal with calvary.
Leah’s personal sword, Majestra, is one of the best weapons in the entire game – being a magic sword with high attack and critical hit, good usage. This allows Leah to have consistent ranged strike option despite being sword locked and gives her the ability to attack Defense or Resistance consistently. Additionally, Leah’s promotion to Gallant (though, pretty late into the story) grants use of Light Magic in addition to swords, which gives Leah only further increases Leah’s range and options to attack physically or magically.
Leah’s main weakness is her late rejoin and somewhat late promotion. Additionally, she is subject to not leveling well in Power, which hinders her use late in the game even with the powerful Majestra, and she might fall short of other speedy sword users like Myles, Atticus, or Saoirse that have had a lot of EXP investment already.
Overall, Leah’s excellent growth rate, amazing personal weapon, and availability to gain a lot of levels in the first part of the game makes her always in contention as a staple in any party. However, if Leah falls short in the early game, it may not be worth deploying her beyond her rejoin chapter. Despite being a main character and force deployed in the first part of the game, Leah isn’t ever necessary beyond her rejoin chapter. This may give opportunity for other similar units to take her deployment slot. If Leah levels well in Power in the early game, expect her to become one of the most dependable units into the late game. Good power coupled with Leah’s excellent speed growth will highlight her strengths best.
Support Options:
Leah’s affinity is Fire, which is extremely valuable for her needs as a unit. The Fire affinity provides bonus to power, critical hit rate, and avoid all of which aligns well with her role on the team. Leah has access to every type of support affinity aside from Anima, and most all her options work well for her:
- Boone - Ice
- Kathryn - Thunder
- Vergil - Wind
- Myles - Fire
- Faith – Light
- Caden – Thunder
- Tarin - Dark
Myles provided a double Fire pairing, which happens to be mutually beneficial for Leah and Myles, because both characters desire the boosts in power, critical, and avoid. The only hesitancy about choosing Myles is delaying Myles’s early game support options in favor of Leah.
The Fire and Wind pairing that Vergil provides is a great offensive boost for both characters. Vergil also rejoins on the same chapter as Leah, so there is not a concern about support availability, which makes Vergil one of Leah’s best support options.
Caden and Kathryn provide Leah full critical and avoid boosts with their Thunder affinities, while sacrificing added power for more defense. Kathryn and Caden are either immediately available (in Kathryn’s case) or available soon after (in Caden’s case). Caden, in particular, greatly values the Fire affinity that Leah provides.
Tarin is Leah’s last support option available, and because Tarin joins so late, he appreciates any support option available to him. Leah’s Fire affinity coincidentally is extremely valuable to Tarin as he will appreciate the power boost greatly. The Dark affinity coming from Tarin is great for Leah if she leveled well in power to further improve her avoid and critical hit rate.
Faith provides Light affinity, which has boosts to power and full critical hit boost, which are mutually beneficial for Leah and Faith. The one downside to choosing Faith is her later availability as a unit as well as Faith’s high movement as a flier, which mean Leah and Faith may not be positioned near one another often on the battlefield.
The Boone pairing is not a great choice for Leah as the Ice affinity does not provide boosts to power or critical hit, and those are the two boosts most important to Leah. Building a support pairing with Boone and Leah also means that Boone would have to forgo his early game support options and wait for Leah. Leah and Boone pairing works if the other options are not being used or if desiring to see their ending together.
Popularity Poll:
I intend to continue doing character spotlights each month at least for the remainder of 2021. I will also factor characters that are discussed in posts often in addition to the poll. Vote for your favorite characters and tell me why you like them, or feel free to request any too.