History Main / CharacterTiers

* Another non-gaming example: ''WebVideo/TierZoo'', a video that places animals into tier lists depending on how well they can survive as a species. Rankings are determined by various factors such as stats (Intelligence, Power, Defence, Speed, Health and Stealth), abilities that the animal has (such as venom or armor piercing bites) and finally, how well they match-up against predators and prey in the "server" (habitat).

* Non-gaming example: ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime''. The setting's magic-users, [[OurMagesAreDifferent channelers]], draw on The One Power, the very juice of creation itself. The ''amount'' of Power any given channeler can wield is an important metric (especially with the SealedEvilInACan breaking free and a SavingTheWorldClimax looming), but pinning them down specifically would have led to endless FanWank about PowerLevels. To avoid this, author Robert Jordan ''deliberately'' classed his characters into tiers, simply saying "[[PluckyGirl Egwene]] is about as strong as [[PrincessClassic Elayne]], but [[TheBigGuy Nynaeve]] is stronger than either of them," without bothering to be specific about how much stronger Nynaeve was. (And then we add in the fact that channeling is a GenderRestrictedAbility, and that men have their own tiers, which Jordan specifically refused to cross-correlate with the female ones. And ''then'' we add in the fact that the QuirkyMinibossSquad are all "at least as strong as Nynaeve, but we don't really know how much stronger". And '''''then''''' we add in the fact that said QuirkyMinibossSquad can also channel power directly from the BigBad. And that's how fans get obsessed with ''The Wheel of Time''.)

** [[KnightErrant Glenn]] is considered one of the best in the game, and the principal reason to [[spoiler:not help Kid when she is poisoned.]] The alternative choice gives Razzly, who is a fantastic mage, but the player almost always have [[GirlNextDoor Leena]], who is just as good, only tougher. Later in the game, Karsh is almost always picked over Zoah for the same reason, and Irenes tends to be the go-to pick if Harle's black elemental nature would do more harm than good.

* ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'' has a lot of characters but they are clearly examples of Character Tiers. Partly due to a few very powerful weapons that can last until the end of the main game can be obtained early and just make the two Lancers or the heavy swordsmen extremely powerful. Many characters of course cannot be perfectly balanced due to some attacks that have varying levels of power and usability. It's clearly established that almost all the Sorcerers are worthless (Due to several coming and only one is needed) or OvershadowedByAwesome, The archers except for Janus and Valkyrie Suck, and the sword users just CantCatchUp.
** But this changes in the seraphic gate where swords just ridiculously overpower everything.

* Companions of the same class in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' have access to the same class abilities, so they are pretty much interchangeable in the party... until you unlock the [[PrestigeClass Specializations]], that is. Since each companion has a predetermined spec in this game, and not all specs are equally powerful and/or useful, it induces a certain inequality. Among party mages, for instance, the [[MagicKnight Knight-Enchanter]] Vivienne is easily the best pick, as her specialization counteracts most of the weaknesses inherent to her class (low defenses, lack of effective melee capabilities), while also boosting the party's overall survivability; Solas, whose Rift Mage spec gives him an impressive damage output boost, comes second, while Dorian's Necromancer abilities are sadly very situational and rarely see much use.

It seems inevitable when you've got a game with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: the time will come when the only thing left is to try and figure out whether [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Lowen's]] early joining time on Eliwood/Hector mode and slighty higher base stats make up for joining later than a Lyn mode trained Paladin!Sain or Kent. It can be a polite discussion or a FlameWar; a debate of logic and reason or a contest to see who can stick their fingers in their ears the longest. It usually gives birth to legions of {{Scrub}}s and StopHavingFunGuys. If the game happens to have a competitive scene, expect even more of this.

* The counselors in ''VideoGame/VideoGame/FridayThe13th'' are easily divided up in terms of utility, and the game rewards ''speed'' over every other trait they might have. That, by itself, puts Mark and Crissy right at the top of the list, with Laura trailing behind them since she can't jump as high. George, Paul and Debbie will count themselves fortunate to be used by any players who aren't specifically making a point to actually use each counselor's individual strengths, or who aren't playing a SelfImposedChallenge.

It seems inevitable when you've got a game with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: the time will come when the only thing left is to try and figure out whether [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Lowen's]] early joining time and superior supports make up for joining later than a Lyn mode trained Paladin!Sain or Kent. It can be a polite discussion or a FlameWar; a debate of logic and reason or a contest to see who can stick their fingers in their ears the longest. It usually gives birth to legions of {{Scrub}}s and StopHavingFunGuys. If the game happens to have a competitive scene, expect even more of this.

** Elf King Kyle was overpowered as soon as he became available, with a high-damage all-hitting attack he could one-shot almost all enemies, even on higher difficulties. The only reason people rank Butters higher than him is because he is only available at the end game.

** Jimmy only had one use, putting [[BonusBoss Al Gore's Secret Service]] to sleep. Other than that, he was useful.

** Character who sit in God Tiers are generally those who influence the game to a much bigger extent than the rest of the cast, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Caeda and Lena]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Sigurd]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Marcus and Sain]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Seth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Titania, Jill, and Marcia]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Haar]], and then there's [[GameBreaker Robin]] -- the PlayerCharacter from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''.

It seems inevitable when you've got a game with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: the time will come when the only thing left is to try and figure out whether [[VideoGame/FireEmblem Lowen's]] early joining time and superior supports make up for his crappy strength growth. It can be a polite discussion or a FlameWar; a debate of logic and reason or a contest to see who can stick their fingers in their ears the longest. It usually gives birth to legions of {{Scrub}}s and StopHavingFunGuys. If the game happens to have a competitive scene, expect even more of this.

** Character who sit in God Tiers are generally those who influence the game to a much bigger extent than the rest of the cast, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Caeda and Lena]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Sigurd]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade Marcus and Hector]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Seth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Titania, Jill, and Marcia]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Haar]], and then there's [[GameBreaker Robin]] -- the PlayerCharacter from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''.

** [[KnightErrant Glenn]] is considered one of the best in the game, and the principal reason to [[spoiler: not help Kid when she is poisoned.]] The alternative choice gives Razzly, who is a fantastic mage, but the player almost always have [[GirlNextDoor Leena]], who is just as good, only tougher. Later in the game, Karsh is almost always picked over Zoah for the same reason, and Irenes tends to be the go-to pick if Harle's black elemental nature would do more harm than good.

** [=NPCs=] in ''Mass Effect 2'' are ranked based on their powers. Miranda's powers are always useful, and she gives a damage bonus to the entire squad, making her the best overall. Mordin is feast or famine - against organics (particularly the Blood Pack, since he works well against armored foes), he is utterly amazing. Against synthetic foes, he is terrible. At the low end of the tier list is Jack (who has no skills for dealing with armored foes and is very fragile), Jacob (who is simply inferior to Grunt in all respects) and [[spoiler: Morinth]], for having all the problems of Jack without the Warp Ammo bonus power that makes her playable.

* ''[[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 GoldenEye]]'' for Nintendo 64 included at least 2 playable characters in multiplayer that were considerably shorter than other characters, specifically including Odd Job. When attacked by one of these shorter models, you very often wouldn't see him without looking down. It got so bad that tournaments (and friends) banned use of Odd Job and the Moonraker Female (the other short character) from use.

* The VideoGame/GundamVsSeries, like ''Capcom vs. SNK'', codified its tiers as part of the gameplay: each team has a 6000-point "resource meter" which depletes every time a player is shot down, and the playable units are divided into different cost tiers, ranging from 3000 (representing mecha like protagonists' MidSeasonUpgrade Gundams and FinalBoss-level enemies) to 1000[=/=]1500 (representing MechaMooks and really low-tech machines). However, these tiers aren't a hard and fast measure of the characters' in-game performance; the 1000-cost Zaku II Kai can be utterly devastating in the right hands thanks to its trap grenades and has actually been banned from tournament play in some editions (the only 1000-cost machine with that honor). On the other side of the equation, the 3000-cost Gundam Epyon is generally low-ranked because while it ''does'' have an extensive melee moveset that lets it carve opponents up like Christmas turkeys, it has a hard time closing to melee range because it has absolutely no ranged weapons whatsoever, making it DifficultButAwesome.

*** The resident JokeCharacter Boss and Boss Borot is an anomally in the tier list. In older SRW, boss is Mid tier at best, having decent Seishin set, and Boss is one of the better Ressuply unit. Its extremely cheap repair cost lets you to use it for suicide bombing purpose just in case. However, some newer SRW gave Boss his subpilots, having awesome Seishin but get hit by MagikarpPower to fully achieve its biggest potential. Then come J, L and W. in J, and W its a SwissArmyKnife able to repair, ressuply, and have strong and economic weapon and its really cheap to upgrade. In L, boss has an awesome Squad bonus, and a lot of its attack deals massive damage AND lower morale. Both game also has 3 Pilot Seishin for Boss. In these SRW, Boss is a contender for Top tier.

* The counselors in ''VideoGame/VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame'' are easily divided up in terms of utility, and the game rewards ''speed'' over every other trait they might have. That, by itself, puts Mark and Crissy right at the top of the list, with Laura trailing behind them since she can't jump as high. George, Paul and Debbie will count themselves fortunate to be used by any players who aren't specifically making a point to actually use each counselor's individual strengths, or who aren't playing a SelfImposedChallenge.

* The counselors in ''VideoGame/FridayThe13th'' are easily divided up in terms of utility, and the game rewards ''speed'' over every other trait they might have. That, by itself, puts Mark and Crissy right at the top of the list, with Laura trailing behind them since she can't jump as high. George, Paul and Debbie will count themselves fortunate to be used by any players who aren't specifically making a point to actually use each counselor's individual strengths, or who aren't playing a SelfImposedChallenge.

** As a general rules, the Top Tiers of a ''Fire Emblem'' Tier List are mostly dominated by unit with Mounted Traits. This is largely thanks to the how poorly balanced Mounted units are compared to foot units, who have better movement, solid stats for combat, immediate access to 2 weapons, and the Rescue - Drop system which allow them to excels for both combat and utility. Fliers are usually put on the same category thanks to their ability to ignore terrains which allows fast clears of a lot of maps when used correctly That being said, unless they have a utility that match the mounted units(ex. Healers and Dancer) or have a really good combat, they will not be as high as unit with mounts.
** Character who sit in their God Tiers are generally those who influence the game in a much bigger extent than the rest of the cast, such as [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia Caeda and Rena]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Sigurd]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe Marcus and Hector]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones Seth]], [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius POR!Titania, Jill, and Marcia, and RD!Haar]], and then there's [[GameBreaker Robin]] -- the PlayerCharacter [[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening from ''Awakening'']].

* VideoGame/RadiataStories proudly boasts over 150 characters you can collect and use in battle, and the quests to obtain them have a wide range of difficulty which doesn't always correspond to each character's strength. There are characters you'd have to be crazy not to go into the final battle with, characters that are only there for the lulz, and inevitably you'll find a character that you just plain like. They're all pretty interesting.

* ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron 2'', what tier a country belongs to depends almost entirely on its size and industrial capacity. The strongest countries are, in order: Germany, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Italy, and France. It's possible to conquer a continent or more with some of the smaller countries (especially Brazil and Argentina, which are far away from the main super-powers), but almost any country on the European continent will either be conquered by Germany or allied with Germany. Same with Japan and Asia.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', despite having over 700 Pokémon of varying balance (as well as mons with alternate forms and Mega Evolutions), has taken to heart the game's preaching of using your favorite Pokémon. The most well-known tier system, Website/{{Smogon}}'s, organizes all Pokémon into 6 official tiers and a boatload of Other Metagames with modified rules, with tournaments and friendly battles taking place in any one of the tiers. It is also continuously changing, with Pokémon changing tiers based on usage, and even implementation or removal of [[HouseRules clauses]] and other factors (for instance, the introduction of Eviolite[[note]]A held item that boosts the defense and special defense stats of the holding Pokémon by 50% provided that the Pokémon can still evolve[[/note]] altered plenty of Pokémon placement in tiers).

** The fifth tier is the PU tier, which doesn't stand for anything, introduced in Generation VI. It was once an unofficial tier for Never-Used (NU) Pokémon that happens to have low usage even by NU standard (such as Arbok and Parasect), but has been turned into an official tier by popular demand.

** The Dungeons & Dragons community has an ultimate prototype for a (ridiculous) God Tier character: Pun Pun the Kobold. Pun Pun was initially created in 3.5e and has since been worked out in other editions as well as versions in other RPGs mechanics. It's essentially the most [[MinMaxing minmaxed]] character possible in a given set of mechanics.

** [[PrestigeClass Prestige Classes]] generally are set on separate tier [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160818031632/http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1573.0 system]], ranking them on how they might move the expected base class through standard tiers. Marvelous tier advances base class by two tiers, Great to Good Tier by one, Medicore don't advance it at all and Bad to Awful Tier and Catastrophic Tier can actually [[PowerUpLetdown move the class down one or two tiers]]. What you enter PrestigeClass from is also important - for example, Warshaper is Marvelous Tier when taken by classes who cannot use magic, but only Medicore Tier, when taken by a caster. Some are also very situational - Dragonstalker and Dragonslayer are Bad to Awful Tier, but if your game is focused heavily on fighting dragons, they're respectively Good to Great and Medicore.

** [[PrestigeClass Prestige Classes]] generally are set on separate tier [[http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1573.0 system]], ranking them on how they might move the expected base class through standard tiers. Marvelous tier advances base class by two tiers, Great to Good Tier by one, Medicore don't advance it at all and Bad to Awful Tier and Catastrophic Tier can actually [[PowerUpLetdown move the class down one or two tiers]]. What you enter PrestigeClass from is also important - for example, Warshaper is Marvelous Tier when taken by classes who cannot use magic, but only Medicore Tier, when taken by a caster. Some are also very situational - Dragonstalker and Dragonslayer are Bad to Awful Tier, but if your game is focused heavily on fighting dragons, they're respectively Good to Great and Medicore.

** More in-depth: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150426233546/http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8914 The generally agreed list]] is six tiers. Tier 1 is for characters like wizards, clerics, and druids, who possess StoryBreakerPower and can utilize pretty much every type of it. Tier 2 is for characters like sorcerers, psions, and favored souls, who have access to similar StoryBreakerPower, but to a more restrictive degree (the creator compared it to the difference between a nation with a thousand nukes and one with ten). Beneath them, the tiers refer to characters in terms of how good they are at their given focus, and how many things they can do well. Tier 3 is for characters like bards, factotums, and duskblades, who can either do one thing incredibly well and still pull off other tricks passably, or [[MasterOfAll do pretty much anything effectively]]. Tier 4 is for characters like rogues, barbarians, and rangers, who [[CripplingOverspecialization can do one thing incredibly well but struggle at doing anything else]], or [[JackOfAllStats can do a lot of things to a passable degree]]. Tier 5 is for characters like fighters, monks, and paladins, who can generally be okay at one thing but not much else, or [[MasterOfNone can do a lot of things but kinda sucks at all of them]]. Tier 6 is for classes that can't even be okay at the thing they're supposed to be good at, and is mostly reserved for [[JokeCharacter deliberately weak]] [[{{Muggles}} NPC classes]] and the worst-designed PC classes. And then there's [[BrokeTheRatingScale the truenamer]], which is so [[ObviousBeta mechanically broken]] that it doesn't work as intended, fluctuating between 4 and 6 depending on whether they can make their rolls consistently.

** More in-depth: [[http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=658 The generally agreed list]] is six tiers. Tier 1 is for characters like wizards, clerics, and druids, who possess StoryBreakerPower and can utilize pretty much every type of it. Tier 2 is for characters like sorcerers, psions, and favored souls, who have access to similar StoryBreakerPower, but to a more restrictive degree (the creator compared it to the difference between a nation with a thousand nukes and one with ten). Beneath them, the tiers refer to characters in terms of how good they are at their given focus, and how many things they can do well. Tier 3 is for characters like bards, factotums, and duskblades, who can either do one thing incredibly well and still pull off other tricks passably, or [[MasterOfAll do pretty much anything effectively]]. Tier 4 is for characters like rogues, barbarians, and rangers, who [[CripplingOverspecialization can do one thing incredibly well but struggle at doing anything else]], or [[JackOfAllStats can do a lot of things to a passable degree]]. Tier 5 is for characters like fighters, monks, and paladins, who can generally be okay at one thing but not much else, or [[MasterOfNone can do a lot of things but kinda sucks at all of them]]. Tier 6 is for classes that can't even be okay at the thing they're supposed to be good at, and is mostly reserved for [[JokeCharacter deliberately weak]] [[{{Muggles}} NPC classes]] and the worst-designed PC classes. And then there's [[BrokeTheRatingScale the truenamer]], which is so [[ObviousBeta mechanically broken]] that it doesn't work as intended, fluctuating between 4 and 6 depending on whether they can make their rolls consistently.

** In 3rd edition, versatility (how many problems a character can contribute to solving) is often at least as important as power (how powerful the character's abilities are for problems) in tiering. In one popular system, the top tier is characters who, with the right spells prepared, can solve nearly anything the GM can come up with as a standard action. Lesser tiers either have [[CripplingOverspecialization less versatility]] or [[MasterOfNone less power]]. For example, Druids tend to be high/top-tier due to their highly versatile magical powers which include conjuring and purifying food and controlling the elements as well as the ability to transform into various animals, as are Wizards, who depending on whether or not they prepared the right spells and still have spell slots the cast them, can either be a UselessProtagonist or effectively overcome absolutely ''anything''; Fighters on the other hand tend to be low-tier as they are unparalleled allies in battle but have few useful skills outside of Intimidate (i.e, outside of a fight, the only thing they're really good for is ''preventing one''). In general, while a character of any tier can be a GameBreaker with the right factors, only a high-tier character can be a [[StoryBreakerPower Story Breaker]] - imagine how ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' would have turned out if Gandalf could teleport any distance, read minds, identify any item instantly, and make anyone [[NoSell immune]] to mental influence... and that was just a fraction of his abilities.
** More in-depth: [[http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=658 The generally agreed list]] is six tiers. Tier 1 is for characters like wizards, clerics, and druids, who learn loads of powerful spells and abilities and learn even more with every new book. These characters can break the game universe in half, in many ways, all at once. Tier 2 is for characters like sorcerers, psions, and favored souls, who learn powerful spells and abilities, albeit more restrictively (the creator compared it to the difference between a nation with a thousand nukes and one with ten; these characters can still break the game, but only in a few ways at once). Tier 3 is for characters like bards, factotums, and duskblades, who can either do one thing pretty well and still be useful, or do everything appreciably. Tier 4 is for characters like rogues, barbarians, and rangers, who can do one thing pretty well and only that thing, or can do a lot of things without ever really shining. Tier 5 is for characters like fighters, monks, and paladins, who can do only one thing (and not all that well), or can only ever achieve MasterOfNone level. Tier 6 is for classes that literally do not work as written, {{Joke Character}}s, and [[TierInducedScrappy the samurai.]] And then there's [[BrokeTheRatingScale Truenamer]], which is so far down in tier 6 it's just above the Commoner (a class with no good stats and no abilities at all) in uselessness, and Planar Shepard, a Prestige Class that's commonly referred to as being "Tier 0" because of its rules being so easily exploitable.
** Tiers themselves are based on "As Written" comparisons based on how effectively the class can deal with different situations. The original author pointed out that optimized fighters can still be a low tier but capable of taking down the [[PhysicalGod Tarrasque]] in a single turn. In the the right hands, many classes can be equal to higher tiers in power, even though they still remain in their tier because of their lack of versatility. The Truenamer breaks the tier system by dint of its mechanics not being properly thought out, getting worse by every level, until level 19 when it will just spam Gate Celestial Angels.
** [[PrestigeClass Prestige Classes]] generally are set on separate tier [[http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1573.0 system]], ranking them on how they move base class through standard tiers. Marvelous tier advances base class by two tiers, Great to Good Tier by one, Medicore don't advance it at all and Bad to Awful Tier and Catastrophic Tier can actually move the class down one or two tiers. What you enter PrestigeClass from is also important - for example, Warshaper is Marvelous Tier when taken by classes who cannot use magic, but only Medicore Tier, when taken by a caster. Some are also very situational - Dragonstalker and Dragonslayer are Bad to Awful Tier, but if your game is focused heavily on fighting dragons, they're respectively Good to Great and Medicore.