Luke Von Fabre: 5/10. Tales swordsman can only be so bad. One of the appreciable choices for main character besides lolsnipesnipe, but not really that impressive. Better than Guy in the earlygame, worse later, but the margin by how much he gets worse later is noticeably steeper than his edge early.
Tear Grants: 7.5/10. The better -healer- of your healing pair. In Tales, these are always good, and Tear even can back up your frontline offense with magic damage. It's not great, but damage isn't what you use TotA magic for.
Jade Curtis: 3.5/10. While I used him for the whole game for the sake of having less AI fuckups in terms of charging into a fray (and well, despite all his many flaws as a characters, he has a cool VA or something), he's... not impressive. Magic ties up things rather well when it goes off, but TotA casting times are egregiously slow. If you -really- want magical damage, honestly, Tear works as a solid backup.
Guy Cecil: 6.5/10. Later on, I could pull off some insane combo strings and a braindead semi-infinite with him, which made him a spamlock machine, and I like the speed. On the other hand, I doubt I can objectively rate him at even a 7. The lacking early game is a real problem, and that doesn't go away so easily. Also, I could see swapping this score with the one I gave Luke depending on how people fly.
Anise Tatlin: 3.5/10. She just kinda sucks. Slow, awkward combos, her magic is rather unremarkable (on top of having the typical TotA magic issues) and she doesn't have a damage edge to compensate for the poor mobility/comboability.
Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear: 8/10. The better -fighter- of the healing pair. The main difference, though? Natalia is probably the best character for effective durability in the game: her attacks are fast and safe, her defensive stats are strong, she's also a fast runner (good for abusing the hell out of how enemies fail against Free Run) and her healing is quite adequate (ST focus, but stronger for amount healed than Tear's). Giving her a speed/defense focus made her quite difficult to kill, and that's pretty desirable on a healer. Being a good fighter doesn't hurt. Probably objective MVP.
Asch: DNR. Eeeew, disposable temp that sticks around for no time.
Fire Emblem Swordmasters, Heroes and Ravens:
Dieck: 7/10. Some people gush over Dieck and I've never fully understood why. I guess supports give him some durability but nobody should have to rely on Lott being played, and otherwise his stats are just kinda average. He does have a good start, though, so giving him points for that.
Rutger: 8.5/10. Just dominates from the getgo, and thanks to speed growth and a 30% crit rate (+ Wo Dao + crit/avo supports = ...) he keeps it up, unlike Dieck. Wish he had 2 range and more move, but otherwise, yowza.
Oujay: 5/10. Shaky start, never develops into anything amazing, but serviceable.
Fir: 8/10. Rutger who possibly gets... even better? Fire is just the best affinity for a SM period. Worse start, but honestly she does pretty well even at Level 1 since she joins in axe city.
Echidna: 7/10. One of the game's best axemen. Great skill so she can hit, great speed so she can double even with the weight hit. Other stats could be better but the durability is propped up nicely by Lalum.
Karel(6): 6/10. I dunno. His stats are great, but lacking supports he feels a pretty questionable choice for the final level. Still, hardly bad.
Guy: 7/10. Isn't as good as the FE6 SMs, but still gets great avoid and the Matt support keeps his attack respectable.
Raven: 9/10. Best character in FE7. 13 speed + 8 strength is possibly party-best offence (outside Marcus) when he joins. And he is NOTABLY UNDERLEVELLED. So hi there, I heard you liked people who gain levels quickly with 55% strength growth to make that offence game-best, period. Also solid supports (ice is a great affinity for him since his power rules anyway) and axes at promotion negate his only weakness. Yeah.
Karel(7): 3.5/10. Eh. Minus points because you lose Harken, maybe? I dunno, he's not great anyway.
Harken: 7/10. By all rights should be the best prepromo (but isn't because Pent rules), very solid stats and weapon ranks everywhere. Would be godly if not for needing to build up supports.
Karla: 1/10. lulz
Joshua: 7/10. Better out of the gate than Guy, but worse as the game goes on due to better competition. It balances.
Gerik: 6.5/10. Doesn't feel very useful on Eph route, but solid enough on Eirika's. Suffers a bit from being crowded out by better swordsmen but the stats are certainly good.
Marisa: 4/10. Eh. Awesome lategame avoid tank, but a pain to get started and never has offence.
Mia(9): 4/10. FE9 swordmasters aren't very good. Less HP than their predecessors, and FE9 swords suck, and anyone with a Knight Ward matches a SM for speed anyway.
Zihark(9): 5/10. Zihark's a bit better due to that earth affinity nonsense I guess.
Stefan(9): 6.5/10. Stefan on the other hand is rather good because his stats just rule midgame, and he always smashes the other SMs in power, their weak stat.
Lucia(9): 1/10. Karla mark 2. Technically she's not quite as bad, but I don't think the difference is worth even half a point.
Naesala(9): 5/10. Meh.
Edward: 3/10. Hi guys, 5 def range 1 in the DB this works right?
Zihark(10): 7.5/10. Pretty solid, he can actually dodge some with his earth supports and starts pretty powerful. Too bad the concrete durability still blows and no authority stars means this always matters.
Vika: 3/10. Hi guys I am absolutely essential for one map, decent for two more, then terrible. Same score as Muarim works.
Nealuchi: 3.5/10. Workable filler kinda.
Lucia(10): 3.5/10. One map of being awesome, then... well, not as bad as Muarim/Tormod/Vika in part 4 at least.
Mia(10): 8/10. Very solid, her speed actually matters and she gets much better power this time out.
Naesala(10): 8/10. The worst laguz royal by almost any metric. Oh noes!
Stefan(10): 6/10. Serviceable asskicker in endgame, the best time to be a SM.