Dreams Of A Gamer: Fire Emblem: Fates - Character & Class Analysis v0.6

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Fire Emblem: Fates - Character & Class Analysis v0.6

Table of Contents

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(In0) Introduction

(ClS0) Class Sets & Inheritance Mechanics

- (ClS1) The Importance of Classes

- (ClS2) A Brief Note on Skills
(CA0) Character Analyses [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING]

(FG00) Gen 1 Character Analysis

(FG01) Shared Characters

- (FG02) Felicia

- (FG03) Jakob

- (FG04) Silas

- (FG05) Mozu

- (FG06) Azura

- (FG07) Kaze

- (FG08) Shura

- (FG09) Izana

(FG10) Nohrian Class Analyses

- (FG1A) Cavalier

(FG1B) Paladin

(FG1C) Great Knight

- (FG1D) Knight

(FG1E) General

- (FG1F) Fighter

(FG1G) Berserker

(FG1H) Hero

- (FG1J) Mercenary

(FG1K) Bow Knight

- (FG1L) Outlaw

(FG1M) Adventurer

- (FG1N) Wyvern Rider

(FG1P) Wyvern Lord

(FG1Q) Maligknight

- (FG1R) Dark Mage

(FG1S) Sorcerer

(FG1T) Dark Knight

- (FG1U) Troubadour

(FG1V) Strategist

(FG1W) Maid/Butler

- (FG1Y) Wolfskin/Wolfssegner

(FG1X) Nohrian Characters - Ideal Partners At A Glance

- (FG11) Elise

- (FG12) Arthur

- (FG13) Effie

- (FG14) Odin

- (FG15) Niles

- (FG16) Nyx

- (FG17) Camilla

- (FG18) Selena

- (FG19) Beruka

- (FG110) Lazlow

- (FG111) Peri

- (FG112) Benny

- (FG113) Charlotte

- (FG114) Leo

- (FG115) Keaton

- (FG116) Gunter

- (FG117) Xander

- (FG118) Flora

(FG20) Hoshidan Class Analyses

- (FG2A) Samurai

(FG2B) Swordmaster

(FG2C) Master of Arms

- (FG2D) Villager

(FG2E) Merchant

- (FG2F) Apothecary

(FG2G) Mechanist

- (FG2H) Ninja

(FG2I) Master Ninja

- (FG2J) Oni Savage

(FG2K) Oni Chieftain

(FG2L) Blacksmith

- (FG2M) Spear Fighter

(FG2N) Spear Master

(FG2P) Basara

- (FG2Q) Diviner

(FG2R) Onmyoji

- (FG2S) Monk/Shrine Maiden

(FG2T) Great Master/Priestess

- (FG2U) Sky Knight

(FG2V) Falcon Knight

(FG2W) Kinshi Knight

- (FG2Y) Archer

(FG2Z) Sniper

- (FG2AA) Kitsune/Nine-Tailed Fox

(FG2X) Hoshidan Characters - Ideal Partners At a Glance

- (FG21) Rinkah [In Progress]

- (FG22) Sakura [In Progress]

- (FG23) Hana [In Progress]

- (FG24) Subaki [In Progress]

- (FG25) Saizo [In Progress]

- (FG26) Orochi [In Progress]

- (FG27) Hinoka [In Progress]

- (FG28) Azama [In Progress]

- (FG29) Setsuna

- (FG210) Hayato

- (FG211) Oboro

- (FG212) Hinata

- (FG213) Takumi

- (FG214) Kagero

- (FG215) Reina

- (FG216) Kaden

- (FG217) Ryoma

- (FG218) Scarlet

- (FG219) Yukimura

(SG00) Optimal Pairings [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING]

- (SG0A) Birthright
- (SG0B) Conquest

- (SG0C) Revelations

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Introduction (In0)

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Round two of the character analyses begins now! Although I’ve had access to some data on this game for months, it’s only now that the game is out here that I can finally start using it holistically. I've only played through the game twice; once on Conquest Hard mode Classic, and once on Revelations Hard mode Casual for grinding purposes. However, I do know enough to discuss all of the characters in an offline environment, and how to wring the most out of them for the lower two difficulties. With that said, the mechanical differences between Fates and Awakening are so massive that the approach I used last time is simply not applicable to this game. As such I’ve devised a different means of weighing and rating the characters, as well as provided explanations of the game’s more arcane aspects to assist you in planning your own characters.

I will NOT analyze DLC classes, or characters with respect to the DLC existing (or at least, not yet anyway.

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Class Sets + Inheritance Mechanics (ClS0)

Before we begin analyzing the cast, it is imperative that you understand how passing on classes work as they are now the most important aspect of character building. The game does a terrible job of explaining reclassing and Serenes Forest is vague (and in one case, outright wrong) about certain possibilities, so I will try to clear the air on them as much as I can.

All characters, with the exception of those who can only marry the avatar, have 2 base classes; 1 main class that they start in, and 1 secondary class. Additionally, all characters (again, excluding avatar-exclusives) can earn an A+ support with one of exactly 3 different characters (4 if you have Revelations) that will confer another class. A+ supports are 1-way, so the characters do not necessarily have to share each other’s classes. (And yes, IS was smart enough to ensure that this class never overlaps with the characters’ base classes).

[Avatar-exclusive characters have 3 base classes to offset the fact that they cannot make an A+ support with anyone.]

Lastly, when characters achieve an S-Rank support they will be granted one more class tree, according to a deceptively simple set of parameters that have been crossing people’s up since the game’s Japanese launch. To clarify, they are as follows:

Normally, the character adopts their partner’s main class, but:

1.) IF the partner has the same main class as the character, they will adopt the partner’s second class. This also means that if the characters’ second class is the same as the partner’s main class, then the character will get NOTHING (or rather, their partner seal will become identical to a heart seal e.g. NilesxNyx).

2.) IF the partner’s main class is: Nohr Prince(ss), Songstress, Wolfskin, or Kitsune, then the character will adopt the partner’s second class, as well. HOWEVER,

3.) IF the partner’s second class matches the character’s main class, then the character will instead receive a class parallel to the partner’s unique class (Wolfskin=Outlaw, Songstress= Troubadour, Kitsune=Apothecary. A full parallel class list can be found here: http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/classes/parallel-classes/]. Once again, IF the partner’s first class, matches the character’s second class, then the character gets NOTHING.

[I have yet to personally confirm whether the same class sharing rules apply to characters with the special classes, though I am operating with the assumption that they do. UPDATE: I was correct, the rules are the same. Special characters are far easier to screw over.]

Collectively, this system ensures that nearly every character has access to the same number of classes, and gives you control over what some of those classes are. It also dramatically shrinks the gap between parents and children, but simultaneously makes it possible to screw almost every character out of a class pool if you don’t plan ahead of time. ~~All the more reason to read this analysis!~~

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Why Classes Are The Most Important Aspect of Character Building (ClS1)

Unlike in Awakening, grinding for infinite levels in FE Fates is unreasonable (as it takes longer to climb levels) and outright impossible in Conquest without the Boo Camp DLC. Consequently, having a diverse and effective class pool is much more important, as switching classes changes your characters’ growth rates, which by extension, will let you focus on maxing certain stats.

Additionally, grinding for levels is completely unnecessary - sans statues - as the caps are more reminiscent of past FE games, most notably Radiant Dawn, wherein class caps only took 20/20 (40) levels of experience to reach. This is great, as you can just play the game normally and still walk away with stat capped characters. And even if your characters don’t reach their caps by level 20/20, you can endlessly add on 5 more levels so long as you have ~~an actual human soul~~ cash to buy them.

With all of that said though, lower class caps also make the differences between classes larger, proportionally, than they were in Awakening. This, in combination with the fact that skills can be purchased from other players, and base boosts can be offset by debuffing collectively elevates the value of classes above every other aspect of a character.

This is not to say that skills and base stats do not matter, but rather that arranging an effective class pool is now the most important consideration of designing characters. And besides, for an online environment where the metagame may change like the wind, maximizing versatility will save you from having to play through the game multiple times.

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A Brief Note On Skills – They Are Not Balanced (ClS2)

Hoshido Skills are inherently better, for this specific game. That is just the way of things. Attack stance, makes catching an opponent off guard far more devastating than ever before. Hoshido has many skills which can extend the damage dealt, while Nohr has none. What’s more, Hoshido has numerous skills for breaking guard stance (Seals, Poison Strike, Line of Death, faires, etc.) or punishing them (Counters, Renewal, Amaterasu, etc.), while Nohr has exactly 4, two of which are tied to the same class: (Luna, Armored Blow, Savage Blow, Grisly Wound). I have no idea why IS imbalanced things as follows (aside from perhaps xenophobia), but regardless of why, the imbalance imposes certain guidelines on both kingdoms for achieving success.

As a Nohrian player, the bulk of your skills and classes should be dedicated to dealing with the Hoshidan advantage (speed & offense) as this will allow you to punish most of their classes’ fragility. On the other hand, Hoshidan players should strive to make their offense as overwhelming as possible, so as to inhibit Nohrian attempts at a “defensive-offense”. Consequently, there are a few classes which are more desirable than others for both armies. I won’t explain them all right now, but most should become apparent as we explore each character.

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Character Analyses [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING] (CA0)

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The following analyses are composed with the intention of elucidating the best way to set up each character. They are written as if the characters existed in a vacuum, and only expand their scope to include factors outside of the character if the character would be performing another’s role, or in the event that multiple partners provide the same benefits.

These are NOT optimal builds for teams, they are optimal builds for each character. As such, it is not only possible, but probable that certain characters will appear multiple times as different characters’ ideal spouses or friends.

With that said, if you would like to create your own pairings, I strongly recommend that you read the analyses of whichever characters you like the most and use them as a foundation for determining the others. In this way you will ensure that you make the characters you like as good as possible, without necessarily ruining everyone else. To which, I have included a list of important questions to ask yourself when setting up your characters. I ask myself these questions every time I write a character analysis and use them to figure out the ideal arrangements for each character. Given that you should be “playing favorites” however, these questions should help you determine important subjective bases for making your own personal dream team.

1.) What is the character’s personal skill? Is it important/powerful enough to focus on or devote attention to?

2.) What classes are available to the character by default? What classes will their friends grant them? Who can they marry? Which classes will their partner grant them? What weapons can their classes use?

3.) What are the characters’ growth rates? Can they realistically use the stats that I want them to?

4.) What are the characters’ stat modifiers? How do they affect the characters’ classes?

5.) What skills are available to the character? Can I construct a build with them, or do I need to rely on other skills bought from online players?

6.) 35 is the highest base Spd of normal enemies in this game. It is only reached by Swordmasters and Ninja. Swordmasters, however, always carry Katana so practically speaking, their Spd is 36. Also, Master Ninja usually carry Shuriken, so their Spd cap is summatively 37. Is the character capable of reaching 32-33 Spd to avoid follow up attacks, 36-37 Speed to follow up attack Swordmasters, or do they have Wary Fighter to avoid extra attacks entirely?

7.) What statues are associated with the Character, their Friends, Spouse, & Child/Parent? These statues will increase the stat caps of the unit. It may seem insignificant (and in all honesty, it is for everything other than optimization), but these modifiers will help determine whether or not the character reaches certain Spd thresholds that are necessary to follow-up attack or protect against them.

If you ask yourself these questions you should be able to work out exactly what it is you want out of every character you care about.

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Gen 1 Character Analysis (FG00)

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All characters are customizable to some extent in this game, and consequently have many more options to choose from. As such, you can download my calculator [last updated: 4/14/2016] to help keep track of your decisions and see their value.

The standard 10-point rating system doesn’t really do the trick anymore for covering such a diverse array of characters, so this time, I feel that it would be more helpful to figure out who the characters' best friend and spouse options are on a given campaign, and then rate each of the characters’ capabilities according to three categories: Offense, Defense, and Support/Utility. At the moment I have only played through the Conquest campaign, so I’m going to start by evaluating those characters in that game. I’ll continue through the rest of the characters in each of their campaigns as time permits, then discuss pairings more intensely, and finally end with an analysis of characters in online battles. And of course, the Avatar and skill shop will not be factored into any of these analyses as they can give anyone any skills, classes, and (in the case of children) stat modifiers.

Rating Scale:

E – The character neither has the stats, class pool, nor skills necessary to perform the designated function in any capacity. Do not use them for this purpose. You would have to deliberately seek out this rating in order to achieve it, as most every character has at least one of these things.

D – The character has either an appropriate class or a few weak tools for their role. They are not suited to it and if you use them in it, you can expect subpar results.

C – The character has one appropriate class and likely a single or several ineffective tools or stats to perform the role. They can still do it, mind you, but they are wanting in many ways.

B – The character competently performs the role and has several effective tools and classes to do so. A surprisingly high number of characters warrant this rating, demonstrating how much more balanced the characters are this time around.

A – The character performs the role about as well as possible. They are missing a few tools out of the total that are possible that would enable to perform it in different ways, but they do not need them to do their job exceptionally. For Birthright and Conquest, no character will ever surpass this rating as something of value for every function is in the opposing kingdom’s class tree.

S – The character has everything they need and would even want to perform this role. Nothing could possibly make them any better at it. Due to the way the game was balanced, almost no characters will earn this rating in any area, but on Revelation, such a rating is possible for a handful of characters.

Shared Characters (FG01)

The shared characters have classes and skills from both kingdoms. This makes them the easiest gateway to getting opposing kingdom skills, so I recommend training them regardless of which game you have (plus they’re all pretty good, and mostly easy to train). These characters appear on both playthroughs, so they are the only batch that will have three analyses. Obviously, I have yet to write them all, so let’s start with how they function in the Nohr campaign.

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Felicia (FG02)

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Personal Skill: Devoted Partner – If the Avatar is the lead unit, Avatar’s Damage +2, Damage Received -2

Stat Modifiers: +2 Mag, +1 Spd & Res, -1 Def, -2 Str

Conquest:

Friend – Flora/Peri = Cavalier | Spouse – Jakob/Odin/Leo = Dark Mage

Class Pool: Troubadour, Mercenary, Dark Mage, Cavalier

Felicia’s friend options give her access to the dark mage or cavalier trees. Both trees are very good for her, with the former providing better magic options and the latter granting Luna, Armored Blow, and Aegis to further supplement them. So, like the ~~greedy bastard~~ opportunist that I am, I said “why not both?” Dark Mage is the most valuable tree for both levelling (Dark Knight) and offense, and cavalier+maid maximizes her supporting options on this difficulty. The only real choice is working out how to get both trees, or more appropriately, which spouse to choose. I prefer Odin, since Leo would lead to a kid who couldn’t physically attack and Jakob would rob the man of a potentially useful class (he doesn’t need mercenary). However, if you choose Jakob, Dwyer would still turn out decent albeit average at pretty much everything.

Maid - Inspiration, Seal Magic, Armored Blow, Luna, Live to Serve/XBreaker

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 40 20 45 45 55 65 20 45

Cap: 50 26 33 33 34 32 28 30

Offense: B Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Supporting Vanguard

Before we even get started, as soon as Odin or Peri becomes available, start working on Felicia’s support ranks for the partner seal. You need to get her as FAR away from these god awful maid growths as humanly possible, and into either Great Knight or Dark Knight to fix the damage done.

*Er-hem* Anyway, the class pool gives Felicia access to a damn fine assortment of skills, containing Luna and Sol, most of the breaker skills (except the most useful one ~~of course~~), Aegis, and a nice arrangement of support skills. As such, her default class of Maid was retained as the superior Spd, Mag, near average defenses, and 1-2 ranged weapon allow her to go toe to toe with almost anyone, and be useful in all situations.

Seal Magic further magnifies the effects of her kunai/shuriken with the Flame Shuriken in particular becoming a death sentence to mages. Meanwhile, on the physical end of the spectrum, Armored Blow lets her safely engage and cripple physically beefy units. In both situations, Luna offers a fair chance of severely denting them at the same time, so that they become much easier for your allies to take out. This ease is further extended by Inspiration and her personal skill, swinging everyone two points offensively and defensively, and acting as Rally Str, Mag, Def, and Res for the Avatar (all without spending a turn to use). Her final skill then goes to a breaker of your choice. Felicia can either deal with axe fighters who pose a serious threat to her, or one of the ranged attackers. I prefer using Kunaibreaker, because Ninjas are the most annoying enemies for Nohr to deal with, but the choice will vary in effectiveness depending on which enemy your opponent is fielding.

Alternatively, you could also scrap the breaker entirely and just give her Live to Serve. She doesn’t have a means of healing herself outside of that ability and since she’s supposed to be assisting on the frontlines, chances are she and or the units near her are going to take a beating. So, if she’s not having any trouble with a specific enemy, Live to Serve can turn her into a near self-sufficient component of your vanguard.

Verdict: Felicia functions as a decent healer and effective mixed attacker whose blows soften enemies and mere presence strengthens allies. She’s an invaluable asset to any army regardless of whom you might be engaging. I highly recommend using her across all playthroughs.

Alt: Strategist

Role: Magic Attacker

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Jakob (FG03)

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Personal Skill: Evasive Partner – If the Avatar is the lead unit, Avatar’s Avd+15, Damage Received -3

Stat Modifiers: +2 Str & Skl, -1 Lck & Res, -2 Mag

Conquest:

Friend: Doesn't Matter | Spouse: Felicia/Camilla = Wyvern Rider

Class Pool: Troubadour, Cavalier, Mercenary, Wyvern Rider

Both of Jakob’s friend options do the same thing, so I recommend going with Silas just because Gunter has the worst growths in the game and will likely never secure enough kills to earn his statues. Regardless, you might as well think of Jakob as having Mercenary as a 3^rd class, which means his choice of wife should probably share something else. So, because Jakob has superior physical modifiers and Wyvern Rider and Knight happen to be the best Nohrian classes for fighting Hoshido, the choice was effectively between Effie, Camilla, and Beruka. Jakob doesn’t have any Spd or Def issues, so General and by extension Effie doesn’t help him too much. Beruka and Camilla on the other hand give him some insane utility that he can take advantage of in any class. So, again the choice comes down to who is better for Dwyer, which is easily Camilla by what would conservatively be called a wide margin (seriously, +4 Str & Skl, +2 Spd & Def, -2 Lck & Mag, AND the Wyvern Rider tree. Dwyer would basically be the perfect phys attacker). While this results in a class pool that is similar to Felicia’s, Wyvern Rider and physically oriented stats dramatically changes its use.

Bow Knight - Lunge, Savage Blow, Rally Defense, Inspiration/Rally Resistance, Any: [Swordbreaker, etc.]

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 60 40 15 55 50 55 25 35

Cap: 55 31 23 34 33 29 27 31

Offense: B Defense: B Support/Utility: A

Role: Offensive Support

Bow Knight is another one of the strongest classes in the game. Access to bows, high mobility and decent-good resistance, effectively gives them total dominance over the ranged weapon triangle, while their good speed and access to swords gives them a solid foothold in the melee triangle as well. Against magical units they’re pretty much a wall, and against physical units they’re frustrating hit-and-run attackers. All of these capabilities are accentuated by this build.

For Jakob in particular, the MO is to charge in, safely screw up the enemy positioning with Lunge, and soften up every poor sap in the vicinity with Savage Blow. Then your allies can finish off the enemies while being supported by an Inspiration boost. Whenever charging forward is a suicidal endeavor Jakob can sit back and bolster everyone else’s Defenses to make a charge safer, then catch up to them the following turn with his excellent mobility. And that’s pretty much it.

If there’s any problem with this build it’s that Jakob has a bad case of 4 move-slot syndrome. He has access to nearly every breaker (including the best one), both defensive rallies, Sol, Aegis, Luna, and even a decent damage booster in Trample. I’ve recommended Swordbreaker to better perform the functions outlined above, as Swordmasters are notoriously difficult to hit and their speed threatens Bow Knights, but you could also run Luna or Trample for better damage, Rally Resistance or Skill for better passive turns, or another breaker skill/Aegis for better defenses. The sky is pretty much the limit here. However, if you do end up replacing Inspiration, know that his personal skill will become noticeably less useful (+15 Avoid & -3 Dmg taken vs. +15 Avo, +2 Dmg Dealt, -5 Dmg Taken)

You can also run him as a butler if you want his debuffs back or don’t like his beast weakness. But, the lack of mobility limits the guerilla tactics that give the build its reliability. Also as a general word of caution, You’ll also want to spend some time levelling him as a Wyvern Lord or Great Knight (preferably the former) to pick up his physical stats, as his Def will be left wanting without it.

Verdict: While Jakob probably won’t be scoring too many kills against non-magical units on his own, he acts as a solid backbone to your offensive assaults and defensive holds, while avoiding any danger to himself. He is truly the ideal steward to any house of pain.

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Silas (FG04)

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Personal Skill: Vow of Friendship - If the Avatar is an ally, when the Avatar is under half HP, user’s damage +3 and damage received -3

Stat Modifiers: +2 Skl, +1 Str, -1 Lck & Res

Conquest:

Friend – Jakob = Troubadour | Spouse – Azura = Sky Knight

Class Pool: Cavalier, Mercenary, Troubadour, Sky Knight

Silas is easier to plan than his odd class options suggest. His friend options are Kaze with Ninja and Jakob with Troubadour. Ninja is a very frustrating class to deal with due to their high speed, shuriken debuffs and guaranteed damage from Poison Strike, but the thing about players using Ninja is that the character has to be so fast that they can always double attack, or at the very least be backed by a number of supporting classes that can take advantage of its utility. Silas has neither, and although Replicate is apparently enough reason for people to choose it anyway, Silas can’t do very much with that ability either as he doesn’t have exemplary defenses or access to classes with supporting functions (and yes, I am aware that his statue raises his Def, no it is not enough). Even if you took the class, and then chose a wife that had one of the listed capabilities, no one can give him access to all of them at once - He just doesn’t get very much out of the Ninja class tree. So Jakob was selected as his friend by default.

Silas’ caps are fairly negligible leaning slightly towards the physical classes, so he doesn’t perform spectacularly in any pure offensive or defensive class. This further cut down his options to classes with more utility, and the spouses that offer them. And since he already gets Troubadour from Jakob the only options he’s left with are Azura, Nyx and Peri. The former gives Silas the unique and generally useful Sky Knight class tree while both Nyx and Peri grant him the Dark Mage tree. Sky Knight compliments an offensive and supportive leaning, matching Silas perfectly, while Dark Mage gives Silas two classes he can’t use and only helps him passively support others in a tiny way (Heartseeker, Malefic Aura, and Seal Magic). Silas’ mercenary and Cavalier trees are also of little assistance to Peri and Nyx respectively, and Peri in particular would result in a terrible Sophie. As such Azura was determined to be the premium waifu.

Paladin - Rally Speed, Darting Blow, Armored Blow/Warding Blow, Luna, Shelter/Inspiration/Amaterasu

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 50 60 5 60 50 55 50 30

Cap: 60 32 26 32 30 31 32 31

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: A

Role: “Leader”/Vanguard

Paladin makes a lot of sense as Silas’ standard class. It has balanced parameters just like him, and only skews slightly more offensively with Silas’ bases. So, when you combine those balanced statistics and high mobility, with Darting Blow, Armored Blow, and Luna, Silas becomes capable of outright killing any unit who left his Spd at home with near impunity; it’s basically a souped-up version of the charge mechanic from another SRPG. With that said, the reasons he’s doing this as a Paladin and not as the faster, flying Falcon Knight, is because his HP and Def actually allow him to stay in even if he fails to kill anything. He’s just fast enough without Darting Blow to not get double attacked by anything save for Ninjas and Swordmasters, and neither of them can touch him if his wife, Azura has at least a silver statue (+1 Speed cap). As long as he has staff support, he never has to leave the frontline.

What’s more, if your other allies are just shy of double attacking the enemies (or in danger of being double attacked), he can pass on a slightly weaker Darting Blow with Rally Speed to those near him opening up better avenues for attack. Lastly, if anyone, he can use Shelter to pick them and, in the case of the avatar, may even get a fat stat boost from his personal skill.

You can replace Armored Blow or Shelter with Warding Blow, Aegis, or Tomebreaker but because mages are kinda slow, Darting Blow and 30+ Res is usually enough to take them out, without taking much damage. Also, Inspiration and Amaterasu are fair alternatives to Shelter if you don’t like “rescuing” units and don’t care about using his personal skill defensively.

Verdict: Silas is the man you send to lead a squad. His high mobility and initiative based skills allow him to be anywhere he needs to be, and supporting skills let him elevate anyone else who isn’t. Once again, he is a staple for any team and no surprise that he’s available in every version of the game.

alt. Hero (better growths & caps)

Role: Physical Attacker

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Mozu (FG05)

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Personal Skill: Forager – When standing on Mountain, Woods, Waste or Field terrain, the user recovers 20% HP at the start of the turn.

Stat Modifiers: +1 Lck, Spd, and Skl, -2 Res

Conquest:

Friend – Effie = Knight | Spouse – Kaze = Ninja

Class Pool: Villager, Archer, Knight, Ninja

Like seemingly everyone else, Mozu’s two friend options barely presents a choice. Nyx gives Dark Mage, which Mozu does not have the stats (or growths) to support and doesn’t provide skills to augment any of her other classes. Effie has General. Effie wins by a country mile. As for her spouse, that’s a little bit trickier. Mozu’s class pool with Effie gives her access to a lot of powerful offensive capabilities, but exactly two defensive skills and classes. As such, it’s better to accentuate what she’s good at rather than what she isn’t. So, this choice was a matter of finding the most powerful offensive capability in the game. This could have been difficult…if we were interested in making Mozu herself deal more damage. But we are not, as no matter what you do, nothing will make her THAT much stronger. So, instead we’ll just make two of her with Replicate. On Conquest, there is exactly one way to get this skill and that’s to marry Kaze. Ninja doesn’t offer too many useful skills, but Mozu can make use out of the Mechanist class with Bowfaire, and Knight’s defensive skills should the metagame ever shift to warrant it.

Sniper – Replicate, Bowfaire, Line of Death, Luna/Lethality, Certain Blow/Pavise/Armored Blow

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 40 55 5 70 70 50 45 30

Cap: 55 31+15 25 36 34 31 31-10 26-10

Offense: A+ Defense: C Support/Utility: D

Role: Designated Hitter(s)

It was extremely tempting to give her an S for offense, but she really wishes that she had Savage Blow and Darting Blow. Even without them though, Mozu hits like a freaking semi-truck with diamond spikes glued to the fender. Bowfaire and Luna push her damage to OHKO levels against most foes, though if you’re still struggling to put dudes down, Lethality would at least guarantee you one occasionally.

Also, while Line of Death drops her defenses to papier mache levels, exclusive use of bows will help her avoid most counter attacks, and stay safe. She won’t be able to all of the time, however, presenting you with a choice: You can either improve her defense when she attacks (Armored Blow), so that she doesn’t get wrecked by any Ninjas, Maids, or Archers. Improve her defense on the enemy phase, so that she doesn’t get shredded by melee attackers (Pavise), or say screw Def entirely and just bump up her accuracy to guarantee her damage (Certain Blow). Certain Blow counters Bow Breaker, Armored Blow counters anything with a ranged attack, and Pavise addresses both, but it’s percentage based ~~so by default I don’t like it.~~ Needless to say, I prefer Armored Blow, but YMMV on whichever serves you best.

And finally we have the lynchpin skill for the build, Replicate. One diamond-spiked semi-truck is a death sentence, but two is just a genocide. Line of Death combines to make for one of the most dangerous skill combinations in the entire game, but as long as you keep both out of immediate danger you should have little trouble annihilating any and all foes that stand in your way.

Verdict: Mozu is the most powerful unit available to you on Conquest. Her defenses are poor and she’s a one trick pony, but it’s a damn good trick in the hands of a skilled tactician.

Alt. Master of Arms

Role: Physical Attacker

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Azura (FG06)

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Personal Skill: Healing Descant – Allies within a 2-tile radius recover 10% HP at the start of the user’s turn

Stat Modifiers: +1 Skl, +3 Spd, -3 Def

Conquest:

Friend: Elise – Troubadour | Spouse: Silas - Cavalier

Class Pool: Songstress, Sky Knight, Troubadour, Cavalier

Elise is literally the only Friend Azura can have on Conquest, so yeah #foreveralone Azura’s third class is troubadour. Choosing a husbando is a much taller order, but considering that she basically can’t grow in Defense or HP and has no offensive skills, she’s looking for someone who provides classes that would strengthen both. General and Great Knight, have the highest combination of Defense and HP (20% in both), and Great Knight has the best offensive skill (Luna) in Nohr. So, she’s looking for a knight in shining armor (Cavaliers and Knights) to sweep her off her feet, leaving us with Benny, Silas, and Xander. Other than growths Benny’s only advantage is Pavise, while Xander and Silas give Aegis and the Paladin class (which Azura can actually use). Pavise is probably more useful for Azura than both Paladin and Aegis, but only if you plan on remaining a Songstress or using her as a Great Knight, neither of which sounds appealing, as both cripple her offensive capabilities (Songstress in terms of Str, Great Knight in terms of Spd). So, Xander and Silas edge out Benny in terms of versatility (plus she gets Armored Blow from Great Knight, so it’s not a huge loss anyway).

Also, Azura is the only female character in the game with a dependent child, so you also have to keep stat modifiers in mind, as you would for the men. Benny and Azura cancel each other’s positive and negative stats out so their kids would be mediocre across the board. All of which points to Benny being a bad pick, leaving us with Xander and Silas. Both have the same class pool and statue bonus, so this is entirely a question of how you want Shigure to turn out. Xander has much more luck, slightly more strength than Silas both growth and cap wise, and higher Def cap. But Silas has much better skill, speed and resistance. Shigure’s caps are slightly better with Xander, but his growths are appreciably better with Silas. It’s basically a tossup there, so let’s look at Sophie and Siegbert. Sophie is hurting for Str more than anything else, and Azura has an insanely high Str growth and passes on an excellent class pool, so she’s a fantastic choice. Siegbert, benefits from Speed, but really needs more Str and Def. One of those stats Azura actively sabotages, so the winner of the premium dragon booty goes to Silas! Thanks for playing, gentlemen!

Paladin - Luna, Darting Blow, Amaterasu, Inspiration, Voice of Peace/Foreign Princess

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 35 65 25 70 70 55 25 40

Cap: 60 31 26 31 33+5 32 29 32

Offense: A Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Vanguard/Passive Support

This is why I avoided giving Silas Inspiration. It just wouldn’t be as good as Azura’s with Voice of Peace/Foreign Princess. This build, lets Azura charge the front like Silas. However, unlike Silas, Azura is dedicated to passively keeping everyone alive – and she’s damn good at it. Amaterasu + her personal skill heals all allies near her for 30% HP every turn, while Voice of Peace + Inspiration reduces incoming damage taken by 4 and increases damage dealt by 2-4. Needless to say, with Azura leading the charge your army becomes sturdier than the walking dead. I assume that Foreign Princess only works against Hoshido enemies, so unless you know you’ll be up against Hoshido units, Voice of Peace will be more consistent.

Azura can also, perform the Darting Blow charge like Silas, but unlike her hubby, she doesn’t have much trouble double attacking everything in sight. This makes Luna noticeably more deadly on her, though if you’d prefer to keep her safe, Armored Blow is also a fair option. There’s not much more to say. Use her with Silas and your offense will be impregnable.

Oh, and like several other units, Azura’s defense and health growths are just garbage, so level her as a Great Knight as soon as she hits 25 (so that you don’t miss Voice of Peace), for the stat bumps.

Verdict: Azura charges the front with courage and force inspiring those to follow her lead and perform beyond their best. Even without her lovely voice, Azura’s presence revitalizes and sustains those near her. Move over Jeanne D’arc, there’s a new holy maiden brightening the battlefield.

alt. Songstress

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Kaze (FG07)

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Personal Skill: Miraculous Save - When user is the support unit, the lead unit has a Luck% chance of surviving a fatal attack with 1 HP

Stat Modifiers: +3 Spd, +2 Skl, +1 Res, -1 Def, -2 Str & Lck

Conquest:

Friend: Silas/Xander – Cavalier | Spouse: Elise/Felicia – Troubadour

Class Pool: Ninja, Samurai, Cavalier, Troubadour

Both of his friend options give him Cavalier, so again there’s nothing to discuss there. The class itself, however puts Kaze in an awkward situation as he doesn’t really need anything available on Conquest. His stat modifiers are best suited for being a speedy, yet fragile caster, but no one in Nohr can offer him the Spellcaster, Oni Savage, or Spear Fighter trees to pick up his Mag growth, so he’s forced to seek an alternative. The best tree that imbibes the spirit of those is troubadour with its Strategist class, but without tomefaire, Kaze will not be able to hit very hard regardless. Another option is troubadour’s Butler class, which would get a significant boost in damage from Kunaifaire and with Kaze’s Spd would actually be a strong attacker. But, getting that class would require screwing over either Elise or Felicia who both have much better spousal options, as well as Midori who doesn't want a magical mother.

With that said, here we’re discussing what’s best for Kaze, and Kaze alone, so the answer is one of those two. Elise gives better growths, Felicia provides better caps. Pick your poison. [I personally wouldn’t use either, and would instead let Kaze marry Mozu to get her the Ninja class for Replicate+Line of Death shenanigans.]

Butler – Kunaifaire, Replicate, Seal Strength, Poison Strike, Lethality/Aegis/Luna/Live to Serve

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 55 50 10 60 80 30 25 45

Cap: 50 26+5 31+5 35 36 30 28 30

Offense: B Defense: B Support/Utility: B

Role: Supporting Offense

Not having access to the Chakram means that there’s no reason to use the Master Ninja class, as Butler outclasses it offensively and in terms of utility. With Replicate, Kaze can act as both a dedicated healer and dedicated debuffer at the same time, the latter of which he excels in thanks to Seal Strength. This also has a side effect of indirectly raising his own effective Def offsetting his only noticeable weakness. Offensively, Kunaifaire brings his power up to respectable (and in the case of Mag, great) levels allowing him to actually hurt or outright ORKO slower units, while Poison Strike ensures that anything he fails to kill can be easily silenced by his allies. As for his final skill, you can either improve his defense with Aegis, survivability with Live to Serve, damage with Luna, or killing potential with Lethality. His Skl is definitely high enough to use those procs somewhat consistently, but I champion reliability over flashiness, and Replicate increases his fragility, so Live to Serve is recommended.

Verdict: The Master Ninja applies his trade to better serve his lord, in the light as well as the shadows, taking to the front and supporting from the rear simultaneously. There is little he cannot do, and even less that he will not do to bring about victory.

Note: Kaze’s Mag growth is virtually unsalvageable, with 15% being the highest he can achieve with this class pool. This is extremely frustrating as this build leans heavily on him having a Mag stat. You’ll have to resort to playing on casual and fixing every level up for Mag if you want Kaze to use this class, or accept that Kaze has a bad Mag growth, swap Live to Serve for Luna, and only use his staves for utility purposes.

alt. Master of Arms

Role: Attacker

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Shura (FG08)

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Personal Skill: Highwayman - When user triggers the battle, if the enemy cannot counter-attack, enemy’s Strength and Speed -3 after the battle (stats recover by 1 each Turn)

Stat Modifiers: +3 Spd, +2 Res, -1 Str, Skl, Lck, -2 Def ~~(Kaze’s stat mods are looking real good right about now, huh?)~~

3^rd Class = Fighter | Spouse: Only Avatar Possible

Class Pool: Outlaw, Ninja, Fighter

Shura doesn’t have any friends, and there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that you’re marrying this deadbeat, so for practical purposes, he’ll be evaluated according to his three fixed classes.

Master Ninja - Mov+1, Poison Strike, Kunaifaire, Lethality, Replicate/Pass/Shurikenbreaker

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 35 30 10 40 55 45 35 30

Cap: 55 26+5 25+5 34 38 27 24 36

Offense: D Defense: D Support/Utility: C

Role: Debuffing

Shura’s base growths are godawful, his stat caps are barely serviceable, and he’s the only character with a completely discordant class pool. This is the definition of a bad unit. If for some ~~likely sadistic~~ reason you’d like to torture yourself and train the old coffin-stuffer, you’d be best served making him a debuffer. Again, you don’t have access to the Chakram on Conquest, so you’re forced to rely on the base potential of knives of shuriken to weaken foes. Kunaifaire and Poison Strike will at least ensure that he hurts something when he attacks, but without any seals his debuffs are minor annoyances. Lethality allows him to score hail mary (8%) OHKOs but you can’t exactly count on 8% odds of success, especially when they’re dependent upon him at least inflicting one damage to the target with the weakest weapon type in the game. The last ability doesn’t matter all that much, since he couldn’t do much with it anyway, but Replicate wins out as it at least lets him dent a unit twice and soften units up for himself to potentially OHKO.

Verdict: This is the man you send to steal treasure – someone swift, but untalented, unskilled, and above all...expendable. He has few redeeming qualities and is outshined by others, most notably Kaze, in every respect. Do not use him unless you need another thief to loot chests and were too lazy to buy keys.

alt. Berserker

Role: Physical Attacking

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Izana (FG09)

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Personal Skill: Peace Bringer – Allies and enemies within a 2 tile radius receive 2 less damage

Stat Modifiers: +1 Mag, Skl, Res, -2 Spd

3^rd Class = Apothecary | Spouse: Only Avatar Possible

Class Pool: Monk, Samurai, Apothecary

Izana also has no friends, so like Shura he will only be evaluated as if he has 3 classes.

Great Master – Quick Salve, Countermagic, Renewal, Seal Strength, Rally Magic

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 55 30 55 30 40 70 20 45

Cap: 55 32 31 32 31 32 28 33

Offense: D Defense: C Support/Utility: C

Role: Supporter

Well, at least his growth rates aren’t garbage. Izana really wishes he had a 4^th class pool as his skills are best geared towards setting one up. He doesn’t have exemplary stats and can’t really use his class pool all that well, due to his personal skill actively conflicting with sitting on the frontlines. Normally he could get around this by using magic, but he’s so damn fragile as a mage (and relatively unremarkable) that I can’t recommend using Onmyoji in good conscience. As such, he is classed as a Great Master – the only class that can deal with his lousy stat modifiers. The game plan is to use Quick Salve to sprint to positions non-adjacent to enemies and attack from there with the Bolt Naginata. This will heavily cripple physical attackers and make engagements safer. If an enemy attacks Izana then they’ll either do little damage due to Seal Strength and Peace Bringer, or weaken themselves with Countermagic’s retaliation. Either way, when your turn comes back around, Renewal will proc twice and ensure that Izana heals right back up near full. There’s little else you can do with him other than weaken foes and heal allies, but sometimes that’s all you really need.

Verdict: He’s not the most amazing or reliable monk, but if your army is weak on casters or healers, Izana can help fill in the gap in his own unspectacular way.

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Nohrian Class Analyses (FG10)

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Welcome home old school FE fans! These classes are almost all going to look very familiar. Nohrian Classes are characterized by their directness; they have very clear and specific functions, and each class performs its role about as well as it possibly can. It’s for this simplicity that Nohrian classes are more easily understood and friendly to newcomers (which is why it’s baffling to me that so many new players stick to more technical classes like Swordmaster).

Most Powerful/Dangerous Classes:

General - Highest defenses in the game
- Immune to double attacks
- Always requires at least 2 units to take down

Berserker - Hardest hitting class in the game
- Double attacks all slow classes
- High crit rate

Hero - Ties for highest Skl in the game
- No significant statistical weaknesses
- No true counters

Dark Knight - Counters most physical units

- Can mixed attack

- True counters require specific builds

Wolfssegner - Most overall powerful class in the game
- Can significantly injure/kill anything
- Variable overwhelming stats

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Cavalier (FG1A)

"Those who draw first blood"

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Proficiency: B Swords, B Lances

Skills:

Lv. 1 - Elbow Room - When user fights in terrain with no terrain effects, damage +3 during battles

Lv.10 - Shelter - Select the “Shelter” command to make an adjacent ally the user’s support unit

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 17 6 0 5 5 3 5 3

Growth Mod%: 10 25 0 10 10 15 10 5

Cap: 40 22 15 21 20 24 22 21

Other Notes: Has 7 Mov and a Beast weakness

The bread and butter unit of Fire Emblem. Cavalry are high movement physical attacking units with moderate weapon triangle control and balanced stats across the board. They have no major weaknesses and no major strengths aside from their high movement, making them a sort of Jack-of-all-trades, though you can give them a physical emphasis by using them as Great Knights instead of their natural promotion, Paladin.

In general, units that don’t excel at any specific purpose are bad because they lose to every unit that does (read: damn near everything else), however the Cavalier tree comes with the invaluable Shelter command (“Rescue” for old-school players), and boasts useful offensive and defensive options that enhance their combat abilities against all units, physical and magical. As such, even if you don’t want to use their classes, every other class still benefits from having Cavalier skills, making it one of the most desirable sets in the entire game.

Unique: Paladin (FG1B)
"Those who valiantly charge"

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Proficiency: A Swords, A Lances

Skills:

Lv. 5 - Defender - When user is the lead unit while paired up, all stats +1

Lv.15 - Aegis - Skill% chance of halving damage from Bow, Magic, Dagger, Dragonstone, Breath or Stone attacks

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 8 1 7 7 4 7 6

Growth Mod%: 10 25 0 10 10 15 10 5

Cap: 60 31 26 30 30 32 32 32

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov and a Beast weakness

Intelligent Systems seems to be in love with this class. They have always either made the class itself insanely powerful (FE1,3,6,9), given you ridiculously powerful characters who happened to be Paladins (FE4,5,7,8,10,12), or just dropped any façade of balance and given you both (FE4, FE9, FE12). I’m not sure where FE Fates fits into this picture, but what I can say is that Paladins are solid.

They have balanced stats across the spectrum with slightly above average defenses and Str, 60 HP, and a stellar 8 mobility. They are not easy to take down, and can at least hurt virtually everything in the game. With that said, their balanced stats are not going to help them score any kills on their own or survive repeated heavy hits. During the game, the game, their balanced stat growths tend to result in your characters being good at one specific role (Xander=tanking, Sophie=attacking, Silas=god knows what, etc.) and bad at everything else, which is actually great for figuring out how to apply them. But, if this doesn’t happen to you or you decide to play online, you’ll have to use them as was originally intended.

Paladins are designed to utilize their high mobility to initiate combat against enemies in order to soften them up for your dedicated fighters to sweep away: they are the vanguard to your army. At the same time, they are your army’s panic button. Their innate access to the Shelter command and high Mov makes it easy for them to dash onto the frontlines and pick up anyone who has gotten in over their head. Then with the aid of their defenses and Defender, they can either bail out of those situations or finish the job the other unit started. In essence, they are the connective tissue that holds an army together.

Desired Skills: Initiative Skills (Darting Blow, Warding Blow, Savage Blow, etc.)

Since Paladins are often initiating attacks and have balanced parameters, they benefit significantly from initiative skills that push their stats to offensive extremes comparable with dedicated attackers/tanks. Fortunately for them, all Paladins have access to at least one of these skills via the Great Knight class, and they can get both of the others (that they care about) from a single tree – Sky Knight. With these skills your Paladins will be able to safely engage anything in this game, and double attack anything that Speed ties with them.

Counters: Generals, Wolfssegner, Nothing

The only thing that can stop a unit like Paladins is a brick wall that they can’t double attack. Generals are tough enough to shrug off their attacks and strong enough to severely maim them (with a beast killer, that is) back. Although, Paladins also have enough mobility to completely avoid them, so their effectiveness is dependent on your opponent’s stupidity. Wolfssegner can more reliably take them out if they have Beastbane, but they’re so damn rare that you won’t be able to place them where they’re needed. In short, Paladins don’t even have soft counters in this game. If you’re up against one or several, all you can do is throw the strongest units you have in their general direction and hope for the best.

Shared: Great Knight (FG1C)
"Those whose aegis travels"

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Proficiency: B Swords, A Lances, B Axes

Skills:

Lv. 5 - Luna - Skill% chance of ignoring half the enemy’s Defence (if user has a physical weapon) or Resistance (if user has a magical weapon)

Lv.15 – Armored Blow - When user triggers the battle, physical damage received -10

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def Res
Bases:                   21           10           0              6              6              3              10 2
Growth Mod%: 20           20           0              10           5              5              20           0

Cap: 65 35 25 29 27 28 37 28

Other Notes: Has 7 Mov, a Beast weakness, and an Armor weakness

On paper, Great Knights are more or less mounted Generals with lower defenses. They’re still hardier than every other mounted unit in the game mind you, but their Res is just low enough to be considered a weakness and they don’t have Wary Fighter to ameliorate their low Spd. In conjunction with their multiple innate weaknesses, these shortcomings make Great Knights a surprisingly vulnerable class in spite of their high HP, Str, and Def.

Rather than using the class as a mounted general, you should use them as sturdier Paladins. They aren’t quite as mobile, but their Def and, more importantly, their Str is noticeably higher so they do not need to rely on initiative skills for combat superiority. And because these boons are permanent, they can take a heavier beating during the enemy phase without ever needing to back out...unless there are mages. Overall, the class has a more specific niche than Paladin, making it more useful online and less useful offline, so choose it to train during the latter and as an attacker in the former.

Desired Skills: Defensive Skills (Wary Fighter, Pavise, Counter, Countermagic, Renewal)

They already have what is arguably the best offensive skill in Nohrian kingdom, and their Speed is nearly unsalvageable, so they only need better defenses to finish rounding out their ability set. Even though Great Knights come with Armored Blow, they really want access to passive defensive skills like those from the Knight and Priest trees. Pavise, Wary Fighter, and Counter(magic) drastically improve their tanking ability so that they can actually work as makeshift mounted Generals, instead of just thick Paladins.

Counters: Dark Knight, Magical attackers in general

Dark Knights are their kryptonite. They have better mobility, slightly better Spd, Def high enough to tank their attacks, and strike with pure magic to get around Great Knights’ Def. And to really twist the knife, they have access to swords, which means they can whip out Armorslayers and can ~~make them their bitch~~ plough straight through their Def if they feel like it. Even in the absence of Dark Knights, however, Great Knights still have to worry about magical attacks as they flat out don’t have a built in answer to them.

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Knight (FG1D)
"Those who halt blades"

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Proficiency: B Lances

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Defense +2 – Defense +2

Lv.10 – Natural Cover - When user fights in terrain with terrain effects, damage received -3 during battles

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 8 0 5 3 3 8 1

Growth Mod%: 20 20 0 15 5 10 20 0

Cap: 45 24 15 22 17 22 26 18

Other Notes: Has 4 Mov and an Armor weakness

They are tanks, plain and simple. The Knight tree provides characters with two class options for
shrugging off physical damage, both of which can dish out a hefty amount of it in return. It contains the slowest classes in the game which would normally undermine their durability. But, thanks to its access to Wary Fighter, characters with this tree never have to worry about double attacks. On top of this, the tree contains both the Great Knight and General tree providing complete access to Nohr’s best physically defensive skills in tandem with its two beefiest physical classes and Luna. Unfortunately, despite possessing stupendous options for handling physical units, it offers absolutely nothing for fighting magical ones. That said, dedicated magical units are pretty rare in this game, and the General class still has more than enough Resistance and HP to withstand magical blows. So, realistically the tree still offers units a reliable means of defense. The bottom line is that this is not only the sturdiest class tree in the game but one of the most useful ones in the game. Pass it on to as many units as possible.

Unique: General (FG1E)
"Those who cannot be broken"

------------------------------------------------

Proficiency: A Lances, B Axes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Wary Fighter - During battles, neither the user or enemy can perform follow up attacks

Lv.15 – Pavise - Skill% chance of halving damage from Sword, Lance, Axe, Beaststone, Claw or Puppet attacks

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 22 11 0 7 3 4 12 3

Growth Mod%: 25 20 0 15 0 10 20 5

Cap: 70 38 25 32 25 32 40 30

Other Notes: Has 5 Mov and an Armor weakness

Generals are not only FE:Fates’ strongest tanking class, they are arguably the best class in the entire game. They have the best HP and Def in the entire game backed by a perfectly average Res stat and two fantastic skills to consolidate their defenses. It ties for second highest Str in the base game, just shy of Berserkers’ and has above average Skl so that they can actually hit things and proc defensive skills. The only shortcoming the class has is that its Spd is so abysmal that it ties with some pre-promotes, and its Mov is low enough that it has a hard time getting to where it’s actually needed. Fortunately, the class already has a solution to the former in Wary Fighter, nullifying its only statistical weakness and outright elevating it above every other General in the franchise’s history. And since movement is as easy to fix as a pair of Boots, I don’t really have anything more to say about it statistically. Breaker skills are rarely an issue since they can use two different types of weapons, and its only weakness pointer is rendered inconsequential both by its absurd Def and the inherent difficulty of forging armor slaying weapons. It’s basically a perfect class.

It goes without saying that Generals are meant to be deployed as tanks, and boy are they good at it. However, concentrated magical fire, or repeated strong dual attacks will wear them down, so it’s imperative that you either leave them in guard stance with another unit (preferably a Paladin) or remove their offensive skills so that they don’t accidentally kill anything. As most experienced players will note, you rarely want your tanks to kill attackers during the enemy phase since doing so exposes them to more enemies increasing the risk that they will go down – Generals may be made of an adamantium like material, but even they will break under enough of the wrong kind of pressure.

This brings us to the big question that is the real reason you are reading this section: “How the hell do you kill a General?” ~~Answer: you don’t~~.

Desired Skills: Renewal, Magical defenses, Seals, Clarity

Realistically, all Generals only have 4 skills – one of their skill slots is always dedicated to Wary Fighter. That lack of a slot actually means a lot as Generals can never truly “do everything” at once, and are thus always exploitable. This unfortunate reality leaves you with a few options for making an effective unit: you can either focus your General towards guarding against a specific damage type, give it the tools to guard against all damage types at the expense of offense, or play it by ear, ensuring that they have the tools to handle anything. Speaking from experience, the second choice will usually serve you best as most tanks are pretty easy to break in this game. So, I recommend prioritizing skills that beef up their magical defense, passive healing, and seals for offensive stats.

Aegis and Countermagic together will give you solid answers to damn near every magical and indirect attack someone can launch. If you split these skills up, you will be vulnerable to either arrows or spells, so you should strongly consider taking both. Physically, you already have Pavise and your high Def will usually yield a Counter that won’t be potent. Don’t bother with it unless you’re scared. Instead, take either a heal (Renewal/Lifetaker) to undermine the enemies’ failed ORKO, or a seal (Str or Mag) to cripple attackers so that they won’t get the chance to hurt you a second time. Lastly, although debuffs shouldn’t be a problem, you can opt to use a Dread Scroll to pick up Clarity…though I wouldn’t recommend it. If your opponent is going with the dismantle strategy, then they’re probably going to take out your General in a single turn – you won’t have time to recover. It’s better to take proactive measures than reactive ones.

Counters: Berserkers, Sorcerers, Dark Knights

The three best answers are Berserkers, Sorcerers, and Dark Knights, but none of these are perfect. Wary Fighter spits on Spd advantages so you have to defeat them with repeated heavy swings. Berserkers have enough Str to match Generals’ Def, so that their Hammers can score clean super effective hits. However, the base power of Hammers is 12 and as we’ve already discussed, it’s unlikely that they will ever be much higher, so they’re usually pulling 36/41 (Axefaire) damage per swing. With WTA your usually looking at about 2/3s of their health at best, meaning that unless the Berserker scores a critical hit, Astra, or Aether, that unit will not be able to ORKO a General. And that’s before factoring in that the General probably has Pavise, or worse Counter, and may have a Dual Naginata [Hint: when deploying Generals always bring a pocket Dual Naginata]. It’s possible for them to win but, because of Berserkers’ bad defenses, it’s very unsafe.

Then there are Sorcerers who can get around the Def, Pavise, and Counter issues with Magic, but still have nothing to deal with Aegis, get face-rolled by Countermagic+Javelins, and still do not have enough power to make consistent ORKOs (even with a Snake Spirit). Their main advantage over Berserkers is that they can sometimes win a full on slugfest with Nosferatu, but that only works if the General doesn’t have any skills to deal with Magic. To be fair, the game rarely deploys such units even on Conquest Hard mode, but online players are smart enough to prepare for this, leaving the tactic unreliable.

And lastly we have Dark Knights, which have Mag like Sorcerers to pick on Generals’ weaker defense among other things, but faaaar better Def than both of the other classes so that they don’t have to worry so much about counter-attacks. The class also has access to swords (read: Armorslayers) so that they can’t get neutered by a single skill, and a recovery mechanism to prolong an assault. The only bugbear here is that they are outright incapable of ORKOing a General through sheer numbers. They need either time or outside assistance, and if we’re factoring those into the equation, then there’s nothing to stop the General from just healing off the damage as well. The best thing about Dark Knights is that they will usually win a war of attrition with a General, but the bottom line is that there is no way to consistently kill a General in one turn with a single unit. Outside support is always required. Therefore, it’s better to make sure that you have several characters that can work together to dismantle a General, rather than play their game and break yourself against their defenses. Let your dagger throwers (especially Ninja) and Spear Fighters soften them up with their weapons/skills, THEN send in your heavy hitters to finish the job.

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Fighter (FG1F)
"Those who strike with reckless abandon"

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Proficiency: B Axes

Skills:

Lv. 1 – HP+5 - Maximum HP +5

Lv.10 - Gamble - Hit rate -10, Critical rate +10

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 7 0 6 6 2 4 1

Growth Mod%: 20 20 0 15 15 5 5 0

Cap: 45 25 15 23 22 21 19 18

Other Notes: None

Fighter is, naturally, one of the best physically offensive trees in the game. It has two good classes, one well-rounded and the other overwhelming, as well as a decent collection of reliable skills to better facilitate attacking. The Fighter class itself is underwhelming as its stats are unimpressive and both of its skills are nigh unusable beyond the early game. These coupled with axes & clubs’ poor accuracy may make training fighters during the campaign taxing. But if you can slog through that minor hell, the mighty Berserker class will carry you well into endgame and beyond. Due to the sheer strength of the General class, it is strongly recommended that you try and spread this class to your favored attackers as no other tree offers enough raw power to compete with it.

Unique: Berserker (FG1G)
"Those who shatters shields"

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Proficiency: S Axes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Strength - Strength +4 to all allies within a 2 tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Axefaire - When user is equipped with an Axe, damage +5 during battle

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 24 12 0 8 9 0 5 0

Growth Mod%: 30 25 0 15 15 0 0 0

Cap: 70 40 25 32 33 25 27 25

Other Notes: Crit +20, Crit Evasion -5

By the power of Grayskull, this class is freaking ridiculous. It has the absolute highest Str in the game, ties for highest HP, has above average Skl and Spd, and its Def isn’t that far from average either. It’s like the printer with the memo that Berserkers are supposed to be high risk-high reward glass cannons ran out of toner and only managed to get out “Berserkers…cannons – make it happen.” I guess being locked to one weapon type which just so happens to have a weakness against the two most common weapons in the game (Swords & Tomes) kind of sucks ~~if you’re too prideful to carry Dual Clubs~~, but otherwise it doesn’t have any weaknesses, and packs more destructive potential than a dragon with a nuke launcher.

In terms of skills, it has one that further boosts its already obscene Str (& Mag if you’re a Bolt Axe fetishist), and another which boosts that of its allies (Rally Str), so even when you don’t want to use your Berserker, it can still help out the team. But c’mon – screw teamwork. Your berserkers want to find enemies and kill ‘em dead. Direct their offense to problematic targets, crash through enemy lines, and raise hell.

Desired Skills: Initiative Skills, Luna/Rend Heaven, Swordbreaker

Because Berserkers have low defenses, you have to kill enemies before they can kill you. As such, skills which will help you do this are of the highest priority. The initiative skills Certain Blow, Deathblow, and Darting Blow make it very easy to confirm player phase kills, while Luna, Rend Heaven, Warding Blow and Armored Blow can help you with wall breaking. It’s also worth getting Swordbreaker and Tomebreaker as WTA is the biggest danger to the class.

Counters: Swordmasters, Dark Knights, Berserkers, Axebreaker

Swordmasters with Axebreaker, Brave Swords, and Duelist’s Blow are the hardest counter to Berserkers in the game being nigh untouchable when they attack, and extremely punishing when you hit them. Even without the skills or Braveswords, Swordmasters are still frustratingly difficult for Berserkers to hit and making them the main reason why you should always carry a Dual Club.

Dark Knights are similarly difficult to deal with, though not just because of their WTA. Both Dark Knight weapons are effective against Berserkers, and their primary damage type exploits Berserkers’ weaker defense. This coupled with their high Def, better range, and superior mobility means that they can always hit Berserkers first, and deal more damage than they’ll receive. However, bear in mind that Berserkers are fast enough to double attack Dark Knights even with a Katana equipped (27+1 v 33), so if they can’t score a ORKO, a Berserker may be able to counter kill them. Interestingly enough, Berserkers share a similar paradigm in that they both hit hard enough to put the other out of commission. So, if it comes to a mirror match try to get priority. Lastly, if an enemy has Axebreaker, then unless you also have Certain Blow and can kill them in one round, you should probably just avoid them. You will not win.

Shared: Hero (FG1H)
"Those who contort like liquid steel"

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Proficiency: A Swords, B Axes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Sol - Skill% chance of restoring half the damage dealt to the enemy

Lv.15 – Axebreaker - Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with an Axe

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 20 8 0 10 8 3 7 2

Growth Mod%: 20 15 0 20 15 5 10 0

Cap: 60 32 25 35 32 31 30 27

Other Notes: Ties for highest Skl cap in the game with Master Ninja & Sniper

Heroes are the other Jack-of-all-trades units. They are slightly more offensively inclined than Paladins and aren’t quite as sturdy, but they have the best Skl in the game and don’t have a beast weakness to worry about. They boast similar weapon triangle control with Axes instead of Lances, however they can only reach an A-rank in Swords. This isn’t really a big deal considering that they don’t have the Str to use Brave Axes to topple Generals, but can use Brave Swords to rip into Berserkers. Unfortunately, the class’ averageness makes it hard to recommend. Skill isn’t a big enough advantage to propel the class above anything else, Sol is a hard skill to justify even on defensive characters, and Axebreaker has exactly one serious use making it too niche to fit into most builds. It’s a decent class, but difficult to make space for. Use it as a sort of limbo for physical units you haven’t yet decided what to do with - its growth rates boost all the stats they care about.

Desired Skills: Skl-based Procs, Breaker Skills, Swordfaire

Heroes are like Paladins in that they don’t have any major statistical advantages or weaknesses, outside of one area – in this case Skl. And similarly, by exploiting that one advantage the class can excel in almost any area that you need it to. Need to tank better? Take Aegis, Pavise, and Sol. Need attacks to hit harder? Bring Luna, Astra and Swordfaire. Is a specific unit giving you troubles? Load up the appropriate breaker skills. The class doesn’t have any innate weaknesses, so utilizing simple abilities like these won’t leave any gaps in their offense or defense.

Counters: Master Ninja, Nothing

Heroes’ stats are too flexible and numerically well-placed for a true hard counter to exist, but Master Ninja are about as close to a general purpose one that the game has. Their Shuriken give them WTA, against Swords, just enough Spd to eek out a double attack, and range so that they don’t have to fear retaliation. You pretty much have to use Silver or the Chakram to do any serious damage (Steel forfeits your double attack), but even if you can’t ORKO them you can at least severely injure it so that it won’t become a threat.

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Mercenary (FG1J)
"Those who are infinitely adaptable"

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Proficiency: B Swords

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Good Fortune - Luck% chance of recovering 20% HP at the start of the user’s Turn

Lv.10 – Strong Riposte - When enemy triggers the battle, damage +3

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 17 5 0 7 6 2 5 2

Growth Mod%: 10 15 0 20 15 5 10 0

Cap: 40 22 15 24 22 20 21 19

Other Notes: None

Mercenary is the only class pool in the game with no unique classes of its own. What’s more, neither of the two classes it comes with possess any special utility or synergy that would make either worth pursuing through this particular tree. Add in bad base class skills and a decidedly average stat distribution, and you have a recipe for what’s pretty much the worst tree in the Nohrian kingdom. This isn’t to say that your Mercenaries are bad (quite the opposite, actually) but the tree itself doesn’t have any saving graces, save for the Hero class’ fantastic physical growth rates. Try to only pass it to units who need a bump in growths. Otherwise, avoid it if you can. Never take this as your Avatar’s class.

Shared: Bow Knight (FG1K)

"Those who strike like lightning"
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Proficiency: A Bows, B Swords

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Skill - Skill +4 to all allies within a 2 tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Shurikenbreaker - Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with a Dagger/Shuriken

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 18 6 0 8 9 3 5 6

Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 15 15 10 0 10

Cap: 55 29 25 32 33 30 27 32

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov, and a Beast weakness

Bow Knights are the de facto rulers of the secondary weapon triangle. They have swords and bows to take on other Bow users, good Res to stand up to mages, are fast enough to avoid getting double attacked by literally everything – including shuriken-wielding Ninja - and thanks to Bows, superior

Mov, and Shurikenbreaker they outright hard counter dagger wielders in general. Their Def is pretty low making them vulnerable to melee attackers, but it’s still high enough to take several hits from weaker weapons like shuriken and most swords.

Like their mounted brethren they are best used to charge into enemy lines. However, their lower Def makes guerilla tactics and specifically targeting mages far more important. As long as you play to their strengths and don’t try to make them fragile Paladins they’ll never let you down.

Desired Skills: Everything in the Archer tree, Tomebreaker, Bowbreaker, Seal Magic, Aegis, Initiative Skills

It would be GREAT if Canto were in this game (like it is in EVERY OTHER FIRE EMBLEM GAME SINCE 1995), as they could hit and run in the same turn, but for god knows what reason we once again have to live without it. As guerilla attackers, Bow Knights want offensive skills to improve their slightly below average Str. Fortunately for them, most of the skills they want are in a single tree – Archer. But with this being a Nohrian class, that might be a bit difficult to pick up. So, alternatively you can capitalize on their natural strengths and turn your Bowknights into anti-ranged attackers. Tomebreaker and Bowbreaker can provide total dominance over the ranged weapon triangle. Seal Magic punishes any mages you don’t ORKO. And Aegis can cement your survivability against ranged attacks in general. All of these skills are Nohrian as well, so you won’t have to bend over backwards to pick them up.

Counters: ALL lance-wielding classes except Wyvern Lord, Berserkers

Anything with the Def to take a hit and the Str to hurt a Paladin can consistently take out a Bow Knight. This amounts to literally every class in this game with a lance (except Wyvern Lords since they fly and usually get double attacked), Berserkers, and most sword wielding classes, as well. The lance wielding classes pose the largest threat as they tend to have better Def, though Berserkers have enough health and Spd to comfortably walk through a Bow Knight’s desperate arrows.

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Outlaw (FG1L)
"Those who defy the proud"

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Proficiency: B Bows

Skills:

Lv. 1 - Locktouch - User can open doors and chests without requiring keys

Lv.10 – Movement +1 - Movement +1

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 17 6 0 5 5 3 5 3

Growth Mod%: 0 10 5 10 20 0 0 20

Cap: 35 19 18 20 24 18 17 22

Other Notes: ~~Is swag as hell~~, None

I love this tree. It starts with one clearly defined job (looting treasure) that expands into three specific combat niches – killing mages, ~~painfully~~ grounding flyers, and supporting allies. Those three niches are all specific enough that they don’t often overlap, meaning that Outlaws almost always have something useful to do. Unfortunately, while the tree’s classes have excellent synergy with one another, they aren’t particularly helpful for anyone not planning on using them. With one exception (Shurikenbreaker), their growth rates and skills are too focused for both magical and physical units to really benefit. But, don’t let that deter you from using this tree. Both Adventurer and Bow Knight are valuable additions to any team, and cool enough to earn you mad respect from anyone you play against.

Unique: Adventurer (FG1M)

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Proficiency: A Bows, B Staves

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Lucky Seven - Hit rate and Avoid +20 for the first seven Turns

Lv.15 – Pass - User can pass through tiles occupied by enemy units

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 17 4 6 6 10 2 3 8

Growth Mod%: 0 5 15 5 20 0 0 20

Cap: 50 27 31 27 34 27 25 34

Other Notes: None

“And the winner for coolest class in the game goes to…Adventur- HEY! Stop stealing the potpourri!”

Adventurers are what archers (and healers) should have been 8 games ago – general purpose utility units that can both keep your team healthy and support your main attackers without endangering themselves on the frontlines. Of course, their Def and HP are both pretty bad, so you shouldn’t go off exposing them anyway, but their Res is excellent and their Str, though comparatively low, is high enough to take out magical units. When you aren’t attacking things, they can use their staves or rods to heal wounds or cripple enemies that are too nasty to deal with. Their flexible attack range tends to make crippling enemies redundant, as safely softening a target is often all that is required, but you never know when you need to freeze two paired up enemies at once.

Now, Adventurers also have one more dirty little trick up their sleeve that the game (probably deliberately) avoids advertising – a trick so deliciously devious that it undermines three entire class trees (and threatens to break several others’ legs) – Adventurers are the best mixed attackers in the game. Their Mag cap ties with Nohr Noble, is only 2 points shy of Onmyoji, and 4 points away from Sorcerer. Normally that gap, and the class’ lack of tomes would make them unable to compete with these true casters…but then there’s the Shining Bow.

This one weapon is so bewilderingly powerful that I’m almost shocked it even made it into this game. It inflicts magical damage capitalizing on Adventurers’ above average Mag stat, has 1-2 range with 12 MT matching the S-Rank tome Excalibur (which Onmyoji can’t even wield), still qualifies as a bow (flying effectiveness), and doesn’t have any usage penalties, unlike most of the powerful tomes & scrolls ~~that are STILL weaker than this weapon, regardless~~. The only “downsides” to the weapon are that it drops your evasion by 20 and can’t trigger offensive skills. But Adventurers don’t even have any offensive skills to begin with, and learn Lucky Seven which coincidentally bumps their evasion up by exactly 20 points. In so many words, the Shining Bow is made for this class; it addresses their biggest shortcoming by providing a way for it to reliably take out any physical units it can get the jump on, and when combined with the class’ natural superiority over magical units and near perfect Spd, allows it to reliably KO almost any enemy it initiates on.

So, in sum, Adventurer is a super fast mage with a stronger tome that can effortlessly kill other mages with physical attacks, beat down physical units with magical ones, and heal allies when it doesn’t feel like attacking. If the class had more Skl and a Def rating better than glass, I’d call it the best class in the game. As it stands, it’s just one of the best classes in the game, and an absolute staple for your team.

Desired Skills: Everything in the Archer tree, Live to Serve

Since the Shining Bow inhibits you from using procs, Initiative skills and static damage boosters are your only available means of universally raising your damage output. Fortunately, the two Sniper skills, Certain Blow and Bowfaire, cover the class’ two biggest interests. The former bumps up their shaky accuracy, while the latter beefs up both their physical and magical damage. Then on the supporting end of the spectrum, the same tree’s other class, Kinshi Knight, contains two powerful abilities that accentuate its other specialties. The first skill, Amaterasu, passively heals nearby allies for 20% of their HP, potentially circumventing the need to use a staff. Their second skill on the other hand makes killing Aerial units even easier, should you choose to focus on their inherent AA. Lastly, if the chip damage you take from killing mages becomes an issue, you can take the Troubadour’s Live to Serve skill to circumvent the need for another healer.

Counters: Physical attackers

Physical attackers don’t have too much trouble taking out Adventurers. It usually requires two units, to ORKO due to their high Spd and evasion, but as long as they don’t have a Shining Bow equipped, they should go down without too much of a fight.

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Wyvern Rider (FG1N)

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Proficiency: B Axes

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Strength +2 - Strength +2

Lv.10 - Lunge - Select the “Lunge” command to swap places with an enemy after an attack

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   17           6              0              5              4              2              7              0
Growth Mod%: 10           15           5              10           10 5 20 0

Cap: 40 22 17 21 20 19 24 15

Other Notes: Has 7 Mov, a Dragon weakness, and a Flying weakness

This is one of Nohr’s stronger class trees. The base class comes with one of the most tactically powerful skills in the game (Lunge). Both of its promoted classes are good fighters, possessing valuable skills and varied capabilities. And both have enough Def & HP to take a survive a hit from an arrow. The dragon weakness is far less exploitable than the beast weakness, further supplementing each classes’ sturdiness, and their flight makes them even better at initiating attacks than Paladins. The class supplements any character who has it, magical or physical, however it works best with supporting or vanguard units who can abuse its versatility to perpetuate a steady offense.

Unique: Wyvern Lord (FG1P)

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Proficiency: A Axes, B Lances

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Defense - Defense +4 to all allies within a 2 tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Swordbreaker - Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with a Sword

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 19 8 0 9 6 3 10 1

Growth Mod%: 10 15 0 15 10 5 20 0

Cap: 60 33 25 33 29 28 35 26

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov, a Dragon weakness, and a Flying weakness

Statistically, Wyvern Lords are basically Great Knights with better Skl, Spd, and mobility, but lower HP, Def, Str. They are better attackers, but worse tanks with a more common vulnerability. Functionally, however, they act as enablers creating opportunities for your other units. Swordbreaker complements their high physical stats, access to axes, and high mobility by making them extremely effective at killing Hoshidan classes, most notably Swordmasters, Master Ninja, and Spear Masters – read: the problematic ones. Rally Defense allows them beef up other units to charge forward in their stead. And they have access to Lunge letting you pull any units they can’t quite kill alone into range for another ally to finish the job – a utility which is highly exploitable thanks to their 8 mov, flight, and strong Def. Those same advantages allow them to act as extremely mobile physical tanks, though it’s unwise to dedicate one to this function as it wouldn’t be playing to their strengths. Overall, Wyvern Lords are similar to Paladins in that they excel at leading a charge into enemy lines. Their unique capabilities, just make them better at assisting an ongoing offensive than starting a new one. It’s a great class that any physical unit would be lucky to have.

Desired Skills: Malig Knight skills, Darting Blow, Breaker Skills, Renewal, Pavise

Malig Knight skills are the biggest boon to this class, as they allow Wyvern Lords to create many more opportunities to attack by exploiting the enemy’s positioning (plus they have access to them by default, so there’s little reason not to grab them). Savage Blow and Trample will allow you to get around ORKOing units as they’ll likely be so weak that any unit can safely clean them up. However, if you’d prefer that your Wyvern Lords kill enemies on their own, they can alternatively (or additionally) take Darting Blow to bolster their initiative Spd and double all of the slow and sturdy classes.

If tanking is a high priority for you, Pavise is a fair option thanks to their high Skl. However, I advise against using Aegis as they will always survive a single arrow even without it, and usually won’t be able to take any more than that with it – it’s best to just stick to their strengths and live with the weakness. And speaking of strengths, Renewal is another fantastic survival skill for this class. Their unfettered mobility and good Def will allow them to take a lot of punishment and evacuate whenever it becomes too severe. Renewal thus increases the length of time that they can stay on the frontlines while shortening their periods of retreat/recovery.

Lastly, if there’s a major flaw in your team composition they can address it by equipping an appropriate breaker skill to soft counter specific classes. More often than not, Swordbreaker is probably all they will ever want, but you never know.

Counters: Kinshi Knights, Dark Knights, Sorcerers, Bow wielders

Kinshi Knights with Darting Blow spell death for Wyvern Lords, as they can double attack with their bows. Not all of them will have it mind you, but the fact that they outrange Wyvern Lords and have enough Def to survive a single swing does not give Wyvern Lords much of a chance against them, regardless of circumstances. Dark Knights are another decent counter for the same reasons that they counter everything else: high mobility, Def, and magical attacks. However, Wyvern Lords have comparable Mov and access to beast killers, so will almost always take some heavy damage for their efforts. Sorcerers are a little bit better off in that they have enough Spd to keep up with Wyvern Lords, and Nosferatu to heal off any damage they take. However, Wyvern Lords can easily escape from them or avoid them outright. Even Snipers which were specifically designed to kill flying units have trouble with the class’ mobility. But if they can get in range to attack, they have a fair chance of instantly ending a Wyvern Lord (even with Aegis) thanks to their Initiative skills and innate Crit boost. Funnily enough, Mechanists and Adventurers, are both bigger threats to this class than Snipers. The former is sturdier than Sniper, but retains access to Silver Yumi, while the latter is the only bow wielder with enough innate Spd to double attack, and has the Shining bow which flat out OHKOs the class regardless. As a rule of thumb, anyone with a bow will significantly harm a Wyvern Lord, you just have to make sure that they will live long enough to finish the job.

Unique: Malig Knight (FG1Q)

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Proficiency: A Axes, B Tomes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Savage Blow - When user triggers the battle, enemies within a 2 tile radius have their HP reduced by 20% after the battle

Lv.15 – Trample - Unless enemy is on a mount, damage +5

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 18 7 6 6 5 0 8 6

Growth Mod%: 0 15 15 10 5 0 10 15

Cap: 55 31 30 28 27 28 31 31

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov, a Dragon weakness, and a Flying weakness

Back in my FE Awakening analysis I hypothesized (and proved numerically) that units who could use both of their attacking stats competently were better attackers than units who could use a single attack stat exceptionally. The reason being that magic was just as powerful as physical weapons, and most classes had a very large difference between their Res and Def. In this game, however, neither of these bases are true – magic is on average 3-5 points weaker than physical weaponry, and most classes have a small difference between their defenses (typically 5 points compared to Awakening’s 10). As such, mixed attackers in Fates have to excel in at least one of their attack stats and break even in the other in order to exploit a class’ vulnerabilities. Now, as you can see by their stat caps and base modifiers, Malig Knights blatantly do not satisfy the new criteria and instead lean on the old one, making them exceedingly mediocre fighters. They aren’t strong or accurate enough to consistently kill anything they attack. Their defenses are decent like Paladins’, but undermined by their flying weakness. Their Spd is too low to secure any double attacks, and bad enough that many units, including Heroes, Onmyoji, Snipers, Berserkers, and Bow Knights can double them for easy ORKOs. IS ~~half-heartedly~~ attempted to make up for their shortcomings through their skills, which are two of the strongest in the entire game. However, even with Trample’s damage boost, they still can’t generate enough damage to sincerely threaten anything other than one class that’s mounted (Falcon Knight) and thus exempt from its effect. So, what do you do with a class that can’t kill anything, take too many hits, or actively support other units? Harass.

Savage Blow coupled with Malig Knights’ flight, innate access to Lunge, and tomes makes them excellent at harming units or creating disadvantageous situations for the opponent. Though they aren’t powerful enough to kill almost anything, they can soften up multiple units at the same time and pull others out of position. Mind you, the class’ average defenses and vulnerability to arrows forces you to be extremely careful with your Lunges, but as long as you’re smart with your targets, their weaknesses shouldn’t be hard to play around. Of course, their ability to harass is not only matched, but exceeded by their Wyvern Lord brethren, but it’s the only utility the class can muster effectively on its own. Basically, this is an example of a class that’s extremely powerful during the campaign as it has an answer to almost everything (and is the default of one of the best characters in the game), but damn near worthless during post-game/online where other units have capped stats and can knick their skills. It’s very useful to have for its skills and growth rates, though I can’t recommend using it as anyone’s final class, unless you specifically breed a character that transcends its mediocrity.

Desired Skills: Poison Strike, Grisly Fangs, Lifetaker, Axefaire, Rallies, Tomebreaker/Swordbreaker

Since harassment is all the class is good at, it’s in your best interest to get skills that inflict guaranteed damage or improve their accuracy. Tomebreaker and or Swordbreaker can address the latter while Poison Strike and, if you can manage it, Grisly Fangs, take care of the former. If the class struggles to find things to attack, Rally skills can be used to provide some extra utility. The class’ competent Mag stat also lets it significantly benefit from Axefaire. The Bolt Axe boasts more MT than all of the game’s spells, so with Axefaire and Trample, your Malig Knight can actually compete with dedicated casters to pulverize physical units. Plus, the skill will simultaneously boost their physical damage so that they can keep up with other physical attackers and beat down magical units. Essentially, Axefaire allows Malig Knights to perform their original purpose and mixed attack properly. That skill also enables the class to actually kill something, making Lifetaker a viable skill option as well.

Counters: Kinshi Knight, Mechanist, Paladins, Generals, all bow wielding classes

Kinshi Knights out-range, out-speed, and out-gun Malig Knights with an effectiveness pointer. They flat out destroy them and there’s nothing to be done about it. Mechanists exert similar dominance nullifying the Trample boost, circumventing the advantage of mixed attacking with their balanced defenses, and possessing advantageous weapon triangle control, and have access to bows to put the final nail in their coffin. Paladins have nearly identical perks, but make up for their lack of bows with access to wyrm killers. Generals are vulnerable to Trample, but are far too sturdy for Malig Knights to touch them, and strong enough to severely damage them back. And last but not least, virtually anything with a bow can pull enough damage (or Spd) to put the class down can do so with minimal effort.

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Dark Mage (FG1R)

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Proficiency: B Tomes

Skills:

Lv. 1 - Heartseeker - When fighting adjacent to an enemy, enemy’s Avoid -20

Lv.10 – Malefic Aura - Enemies within a 2-tile radius receive 2 extra damage from magical attacks

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   16           0              6              3              3 1 3              5
Growth Mod%: 0              10           20           0 10 0 5              10

Cap: 35 19 24 16 19 18 19 22

Other Notes: None

This is the game’s anti-meta tree. All six of its skills are designed to deal with a specific class, or possess a
function that is capable of dominating the metagame, and both of its promoted classes counter most of the game’s dangerous classes. During the campaign, it’s near worthless as the game heavily varies its classes each chapter and nearly every Hoshidan class is either fast or has Resistance. But for the online, it’s nothing short of devastating. Keep it in the back of your mind as you level up your units, but otherwise don’t worry too much about it until endgame.

Unique: Sorcerer (FG1S)

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Proficiency: S Tomes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Vengeance - Skill x 1.5% chance of adding half the user’s (Max HP – Current HP) as damage

Lv.15 – Bowbreaker - Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with a Bow

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   17           0              9              4 6              1              5              8
Growth Mod%: 0              0              25           0 10           0              5              15

Cap: 50 25 35 26 29 26 29 33

Other Notes: +5 Hit, +10 Crit, +5 Dodge, Can use Nosferatu

Stat-wise they look like worse Onmyoji. They’re slightly sturdier, but not tough enough to deal with most Hoshidan classes. They have more Mag, but lack Tomefaire to make it genuinely worthwhile. They can wield the S-rank tome Excalibur, but only have enough Spd to double the slow classes (with the tome’s +5 effective Spd). And you get the idea. It’s not well suited to fighting anything, but the slow and non-evasive (read: Great Knights). However, it has Nosferatu.

That one spell defines this entire class – its Def which would normally be kind of meh, is now perfect by being just high enough to avoid taking excessive damage from physical units, and low enough to make Vengeance procs hurt. Its Spd which is too low to double attack anything, is high enough to avoid both receiving and delivering double attacks, creating a reliable tank without the need for Wary Fighter. Its Mag is the highest of all non-DLC classes so there’s nothing to complain about there. Its Res is very solid, being good enough to eat magical attacks from the strongest of attackers, and its HP is 5 points higher than the two other dedicated caster classes. The only real flaw with the class is its Skl, and even that is partially minimized by Vengeance having the highest Skl-based Proc rate, and Heartseeker’s reduction to adjacent enemies’ Avd.

With Nosferatu, Sorcerers are an anti-metagame class designed to knock down bow-wielders and high Def units should they ever become dominant. They have the Spd to comfortably avoid all double attacks from both sets of classes, the Mag to either maim or decimate them in retaliation, and the skills and spell to let them do so with near impunity. This is their one and only real function. Excalibur and Dragon Spirit will help them kill Fliers and Avatars/their kid(s) respectively, but they aren’t geared for it and will likely die in the process. Let Onmyoji play the metagame, try to fight physical units, and fail miserably. Leave your Sorcerers to facetank and cackle like the mad genius BDSM fetishists they are.

Desired Skills: Tomefaire, Breakers, Wary Fighter, Inspiration

Tomefaire is priority number one for obvious reasons. Get it ASAP. Don’t worry about procs for damage. With their terrible Skl, Vengeance is all they’ll ever be able to consistently use well. Instead worry about their accuracy. Heartseeker is a nice introductory skill, but Magic is effective at two ranges, and certain enemies, namely Lance, Shuriken, and Sword bearers are a pain to deal with. So, consider replacing it with a breaker skill or two to improve their efficacy against problem classes. Master Ninja and Swordmasters in particular are also fast enough to double attack, so if they seem too ubiquitous, consider taking Wary Fighter to even the odds. Lastly, you can abuse the fact that Sorcerers spend a lot of time on the front lines wounding things by taking Inspiration to bolster their allies’ counter attacks. It’s the lowest priority skill for them, but if the character in the class has a skill that accentuates it, the skill can prove extremely helpful.

Oh, and if you’re an insane person who hates taking other people’s advice (I know you’re out there…I see you…) and want to Sorcerers like Onmyoji, Darting Blow works with Excalibur for +10 Initiative Spd, guaranteeing a double against almost anything. With that, you can take Line of Death, Tomefaire, and Aggressor to maximize your damage, and Lifetaker to recover your health in between nuclear strikes. You’ll still die if a canary flaps its wings in your general direction, but as far as YOLO builds go, that one is about as funny as it gets.

Counters: Falcon Knights, Master Ninja, Swordmasters, Adventurer, Great Master, Nine-Tailed Fox

Classes with high Res and Spd have little difficulty dealing with this class. Falcon Knights and Master Ninja have the biggest advantages in that they either tie or beat the class in range, have WTA, and the Spd to double attack it, though it’s unlikely that they can pull enough damage to OHKO (unless Lethality procs, of course). Swordmasters are similar to Master Ninja, but they deal more damage, take more damage, and can’t out-range them. If the Sorcerer doesn’t have Bowbreaker, then Adventurers are a near hard-counter with their high Spd and powerful bows. Priestesses and Great Masters are also decent counters thanks to their high Res, Countermagic, and Renewal, but require the Sorcerer to attack first in order to actually kill them. No class, however, is more dangerous to Sorcerers than a Nine-Tailed Fox. Their Res is too damn high to take any significant damage even from a Vengeance boosted +7 Nosferatu, and they can alter their damage to actually score ORKOs. Unfortunately, the class is pretty rare, so they aren’t usually a concern.

Unique: Dark Knight (FG1T)

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Proficiency: A Tomes, B Swords

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Seal Magic – After battle, enemy’s Magic -6

Lv.15 – Lifetaker – When user triggers the battle, recover 50% HP after defeating the enemy

HP          Str          Mag Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   19           8              6              6              5              3              8              6
Growth Mod%: 15           20           10 5 5 5 15 5

Cap: 55 32 31 28 27 31 34 30

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov and a Beast weakness

This is THE anti-metagame class. It has high defenses to take hits from all of the game’s classes, and can attack with either attack stat to decent effect. Normally, those abilities would just add up to a stronger Malig Knight, but because Dark Knights don’t have a bow or armor weakness their defense is far more difficult to crack. That may sound like a small advantage, but it’s really all they need to be a threat to almost every class. More importantly, the class’ stats and weaponry are perfectly placed to prey on the game’s most dangerous classes. Generals giving you trouble? Tear them down with magic or an Armorslayer. Berserkers breaking through your ranks? Punish them with your swords. Casters raining on your parade? Seal Magic will kick in to halt their offense.

Unfortunately, they’re as slow as Great Knights, so most classes can double attack them. But, because they can use both attacking stats, attacking them is even more punishing. Even with this shortcoming, Dark Knights can abuse their hardiness combined with their high Mov and Lifetaker to pick off easy targets and keep their HP high. All in all, the class is very strong, both during the campaign and out of it.

Desired Skills: Wary Fighter, Trample, Counter, Countermagic, Lucky Seven, Iron Will

Like Great Knights, Dark Knights benefit significantly from Wary Fighter. It alone lets them fight Swordmasters, Ninja, Falcon Knights, Heroes, Spear Masters, and Onmyoji. At the same time, if they are to fight these classes, they’ll need better accuracy and a little more power. Since they’re a more generalist class, it’s better to keep them at their maximum potential during both combat phases. As such, even though Dark Knights have high movement, initiative skills aren’t necessarily the best choice for it. Instead, use objective stat boosters like Lucky Seven, Trample, and Breaker skills. Defensively, there’s nothing directly comparable to a faire skill, so they have to settle for the next best thing: Counters. Both of them are actually useful for the class, though Countermagic has a higher priority for capitalizing on their average Res. Alternatively, if you have the DLC, Dread Fighter has the useful Iron Will skill to make casters a non-issue.

Counters: Spear Masters, Nine-Tailed Fox, Mechanist

Spear Masters have WTA, access to Beastkillers, and enough Str and Spd to ORKO Dark Knights. Nine-Tailed Foxes have the same set of advantages, but can take some serious damage if the Dark Knight has a Sword equipped. Lastly, there are Mechanists whose mixed defenses can handle all of their attacks, Shuriken have WTA over both of their weapons, and weaponry innately cuts through their defenses. Also, in case you were wondering, Master Ninja aren’t actually all that great against Dark Knights. Even with their WTA, they just don’t have enough Str to do any real damage to them and take significant damage from a Dual Katana wielding Dark Knight.

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Troubadour (FG1U)

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Proficiency: B Staves

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Resistance +2 - Resistance +2

Lv.10 – Gentilhomme/Demoiselle – Female/Male allies within a 2-tile radius receive 2 less damage during battles

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 15 0 3 7 5 4 1 4

Growth Mod%: 0 0 15 5 10 20 0 15

Cap: 35 16 19 24 20 23 16 21

Other Notes: +10 Dodge, Has 7 Mov and a Beast weakness

Troubadour is Nohr’s supporting tree, and of the game’s two primary staff bearing trees – the other being Monk/Shrine Maiden – it is clearly the superior set. Both of its two promoted classes are better staff wielders than the alternatives. One of has high mobility and access to fortify, and the other can both mixed attack and revive the dead. Additionally, both of its classes have skills that are helpful to non-casters, and both have value outside of their healing. So, there’s no real downside to any character possessing it, and it’s a fantastic tree for anyone you plan on becoming a support.

Unique: Strategist (FG1V)

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Proficiency: A Staves, B Tomes

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Resistance - Resistance +4 to all allies within a 2 tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Inspiration – Allies within a 2-tile radius deal 2 extra damage and receive 2 less damage during battles

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 16 0 7 6 7 5 2 7

Growth Mod%: 0 0 10 20 10 15 0 15

Cap: 45 25 33 28 31 33 25 32

Other Notes: Has 8 Mov and a Beast weakness

I never thought I’d see the day when a Fire Emblem game’s Valkyrie would be outright better than its Sage. Strategists have nearly identical stats to Onmyoji, except that they’re mounted and can use the Fortify staff – I kid you not, there is zero good reason for a character to be an Onmyoji if they also have access to Strategist. As for what the class does, it’s an offensive caster that can heal allies in its downtime. Its Spd and Def are both low enough for fast physical units to tear it apart, but thanks to its high Mov, it can often dictate the rules of engagement and avoid moving into a suicidal situation. It ties with its inferior sister class for worst HP in the game, so it can’t take much punishment from anything, including other casters, but if it attacks anything without a Res stat, it’s going down. Both of its skills add to its supporting capabilities with Rally Res reducing the threat of magic, while Inspiration stacks with Demoiselle/Gentilhomme to act as a pseudo-Rally Str, Mag, Def, & Res simultaneously for nearby allies. All in all, it’s a class that rarely runs out of things to do, and is nice to have around even when it somehow does.

Desired Skills: Tomefaire, Rallies, Breakers, Savage Blow, Darting Blow, Vantage

Tomefaire is an absolute must to make the class a decent attacker. It will almost never be able to pull off ORKOs without it. At the same time, due to its low Skl and high Lck (read: Avd), breaker skills can combine with Tomefaire to turn it into a straight counter to a few physical classes, most notably Berserkers and Snipers. Should you find yourself using your Strategist primarily as an attacker, Savage Blow and Darting Blow can open even more doors by further facilitating its guerilla attacking playstyle. Do NOT bother with Live to Serve or Renewal as they do not have enough HP to take damage during the enemy phase and live to tell about it. Instead, use Vantage (and probably Sol) to give them a fighting chance should they avoid a ORKO. On the other hand, if you’d like to instead focus on its supporting functions, you can take even more Rallies and Amaterasu to create genuinely inspiring banner men & women.

Counters: Mid-High Resistance physical classes

Any class with enough Spd to avoid a double attack, and enough Resistance to take a hit is going to pose a problem for a Strategist, and because of their terribad HP, anything that can hurt them can also reliably kill them.

Unique: Butler/Maid (FG1W)

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Proficiency: S Staves, B Daggers

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Live to Serve - When healing an ally, the user recovers the same amount of HP

Lv.15 – Tomebreaker - Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with a Tome/Scroll

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 18 4 5 9 8 4 5 4

Growth Mod%: 0 10 10 15 15 10 5 10

Cap: 50 28 31 33 33 32 29 29

Other Notes: ~~Is the embodiment of cheap pandering~~ None

As much as I loathe the idea of maids infiltrating this franchise, I cannot deny that, functionally, the class is amazing. Though its HP is on the low side, its stats are balanced across the board like Paladins with a leaning towards Skl, Spd, and Lck instead of Def and Res. It can use its daggers/shuriken (the only real choice) to tear down any enemy for its allies, and has enough Mag to mixed attack effectively. Even though the Tomebreaker skill and single weapon type would imply that they are supposed to be anti-mages, they have very little trouble fighting anything and everything. At the same time, Maids and Butlers are the only classes with an S rank in staves allowing it to use every staff in the game, as well as Bifrost to revive allies in online fights. These two utilities make it an excellent all-around vanguard unit that can keep everyone in the army (including itself) healthy while fighting alongside them on the frontlines.

Sidenote: The game does not have
a generic Butler sprite. There are no
enemy Butlers in this game.

Desired Skills: Shurikenfaire, Skill-based procs, Inspiration, Replicate, Axe/Bowbreaker

Since Maids and Butlers are both offensively oriented and capable of mixed attacking, they heavily benefit from a faire skill that effectively boosts both of their attack stats. Similarly, their Skl is high enough to make Procs like Luna and Pavise reliable enough to use, improving their average-ish combat functionality. Axebreaker and Bow Breaker further supplement this by converting their Weapon Triangle Disadvantage into a strength, simultaneously improving their survivability. The class’ innate access to daggers will often lead it to be the first one to attack, so lifting Inspiration from its sister class is an excellent way to bolster your allies who will follow their lead.

Now, many times while using your (statistically probable) Maids you will wish that they could heal and attack in the same turn. Well, that is entirely possible to do with Replicate, making it well worth picking up. Fortunately, if you’re going after Shurikenfaire, you can nick it from the same tree.

Counters: Generals, Blacksmiths, Oni Chieftain, Wyvern Lords, Mechanists, Master of Arms

Classes with enough Spd to avoid a double attack, average to high Def, and WTA will make short work of mages. Though that criteria sounds specific, almost a quarter of the game’s classes actually meet it. That being said, a Maid with Axebreaker is going to have no trouble with many of them, so classes with multiple weapon options are the preferred choice. That narrows down the list to the six classes listed above. Generals are probably the best counter thanks to their impregnable defenses, but all of them are fair choices. Maids are like most of the balanced units in that even though not much directly counters them, you don’t often need a dedicated counter to put them down either.

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Wolfskin (FG1Y)

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Proficiency: B Beaststone

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Odd Shaped – During odd-numbered Turns, damage +4

Lv.10 – Beastbane – When user is a Wolfskin or Kitsune, their attacks are effective against Beast units

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   19           8              0              4              6 0              4              0
Growth Mod%: 20           20           0              5              15           5              10           0

Cap: 45 24 15 18 22 17 21 15

Other Notes: Has a Beast weakness

There’s only one promoted class in this “tree,” so all attention will be given to it. Here's a picture of the class ~~to point out IS's laziness in designing this prepromote~~, if you're curious.

Unique: Wolfssegner

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Proficiency: S Beaststone

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Better Odds – Recover 40% HP at the start of odd-numbered Turns

Lv.15 – Grisly Fangs – The enemy’s HP is reduced by 20% after the battle

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 22 11 0 6 7 1 7 1

Growth Mod%: 20 20 0 5 15 5 10 0

Cap: 65 36 25 29 31 26 32 26

Other Notes: +10 Hit, +5 Crit, +10 Dodge, Has a Beast weakness

The beast units in FE:Fates are both geared toward fighting units who favor a specific damage type. Kitsune tear through Mages, while Wolfskin maul the physical attackers. Considering that the overwhelming majority of units in this game are physically inclined, Wolfskin clearly get the better end of the deal. However, various meta factors elevate Wolfskin not just above every other physical unit in this game, but every other class in the entire game. First off, the class’ innate caps are superb reflecting the DLC exclusive class Vanguard. It has high HP and Str, above average Spd and Def, and only below average Skl and Res (which is still better than most physical units). That alone would have yielded a good unit, but these stats are further inflated by whichever stone they happened to have equipped at the time. Broadly speaking, the standard Beaststone brings them enough Spd to keep up with Swordmasters. The Beastrune pulls their Def and Res up to Wyvern Lord and Paladin Levels respectively. And the Beastone+ gives them Master Ninja Skl & Spd (including the shuriken bonus) at the cost of some Def and Res. They’re ostensibly super Berserkers with good defenses and a better offense that can’t be countered by a breaker skill…yeah it’s pretty much the most insane thing the game has to offer.

Their permanent Beast weakness barely even registers when they can effortlessly tank multiple hits from a Beastkiller and ORKO every lance-wielding class in the game. The only actual flaw these monsters have is their skill pool, which still isn’t that bad. Odd Shaped is virtually worthless, but Beastbane allows them to effortlessly kill off Dark Knights and Great Knights, both of whom could otherwise counter them with the right skills. Better Odds is a worse Renewal and again not worth thinking about, but Grisly Fangs is extremely frustrating as it punishes any attacker that can’t manage to kill them off. They don’t have any direct offensive or defensive skills, but at the same time, they don’t really need them; Wolfssegner are the true gods of this game.

Desired Skills: Initiative Skills, Pavise, Aegis, Luna, Renewal/Lifetaker, Counters

The class already had very sharp teeth, so here is where it gets its brass knuckles and spiked bats. All initiative skills are fair on the class, but Armored Blow and Warding blow are particularly useful, for letting it obliterate units during the player phase, while maintaining enough HP to survive the enemy phase. Their average Mov, however, may make the enemy phase hard to prepare for regardless. So, defensive skills like Pavise and Aegis are valuable for decreasing the risk of dying to a swarm of cavalry/fliers. On the other hand, if you don’t find surviving the enemy phase to be a risk, Wolfssegners also have the HP to use both Counter skills reliably. They can then heal off the damage with Renewal if you’re unconcerned with fighting every turn, or Lifetaker if you are. Lastly, heavily armored units (that don’t have beast weaknesses) are the most common answer deployed against Wolfssegner, making Luna a deliciously humiliating way of reducing a counter to a casualty.

Counters: Extremely fast magical units, Generals? Nothing.

There are no classes in this game that counter Wolfssegner. An ultra-fast magical class with average Def and HP, with no beast weakness, is the theoretical best counter to Wolfseegners…but that class is called Super Druid and it doesn’t exist in this game ~~or any other Fire Emblem~~. General is the natural choice people are going to flock to, as it doesn’t take nearly as much damage as most other classes and can use a beast killer. But, Grisly Fangs (and Luna if it has it) would rip the class to shreds while Better Odds heals off the damage. Nothing else comes even close, so unfortunately, if you see a Wolfssegner the best thing you can do is pelt it from a range with as many units as you can and hope for the best.

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Nohrian Characters (FG1X)

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Elise (FG11)

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Personal Skill: Lily’s Poise – Adjacent allies deal 1 extra damage and received 3 less damage

Stat Modifiers: +3 Mag, +1 Spd, Lck & Res, -1 Str, -2 Skl, -3 Def

Conquest:

Friend – Effie/Azura = Knight| Spouse – Odin = Dark Mage

Class Pool: Troubadour, Wyvern Rider, Dark Mage, Knight

Why do kids always get everything? Elise has Troubadour and Wyvern Rider – two out of the three strongest classes in the Nohr Kingdom – giving her strong offensive, and supporting capabilities. On top of this, all four of Elise’s friend options yield very powerful classes, most of which she can actually use. There’s very little that she can’t do well, which makes choosing a friend and spouse a toss-up between making Elise good at the one thing she isn’t (Defense) or better at something she’s already good at (Offense and Support). Fortunately, since Elise is magically biased, the Dark Mage tree is her best choice for both offensive and defensive capabilities. The only way to get that is through her spouse, so since that one’s basically locked in the question then becomes whether you want her Friend to make her defense exceptional or her offense overwhelming.

The latter can be done by taking the Sky Knight tree from Azura for Darting Blow, while the former requires taking the Knight tree from Effie for Armored Blow, Wary Fighter, and Pavise. This is just a matter of preference as both are fair choices. I’d give the edge to Benny for providing an offensive skill in Luna and classes that can fix Elise’s godawful HP & Def, but if you don’t care about those stats (for some unknown reason) then on Normal Azura is preferred as overwhelming offense is just as safe as a static defense.

You could also take both, but then Elise would have to lean on the Maid or Strategist trees, and though the latter takes major advantage of her magic stat, she wouldn’t have the defensive stats to stay on the frontlines, so it’s not recommended.

Sorcerer – Wary Fighter/Trample, Inspiration, Savage Blow, Lifetaker/Luna, Rally Defense/Bow Breaker

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 30 5 90 25 65 70 20 55

Cap: 50 24 38 24 30 27 26 34

Offense: A Defense: A Support/Utility: A

Role: Magic Nuke+Passive Support or Tank

A Sorcerer with Wary Fighter, Nosferatu, and a ton of magic is damn hard to kill. Elise has dead average speed, so the odds of her scoring double attacks is negligible. However, the odds of her getting double attacked, especially with the Excalibur tome is pretty damn high, thus Wary Fighter protects far more often than it stifles. If you’re playing against a lot of slow sturdy enemies however, you can swap the skill out for trample to get a heavy damage boost. With that said though, it’s unlikely that Elise will be scoring too many OHKOs so either she’ll have to kill already weakened enemies (which would then restore 50% of her health) or an ally will need to finish the job for her.

This is where her disgustingly good Personal Skill starts paying dividends. Lily’s Poise combined with Inspiration is a 5 point damage reduction and 3 point damage increase for all adjacent allies. When backed by a guaranteed 20% HP reduction to all enemies within the same radius, Elise becomes one of the best passive support characters in the entire game. And if for some reason Elise is late to the front line or would prefer not to attack the enemies herself, Rally Defense can be used to bolster her allies from a distance.

Verdict: Whether you need someone to hold the line, fortify your ranks, or just nuke a small platoon, Elise is the magical girl for you. She’ll never give you up, she’ll never let you down, and she’ll never turn around and hurt. What more could you ask for in a little sister?

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Arthur (FG12)

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Personal Skill: Misfortunate - Enemies within a 2-tile radius have their Critical Evade reduced by

15, while the user’s Critical Evade is reduced by 5.

Stat Modifier: +3 Skl, +1 Str & Def, -1 Res, -3 Lck

Conquest:

Friend – Keaton/Niles = Outlaw| Spouse – Effie = Knight

Class Pool: Fighter, Cavalier, Outlaw, Knight

Though Arthur’s stat mods and personal skill seem kind of pointless, if you’re coming off of Awakening you’ll no doubt notice that they push proc & crit-based setups. The Hero class ties for highest Skl cap in the game and comes with a proc, so that’s definitely the best class to place him in. Fortunately, he has access to it as well as the Cavalier tree (Luna & Aegis) by default, so the only thing he’s missing is the final non-Hoshido proc from the Knight tree. And wouldn’t know it, Benny happens to be one of his only friend options. Boy, what a lucky guy! ~~he said knowing that Arthur has the worst Luck growth of any character in the 20+ year history of the franchise.~~

With all of these bases covered he doesn’t really need anything else other than some utility, which is where he starts running into trouble. The best classes for utility skills are outlaw and troubadour, the latter of which Arthur can’t use well, due to prohibitively bad magical growths, while the former can only be acquired by taking Keaton or Niles as a friend instead of his ~~life partner~~ best bud Benny. Whatever is a lightsworn ally of Justice to do? Oh yeah, marry Effie. Effie frees up Arthur to choose Keaton or Niles and get those sweet sweet mobility skills, as well as one that addresses his piss-poor luck (Lucky Seven)! Plus she’s an excellent mom for Percy giving him access to 2/3 of the best Nohr trees and amazing stat modifiers.

Hero – Sol/Axefaire, Luna, Pavise, Aegis, Lucky Seven

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 70 60 0 75 50 10 55 20

Cap: 60 33 25 38 32 28 31 26

Offense: B Defense: A Support/Utility: D

Role: Physical Attacker

He hits stuff. Other guys hit him. They don’t do as much damage as they’d hope, and then throw a fit in frustration as Arthur heals back up. He rarely ever misses, crits semi-regularly, has mild weapon triangle control, and a good chance of cutting all incoming damage in half. He can’t buff allies, support them, or debuff enemies. And he isn’t great at leading charges, or defeating anything in particular. For someone who’s always loudly proclaiming to be an ALLY OF JUSTICE Arthur’s kind of boring. Reliable, but boring.

I’m assuming that this game utilizes Awakening’s skill priority (higher proc rate = lower priority; survival>damage), so Sol is going to proc more often than Luna. As such If you want to give him a little more bite, you can swap out Sol for Axefaire, Lucky Seven for Strong Riposte, and Pavise for Armored Blow, but then he’d become reliant on others, which kind of goes against his greatest strength – self-sufficiency. Arthur is frustratingly difficult to take down, and with a little luck, can severely punish those who try to force their way through him. Even though he’s not the best at much of anything, that kind of independence is a rare talent in this game, and one that you should never take for granted.

Verdict: He’s the hero you deserve, but probably not the one you need right now…or at any given point in time. He’s a good guy who will be a genuine asset to your team...so long as his luck forgets to sharpen its knives and doesn’t feel like backstabbing him with blunt daggers.

NOTE: Arthur is so unlucky that he would get struck by lightning...every day…at the same time…for every week…for a year…rain or shine…while indoors. It’s BAAAAAAAAD and there’s nothing you can really do to fix it. The class with the best Lck growth rate he can access is Strategist (20%) and that’s just not in this class pool. The Lodestar class (acquired in the free DLC) slightly edges it out (25%) and is available to him, but 25+5% is still a terrible rate of success. If you’re playing on classic, giving him that class might be a good idea, but otherwise, you’d better get used to seeing enemies with 15+% crit rates and hauntingly good accuracy.

Alt. Lodestar

Role: ALLY OF JUSTICE!!!!!

******COMING SOON******

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Effie (FG13)

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Personal Skill: Puissance - When user’s Strength is 5 or more points higher than the enemy’s Strength, damage +3 during battle.

Stat Modifiers: +3 Str, +1 Spd, -1 Skl, Def, & Res

Conquest:

Friend – Mozu = Archer| Spouse – Keaton/Arthur = Fighter

Class Pool: Knight, Troubadour, Archer, Fighter

Did somebody order a woman-shaped cannon? No? Well, too bad, we’ve got one right here and I’m not taking it back to K-Mart. Effie’s modifiers and Knight class definitely point to her becoming a physical attacker, so classes that make her better at hitting stuff are what we’re looking for. Berserker is pretty much the best there is in the Nohr kingdom, and the only ways to get it are to marry Keaton or Arthur. Both men could benefit from the Knight class, though Percy turns out slightly better than Velouria with Effie, so Arthur wins by a hair. As for her friend, the only real option is Archer from Mozu (Dark Mage is essentially worthless). Archer provides some strong offensive skills in Quick Draw and Certain Blow and sends Effie’s already great offense to tactical nuke levels. It's a shame that her supporting abilities are so lacking, but there's not too much that can be done. However, if you only plan to use her as a dedicated attacker the Archer skills would make for a damn good side to her beef.

[Note: Effie and Charlotte have extremely similar personal skills, stat modifiers, and classes, so try to differentiate the two if you don’t want one overshadowing the other.]

Berserker – Axefaire, Armored Blow/Pavise, Tomebreaker, Luna, Certain Blow

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 65 85 0 50 65 60 35 30

Cap: 70 43+5 25 31 34 25 26 24

Offense: A+ Defense: C Support/Utility: B

Role: Designated Hitter

Effie hits harder than Mozu…yeah, I’ll let that sink in. Her personal skill gives her a +3 damage boost as long as her Str is 5 points higher than the enemy, so to make that skill proc as consistently as possible here she’s placed into the class with the highest base Str in the game. No one other than Generals and other Berserkers are going to break that insanely high benchmark, so you can basically think of her as having 51 Str ~~(and people thought Awakening’s numbers were ridiculous)~~. Literally nothing in this game can deal with that much overwhelming force bearing down on them, especially not when its backed by freaking Aurgelmir and a 31% chance of cutting their precious Def in half (Luna).

As for everything else, Effie’s got a few tools for defensive and supporting roles, but since she’s a Berserker and only has one weapon type, it’s for the best that she keeps things simple and focuses on bolstering her attacks. To that end, she has Armored Blow to reduce any incoming damage when she attacks and Certain Blow to ensure that she smites those who would otherwise destroy her. She’s still not well suited to holding her own on the frontline, but she will be able to charge in safely and devastate anyone unfortunate enough to make eye contact with her.

If you’d prefer to make her a more permanent part of your vanguard instead of a designated hitter, you can replace Armored Blow with Pavise. However, this makes it noticeably more dangerous to initiate attacks, and forces her to rely on someone else to keep her healthy. It’s still possible, but it’s not what she’s best at, and you’d be better served reclassing her as a General for the stability.

Verdict: Fear the great destroyer, lady of axes, and overall affront to all traditional definitions of femininity! Her towering strength and fearsome speed are the bane of all enemies, while her deadly axe Aurgelmir is their deliverance. Charge forward and send as many souls as you can to the gates of Valhalla!

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Odin (FG14)

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Personal Skill: Aching Blood – When equipped with a forged weapon whose name is at least 12

characters long, Critical rate +10

Stat Modifiers: +1 Mag, Skl, & Lck, -1 Spd & Res

Conquest:

Friend – Lazlow/Leo = Mercenary| Spouse – Elise/Selena = Troubadour

Class Pool: Dark Mage, Samurai, Mercenary, Troubadour

Oh Owain, why did they have to get rid of the Trickster class? Back in my Fire Emblem Awakening Character Analysis, I made the very unpopular observation that Kellam was one of Owain’s best class options and that he should use the (even more unpopular) Trickster class as it was not penalized by his slight Spd reduction, took major advantage of his above average Magic stat, used swords (matching the character) and had a high Skill cap making his many procs worthwhile. They basically gave him everything he could have ever wanted…and people hated it because he didn’t have Galeforce.

In this game, Odin’s stats and default classes create the very same problems that Kellam and the Trickster class addressed before, except that now he has neither, and no new way to fix everything ~~WHO’S LAUGHING NOW YOU BASTARDS!!!~~ His friend options aren’t that great providing, Mercenary (Lazlow), Outlaw (Niles), and Troubadour (Leo), and his child’s inherently magical leanings make a magical mother preferable to a physical one. No magical mother provides the Knight or Cavalier trees, pretty much locking him out of getting Luna and Aegis.

So what to do? Well, let’s start with his personal skill. It gives him a solid Crit rate boost provided that you (let’s be honest) name a weapon something 12+ letters long. That’s a nice bonus, but magical classes in this game don’t have the high Skill of the GBA days, so he’d be better off using a physical class. Odin appropriately, has access to the very rare (for Nohr at least) Samurai tree containing the Swordmaster class. Swordmaster has one of the highest Skill caps in the game, provides its own crit rate boost on top of Odin’s, and has ties for highest Speed cap in the game, offsetting Odin’s negative modifier. So, it seems like a no brainer to reclass him as that. The trouble is, he can’t push too hard offensively without Luna and Malig Knight, and can’t bulk up defensively without…a whole lot of things (Pavise, Armored Blow, Swordbreaker, Counters etc.). So, considering that he has to lock one of those friend options in, and none of them heavily push anything other than support (troubadour) it’s best to just focus on balancing him out.

To that end, Mercenary and Troubadour are both excellent choices with the slight edge going to Merc, for providing a universally helpful Rally (as opposed to the situational Rally Res), Sol, two solid breaker skills (instead of one), and two viable alternate classes (Hero & Bow Knight) as opposed to one (Butler). On Conquest those are actually his two best class options period (given the circumstances), so the choice of who to marry is just a matter of what to pass on to Ophelia. By virtue of the way Inheritance mechanics work she will be slightly stronger than Odin magically making magic the ideal way to go, so Elise as the wife seems like the best choice. That would also give Ophelia a fantastic +5 magic boost and the other two Nohrian magical classes, so she’s a big win all around and who is ultimately recommended. However, you could also have Odin marry Selena if you wanted to make Ophelia a more Awakening-esque Sorcerer.

Swordmaster – Swordfaire, Astra, Sol, Vantage, Tomebreaker/Bowbreaker/Shuriken Breaker

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 65 45 35 70 55 75 40 30

Cap: 55 30+5 29+5 33 34 34 27 30

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: C

Role: Mixed Attacker

This build allows Odin’s sword hand to fully satisfy its thirst, with the blood of all kinds of enemies. He’s a lot like Arthur except he has more power, a higher crit rate, the ability to fight magically (Levin Swords/Leo’s Ice Blade) and lower odds of getting OHKO’d by sheer misfortune – basically the more offensively inclined loudmouth. Swordfaire brings his attack (in both areas) up to something respectable, and since swords are all he can use, it’s just +5 damage (putting him above Arthur). And with the class’ signature move Astra he can convert many unlikely kills into death sentences while simultaneously protecting himself while he’s in guard stance (it instantly fills the guard gauge). His high crit rate supplements this by giving him a good chance of exceeding the 2.5x damage standard (especially with a forged/named killing edge).

But it’s not all slashing and stabbing for this man, no sir! Sol-………………okay maybe it is all slashing and stabbing. Defensively, he has Sol to heal him up when Astra doesn’t proc, and Vantage to give him a fighting chance when his back is against the wall. And for his last skill, a Breaker is preferred to both give him a specialty and cover up a weakness. I prefer Tomebreaker as the class is marginally biased towards fighting mages, but Shurikenbreaker is an excellent alternative for sticking one between those annoying ninjas.

Verdict: Owain/Odin's sword hand still has a mind of its own, and even though it never quite achieved the status of a Sword Saint, it’s still preferable to anything Odin can do without it. So pick up a sword and let the festival of blood commence! Owain Dark: The Avenging Avenger of Justice has returned to the battlefield!

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Niles (FG15)

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Personal Skill: Kidnap – When there is a Prison in My Castle, the user can select the “Capture” command. If a generic enemy is defeated, they will be sent to the Prison

Stat Modifiers: +3 Spd, +1 Res, -1 Skl, -2 Str

Conquest:

Friend – Arthur = Fighter| Spouse – Felicia/Elise = Troubadour

Class Pool: Outlaw, Dark Mage, Fighter, Troubadour

Niles’ personal skill doesn’t offer any practical benefit. Capturing prisoners is a way to supplement your army if people die, but this is Fire Emblem – you should not be letting people die. Aside from that it doesn’t make him any better in combat so, it’s not going to play a serious factor in this analysis.

Anyway, while Niles may be a sadist who enjoys torturing people, he’s really bad at actually killing them. With both a power and accuracy reduction he has a hard time breaking through the physical classes. However, his fantastic Spd and superior Res make him a terror to mages. So, in general you want to focus on getting him classes that accentuate this functionality.

His friend class options are Dark Mage, Dark Mage, and Fighter……I honestly do not understand why IS would gimp certain characters, but regardless Fighter is his 3^rd class. Honestly, it doesn’t help him one bit, as he’s not great at fighting infantry or cavalry, but on the bright-ish side he doesn’t care either. His wife’s class is the only thing he needs, and Troubadour is exactly what Niles wants as it provides multiple ways of fending off mages. Ideally you’d take the Troubadour tree from Felicia or Elise (Elise has better growth rates and caps than Felicia so she is preferred, yet again) and gear Niles towards fighting mages. However, there is an alternative: you can use the Cavalier tree to pick up a valuable array of physical skills and then reclass Niles as a Hero so that he can actually use them. It’s not as good as sticking with what he’s good at, but it is still a fair choice if you want to pair Niles up with someone whose just as sadistic as he is (Peri).

Bow Knight – Seal Magic, Tomebreaker, Lucky Seven, Pass, Shurikenbreaker

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 50 45 20 55 55 40 30 50

Cap: 55 27 25 31 36 30 27 33

Offense: B Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Anti-Mage/Support

IceFrog called, and he wants his hero back. With +70 avd and accuracy Niles is nearly untouchable for all practitioners of magic and severely maims and cripples any whom those he fails to outright kill. He doesn’t have any procs or damage boosters, but the raw power of Bows backed by his high Spd is a fatal enough combination to take down most magical opponents. Lucky Seven is enemy agnostic as well, and Shurikenbreaker severely weakens the efficacy of Ninja, so Niles still manages to be effective at safely weakening foes without mages present. There’s not much more to say here, he’s just a solid unit. You can run this exact same build with Niles as a Butler for more potent debuffs, but the lack of mobility and power makes it difficult to catch mages and other high priority foes with a preemptive strike (Plus he wouldn’t be able to use a Spy weapon for long range attacks).

Verdict: Niles is one of the most stable units in your army. He’s an effective mage killer from the moment you get him, and grows into a valuable supporting fighter the longer you keep him around. Though his manners have long since abandoned him, he’s one of the good ones, and worth keeping around.

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Nyx (FG16)

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Personal Skill: Countercurse – When enemy triggers the battle and inflicts magical damage, the enemy receives half the same damage.

Stat Modifiers: +3 Mag, +2 Spd, +1 Res, -1 Lck, -2 Skl, & Def

Conquest:

Friend – Azura = Sky Knight| Spouse – Leo = Troubadour

Class Tree: Dark Mage, Outlaw, Sky Knight, Troubadour

BS “actually 1,000 years old" trope aside ~~SHE DOESN’T EVEN LOOK LIKE A CHILD~~ Nyx isn’t so bad. Her stats are appropriate and she comes at a good time. However, Nyx is extremely similar to Elise modifier-wise, but her growth rates are objectively worse and her class pool isn’t as overwhelmingly powerful as Garon’s daughter. So, rather than make her an inferior Elise it’s best to focus on something else, like her equivalent support options.

Nyx’s friends can give her Fighter, Archer, or Knight. Knight doesn’t have any supporting tools so we can drop that one, but the other two are a bit trickier. It’s a tossup between Rally Speed and Amaterasu and Rally Strength. Rally Speed and Amaterasu are in all honesty the clear winner here, but relative to everyone other analysis thus far, Rally Strength is more of what your army would need. That said, these analyses are about making characters as good as possible irrespective of their allies, so Azura takes the recommendation. As for her husband, it honestly doesn’t matter. She already has everything she needs, or wants that won’t overlap with Elise. Anything else is just for more options. Troubadour is the only Nohrian magical class she’s missing and it packs some solid support, so that’s kind of the only serious choice, and since Leo’s the only one who can give it to her (ba-dum tish) he wins by default. This pairing wouldn’t mess up Forrest, so no worries on the child front, it just feels hollow to determine a pairing that easily. ~~Give me a challenge dammit!~~

Dark Knight – Rally Speed, Rally Skill, Seal Mag, Amaterasu, Lifetaker/Lucky Seven

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 45 25 60 40 55 25 30 35

Cap: 55 32 34 26 29 30 32 31

Offense: B Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Generalist+Rally Support

There’s no way around the fact that Elise is a better magical attacker and passive support, so here Nyx is classed as a Dark Knight mixed attacker with active support; something that let’s Nyx use her strong Mag stat, without necessarily forcing her to be dedicated to it. Her personal skill makes choosing a class with high resistance counter-productive, and her high Spd enables her to use some of the slower classes, so Dark Knight is a strong fit (on Conquest anyway) in that it corrects most of her flaws (low Def & HP) and is improved by her strengths.

Her support options, Rally Speed and Skill backed by Amaterasu’s healing, give Nyx the flexibility to help initiate an attack or defend against an assault. The combination of Seal Magic, physical weaponry, and Countercurse then give her a (limited, but) specific utility by allowing her to act as an effective mage crippler. The final skill is a choice between making her self-sufficient or addressing her low Skl. The former is preferable as supports that require other supports to function negate their own value, but there may be situations where offense is the best defense. Either way the skills lead to a sort of generalist character who’s decent at nearly everything, and just nice to have around. She still has a hard time hitting things, but doesn’t have to dedicate every turn to fighting.

Verdict: The wisdom of an extended life manifests itself by creating one of the most worldly individuals in your army. She isn’t great at any specific role but, with the clear exception of tanking, her versatility lets her fill perform any job that your team may need.

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Camilla (FG17)

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Personal Skill: Rose’s Thorn – Adjacent allies deal 3 extra damage and receive 1 less damage

Stat Modifiers: +1 Str, Skl, Spd, & Def, -1 Mag, -2 Lck

Conquest:

Friend – Beruka = Fighter| Spouse – Benny/Silas = Cavalier

Class Pool: Wyvern Rider, Dark Mage, Cavalier, Fighter

Camilla is a serious candidate for being the greatest unit on the Conquest route. She’s a prepromote with amaaazing stats, comes early in the game (and at the perfect time), has solid growths and mods in nearly every area, and to top it all off has a strong base class pool. Her boobs do not lie, she is indeed top-tier waifu material and consequently hard as hell to spec. Her friend choice is easy: Beruka - ideal growth rates, excellent skills, multiple usable classes, etc. But, her husband is mostly a matter of preference. She has a heavy physical stat emphasis, but she can realistically fight magically as well. In terms of optimization, this doesn’t matter – it’s physical or bust. However, even if you were to focus on making her physical she could still swing offensively, defensively, and even towards a supporting role. Hell, it’s not even worth looking at the children as Camilla’s one of the best mothers for damn near everybody.

So who to choose? Well, Camilla doesn’t need anything other than procs, and considering that she can actually use them and has a decent foothold in every other capability, that’s the only thing worth basing this inquiry on. She can’t get all of them, but she can get Luna+ either Aegis or Pavise from the Cavalier (Silas) and Knight (Benny) trees respectively. Pavise is generally more useful because there are more physical attacking classes than magical ones, but if you want to use her flying classes (which I strongly recommend) you should take Aegis. It really doesn’t matter that much, so if you care about the children, you should just give her whichever man is left. She’ll be great for the kid ~~and he’ll probably thank you for it.~~

Malig Knight – Axefaire, Aegis, Luna, Savage Blow, Rally Strength/Lunge/Rally Def

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 40 65 40 60 60 25 45 60

Cap: 55 32+5 29+5 29 28 23 32 31

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: A

Role: Mixed Attacker+Support

She’s similar to Elise except that she’s a mixed attacker that can fly and Rally Strength, as opposed to face tanking with Dark Mag. Axefaire pushes Camilla’s Str from decent to great and, as a Maligknight, Camilla has a serviceable 29 Mag stat that can also be inflated via Bolt Axes (this ability is also the main reason why she’s classed as a Malig Knight and not the statistically superior Dark Knight). When she swoops into action some damage is guaranteed (Savage Blow) and heavy damage is expected (Luna). And at the same time, Aegis gives her a fair chance of making engagements against problem units (Ninjas, Archers, & Mages) safer, allowing you to prioritize her damage over her safety.

Offense is more valuable than everything in this game, so her vast array of support options are plainly not utilized here. However, by virtue of being a flier she can take major advantage of most of them. Rallies and positioning abilities see the biggest benefit due to her personal skill, so with her final skill slot she should take one of them. Rally Strength is recommended for synergizing strongly with her personal skill (giving adjacent allies +7 attack is nothing to sneeze at), though Lunge may be more useful during the campaign on Lunatic.

Verdict: Amity and Savagery: both are core to who Camilla is and leveraging each aspect is key to drawing out her massive potential. She is at once an integral boon to those around her and a relentless terror to those opposing her. Guide her well.

Note: Spend some time levelling her up as a Hero or Berserker. She will almost certainly fall behind on HP without them.

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Selena (FG18)

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Personal Skill: Fierce Rival – When user is the support unit, if the lead unit triggers a critical hit, the

user is guaranteed a critical hit (if their attack connects)

Stat Modifiers: +2 Spd, +1 Def, -1 Str & Skl

Conquest:

Friend – Beruka/Camilla = Wyvern Rider| Spouse – Benny= Knight

Class Pool: Mercenary, Sky Knight, Wyvern Rider, Knight

It’s characters like Selena that really grind my gears. Here’s a unit with great Spd and Def, who suffers from a negative Str mod, but can’t use her untouched Mag due to a crappy growth rate. Her class pool is excellent for support and utility, but doesn’t fix benefit her offense or defense. And to top it off, her Personal Skill only benefits whoever is partnered up with her, so it offers little assistance in designing a build for her. As a result of all of these shortcomings she’s pretty much forced to choose one offensive and defensive class to be a decent unit. With that her partners are clear: Benny and Camilla (or Beruka if you actually use her). Knight is the best defensive class in the game, and offers a strong offensive skill in Luna, while Wyvern Rider offers great utilities all around, as well as good skills for all purposes. Benny and Camilla/Beruka are the only partners who can offer these classes. What you do with this versatility is going to have a profound impact on how she performs, but at least she can do pretty much anything ~~except smile genuinely~~.

Hero – Pavise/Luna/Sol, Swordbreaker/Shurikenbreaker, Savage Blow, Warding Blow/Lunge, Darting Blow

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 60 45 5 45 60 35 55 30

Cap: 60 31 25 34 34 31 31 27

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: A

Role: Physical Attacker

Under normal circumstances I would recommend that you switch Selena over to a magical class, so as to avoid her -1 Str penalty. But considering that her Mag growth is 5%, I’d prefer that you avoid destroying your 3DS. As a Hero, her growth rates & caps are both solid across the board, and her broad skill pool has a place to shine. In fact, her capabilities are so broad that you could realistically spec her as anything. So, since the bulk of the enemies on Conquest are Hoshidan, here she’s set-up as a sort of anti-Hoshido unit.

Swords and axes in general grant near perfect control over Hoshido’s weapon triangles, so her breaker skill can complete the dominance by increasing her effectiveness against something outside of it. Shurikenbreaker is recommended as she’ll be wielding a Sword most of the time and Ninjas may attempt to gang up on her from a distance. However, Swordbreaker would grant her complete control over the melee weapon triangle without the use of a Dual Club. Seeing as how those are the two big problem units for Nohr, either is a good choice.

Darting Blow lets Selena double attack everything in the game short of Spd capped Master Ninjas and Swordmasters when she attacks (and even they still get doubled by a handful of weapons). When backed by Warding Blow she can then safely ORKO/severely maim all magical attackers period – of which Hoshido has many. You can also use Lunge and a Hand Axe to help break up their positioning for other attackers, but doing so puts her in danger and runs counter to the build’s design of killing foes before they can react. To that end, her final skills are Luna for more likely ORKOs and Savage Blow to soften enemies up for the same reason ~~and help allies I guess, if you’re into that sort of thing...~~

Verdict: Although Selena’s stats and nature are a bit prickly to say the least, underneath her tough exterior is the bane of Hoshido’s existence – a solid, speedy physical attacker that doesn’t take crap from anyone.

Alt. Wyvern Lord

Role: Supporting Fighter

******Coming Soon******

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Beruka (FG19)

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Personal Skill: Opportunist - When user triggers the battle, if the enemy cannot counter-attack, damage +4

Stat Modifiers: +2 Skl & Def, -1 Str & Res, -2 Spd

Conquest:

Friend – Camilla=Troubadour| Spouse – Benny =Knight

Classpool: Wyvern Rider, Fighter, Knight, Troubadour

Beruka comes at the same time as Camilla who shares her base class, but is already promoted and has the stats to back up her level. If you played Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn you may recall that this is the same situation that Rolf found himself in. However, unlike Rolf who had bonus experience to quickly pick him up outside of combat, Beruka has jack-all and requires dedicated training to catch up to Camilla. You would be spending valuable experience bringing a character up to par with a unit you already have, when you could’ve have given that experience to others and had one or several other units that can cover more situations. On top of this, Beruka’s growths, Stat Caps, and class pool are not as strong as Camilla’s to begin with, so even if you did train her up, it’s still unlikely that she would match her level for level. Basically there’s little reason to use her throughout the main game. But, if you just like her (which is perfectly reasonable), or don’t feel like using Camilla you can still make her a valuable member of your army.

Beruka’s stat caps are among the worst in the entire game. She is one of the only characters who has a mean stat cap variance of 0 (i.e. she’s on par with generics), and takes a heavy hit to Spd plus a minor knock to Str to boot. Consequently, making the most of her stats is challenging, but possible thanks to her starting class pool. The only thing she needs above all else is Wary Fighter, and fortunately, the only way to get it is to marry Benny [boy for such a “fearsome” dude he sure is popular with the ladies ~~#AllWomenWantBears?~~]. Benny also gives her pretty much everything else she needs to be a great physical fighter as well; Luna, Pavise, and good defensive classes. With those areas covered, the only thing left she needs is an answer to mages. Unfortunately, with Benny as her partner she has no way to address her magical weakness and must be a dedicated physical unit. That’s still fine of course, but it forces you to be more cautious when using her. That said, if you are willing to invest so much into Beruka, then you’re probably, accustomed to looking out for her anyway, so it shouldn’t matter at all.

Great Knight – Wary Fighter, Axefaire, Trample/Pavise, Lunge, Armored Blow

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 65 50 10 65 35 50 60 25

Cap: 65 34+5 25 31 25 28 39 27

Offense: B Defense: B Support/Utility: B

Role: Physical Tank

Beruka’s Spd is unsalvageable so give her Wary Fighter, load her down with heavy weaponry (preferably axes for the Axefaire boost), and switch her into something sturdy. Great Knight ticks all of these boxes and keeps her mobility high so that she can actually stay on the frontlines. Not that she’ll ever need to leave it, mind you, as she has both Pavise and Armored Blow on top of her already stellar 39 Def and immunity to Follow Up attacks. With proper support she’s practically immune to physical attacks. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about magical attacks. Lunge will help her get around magical enemies and pull them out of position, but at the end of the day she’s going to need someone else to either take magical hits for her or heal off the damage.

Verdict: She’s not Camilla, but she doesn’t need to me. The knight errant can fulfill her own niche as something her princess could never be, a physical tank dedicated to protecting her sworn charges.

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Laslow (FG110)

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Personal Skill: Fancy Footwork – Strength and Speed +1 to all allies within a 2-tile radius for one turn when the “Rally” command is used.

Stat Modifiers: +2 Skl, +1 Str & Lck, -1 Spd, Def, & Res

Conquest:

Friend – Keaton/Xander = Fighter| Spouse – Selena = Sky Knight

Class Pool: Mercenary, Ninja, Fighter, Sky Knight

Lazlow’s class mods are more damaging than they look. A little extra Str is nice, but not at the cost of Spd, and especially not when his class pool necessitates a heavy amount of at least one of those stats. Extra accuracy will help with the Ninja class tree, but it doesn’t help anything else or make up for the reduction to both of his defenses. The only classes that can make something out of these misplaced stats are Archer and Outlaw, only one of which is even possible for him to acquire. He is a bad fighter, plain and simple and there’s little you can do to rectify this on the Conquest path.

However, as his personal skill suggests, he’s still a pretty decent support. In fact, the key to drawing out his potential lies in emphasizing that very capability. Therefore, his ideal partners are those who offer more or better supporting options, not those who attempt to round him out. To that end, Selena is easily his best wife as she offers what is hands-down the best supporting class in the game (Falcon Knight), in addition to a strong array of supporting skills from the entire tree. Unfortunately, his BFFs aren’t so generous with Fighter, Cavalier, and Dark Mage all offering subpar support options, Cavalier bestows Shelter, Dark Mage contains Heartseeker & Seal Magic, and Fighter passes Rally Strength (since he already has the Hero class). If you want to accentuate his personal skill, then the choice is clear: Keaton. But, if you don’t care about it (which you should), I’d recommend Cavalier.

Kinshi Knight – Rally Strength, Rally Speed, Replicate, Amaterasu, Warding Blow/Rally Skill

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 50 50 5 60 45 70 35 40

Cap: 50 28 26 35 30 35 24 30

Offense: C Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Active Support

Lazlow’s a glorified rally bot. Rally Strength + Rally Speed + Fleeting Foot lets him hasten his allies significantly enough to double attack anyone at their speed level with 10 extra damage. Then he can Replicate himself so that he can pass on the boosts to two different teams on the same turn. And finally, he has Amaterasu to heal up anyone around him who picked up the boost. And that’s pretty much it. As a Kinshi Knight, he can zip to wherever he needs to be and confer the boosts to whoever needs them. The only other option available to him is to either strengthen his rally further with Rally Skill, or pick up the interesting ability to “buffer” magical attacks. As tempting as it is to give him a super rally, I recommend that you take the ability to buffer anyway.

I don’t think there’s a proper term for this, but if you own this game and play on Hard mode or Lunatic you’ve probably done it before. Buffering is when you use an unpaired unit to attack someone, regardless of whether they inflict damage, so that someone else can dual attack them without fear of taking damage. In the case of Lazlow, his job is to attack magical units so that others can soften/finish them off. However, normally you want the attacking unit to either eat the hit for someone else, or OHKO the unit with a dual attack, but Lazlow has so much Res with Warding Blow that he doesn’t even need to worry about taking magical damage in the first place. In other words, Lazlow is pretty much immune to magic when attacking, so as long as he’s alone he avoids pairing up you’ll be able to safely take down any magical enemy with smart positioning.

Verdict: Lazlow is a lover, not a fighter…but he’s also a fighter so don’t try anything. He strengthens his allies with a rousing dance and shields them from the fury of the fantastic. And should the need arise he can put down fliers and magicians alike. He’s a flawed man, but a good one.

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Peri (FG111)

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Personal Skill: Bloodthirst – When the user triggers battle and defeats the enemy, Strength, Magic, Skill and Speed +4 for one turn.

Stat Modifiers: +2 Res, +1 Str & Spd, - 1 Skl, -2 Def

Conquest:

Friend – Charlotte = Fighter| Spouse – Xander = Wyvern Rider

Class Pool: Cavalier, Dark Mage, Fighter, Wyvern Rider

Peri is a character whose personal skill is so good that it basically tells you exactly what to do with her: Last Hit – otherwise known as personally earning kills to you lucky souls who know nothing of DotA or LoL. She doesn’t need to be able to ORKO anything in the game, mind you (and neither has the stats, nor class pool to do so regardless), just mobile enough to reach enemies and strong enough to finish them off. Despite designing her like this, however, the devs were still sadistic enough to ensure that Peri’s class pool did not initially grant her either of these things, forcing you to have to find each through her partners.

Starting with her friends, (as that’s the more limited pool), Peri can gain the Mercenary, Troubadour, and Fighter trees, only the latter of which barely ticks one of her checkboxes (providing damage), so Charlotte’s going to have to join her sadistic sister in jolly evisceration. Peri’s husband would then have to provide the vehicle for their nights of terror. And since she only has one option that provides a flying class, the ideal husband for Peri on Conquest is unquestionably Xander. I am aware that most people would look at her Personal skill and immediately try to pair her with Kaze so that she can learn Replicate and use Bloodthirst’s buffs offensively, but realistically speaking, if you married Kaze, then you’d have to deploy Peri as a Paladin. That may seem like a decent enough class with high mobility class, but upon completing this game and seeing a lot of the paralogues, it’s clear that there are more than a few maps where cavalry is outclassed by flight. More importantly, Paladin has average offenses and Peri needs the strength to overwhelm her quarry. Only Wyvern Lord can provide this, and only Xander can get her Wyvern Lord. ~~And c’mon you wouldn’t want sweet little Midori’s mother to be Peri of all people now would you?~~

Wyvern Lord – Axefaire, Trample, Savage Blow, Lifetaker, Luna/Aegis

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 40 65 5 45 60 40 45 45

Cap: 60 34+5 25 32 30 28 33 28

Offense: A Defense: C+ Support/Utility: C

Role: Last Hitter/Physical Attacker

This is ostensibly the same build as a few carries in DotA. Damage, damage, and more damage with strong healing, a buff, and easier kills whenever you score your first LH. Axefaire+Trample+Luna= a pretty good chance that whatever Peri touches is going down hard on the first swing. With only 30 Spd it’s unlikely that she’ll get a second swing anyway, but seeing as how she’s a Wyvern Lord, you can use her high mobility to ensure that she never needs one. If there happen to be foes around those marked for death, they too will eat some damage from Savage Blow, making it easier to finish them later. Since Peri will be killing most foes on the first swing, Lifetaker may seem like an irrelevant skill. However, seeing as how she’s at her most effective when she kills enemies surrounded by others, Peri will regularly get ganged up on during the enemy phase, and take serious damage. As such, Lifetaker’s purpose is primarily to refresh Peri on the turns after she survives one of these onslaughts. If she has a hard time fighting groups, you can replace Luna with Aegis or a breaker skill, but if doing so dips too far into her damage output then keep Luna anyway. If she can’t get a kill, then she can’t proc Bloodthirst. And if she can’t proc Bloodthirst, then there’s no reason to use her at all.

Verdict: The unsavory Valkyrie, ferrywoman of souls, and otherwise excessively gleeful executioner. Peri strikes down all who have had their first brush with death, and shakes the foundations of those who have not. Her axe may fall on any unfortunate soul, and as long as she continues to fulfill her purpose, she will never meet her end.

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Benny (FG112)

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Personal Skill: Fierce Mien - Enemies within a 2-tile radius have their Avoid reduced by 10

Stat Modifiers: +3 Def, +1 Res, -3 Spd

Conquest:

Friend – No One = No Class| Spouse – Nyx/Elise/Effie = Dark Mage

Class Pool: Knight, Fighter, Dark Mage

Another frustrating character. Benny’s personal skill and defensive stats suggest that he should be a supporting unit, but his skill pool lacks all of the classes that would help him excel as one. And then to add insult to injury, his friends don’t give him any new class pools, so the burden of making him (as well as his son) a decent unit falls entirely on his wife. Calling him a fixer-upper would be an understatement. Unfortunately, after painstakingly testing out every possible wife, no such super woman can address even half of this Benny’s problems. So, rather than putting a half-assed effort into several areas we’re only going to worry about getting Benny to do a single job well (and keeping Ignatius off of the bench).

Clearly Benny’s stats are made for tanking, and with such a heavy hit to Spd and no boost to Str or Mag, that’s pretty much the best thing he’ll ever be able to do. Fortunately, he’s already got the Knight tree bestowing the best skills and classes for physical tanking, so all he needs are tools to fight mages. The only Nohrian classes that can provide this are Troubadour and Dark Mage, narrowing down his wife pool to Nyx (Dark Mage), Felicia, Elise, and Effie (Troubadour). Troubadour is a flat out better option for helping Benny with mages, however due to his personal skill being geared towards assisting allies, I recommend taking Dark Mage. Heartseeker elevates Benny’s Fierce Mien to a heavy 30 avd passive cripple. Seal Magic helps Benny’s allies deal with mages. Even though Benny wouldn’t have Tomebreaker to ward off mages, he would get Lifetaker to heal off any damage they deal (of which he’ll have no problem surviving with 65+ HP backed by Wary Fighter and a stable Res growth). Essentially, Dark Mage removes the need for a dedicated Mage answer, and helps Benny deal with non-mages wielding magical weapons, overall making it the ideal choice for a budget tank.

Great Knight – Wary Fighter, Heartseeker, Pavise, Seal Magic, Lifetaker/Axefaire

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 70 60 0 60 15 40 75 45

Cap: 65 35+5 25 29 24 28 40 29

Offense: C+ Defense: B Support/Utility: C

Role: Tank/Passive Debuffs

He tanks, nuff said. Benny is one of the only characters that can realistically hit such high HP & Def caps, making shrugging off physical damage all but second nature to him. He’s never heard of the word Spd before, so he has Wary Fighter to ensure that his opponents forget about it as well. Lucky, for him this is all par for the course for aspiring brick walls, and Benny has a few other tricks up his sleeve to help earn his keep. Heartseeker+Fierce Mien gives Benny an adjacent aura of -30 Avd, and a 2-tile aura of -10 Avd, ensuring that any enemy that comes near him is going to eat whatever weapon he’s packing. Then if the enemy is a magical attacker (assuming they survive) they’ll take a big hit to their Mag stat (Seal Magic), and if they’re a physical attacker there’s a good chance that they won’t even scratch Benny to begin with (Pavise). This is also why Benny is classed as a Great Knight instead of the marginally sturdier General. Great Knight’s noticeably superior mobility lets him use his big scary face offensively to cripple enemies on the same turn that you attack them with your allies, while simultaneously providing cover for your allies from reinforcing opponents.

For the final skill, Benny can either becoming a more difficult tank to get through with Lifetaker, or a more dangerous one with Axefaire. Benny is at his best with a Hand Axe or Tomahawk, so that he can potentially kill off Ninjas before Poison Touch procs. In this way Axefaire improves Benny’s effective defense without forcing him to proactively score kills. Of course, if Ninja don’t bother you ~~because you’re Mother Fucking Teresa or some nonsense~~ and enjoy making other people’s lives Hell, then by all means take Lifetaker.

Verdict: Benny is more than just a tank. He’s good at soaking up damage for his allies and punishing attackers with his fierce axe, but beyond that he’s just a guy trying to help out his team. Let him be a team player and you’ll be glad you took the big bear along.

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Charlotte (FG113)

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Personal Skill: Unmask – When engaging a female enemy, Damage +4 and Critical rate +20

Stat Modifiers: +3 Str, +2 Spd, -2 Def & Res

Conquest:

Friend – Beruka = Wyvern Lord| Spouse – Xander/Benny = Cavalier

Class Pool: Fighter, Troubadour, Wyvern Rider, Cavalier

Oh Charlotte…you’re just a big ol’ jelly monster aren’tcha? Effie outclasses Charlotte at killing things thanks to the amazing Archer tree. So Charly has to do something else to get her groove back. Her stats and personal skill are heavily geared towards fighting physically, but both of her defenses are basically glass, making infantry classes ill-advised. Mounted classes would at least give her the mobility to stay out of trouble, but their defenses are even worse than the infantry classes, EXCEPT for Wyvern Lord. This class retains Charlotte’s axe proficiency, fixes her Def (Res is a lost cause), and has enough raw power to let her keep killing things. It is hands down the ideal class for your lil’ ole killin’ machine, and best of all, it’s easy to pick up: befriend Beruka. Charlotte’s other options give her Cavalier or Dark Mage, and while Cavalier would give her Luna and Aegis, she can marry into those classes; Beruka is the only path to Wyvern Rider.

Speaking of husbands, Charlotte has quite a few potential suitors. She already has most of what she needs and nearly every kid benefits from her great growths and modifiers, so the choice is largely subjective. For variety’s sake Charlotte wants either the Knight tree or the Cavalier tree. Both trees give her Great Knight, which is all she really wants, but they each come with a few other exclusive goodies that each provide different options. Actually it’s pretty simple: Knight makes her better at fighting physical units (Pavise), Cavalier makes her better at fighting magical ones, mitigates a weakness (bows), and improves her supporting functionality (Aegis). Seeing as how Charlotte is best in the air, the latter is the recommended choice. However, if you ground her or just want to stick two mean-faced people together then Manbearknight Benny makes for a damn fine partner.

Wyvern Lord – Axefaire, Luna/Sol, Tomebreaker/Swordbreaker, Aegis/Savage Blow, Lunge/Shelter

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 75 70 0 50 60 50 40 5

Cap: 60 36+5 25 33 31 28 33 24

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: B

Role: Vanguard+Reinforcement

Her role is actually a lot more flexible than most of the other characters. On the one hand, she hits as hard as Berserkers with an axe equipped (Axefaire) so she can decimate/severely wound pretty much anything, as well as everything in the vicinity (Savage Blow). But on the other, she isn’t fast enough to double almost anything and doesn’t have any offensive procs to help push her damage further (or at least not innately anyway). And yet, she has Sol, Tomebreaker, and a solid Def stat to help keep her healthy, as well as the wings to dart over to wherever she feels like. So, ultimately Charlotte is best suited to be a handywoman: She’s a big help wherever she is and has the stats to dish just as well as she can take. Her final skill is simply a question of which utility you value more, pulling units out of a tight spot, or pulling enemies into a tight spot. I prefer the former because I’m a pansy, but if you want to be a grizzly woman who doesn’t afraid of anything, the more offensive Lunge is perfectly valid.

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Leo (FG114)

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Personal Skill: Pragmatic – When enemy’s HP is not full, damage +3 and damage received -1 during the battle

Stat Modifiers: +2 Mag & Res, -2 Str & Spd

Conquest:

Friend – Odin = Samurai| Spouse – Nyx/Peri/Beruka = Outlaw

Class Pool: Dark Mage, Troubadour, Samurai, Outlaw

Leo is not a great unit on Conquest. He’s not very useful in the chapter you get him or the one after it, making it difficult to keep him trained up. His stat modifiers work against him by irreparably crippling his ability to ORKO units. And by some horrible twist of fate, he starts with the ideal class trees, yet due to his godawful base and capped Spd he can barely use them. It’s almost insulting that they’d make a character so awesome and then gimp him in almost every area that counts. The only place where they didn’t screw him over, was his friend pool. Odin bestows the BEYOND GODLIKE (godlike…godlike...) Samurai tree…and that’s the only one worth mentioning, because the other ones shrivel up like it’s a cold day in the locker room before its bulbous throbbing might. With Samurai at his disposal there isn’t much left that wife can compensate him with. An offensive skill would be nice, but seeing as how he’s too slow to ORKO anything and can’t get Tomefaire, he’d be better served with either defensive or utility skills. (Un?)fortunately he has a lot of decent options on those fronts as well. Peri can get Leo Cavalier for Armored Blow, Aegis, and Shelter. Nyx can get him Outlaw conferring Shurikenbreaker, Lucky Seven and Pass. And Beruka can get him Wyvern Rider, which ~~I’ve gushed about so many times that you might as well pick it on principle~~, has the always useful Savage Blow, Swordbreaker, and Lunge. They’re all pretty good choices, though Nyx is the most practical for Leo himself since he otherwise gets chewed out by Ninjas & Maids.

Dark Knight – Lucky Seven, Swordfaire/Vantage, Shurikenbreaker, Seal Strength, Seal Magic

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 60 55 65 40 50 50 45 50

Cap: 55 30+5 33 28 25 31 34 32

Offense: C Defense: C+ Support/Utility: B+

Role: Mixed Attacking Debuffer

When you cannot defeat an enemy on your own, either find another way to kill them or help others do the same. That slogan is the heart of this build. Leo may not have the Spd to ORKO anyone, but with Swordfaire he has the stats to competently strike foes on either of their defenses. Practically speaking, that’s all he really needs to do, as most enemies don’t have mixed defenses and those who survive will have both of their offenses reduced so that anyone else can safely finish them off. This attack is pretty much guaranteed to hit as well (Lucky Seven), and if he strikes with Brynhildr he might even be able to eliminate the enemy’s Mag stat entirely, so paired up or otherwise Leo can neuter damn near anyone he’s up against.

Verdict: A tactician rarely takes to the field, but on the off-chance that one does, it is their job to ensure that their plans run smoothly. Leo performs this duty as admirably as Robin. Though he’ll rarely take the spotlight for himself, he has the tools to help out his team and only asks that they return the favor.

Alt. Butler

Role: Supporting Fighter

******Coming Soon******

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Keaton (FG115)

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Personal Skill: Collector – Luck% chance of obtaining 3 Minerals or Foodstuffs after moving up to the 7th Turn

Stat Modifiers: +3 Str, +2 Def, -1 Spd & Res, -2 Skl

Conquest:

Friend – Benny = Knight| Spouse – Elise/Felicia = Troubadour

Class Pool: Wolfskin, Fighter, Knight, Troubadour

Like every other transforming character in this franchise, Keaton has super human stats where they count and some beastly growths to back them up. Wolfssegner packs enough punch to make the Kool-Aid man jealous, and has enough Def to storm the frontlines of even the beaches of Normandy. Needless to say, making Keaton good is pretty damn easy. His friends list is barren except for Benny, and he gives Keaton the only class tree he desperately wants. Then on the other end, Keaton’s wife can bestow even more overwhelming physical strength (Camilla/Beruka) ,or address his magical weakness (Felicia/Elise). If you’ve read the other builds, then you already know that Felicia is the only correct answer, but let it at least be said that I mentioned the possibility of doing something else. If Keaton had access to Lancebreaker, then the choice would be somewhat thought-provoking, but since this is Conquest, there’s nothing to be done about his beast weakness, making-addressing his magic inadequacy the only genuinely helpful quality to look for in a waifu. As to why Felicia and not Elise, Felicia benefits from the Fighter class more than Elise does. Neither really wants it for skills, but Felicia would gain access to a class with a high HP & Str growth to tone up her noodly arms. Elise on the other hand already has one by default (Wyvern Lord), and don’t need no man to complete her *three snaps in a circle*.

Wolfssegner – Beastbane, Armored Blow, Tomebreaker, Grisly Wound, Better Odds

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 80 80 0 25 50 35 60 25

Cap: 65 39 25 27 30 26 34 25

Offense: A Defense: A Support/Utility: C

Role: Vanguard/Physical Tank

As a beastkin Keaton has access to a few different “weapons” that make him better at what he’s supposed to do. The beastrune gears his stats towards tanking physical hits, while the beaststone and beaststone+ skew them towards attacking. Both of these functions are accentuated by his skill set and can be toggled at a moment’s notice. Grisly Wound ensures that anything that fights Keaton and lives walks away with a few scars (take THAT Ninja!); Beastbane, lets him tear through cavalry and Kitsune like the mutton they technically are, while Armored Blow ensures that he does so with minimal injury; Tomebreaker scares away mages; and Better Odds circumvents the need for staff support so that he can stay on the frontlines by himself if the need arises. And that’s all there is to him. He’s not complicated and is useful on almost every map. Just beware of beast killers, and he’ll take on anything the game can throw at you.

Verdict: Beasts aren’t exactly lauded for their grace or finesse, and Keaton is about as far from either as physically possible. He has no procs, and does not require careful positioning. Just send him somewhere and watch the enemies get torn apart. If your enemies don’t know what fear is, they will now. “The werewolves have left London! Repeat! THE WEREWOLVES HAVE LEFT LONDON!!!!”

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Gunter (FG116)

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Personal Skill: Forceful Partner – If the Avatar is the lead unit, Avatar’s Hit rate +15, damage +3

Stat Modifiers: +2 Str & Def, +1 Skl, -2 Spd & Res

Friend – Jakob = Troubadour| Spouse – Are You Kidding Me? = None

Class Pool: Cavalier, Mercenary, Wyvern Rider, Troubadour

Something about that personal skill name makes me uncomfortable......eh-hem, anyway Gunter is another strong contender for worst unit in this game. If you’ve played other Fire Emblems before you’ll recognize that Gunter fits the Jeigan character archetype: He’s a Paladin who comes early with stats that are about on par with your other characters, and whose growths are basically non-existent. Typically, these characters are crutches to help you get through the early portions of the game and get phased out as other units begin to surpass them. However, Gunter leaves your team very early on and only comes back in Conquest well after he has worn his welcome. This makes no sense whatsoever as Gunter does not have the bases or the growths to be a legitimate member of your army that late into the game. This slightly addressed in Revelations where he rejoins in Chapter 7, but even with his improved availability, Gunter still has the worst growth rates of any character in the game (yes, even worse than Shura).

And then, to make matters even worse, he has exactly one possible friend (Jakob) and only the avatar can marry him. As such his class pool is virtually fixed, and can’t be improved. Granted he has two of the best classes in the Nohrian kingdom, but with his piss-poor stats it’s almost like a taunt from IS. “Go ahead, switch him to Wyvern Lord. Feed him a few levels. See what happens~~…bitch.~~” Tl;DR Gunter is a terrible unit that you should not use under any circumstances. Do not let him steal any valuable experience in the pre-split chapters, unless you’re playing on Lunatic and absolutely cannot avoid using him.

Wyvern Lord/Malig Knight – Inspiration, Rally Defense, Rally Resistance, Rally Skill, Savage Blow/Lunge

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 25 20 0 20 10 20 25 5

Cap: 60 35 25 34 27 28 37 24

Offense: D Defense: E Support/Utility: C+

Role: Rally Support

If you are the most stubborn human being alive or have an old man fetish, and plan on using Gunter, your only course of action is to avoid his stats as much as possible. The best way to do so are with supporting skills like rallies and seals, which since his class pool is fixed translates to “make Gunter a rally bot.” The only rallies available to him are Def, Res, and Skill, so take all three and run him to wherever he’s needed. As for the other two skills you should definitely give him Inspiration to boost his personal skill and make him a marginally useful dual attack partner. For Gunter’s last skill you can either give him Lunge or Savage Blow. Neither requires him to actually hit the enemy (and odds are good that he won’t in the first place), but because Lunge has the side effect of moving Gunter potentially behind enemy lines, Savage Blow is strongly recommended.

With all of that squared away, all that’s left to determine is his class. It doesn’t make a blind bit of difference combat-wise, so the choice is really between his utilities. Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight offer the best mobility while Butler offers staves (you’re never going to hit anything so debuffs are out of the question). Seeing as how Gunter only has a 10% Mag growth as a Butler and a colossal base mag of 0, The choice is really just between Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight. They’re similar but Wyvern Lord offers +3 Str and 1 more Def, while Malig Knight grants +2 Mag and +2 Res. I prefer Wyvern Lord as physical attackers to tend to be more powerful than magical ones, but the choice is so inconsequential that you’ll barely notice the benefits of one over the other. This whole analysis is entirely academic as there is no way on God’s green earth that you will ever fight enough with him to gain level ups or even deploy him in combat. But, a man can dream…

Verdict: Bad growths, bad bases, and difficult mods. Gunter is a terrible unit. It is possible to use him as a rally bot in the same way that it is possible to play through this entire game on lunatic with your feet resting on hot coals and head encased in a beehive. Avoid. Gunter. At. All. Costs.

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Xander (FG117)

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Personal Skill: Chivalry – When enemy’s HP is at maximum, damage +2 and damage received -2 during the battle

Stat Modifiers: +2 Str & Lck, +1 Def, -1 Mag, Skl & Spd, -2 Res

Conquest:

Friend – Kaze = Ninja| Spouse – Effie = Knight

Class Pool: Cavalier, Wyvern Rider, Ninja, Knight

I will never understand why they made the poster boy of the Nohrian campaign so astonishingly mediocre. Xander is the third and final unit on the Conquest campaign that has completely neutral modifiers, and just like the other two, his neutrality costs him his precious Spd. Even though his modifier (-1) isn’t that damning, his below average base, makes it damn near impossible for his average growth rate to bring up to par over the course of campaign. So, unless you’ve got the devil’s luck (and maybe a handful of Rabbit’s feet) Xander is going to be a mounted turtle...with a kickass 1-2 ranged sword that boosts his already high Def. As Benny and numerous slow characters have already demonstrated, low Spd doesn’t matter as long as you’ve got solid defenses and Wary Fighter to back it up. Unfortunately, Xander doesn’t quite have these things. His Def and HP are excellent, but his Res is abysmal and he doesn’t have the Knight tree. The latter can at least be addressed by marrying Effie (which you absolutely should do), but his Res is always going to be garbage, so ~~make sure he wears a condom~~ keep him away from magical attackers.

As for his friend class, he can either get the very useless Dark Mage tree, the even more worthless (for a guy with no Spd) Merc tree, or the ungodly powerful ~~replicate~~ Ninja tree. This is isn’t exactly rocket science, folks. One class lets him tank in two places at once, the others barely help him fight in the first place. Let the man tank ~~#MakeXanderGreatAgain~~

Great Knight – Wary Fighter, Replicate, Poison Strike/Swordbreaker, Savage Blow, Aegis/Lunge

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 65 70 5 50 40 65 60 15

Cap: 65 37 24 28 26 30 38+4 26

Offense: B Defense: A Support/Utility: B

Role: Vanguard/Physical Tank

One near-physically immune unit that severely damages anything near to where he attacks is annoying as hell. But with two, your opponents might as well quit their jobs and go into middle management; they will not pass. Wary Fighter supporting his General like Def makes damn near impregnable. And since he’s a Great Knight with Replicate he can move to wherever he has no trouble leading a charge and defending your advance at the same time. His final skill is thus a choice between making him better offensively or defensively. Since he’s better at taking hits then giving them, I’d normally recommend the defensive skill, but since it’s Aegis and his Skill is mediocre, Lunge is still the preferable option.

In case that wasn’t clear, Xander’s accuracy leaves a lot to be desired, so that might tempt you to take Swordbreaker. However, the damage inflicted by Savage Blow and Poison Strike is so significant (and enemy agnostic) that it’s hard to pass up.

Verdict: The man is made of bricks, carries a blade of concentrated evil, and can be in two places at once. Enemy blades will break against his mail, and even should his blade fail to find his target, it will desecrate the earth near to where they stand. He’s the general of your army for good reason, and burns to lead his men into battle.

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Flora (FG118)

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Personal Skill: Icy Blood – When user’s HP is not full and they sustain damage, the enemy receives the same damage and the enemy’s Skill and Speed is reduced by 3

Stat Modifiers: +2 Skl, +1 Str & Def

Conquest & Revelations:

Friend – Felicia/Doesn’t Matter = None| Spouse – Avatar (M) Only = None

Class Pool: Troubadour, Dark Mage, Mercenary

“Hey, boss. How about we give this unit one of the best personal skills in the entire game, decent stat modifiers, and solid growths?”

“That’s a great idea! Then we'll give her the worst availability in every campaign we stick her in, a low starting level, one friend option, and Avatar-exclusivity! It’s perfect!”

“…”

“Oh, oh! And let’s make the Friend option redundant too! That’ll really piss the fans off! Hahaha!”

“…*sigh*…”

“You got something to say, Takehara?”

“No…no…I’ll just get back to my desk” *quietly sobs*

Hero/Maid – Sol/Lifetaker, Seal Magic, Tomebreaker, Vengeance/Shuriken Breaker, [Any] Inspiration

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 55 55 20 65 45 40 40 30

Cap: 60 33 24 37 32 30 31 26

Offense: D+ Defense: C Support/Utility: B+

Role: Vanguard/Phalanx

Why IS….why? What did poor, sweet Flora ever do to you? She should be an excellent attacker who can reliably tank and debuff simultaneously when necessary; She should have a broader class pool that isn’t dependent on the Avatar having a dick. She should be one of the best units in your army. And yet, out of some act of spite or schadenfreude she just isn’t any of these things. I’ve tried with this build to at least salvage some value out of her, but you would still be better served deploying someone else. If, like me, you lament her squandered potential and still want to use her anyway ~~out of love ;(~~, here’s how it works:

First, Flora needs to take damage in order to activate her personal skill and improve her damage output/utility. The best way to do this is to attack an enemy who can fight back or. failing that. position Flora so that she will defend against someone during the enemy phase. You want to make sure that she takes as little damage as possible, so avoid pitting her against powerful opponents. With that done you’re free to attack whomever you like, provided that you can keep her healthy without healing her up to full HP.

Consequently, Sol is her preferred first skill. It can proc during both combat phases and has a strength that you can control through her weapon options. Her next skill, Seal Magic, piggybacks off of her personal skill’s awesomeness and turns her into an anti-Magic unit. Since her Res cap isn’t particularly high, fighting mages might seem like a shortcut to an early grave. But never fear, Flora’s third skill Tomebreaker decreases the likelihood that mages will hit her in the first place. In this way the two skills act like varying degrees of insurance: If the enemies can’t hit her, then they take a hit to their Mag and lose the ability to try again later. And at the same time, if they can hit her, then they lose some accuracy, Spd, and power to ensure that they don’t do so ever again.

Her fourth skill presents you with the choice of putting Ninjas and Maids in the same no-win situation (Shurikenbreaker) or leveraging the fact that she is always going to have a little red on her (Vengeance). I prefer the former as ninja taking a Spd and Skl penalty is fantastic, though on higher difficulties, survival is everything (plus Vengeance’s damage boost should be low-ish anyway). Either way, you probably don’t want both equipped at the same time, so for her final skill choose something else; It doesn’t matter what, as nothing in her tiny class pool can lend a hand with this build.

Which brings us to the final and most important question: which class should Flora be. Looking at her pool, the only options that have decent mixed defenses are Maid and Hero. Hero has 2 less Res, but 1 more Def and 10 more HP. Maid has 1 more Spd, staves/rods, and can mixed attack. I personally like Maid better since it makes Flora’s personal skill a death sentence, but I can’t deny that only having 50 HP would severely hurt her survivability and ultimately undermine the value of this build, so Hero is recommended regardless of my bias.

Verdict: Flora is a victim of Intelligent System’s sadism. She’s a great unit ravaged by circumstances entirely outside of her control. She’ll still do her best to serve your army well, but her best is still a far cry from the potential sleeping within her blood.

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Hoshidan Class Analyses (FG20)

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Can I just say, Outlaws and Archers really should have traded kingdoms. This kingdom's classes are all supposed to be built around evasion, the occult, and getting around enemies rather than directly over powering them. But that one outlier screws with this dynamic, and makes it seem like IS was playing favorites. Anyway, in a woeful bit of irony, these classes generally require more skill and creativity to be useful, so they are better suited to experienced players with a strong grasp of the nuances of combat.

Most Powerful/Dangerous Classes:

Master Ninja – Unmatched Spd

- Lowers stats on hit (=4 seals at once with the Chakram)

- Surprisingly difficult to kill

- Only needs 1 damage to OHKO a unit

Sniper – Immune to standard double attacks

- Ties for highest Skl in the game

- Very high, accurate damage

- No exploitable weaknesses with Counter

Kinshi Knight – Highest attack range of all classes (8+3)

- Unmatched anti-air

- Best harassment unit in the game

- Strong supporting functions

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Samurai (FG2A)

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Proficiency: B Katana

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Duelist’s Blow - When user triggers the battle, Avoid +30

Lv.10 – Vantage – At the start of battle, when the user has under half HP, they attack first

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 17 4 0 5 8 3 3 3
Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 15 20 15 0 10

Cap: 40 20 16 23 25 24 18 20

Other Notes: One of the most commonly used class trees

It’s an underwhelming tree with two of the most valuable skills in the game. Neither of the classes it has are all that amazing, with Swordmaster being fast, but weak, and Master of Arms being average and unexceptional. Fortunately, Vantage and Astra are universally applicable, so if a character has access to the tree, they’re usually best off harvesting the skills for other better classes.

Unique: Swordmaster (FG2B)

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Proficiency: S Katana

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Astra – Skill x 0.5% chance of triggering 5 consecutive hits with half damage

Lv.15 – Swordfaire – When user is equipped with a Sword, damage +5 during battle

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 18 6 2 7 11 4 5 5
Growth Mod%: 10 10 5 15 20 15 0 10

Cap: 55 30 28 32 35 33 27 31

Other Notes: Crt +10, Avo +10, ties for highest base Spd of all classes, shonen as fuck

Oh how the mighty have fallen. For the first time in the series’ history, Swordmasters aren’t very impressive. Their trademark Spd is still intact, but so is their below average Def. They have above average Res – which is to say, a lot of Res for a physical unit - but their Str is dead average, HP is slightly below average, and their Skl isn’t as insane as it used to be. Most would look at their Spd, Skl, S-rank in swords, and access to Swordfaire, and say that they are excellent. However, when you compare their attributes to other physical units, specifically Paladins, Heroes, Berserkers, Spear Masters…pretty much all of them, their strengths either prove insufficient or turn against them. They aren’t fast enough to double attack most dedicated physical attackers, and those that they can almost always have both high Def and WTA. [Weapon triangle advantage is especially important for Swordmasters as it can swing them 6 damage and 20 Hit in either direction.] Basically, they aren’t good at fighting physical units. Evasion’s a neat gimmick, but without True Hit it’s nowhere near reliable enough to compete with actual Def and HP.

However, they are highly adept at slashing through casters. They are fast enough to double all casters but Onmyoji, don’t have to worry about the weapon triangle, and are strong enough to inflict significant damage to them without taking much in return. They still don’t have the power to take out mixed attackers, but if you position them intelligently, and pick your battles wisely, they won’t need it.

Desired Skills: Shurikenbreaker, Luna, Darting Blow

Master Ninja are the bane of Swordmasters’ existence, making shurikenbreaker all but required for any Swordmaster that wants to live long enough to commit seppuku. As was already stated, Swordmasters are pretty bad against most physical classes, so if you don’t want them to just be mage killers they’ll need some serious help. Luna is the most obvious solution to this problem as it can give almost anything mage-like Def. But, purely based on Spd thresholds of the game’s classes, Darting Blow is even more important. Because of their precarious power, Swordmasters need to be able to secure double attacks to reliably damage units. Darting Blow is the only non-DLC skill that facilitates this, and stacks with their innate skill Duelist’s Blow. Lastly, although their Skl is decent, they don’t have the Def to make direct defensive skills viable, so stick to breakers and passive evasion for defense. If you keep them paired up, then Astra can actually act as a pseudo defensive skill as well, in that its 5 hits can fully fill a dual guard gauge from scratch. Regardless, you should still try to make sure that they have the initiative during combat. The game is rigged against them, so they won’t survive too many hits no matter what you do.

Counters: Master Ninja, Generals, Heroes, Spear Masters, Mechanists, Counter

Let me take a moment to elucidate just how badly Master Ninja trounce Swordmasters. Master Ninja are faster than Swordmasters (Shuriken =+2 Spd, Katana=+1 Spd, -1 Def & Res). Master Ninja have better defenses than a Swordmaster. Master Ninja have superior range with WTA over Swordmasters. It would take a Swordmaster with Counter, Shurikenbreaker, Aegis, Miracle, a Dual Katana, Brave Sword, AND a backup Sunrise Katana to even have a chance against a Master Ninja. And to round out their blatant superiority, Master Ninja have access to nearly every weapon a Swordmaster does, but also have an S-rank in shuriken. That class outright beats Swordmasters in virtually every combat scenario. I cannot fathom why IS decided to even include Swordmasters in this game at all, when a class like that all but invalidates it.

Blatant hard counters aside, Swordmasters lose to all physical units that they can’t double attack who also have WTA over them. Generals and Spear Masters are the two most apparent classes that fit the bill, but Heroes receive an honorable mention for being immune to double attacks, and potentially holding WTA with a Dual Club. Falcon Knights and Great Masters are also fair emergency counters, but both have low Def & HP making them less than ideal. Lastly, if you’re too lazy to even field a counter for some reason, the Counter skill single-handedly wrecks this class. They have no good answers to it, and cannot afford to fight around it. This really is not a hard class to take out, provided that you mind their high Avd and don’t play to their (few) strengths.

Shared: Master of Arms (FG2C)

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Proficiency: A Katana, B Naginata, B Clubs

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Strength Seal - After battle, enemy’s Strength -6

Lv.15 – Life or Death - During battles, damage +10, damage received +10

  HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases: 20 8 0 6 9 3              7 3
Growth Mod%: 20           15           0              10           10           10           10           0

Cap: 65 33 25 30 30 31 31 28

Other Notes: None

Since Generals lost their access to the complete weapon triangle, this class is designed to fill the
void. Its stats are extremely average across the board outside of their superior HP and Str, so it’s extremely dependent on the character that’s in it. That said, the devs decided to give it an offensive focus with the extremely powerful, and exceedingly risky, Life and Death skill. Depending on which tree the character received the class through, Life and Death can either be amazing, or utterly terrible. If they got it from Samurai, then it’s fantastic as they have Vantage and Duelist’s Blow to shield them from potentially lethal attacks. But, if they received the class through Villager, then it just turns them into a softer Berserker that can’t crit, but has perfect weapon triangle control. It’s somewhat akin to a Paladin with its balanced stats and weapon triangle control, but the lack of movement, lower defenses, and lack of genuine defensive skills, makes it noticeably less valuable. It’s an average class that’s best used as a stop-gap for physical units you’re still trying to figure out what to do with, or a permanent class for characters with exceedingly high modifiers.

Desired Skills: Anything

The class only comes with damage and Seal Strength, which theoretically shouldn’t even see use, so there’s no clear path for you to focus on. You could load them down with breaker skills to be a genuine nuisance to most classes. Or you could try to make them more offensive with initiative skills. Or you could ignore making them better fighters, and just bolster their passive supporting abilities. They are generalists by design, so again just try to take advantage of the character’s strengths; use their personal skill and class options to guide your judgment.

Counters: Dark Knights, Generals, Master Ninja, Great Knights

Dark Knights are a clear counter with the superior Def, movement, range, immunity to double attack, and ability to exploit a Master of Arms’ below average Res. Though they are vulnerable to beast killers, even with Life and Death, a Master of Arms can’t secure a OHKO against a Dark Knight, and will invariably lose a war of attrition.

High Def units in general don’t have much trouble dealing with the Master of Arms, as they are virtually incapable of double attacking anything. Generals, Great Knights, and Wyvern Lords can all handily face-roll the class. Master Ninja are also fair counters with their superior range, ability to double attack, and access to a serviceable equivalent of weapon triangle control.

In sum, anything that can tank a hit, or double attack can take a Master of Arms out without much trouble. This is basically the problem of generalist classes in tactical RPGs. Not being good at anything almost always leaves them vulnerable to any class with a focus. And since that’s almost every class in this game, it stands to reason that the class is very easy to deal with.

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Villager (FG2D)

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Proficiency: B Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Aptitude – Adds 10% to all growth rates during Level Ups

Lv.10 – Underdog – Hit rate and Avoid +15 when user’s Level is lower than the enemy (promoted units count as Level +20)

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 17 5 0 4 5 3 4 0

Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 10 10 20 10 0

Cap: 35 19 15 19 19 22 18 15

Other Notes: Only acquirable by Mozu and her children

Aptitude, nuff said. Everyone want this class for that skill alone. Neither of its promotions are very ~~cheating assholes~~ fortunate players online and avoid the tree entirely.
good, all of their other skills are situational or require specific builds, and their classes’ growth rates, while decent, are also unimpressive. It’s preferable to pick up the Aptitude skill from various

Shared: Merchant (FG2E)

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Proficiency: A Yumi, B Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Profiteer – Luck% chance of obtaining a Gold Bar after moving during the first seven Turns

Lv.15 – Spendthrift – During battles, user spends a Gold Bar for damage +10 and damage received -10. [Note: This is automatic; you cannot choose not to spend a Gold Bar]

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 20 8 0 6 5 4 8 5

Growth Mod%: 20 20 0 10 5 15 10 5

Cap: 65 33 25 29 28 32 33 30

Other Notes: None

Yet another underwhelming class for Hoshido. I’m assuming based on the class’ stats and access to Lances, that it’s supposed to be the “sturdy” bow wielder, with Snipers being the strong ones, and Adventurers being the fast ones. But its defenses are only marginally better than Snipers, its Res is worse than Adventurers, and its Spd is low enough to get doubled by both of its competing classes. The only area it handily beats all other archers in is HP, and though that is important, it’s not a large enough advantage to justify this class which can’t kill anything (other than fliers of course) or tank effectively over those which can.

With that said, both of the class’ skills are designed to eliminate its offensive and defensive weaknesses, in order to turn it into a decent unit. Spendthrift bumps the Merchant’s defenses up beyond General levels, while simultaneously driving its attack up to be comparable with Berserkers. The skill has very serious limitations however, so the class comes bundled with Profiteer to help ensure that it usually has Gold Bars…for the first seven turns.

There are a few glaring issues that arise from their reliance on a specific item. The first is that you can’t easily replenish bars in combat. Yes, Profiteer can theoretically get you one gold bar every turn, but on average you’ll be contending with less than a 50/50 success rate, and only for the first 7 turns of combat. Even if you theoretically had a big stock of them stored up, you wouldn’t be able to access them regularly unless you kept your Avatar within arms’ length of your merchant on every map. And even then you’d still have to worry about the 5 item inventory limit. Assuming that you maxed out your merchant’s inventory with 4 Gold Bars, leaving him with zero flexibility in combat, you’d always have to deal with potentially running out of bars before the enemy phase ends. That omni-present reality prevents you from using Merchants as Tanks or Vanguard units, and since they lack supporting skills, and don’t have the stats to compete with serious attackers, there is no real use for this class that isn’t better served by others. In so many words, Merchant is a gimmick class, whose gimmick isn’t very good. Avoid it if possible.

Desired Skills: Counter, Countermagic, Renewal

If you don’t want to listen to me, and still want to field this class, then at the very least you can try to give it some purpose. HP is its only real redeeming stat, so exploit it with Counter and Countermagic. Even if it runs out of Gold Bars, as long your Merchant has health to spare, it can still put a heavy dent in anyone that tries to abuse it. That high HP can then be replenished with Renewal to refuel it each turn……………That’s all I got. It’s bad. Don’t field it. Running this build on a General is almost always better anyway.

Counters: ~~Berserkers, Generals, Your mum,~~ Anything that deals damage.

This class is easy to break, plain and simple. Classes with 33 Spd or more, in particular, cut clean through it. But, even if you don’t have one of those, no class has much of a problem contesting it other than perhaps Onmyoji, who can only kill on retaliation with Ginnungagap.

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Apothecary (FG2F)

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Proficiency: B Yumi

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Potent Potion – The effect of HP recovery and stat-boosting potions is increased by 50% [Note: permanent stat boosting items do NOT receive a boost from this skill]

Lv.10 – Quick Salve – After consuming an HP recovery or stat-boosting potion, the user can perform another action

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 18 6 0 4 4 2 6 2

Growth Mod%: 20 20 0 10 10 5 10 5

Cap: 40 20 16 23 25 24 18 20

Other Notes: The “gimmick” tree

A gimmicky base class with one gimmicky promotion and one solid class. The solid class, is so good that I can’t call the entire tree bad, but you’ll be hard pressed to find value in 5/6 of its available skills. The tree has decent stat growths, for physical units, so it’s never bad for them to have, but outside of Replicate it has no value to casters. Always think very carefully about who you pass it on to.

Shared: Mechanist (FG2G)

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Proficiency: A Shuriken, B Yumi

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Golembane – Attacks are effective against Mechanists, Automatons and Stoneborn

Lv.15 – Replicate – Select the “Replicate” command once per map to create a replica with the same appearance, stats, inventory and HP as the user (Anything that happens to the replica happens to the user and vice versa–even death)

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 18 7 0 9 7 2 6 6

Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 15 10 5 5 15

Cap: 60 30 25 33 30 30 31 31

Other Notes: Has 7 movement, and a Golem weakness (though no one will ever exploit it). Is the strongest Shuriken/Knife wielder in the game.

This is my second favorite class in this game (only topped by the straight pimpin’ Adventurers), so you’ll have to forgive my language when I say, Mechanists are FUCKING AWESOME. Nearly every discussion I’ve read about the class only mentions using it to get Replicate which, frankly, does not hold a candle to the merits of this class. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that’s due to a gross misunderstanding of both the skill and the class, so for this segment let’s look at each individually before diving further into the class itself.

Replicate is only strong on exactly two kinds of units: those with a lot of functions (rallies, staves, movement skills, etc.) and hyper offensive units with high movement (read: Kinshi Knights). The skill magnifies a unit’s offensive functionality and utility at the cost of exposing them in two different places. As such, it is an objectively poor skill to place on a defensive unit, or class who can only afford to spend time on the frontlines. This more or less forces you to place the skill on offensive units, but again that has serious limitations as the replicant would have to be able to always attain the combat initiative and avoid taking retaliatory fire from the enemy so as not to be a liability. That narrows the list of good Replicate users down to high movement units with initiative skills (none of whom are inherently great attackers because balance), units who can attack from 1-2 range, and again, units who don’t have to fight. Based on personal experience, you are most likely to see Replicate on either hyper offensive infantry or Snipers – neither of which it’s actually good on, and both of which get crushed by high mov units with initiative skills. There are some cool tricks you can do with the skill like attacking twice in a single turn with Waterwheel to eliminate the penalty during the enemy phase, but no matter how you look at it, Replicate is far too limited to be generally applicable.

Meanwhile, the Mechanist class itself is basically a Paladin with 1 less movement, no weakness, better weapons, the ability to debuff, and inherent specializations against certain units (primarily fliers, and the anti-meta classes). Yeah, it’s pretty freaking good. Shuriken access makes it nearly immune to natural double attacks (only Master Ninja can crack it), and a natural counter to one of the most powerful classes in the game (Dark Knights). Like Paladins, Mechanists don’t have a single clear job, but because of their statistical balance and excellent weapon selection, they can derive a purpose from any character’s strengths and classes. There’s nothing negative to say about them other than that they’re reliant on skills from outside the tree. But, generally speaking, so is every other class in this game making this little more than a footnote on an otherwise spotless record.

With Replicate, Mechanists can leverage their superior movement and range, to be a colossal nuisance to everything. They share the same weaknesses as any other jack-of-all-trades in that they only have average Str and Spd, so they aren’t too good at fighting any unit whose Def breaks the average. But, with Replicate and Shuriken they can drop a unit’s stats and exploit the debuff within the same turn for near guaranteed kills. What’s more, Mechanists have fair defenses and are nearly impossible to get the jump on, so as long as they can hit the target (which they usually will with their 33 Skl) they’ll at least make sure that if the opponent tries to take advantage of Replicate to kill them, they won’t leave unscathed. So in case it wasn’t clear yet…THIS CLASS IS AWESOME.

Desired Skills: Shurikenfaire, Skl-based procs, Darting Blow, Savage Blow, Counter, Renewal, Grisly Fangs

Even though they’re already the strongest Shuriken-wielder in the game, their Strength is still objectively average, so more power from Shurikenfaire is very much welcome. That said, if offense is your priority, then their Spd should be your primary concern. I outlined a strategy above about using Replicate to secure to double attacks. However, with Darting Blow you can achieve similar results against a single target without increasing the danger to your Mechanist. It synergizes with Replicate as well should you desire a hyper offensive puppeteer.

Mechanists are also blessed with high Skl and above average defenses, so any and all Skl procs are perfectly usable to support whichever playstyle you prefer. Their defensive advantage simultaneously makes them a perfect candidate for Counter, Renewal, and Grisly Fangs; all of which exploit the fact that they are notoriously difficult for a single unit to kill in a single turn. They have A LOT of versatility and have no problem finding a use for whatever skills happen to be lying around.

Counters: ~~Golemba-hahahah oh, who am I kidding?~~ Without Dual Shuriken, Berserkers. Otherwise, none

There’s no easy way through a Mechanist short of a lucky Lethality. They’re generally fast enough to avoid double attacks, and those that they can’t avoid almost always come from either Master Ninja or Swordmasters – two classes that aren’t very powerful/need double attacks just to compete with other class' damage. Berserkers fair the best against Mechanists since they have the highest single-hit damage in the game and can do so with WTA if the Mechanist has a Shuriken equipped. But if the Mechanist has a dual shuriken equipped, then all bets are off.

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Ninja (FG2H)

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Proficiency: B Shuriken

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Locktouch – User can open doors and chests without requiring keys

Lv.10 – Poison Strike – When user triggers the battle, the enemy’s HP is reduced by 20% after the battle

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 16 3 0 8 8 1 3 3
Growth Mod%: 5 5 0 20 20 0 5 15

Cap: 40 20 16 23 25 24 18 20

Other Notes: ~~I AM NINJA, HE IS NINJA, SHE IS NINJA TOO~~, Most annoying tree in the game

I have to give IS credit, they really made this class work. Typically, when I see Ninja in Japanese

video games, they are either absurdly overpowered or criminally underpowered. But, this game managed to strike a good balance between power and versatility resulting in a class that looks barely above average on paper, but is extremely capable in practice. Both of the tree’s promoted classes are excellent, though neither is a straight powerhouse offensively or defensively. They both require you to come up with ways to exploit their statistical flexibility, and while that may sound annoying, it’s actually pretty easy. Shuriken are made to debuff and this class gives a unit access to Poison Strike, Replicate, and Lethality to exploit that utility until it looks gamebreaking. All in all, it’s one of the best trees in the game for both offensive and supporting units, so don’t complain that the game gives you 4 different characters that all share this tree as their primary.

Unique: Master Ninja (FG2I)

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Proficiency: S Shuriken, B Katana

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Lethality – Skill x 0.25% chance of instantly defeating the enemy when dealing 1 or more damage

Lv.15 – Shurikenfaire – When user is equipped with a Dagger, damage +5 during battle

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   17 5 0 10 11           2              4              8
Growth Mod%:   5              5 0 20           20           5              0              20

Cap: 55 27 25 35 35 28 26 34

Other Notes: Hit, Crit, Avd, & Dodge +5, Has the highest Spd in the game (with Shuriken), Ties for highest Skl in the game, Can wield the S-rank shuriken Chakram, Easily the most annoying class in the game

As the notes ~~imply~~ ~~suggest~~ blatantly delineate, Master Ninja have a LOT going for them. They’re the
fastest, most-accurate, and overtly magic resistant class in the game, with mild weapon triangle control, an S rank in one of the best weapon types in the game, only slightly below average HP, and a skill which lets them occasionally insta-kill anything they so much as scratch. Overpowered? Surprisingly, no. Their slightly below average HP would be fine, if they had a Def stat, but alas they’re barely any tougher than Berserkers and far less healthy. Granted, their immunity to conventional double attacks, and high Avd almost always forces enemies to throw several units into them to take them down anyway, but if ganged up on, they likely won’t put up too much of a fight. Their Str is utterly abysmal making physical attacks tenuous, at best. Taken with the fact that Swords and Shuriken are the two most inherently weak physical weapon types in the game, Master Ninja struggle to kill anything with a Def stat. However, unlike Swordmasters who share these flaws and are generally forced into being anti-mages, Master Ninja can actually square off against physical units regardless of their stats. How? With shuriken, Poison Strike and Lethality.

Poison Strike shaves off 20% of the target’s HP even if the ninja misses their target, a fact which is highly exploitable by the class’ access to a weapon with innate 1-2 range and a special weapon with 3 range. If they do hit the opponent, but are a little too weak to hurt them (with their weapon), they still drop the target’s stats on hit, so that they or another unit can draw blood later. And if they can hurt the target, then there’s a chance that Lethality could go off and outright end them on the spot. No matter what happens in the engagement itself or who their target is, as long as a Master Ninja declares an attack and survives, they are helping their team. But wait- there’s more!

The innate 1-2 range and WTA of shuriken over Tomes combined with the unmatched Spd and extremely high Res of Master Ninja make them the absolute best mage killers in the game (get bent Swordmasters). So, to recap: this class has can hurt & weaken anything simultaneously, go toe to toe with most of the game’s classes, and slaughter mages better than anyone else. I don’t think that any sane human being can look at those capabilities and conclude that this is not one of the best classes in the game, if not Fire Emblem as a whole.

Desired Skills: Counter, Lucky Seven, Breakers, Savage Blow, Grisly Wound, Skl-based procs (obviously)

Master Ninja only have two weaknesses: low Str and low Def. There’s little to be done about the former other than to simply use strong units as Master Ninja. But, the latter presents you with the choice to either address the flaw or exploit it. If you’ve a touch of schadenfreude, Counter will let you punish any melee units unfortunate enough to hit your Ninja. However, I prefer to not let them take a hit in the first place. To that end, Lucky Seven stacks nicely with their natural Avd boost for what’s essentially a permanent forest/fort’s worth of protection. The accuracy boost also helps them hit other squirrely classes and circumvent the accuracy advantage of WTA. However, for protracted battles, especially those against problematic enemies like Berserkers and Snipers, you’ll generally need a breaker skill. Bear in mind that breakers can be utilized both offensively and defensively. The difficulty Master Ninja face in solo-killing physical units can be largely ameliorated by simply equipping the appropriate breaker. Alternatively, if the options are available, you can augment the power of Poison Strike with the other two objective damage dealers Savage Blow and Grisly Fang to ignore Str boosters entirely. The latter skill is basically a pipe dream, but if you’ve got it, then there’s little reason not to use it. Honestly, this class suffers from 4 move-slot syndrome in that it wants all of these skills, but at best you can contract them to perform specific jobs.

Counters: Bow Knights, Snipers, Generals, Calamity Scroll-wielding Strategists/Dark Knights

Bows in general wreck Master Ninja. WTA coupled with their high innate damage output and the need to engage at 2 range, means that they can not only strike Ninja accurately for very high damage, but have an easy time dictating the terms of engagement due to the average Mov of Master Ninja. The class’ answer to this advantage are 35+2 Spd and Katana access, but neither of these advantages are sufficient to handle Snipers and Bow Knights who both have 33 Spd to nullify Ninja’s main deterrence. More significantly, both classes have answers to deal with Master Ninja specifically, either innate to their attacks (Snipers w/ Certain Blow, Bow Knights with Shuriken Breaker) or the class itself (8 mov+Swd access on Bow Knights). Scroll wielders can attempt to simulate these advantages with the Calamity spirit, but it’s still a far cry from the real thing.

The other big threat to Master Ninja are (surprising absolutely no one) Generals. Ninja rely on their Spd for power, and Wary Fighter takes that away from them. On top of this, Generals have enough Def to shrug off damage from even armor slaying weapons, especially those wielded by a class with well-below average Str. Poison Strike and its ilk are far too slow to contain an opponent who can kill them off in 1-2 hits.

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Oni Savage (FG2J)

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Proficiency: B Club

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Seal Resistance – After battle, enemy’s Resistance -6

Lv.10 – Shove – Select the “Shove” command to push an adjacent ally 1 tile

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   18           6              1              2              5 0 7              1
Growth Mod%: 20           20           10           0              10           0              20           0

Cap: 45 24 19 16 20 17 23 18

Other Notes: None

A strong axe fighter with low accuracy, but punishing strikes with an unusually high chance of scoring

a crit. This is essentially the new Japan-themed brigand class. As with most FE games, the class itself isn’t actually that bad, but it’s held back by a single critical weakness – accuracy – and an overabundance of classes that can exploit it – sword wielders. Fortunately, this time around both of its promoted classes have access to a sword equivalent to “sort of” make up for this shortcoming, but neither is particularly good at taking advantage of them. Blacksmith have access to swords and decent Skl. However, it’s a strong candidate for worst class in the game and has absolutely zero value. Meanwhile, Oni Chieftain has Scrolls and Axes, with perfectly acceptable Mag stat and strong defenses. But, it has the worst Skl in the entire game, and only average Spd – it can’t double attack anything, and thus has to bank all of its damage on a single inaccurate strike.

Thus far this tree sounds like total garbage…and yet every single character wants it anyway because it has Counter. Only ONE character in this entire game can pass it around and she’s terrible on Birthright. Seriously, I don’t know what IS was thinking when putting this tree together. It’s like they recognized that Berserkers were horribly outclassed by Warriors, but addressed this by simply rebranding Warriors as Berserkers and splitting the original Berserker class into two equally outclassed new classes instead.

Unique: Oni Chieftain (FG2K)

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Proficiency: A Club, B Scroll

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Deathblow – When user triggers the battle, Critical rate +20

Lv.15 – Counter – When an adjacent enemy triggers the battle and inflicts damage, the enemy receives the same damage

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 19 7 0 9 7 2 6 6

Growth Mod%: 10 20 15 0 10 0 20 5

Cap: 60 34 28 25 30 25 36 31

Other Notes: Lowest Skl & Lck in the game

Good class, but it’s in the wrong game. Let’s start with the pros: Stat-wise it’s supposed to be a decent mixed attacker with a physical leaning - good Str, spectacular defenses, and below average Mag. It’s physical and magical weapon are on two different sides of the weapon triangle offering moderate WTC. And, it has two very good skills that many classes desire, one of which is extremely powerful during online play.

In practice, however, Oni Chieftain have a hard time killing anything due to their low Skl, average Spd, and below average Mag. What’s more, their defenses, while very strong, are easy to circumnavigate again due to their average Spd, godawful Skl, and piss-poor Luck. They are very easily abused by dedicated casters and Sword fighters, most notably Heroes, Swordmasters, and Dark Knights. Counter can help discouraged repeated direct hits, but their only answer to ranged combat is neutered by nearly all ranged attackers having respectable or fantastic Res. Basically, the class got the short end of the stick in terms of its stat distribution -especially offensively.

This is most obvious when you compare them to Dark Knights who have high Mag and low Str allowing them to deal high damage to the many physical units with decent-high Def, but low Res, as well as the magical attackers with low Def & Hp (read: all of them). In contrast, Oni Chieftain have high Str and low Mag, meaning they deal low-average damage to most physical units and excessively high damage to a few magical ones. Even against the units they theoretically have an advantage against – high Res, low Def physical attackers (Master Ninja, Falcon Knights, Kinshi Knights, & Swordmasters) – their average Spd and crap-tier Skl lead to terrible match-ups all the same. See what I mean? This class could have been excellent, but the class pool that happens to exist in this game just was not designed to support it.

It is possible to make Oni Chieftain worthwhile if you can get it onto someone with high Skl (>+3) and positive Spd (pref+2 or higher). But unfortunately, such a character doesn’t exist in Gen 1, and Rinkah – someone with a -2 Skl modifier – is the only one who can pass the class around. Again, I truly do not understand why IS even bothered to make this class when there’s almost no way it can ever be worth a damn.

Desired Skills: Certain Blow, Swordbreaker, Axefaire, Renewal

Accuracy is outright required for Oni Chieftain and Certain Blow is the best (and only serious) way to boost it. However, since this class struggles with sword fighters, Swordbreaker is also a near essential pick. Their damage isn’t spectacular either – what with the inability to double attack anything and bad stat distribution – and since their Skl is garbage preventing them from using any of the go-to Skl-based procs reliably, they also want Axefaire. They also ~~have too many damn problems~~ could use a survival skill or two due to their average HP. If there were a skill that BOOSTED DEFENSE OR RESISTANCE (seriously, why doesn’t that exist?!?!?), they’d be all set, but alas they have to settle for Renewal.

Counters: Dark Knight, Mechanist, A LOT

You can usually bet on an Oni Chieftain having Counter, so units that attack indirectly fare the best against them. Dark Knights have every advantage in the book – WTA, superior movement, high Mag, and ideal defenses – making them the best counter to Oni Chieftain under predictable circumstances. The second best answer is Mechanist for the similar reasons excluding their ability to use magic. Frankly, any class with a ranged weapon can do the job, and if they don’t have Counter almost any melee class can deal with them as well.

Unique: Blacksmith (FG2L)

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Proficiency: A Clubs, B Katana

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Salvage Blow – When user triggers the battle, Luck% chance of receiving a Katana, Naginata, Club, Yumi or Shuriken if the user defeats the enemy

Lv.15 – Lancebreaker – Hit rate and Avoid +50 when the enemy is equipped with a Lance

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 21 8 0 9 8 3 8 2

Growth Mod%: 20 15 0 15 10 5 15 0

Cap: 65 33 25 32 31 30 32 27

Other Notes: One of the worst classes in the game; completely overshadowed by Hero

This class has no right to exist. The only advantage Blacksmith has over Hero is 5 more HP, 1 more Str & Def, and an A rank in Clubs. Heroes have 3 more Skl, 1 more Lck, two good skills, an A-rank in Swords, and most significantly of all, 1 more Spd. That missing point of Spd prevents Blacksmiths from double attacking anything but incredibly stupid Generals who left their most important skill at home. It also makes them vulnerable to doubles from Swordmasters and Master Ninja, both of whom pose a serious threat. Skill-wise the situation is just as grim. Its first skill, Salvage Blow, is a gimmick at best and the other, while good, does nothing for the class itself as it already has and prefers to use Clubs.

The supposed “merit” to this class is that it’s a slightly sturdier, but weaker Hero. However,

pragmatically speaking, that’s just a worthless class. Heroes are already as sturdy as they need to be – Average HP, perfectly average Def, slightly below average Res, and solid Spd to prevent most double attacks – they don’t need to be tougher; they have 35 Skl, with innate Sol access. What they needed was a more distinct offense, and THAT class (Vanguard) is DLC. This class is just a way to make Oni Savages a slightly less terrible starting tree for Rinkah. Only use this class if you really want to make a unit a Hero, but inexplicably can’t get access to it…yet somehow you have no problem switching to the rarest standard class tree in the game.

Desired Skills: Defensive skills, Renewal, Voice of Peace, Axefaire, ~~WHO CARES?????~~

Counter gives Blacksmith some value as an anti-phys class. Like its sister class, Blacksmiths also benefit greatly from defensive skills, the best of which being Voice of Peace (basically Def+2 in a radius) and Renewal. It’ll almost certainly be taking more damage than it deals, so the aforementioned combo of skills should help it last. It also has major issues dealing damage and requires at least a faire skill to really hurt anything. There’s nothing more to recommend or say as Hero would just use it better.

Counters: Swordmasters, Master Ninja, Dark Knights

Swordmasters and Master Ninja can both double attack the class with WTA and have a decent chance of instantly killing it with skills or gimping it in future encounters. Dark Knights have the usual cavalcade of advantages – Def to shrug off hits, high Mag to punish their low Res, Magic to hit from a range with WTA, and high Mov to always engage on its own terms. Literally anything can fight this class and win with the right loadout so there’s almost no point in even discussing counters. Use whatever is appropriate at the time. They aren’t a serious threat.

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Spear Fighter (FG2M)

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Proficiency: B Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Seal Defense – After battle, enemy’s Defense -6

Lv.10 – Swap – Select the “Swap” command to swap places with an adjacent ally on the map

HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   17           6              0              6              6              2              5              2
Growth Mod%: 15           15           0              15           15 5              10           5

Cap: 40 20 16 23 25 24 18 20

Other Notes: None

Spear Fighter is a fantastic tree and one of the few that I recommend taking for your Avatar. ALL 6 of
its skills are useful regardless of the unit’s functions, and it has a class for both physical and magical units to utilize or grow in. The tree is so good that it makes the few characters who have it some of the best units in the entire game. If you have it, use it. You cannot possibly go wrong with this tree.

Unique: Spear Master (FG2N)

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Proficiency: S Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Seal Speed – After battle, enemy’s Speed -6

Lv.15 – Lancefaire – When user is equipped with a Lance, damage +5 during battle

HP Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   18           9              0              8              8 3              7              3
Growth Mod%: 15           15           0              15           15           5              10           5

Cap: 60 34 25 33 32 29 30 29

Other Notes: Crt +10, Dodge +10, Can wield Waterwheel, one of the only decent S-rank weapons

Spear Master is a general purpose melee infantry class with great stats across the board, FANTASTIC offensive stat growths, and skills that allow it to function offensively or defensively. Essentially, they are the real Hoshidan equivalent to Nohr’s Hero class, not Blacksmith. Even though Heroes have access to two weapons and top-tier Skl, Spear Masters have absolute mastery of Naginata which itself mitigates or outright invalidates the advantages of Hero. First off, all Naginata add +1 Def & Res, elevating both of the Spear Master’s defenses above a Hero’s. That’s already more than decent coverage, but if that’s not enough, they can also equip either the Guard Naginata or the insanely powerful Waterwheel for +5 Def & Res to tank pretty much anything.

Secondly, the class can get around its axe weakness with the Dual Naginata (which still grants the standard defense bonus). Though the dual naginata has its own share of issues, Spear Masters' S-rank in Naginata alleviates both of the weapon’s issues (damage & accuracy) making it a fine option even when fighting lance users. More importantly, the weapon allows Spear Masters to not only go toe-to-toe with Wyvern Lords and Berserkers, but beat them consistently thanks to Seal Speed and Defense. Those two skills are so powerful that they shut down the class’ only theoretical counters, General & Snipers, and allow it to reliably take out nearly every unit in this game on its own.

The mere virtue of possessing this class, means that the unit necessarily also has access to Basara and its Rend Heaven skill. This provides the class with the two things Heroes don’t have: reliable damage, as well as the star status of being one of the best classes in this game.

Desired Skills: Pavise, Aegis, Heals, Draconic Hex

Seals are excellent in that they help out the entire team, not just the individual. However, they don’t kick in until after the unit does battle making it easy for an opponent to simply overwhelm the unit before the Seals become a serious problem. To address this, consider taking Pavise. Its proactive nature will improve a Spear Master’s survival rate theoretically allowing them to survive enemy onslaughts, cripple more units, and retaliate to greater effect. If you’re worried about the consistency, remember that all Spear Masters have good Skl and innate access to Quixotic making procs more reliable for them than any other class in the game (unless you somehow get a Ninja, Hero, or Sniper with Quixotic, of course).

Up next is healing. The one (real) advantage Heroes have over Spear Masters is a heal. Reducing incoming damage is nice, but unless you can heal it off, the unit will still go down with enough pressure. Renewal and Sol are the two best options for addressing that possibility. Last, but certainly not least, is their pair of debuffs. Seal Defense and Speed are strong, but they do require the use of two skill slots, which may be a bit much. So, if you have Draconic Hex, it can replace both. It’s not quite as good as the combination of Seal Defense and Spd, for addressing its counter (-6 Spd knocks Snipers down into double attack range), but the single skill enhances the class’ sturdiness and evasion (-4 Str & Spd), while opening new (albeit fewer) offensive doors. Plus, it only takes up a single skill slot freeing you up to take something offensive, so if you have it I’d still recommend taking it over their innate skill combination. Alternatively, you can simply replace Seal Defense with Draconic Hex and get the best of both worlds, though at that point I’d say you’re over estimating the dangers of a single, relatively uncommon class.

Counters: Snipers?, Nothing really

Snipers are the only class that can really deal with Spear Masters, and they do so by…not really dealing with them. Their high damage and bow access means that they can at least put a significant dent in a Spear Master (provided that they don’t have a Dual Naginata, Guard Naginata, or Waterwheel equipped) if they get the first shot…with Pursuer. However, they’ll rarely be able to ORKO them without some external assistance ~~or an act of god.~~ Normally that would be fine, but because of Seal Speed and Seal Defense, Snipers get consistently ORKOed in retaliation. Unfortunately, that’s the only class that can somewhat safely deal with them. You will almost certainly have to send two units in to take out a Spear Master, and if they go in separately at least one of them will be marked for death when all is said and done.

Shared: Basara (FG2P)

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Proficiency: A Naginata, B Scroll

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rend Heaven – Skill x 1.5% chance of adding half the enemy’s Strength (if user has a physical weapon) or Magic (if user has a magical weapon) as damage

Lv.15 – Quixotic – User and enemy’s Hit rate +30 and skill activation rate +15% during battle

HP Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   20           7              5              7              7              5              7              6
Growth Mod%: 20           10           10           10           10           15           5              10

Cap: 65 31 30 30 31 35 30 32

Other Notes: The only non-unique dedicated Mixed attacker in this game

BASARAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!......................Sorry, I’ve played too much Ninja Gaiden. This is another one of my personal favorite classes, and if you read my Fire Emblem: Awakening character analysis, you can probably infer why: High HP, decent growths and caps across the board, moderate weapon triangle control, and oh yeah, MIXED ATTACKING. Basara is the only standard class in the game with both average Mag and Str allowing them to deal decent damage to almost everything. Their Spd is only slightly above average preventing them from double attacking anything, and leaving them open to doubles from Master Ninja and Swordmasters. However, neither poses that large of a threat due to the class’ fair defenses and access to the Guard Naginata. That said, stat-wise it suffers mildly from the Jack-of-all trades syndrome in that it doesn’t excel at anything, and unfortunately its skills don’t really pick up the slack either.

Quixotic is a double-edged sword that the class is not properly equipped to take advantage of – I guess it’s more like one of the cartoon pistols with the barrel curved back towards its holder. Seeing as how this is a Hoshidan class, unless you have Revelations (or choose an appropriate tree for your Avatar) you’ll spend most of your time fighting Nohrian foes, four of which (Hero, Paladin, General, and Great Knight) have very powerful procs that severely inhibit the class’ ability to deal with them. At the same time, regardless of which tree you get the class from, Basara only innately have access to one proc: Rend Heaven which is almost entirely redundant due to the class being a mixed attacker. In short, Quixotic is not very good on Basara.

In contrast, Rend Heaven is one of the most useful skills in the game and could single-handedly fix Basara’s only average offense…provided that you know how to use it and that your Basara have unusually high Spd. The description says exactly what it does, but according to Gamefaqs, most players struggle to take advantage of it. In plain English, the skill makes Basara better at fighting physical units with physical weapons, and better at fighting magical units with magical ones. As you’ve no doubt guessed, the skill is completely at odds with the design philosophy of a mixed attacker, and I’m fairly certain that this conflict of interests is why most people don’t immediately see its value. On dedicated physical attackers and, to a lesser extent, magical attackers it’s exceptional as it increases the unit’s damage against classes with the appropriate defense. But on Basara, it just keeps their damage consistent – you can either attack a foe on their weaker defensive stat, or increase your damage against their stronger one. On units with high Str and low def (read: Berserker), High Mag and low res (read: Dark Knight), or decent mixed defenses with a strong offensive stat (read: Oni Savage) the skill can shine, but seeing as how all of three measly classes meet those criteria, it is undeniably more useful on Spear Masters than Basara.

Speaking of Spear Master, like most shared classes the usefulness of Basara is directly tied to which tree it comes out of. If it came from Diviner, then it’s only value is its stat growths as neither of the Diviner skills are great, and Onmyoji only bolsters the class with Tomefaire. On the other hand, if it comes from Spear Fighter the class will be great as it’ll have two great seals and Lancefaire to bolster its offensive capabilities…the only problem is that it would almost always be better to just deploy a Spear Master instead.

Now, with as negative as I’m being, you’re probably wondering why I like this class and still think it’s pretty good. The main reason is that unlike Oni Chieftain, which is statistically decent yet still terrible due to various meta factors, Basara is statistically average but very useful due to those same meta factors. You can mathematically prove that Basara’s stats are actually high enough to significantly threaten most of the game’s classes. but more relevant to you is that its neutral stat distribution and mixed attacking capabilities make it the perfect class for characters to project extreme stat modifiers onto. Characters who would otherwise be terrible (Orochi, Rinkah, etc.) can seek refuge in this class and still contribute to the team as attackers. At the same time, the various children in the game can take their extreme stats into this class to mold it into almost anything combat related – a strong physical/magical attacker, physical tank, a magical tank, or even what it’s bloody supposed to be: a mixed attacker.

Desired Skills: Faire/Trample, Skl-based procs

This class needs damage. Period. Rend Heaven is not a good fit for this class, take a hard damage boost or Luna instead. Skill based procs in general work very well on Basara thanks to Quixotic, especially Lethality. But, always be aware of the skill’s double-edged nature.

Counters: Master Ninja

There aren’t many serious counters due to their balanced stats, though Master Ninja is a fair choice. They can double attack Basara, debuff them, and sometimes even get WTA or Lethality procs due to Quixotic. Basara have no real answers to Master Ninja, and Rend Heaven simply cannot add much damage due to Master Ninja’s low Str.

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Diviner (FG2Q)

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Proficiency: B Scrolls

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Magic +2 – Magic +2

Lv.10 – Future Sight – When user triggers the battle, Luck% chance of gaining double experience when user defeats the enemy

  HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases: 15 0              4              5 6              1              1 3
Growth Mod%:   0              5 15           10           15 5 0 10

Cap: 35 17 22 20 23 19 16 20

Other Notes: Ideal for magic users to own

This tree is unfortunately as good as it gets for offensive casters. One class brings the all-important damage boosting skill, while the other has the stats to make that skill worthwhile. Neither class has any of the supplementary skills they need to be worthwhile or better perform a function, let alone the one they were supposedly designed for making both extremely dependent on the characters’ other class trees. Onmyoji is also one of the worst classes in the game, severely limiting your options when outfitting a character with this tree. As the notes state, this is a great tree for mages to own, but make sure you have a damn good reason for actually switching to either of its classes.

Shares: Onmyoji (FG2R)

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Proficiency: A Scroll, B Rods

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Mag – Magic +4 to all allies within a 2-tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Tomefaire – When user is equipped with a Tome, damage +5 during battle

   HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases: 16           0              7              6              7 2              3              6
Growth Mod%:   0              0 20           10           15 0 0 15

Cap: 45 25 33 31 32 27 25 31

Other Notes: Completely outclassed by Strategist, Top candidate for most disappointing class in the game

Behold, the latest incarnation of the almighty Sage class! It’s…………the worst iteration of it in the franchise’s history. It ties for the lowest HP AND Def of all classes in the game, and doesn’t have enough Spd to double attack almost anything. Consequently, it is exceedingly vulnerable to physical attacks and will almost assuredly die to a Brave weapon even with full health. Secondly, it doesn’t have much Res either, only slightly exceeding the average at 31, so even other mages can put a fat dent in it. And, even if you tried to use one as a glass cannon, it would still fail as it’s not actually that powerful. Onmyoji only has 33 Mag+5 with Tomefaire in a game where magic is one of the weakest weapon-types and the average Res is 30. Combine that with its lack of Spd and confluence of other issues, and you get a class that’s really only good for scavenging kills from other better classes. Which brings us to the real problem with Onmyoji: every other magical class is flat out better than it in almost every way.

Strategist has identical Mag, better Res, more useful skills, and far more mobility making it better at weaving in and out of combat. Basara has TWENTY more HP, 5 more Def, 8 more Lck, the same Spd, and can mixed attack and only trades 3 pts of Mag and 1 pt of Skl. Sorcerer has better defenses, more Mag, more useful skills, and Nosferatu so that it can actually put up a sustained offense. And those are just the less favorable magical classes for comparison. Others surpass it even more dramatically. Normally, the fact that Onmyoji use magic at all would make them a terror to physical units. But in FE Fates, there are so many physical units with Res and/or a means of retaliation that the novelty of casting spells is no longer a legitimate advantage, and certainly isn’t enough to justify a class’ existence. In a way, this is great since the Sage class was always domineering (except in Radiant Dawn, of course), but in this particular game, there’s no use case for this class anymore. Regardless of how your character gains access to this class, I cannot recommend using it over its counterparts Basara and Great Master/Priestess. Perhaps an absurdly magically offensive stat distribution (e.g. Nyx!Rhajat) can warrant its use as a novelty, but in 99% of cases, you’d be better off using something else. Switch to it to get Tomefaire, then be on your way somewhere else.

Desired Skills: Counter, Shurikenbreaker, Darting Blow, Live to Serve

Onmyoji’s biggest weakness is its bottom-tier defense, and though this game doesn’t have a serious defense booster skill, there are still a few options that adequately address its weaknesses. Counter is their number one priority as its the class’ best defense against melee attackers. Its Spd protects it from nearly all standard double attacks, so the skill adds an extra “hump” for physical units to get over – if they can’t deal 70+ damage in one swing, then they probably won’t get the chance to retaliate. Shurikenbreaker is another decent defensive skill, in that it helps even the playing field against its two biggest threats. However, keep in mind that the skill alone is not nearly enough to shut down either.

Offensively Onmyoji are in desperate need of Darting Blow. 32 Spd isn’t bad, but it’s not fast enough to make a true offensive powerhouse relegating Onmyoji to the role of ~~cum-stained~~ vultures. But with Darting Bow they can secure doubles against a much broader swath of units and actually kill things on their own (what a concept!). Lastly, if you go this route of making your Onmyoji a fighter, you should probably take Live to Serve as well. Double attacking means that they are more prone to taking retaliatory damage, and since they’re about as sturdy as 2 millennia old drywall they’ll need to be able to heal after fighting. However, their low HP total means that percentage-based heals like Renewal don’t really suffice, so Live to Serve is their best means of healing off large amounts of HP. It also kills two birds with one stone though it mandates that you always give your Onmyoji a physic staff.

Counters: Everything with Knife access, all physical attackers with Res (read: all Hoshidan classes), Countermagic

Anything with weapon triangle advantage or resistance will WRECK this class, but Master Ninja and Butlers/Maids are flat out hard counters. Both classes can fight Onmyoji at either range, and have enough Resistance to take hits more than adequately. But what sets them apart from say, a Javelin-wielding Falcon Knight, is that Master Ninja have enough Spd to double attack Onmyoji, and Maids/Butlers have Tomebreaker. Those capabilities essentially allow the classes to kill off Onmyoji with a respectable chance of taking zero damage. It’s also worth noting that Countermagic is a straight death sentence for an Onmyoji and alone will allow almost any class to shut one down.

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Monk/Shrine Maiden (FG2S)

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Proficiency: B Rods

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Miracle – Luck% chance of leaving the user with 1 HP when they have 2 or more HP

Lv.10 – Rally Luck – Luck +8 to all allies within a 2-tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 16 0 3 5 5 4 2 5
Growth Mod%: 0 5 10 10 15 15 0 20

Cap: 35 18 21 20 22 23 17 24

Other Notes: Dodge +10, good tree for men, okay for women

#CasualSexism. Just kidding…mostly. These trees are like the more stable equivalents to Diviner. All of them share the Onmyoji class for casters, and since that class has no value for anyone other than a caster, Monk & Shrine Maiden are also best suited to someone of the magical persuasion. The second class for Diviner – Basara - is better for units to switch to, while the alternative class for Monk/Shrine Maiden contains better skills (Renewal & Countermagic) for most units to learn. At the same time, though, Great Master isn’t a bad class to switch to making this tree more desirable than its relative…for men. Women get screwed over a bit by getting a class that’s entirely redundant with Adventurer, except slightly worse and lacking access to the Shining and Brave Bows on Birthright. This shortcoming however, doesn’t detract too heavily from the tree itself. Both Monk and Shrine Maiden are good trees for most units to possess.

Shared: Great Master/Priestess (FG2T)

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Proficiency: A Rod, B Naginata (Great Master)/
B Yumi (Priestess)

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Renewal – Recover 30% HP at the start of the user’s Turn

Lv.15 – Countermagic – When the enemy triggers the battle and inflicts magical damage, the enemy receives the same damage

Great Master

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 8 6 6 8 5 6 7

Growth Mod%: 10 15 5 5 15 15 10 10

Cap: 55 32 30 31 33 32 28 32

Priestess

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 6 7 6 9 5 5 8

Growth Mod%: 10 10 10 5 15 15 0 20

Cap: 50 29 32 30 33 34 26 34

Other Notes: Great Master=Good, Priestess=Redundant (Adventurers are better at everything (see: FG1K))

If you played Fire Emblem Awakening, you’ll probably be able to piece together why IS made a sex segregation here. The Bride class from that game was a little too powerful as it was, so for this game IS nerfed its HP & Def, and divided its weapons between a male and female class. Unfortunately, the weapon options for the female class, Priestess, are the same as Adventurer, which has a better stat and weapon level distribution. It trades 1 Spd, the Brave Bow, ~~a pimpin’ hat~~ and in most-cases the Shining Bow for 1 Str, 1 Def, and Fortify. That isn’t a fair trade in the slightest, as the class is basically left with no offensive value (yes, even with a good stat spread). But what matters is that these differences make Priestesses supporters first and attackers second. The same prioritization is true of Great Masters, except that unlike their female counterparts, Great Masters can actually fight.

The male variant is better in every area of note, boasting more HP, Str, Skl, & Def without losing the glorious 33 Spd (immunity to conventional double attacks). It’s not as good in a fight as Spear Master, mind you, as its Str, Def, and HP are all a notch beneath it. But, it still has no difficulty keeping up with dedicated vanguard units, despite the fact that it doesn’t have to – it is packing A-rank staves, after all. It’s a shame that the female variant doesn’t have any uniquely redeeming qualities as the skill pool of these classes is among the best in the entire game. Their first skill, Renewal, is one of the game’s top three recovery skills. It heals 30% of the unit’s total HP every turn with no strings attached, making it desirable for all units with over 50 HP (like Great Master) in both the campaign and online portions of the game. Meanwhile, their second skill, Countermagic, is the single strongest magical deterrent and countermeasure the game has to offer. Almost all casters have terrible HP and Def, so they have to press most of their damage by attacking foes with low resistance from whichever

range is most advantageous. The standard Counter skill will counter magical attacks as well, forcing mages to fight from a distance, but Countermagic is range agnostic, effectively converting mages’ only advantage over standard physical attackers against them. Neither Great Master nor Priestess really needs the skill as both have above average-high Res, though it is still one hell of a middle finger to magical classes. Collectively, the classes are fantastic for physical units to own, though I would avoid switching a character to either of them without first taking a hard look at their stat caps and class pool. It’s not hard to justify using Great Master, but Priestess is almost the definition of a last resort.

Desired Skills: Counter, Pavise, XFaire, Darting Blow

Well, these skills certainly look familiar /snark. Anyway, Great Masters and Priestesses both benefit from the same handful of skills, though the former can take better advantage of them due to spending more time in combat. Neither class can use a brave weapon, so both want a faire skill and Darting Blow for better damage. They also both have “below average” Def, so you can either cover up the weakness with Pavise or convert it into a strength with Counter. Fortunately, that decision is fairly clear-cut; Great Masters prefer Pavise as they’re likely to face many melee attackers, while Priestesses want Counter to discourage melee attacks. Simple.

Counters: Great Master: Axe fighters (yes, all of them), Priestess: melee attackers (yes, all of them)

Being mono-attackers makes both classes highly susceptible to WTA. For Great Masters this is a pretty big deal as axe fighters tend to have high Str, to prey on their below average Def. Priestesses however, don’t care so much about magic thanks to their absurd Res. However, they don’t have any good answers to melee attackers, so pretty much anyone with a 1-range weapon can take them out.

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Sky Knight (FG2U)

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Proficiency: B Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Darting Blow – When user triggers the battle, follow up attack speed +5

Lv.10 – Camaraderie – Recover 10% HP at the start of the user’s Turn if there are allies within a 2-tile radius

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 16 3 0 5 7 4 2 6

Growth Mod%: 0 10 0 10 15 20 0 20

Cap: 35 19 16 21 23 25 18 25

Other Notes: Strong contender for best supporting tree in the game

Boy, was Peg Knight given some love. “Sky” Knights provide exclusive access to 4 FANTASTIC
skills, 1 good one (Air Superiority), and 1 worthless one (Camaraderie), that isn’t even worth mentioning beyond this sentence. Its two classes are both unique and valuable for attackers of all stripes, and though their stats may not look very appealing on paper relative to the other classes, they are actually placed well enough to make both worth switching to. The tree is good – VERY good. So good in fact, that I can actually recommend it for all characters except for dedicated tanks.

Unique: Falcon Knight (FG2V)

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Proficiency: A Naginata, B Rods

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Rally Speed – Speed +4 to all allies within a 2-tile radius for one Turn when the “Rally” command is used

Lv.15 – Warding Blow – When user triggers the battle, magical damage received -20

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 18 5 4 6 10 5 5 9

Growth Mod%: 0 10 10 10 15 20 0 20

Cap: 55 28 27 30 34 35 27 35

Other Notes: The anti-Hoshido Hoshidan class~~/proof that IS are jerks~~

Good class. Despite their below average Str, Falcon Knights are surprisingly decent attackers thanks to Darting Blow and their tremendous 34 Spd. Those two capabilities secure double attacks against nearly every class in the game, more than making up for their minor Str deficit. Their Naginata then takes their power a step further by providing a nice selection of weapons with critical effectiveness. So, with their high, unfettered mov they can usually initiate an attack and eliminate a distant target in one round. With that said, it’s important to be mindful of their peculiar defensive stat spread. It has below average HP and Def, but also has the highest base Res of all the game’s classes (Nine-Tailed Foxes have more total Res). The combination of below average Str, top-tier Spd, WTA, and unparalleled Res (Warding Blow, ‘nuff said) make them one of the game’s ideal mage killers. However, mages don’t usually travel in packs, so if you want to get the most out of them, you’ll have to get comfortable with fighting physical units. Fortunately, they are capable of beating them, one on one, though you’ll need to be crafty and abuse their high Mov. It’s also worth remembering that their Mag is high enough to take advantage of the Bolt Naginata, so heavily armored units are not necessarily insurmountable.

Falcon Knights are also the only flying class with a rod/staff, making them one of the best healers in this game in spite of their below average Mag. That utility happens to synergizes well with its primary function as a guerilla fighter as well as their innate access to Rally Speed, in that it gives them something else to do while they’re eyeballing their next target. Like many Hoshido classes, the power of this class is heavily linked to your skills as a tactician. Try to keep their options open when choosing skills, and be willing to deploy them in whatever way seems most effective. Oh, and keep them away from bows.

Desired Skills: Lancefaire, Luna, Rallies, Live to Serve/Lifetaker, Bowbreaker, Armored Blow

With single-hit damage being one of their two largest flaws, Lancefaire is a natural fit for any Falcon Knight hoping to engage in combat (and wouldn’t you know it, Hinoka already comes with the class). Alternatively, if you’re playing Revelations, you can also use Luna as a substitute or complement as it exploits their low Str to add a proportionally large boost to their damage. Defensively, they only really need Bowbreaker, as getting hit with an arrow is essentially a death sentence…~~however, if you are the coolest motherfucker on the planet~~ an extreme pragmatist, you could also give them Armored Blow to heavily mitigate incoming damage from physical attackers and Aggressor to maximize their offense. This effectively converts your Falcon Knight into a god when attacking, flawlessly doubling everything for extremely heavy damage while taking little to no damage in response. BUT that’s a bit overambitious in terms of skill slots and is definitely insane and not at all exactly what I do to completely dominate online.

Outside of combat, they’d like a (better) means of restoring health as their reliance on double attacking makes them extremely prone to taking retaliatory damage. However, because they also prefer to kill units in a single round, they have three different skills that can keep them healthy: Lifetaker, Live to Serve, and Renewal. Lifetaker and Live to Serve are their best options based on their ideal play style, though Renewal can be used as a slightly weaker variant if you turn them into a Rally bot. And speaking of, the last skills a Falcon Knight can use effectively are rallies. They already come with the best one in the game, but if you’d like to further emphasize its value you can add other Rallies to for stronger non-combat turns.

Counters: Generals, Oni Chieftain, Bows, and classes that can’t be double attacked with Darting Blow

Generals shut down double attacks and have more than enough HP, Def, and Res to tank physical and magical hits from Falcon Knights. Plus, they can snag WTA with an axe in case their accuracy needs a boost. Oni Chieftain have similar advantages, though they can be double attacked, which may prove dangerous if the Falcon Knight has a Dual Naginata. Generally speaking, any unit with a bow or that can’t be double attacked is a massive threat to a Falcon Knight, so if you see one, just make sure you have a countermeasure available.

Shared: Kinshi Knight (FG2W)

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Proficiency: A Yumi, B Naginata

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Air Superiority – Hit rate and Avoid +30 when facing Flying enemies

Lv.15 – Amaterasu – Allies within a 2-tile radius recover 20% HP at the start of the user’s Turn

   HP          Str          Mag       Skl          Spd        Lck          Def         Res
Bases:                   17           4              1              9              8              5 4 7
Growth Mod%: 0              5              0              15 15           15           0              15

Cap: 50 27 26 33 31 34 25 31

Other Notes: Only flier with bows, Among the deadliest classes for online play

Next to Mechanist, this is probably the least understood class in the game, so I’ll just explain it in plain English: Kinshi Knight is the absolute worst class to use during the campaign. It can’t fight, it can’t take a hit, it’s too vulnerable to proactively hunt down fliers, and it learns its only support skill so late in the game that you’ll have plenty of other units that can perform the same function, but better. Do not use it during the campaign. Ever. Reclass Reina as a Falcon Knight. Thank me later.

During post-game and online, however, Kinshi Knight is the single most dangerous attacker blighting the game’s skies. Why? Because statues, character modifiers, limitless skill allocation, and weapon forging make their slightly below average stats irrelevant. All that matters, is the fact that it can fly, and use A-rank yumi backed by B-rank naginata. No class can compete with a Kinshi Knight’s attack range; they will always get the first attack. So, with a hyper offensive set of skills and powerful weaponry, they can ORKO damn near every class in the game. What about retaliation? Doesn’t matter. Aside from the fact that they can always out-range the defender, I ran the numbers and the only class that can inherently take them out in one swing is Berserker (and that’s with Axefaire). Thanks to their two complimentary weapons, Kinshi Knights can always claim WTA when they attack, making their attacks that much more reliable. And to round things off, most classes that threaten Kinshi Knights (fliers) are all terrified of getting within 11 spaces of them, and the only two that aren’t (Bow Knights and Generals) struggle to catch them out of position. In an environment without clear limitations the classes with the strongest utilities and mobility are king, and Kinshi Knights perch comfortably at the top of both areas. If you plan on playing online use this class.

* From a meta perspective, the practical reason why Kinshi Knights are terrible in-game isn’t actually due to their stats, but rather that their function as an anti-flier is inherently antithetical to the way the game works. Every FE game has asymmetrical gameplay in which the enemies outnumber the player’s forces, but the player has stronger units that can grow in power. This leads to most of the action taking place during the enemy phase as your few units take on a horde of suicidal enemies. Consequently, Archers have historically been one of the series’ weaker classes, because they couldn’t retaliate against the majority of attacks, and therefore struggled to keep up (level-wise) with melee attackers. So with that context, look at Kinshi Knight: It’s designed to be the “anti-flier” class by virtue of being able to keep pace with other fliers and actively kill them before they become a problem. However, the game doesn’t deploy fliers individually, but in flocks, and you will (realistically) only be able to deploy one or two Kinshi Knights at a time. So, if you try to proactively kill fliers during the campaign’s player phase, your Kinshi Knight will only end up getting overwhelmed during the enemy phase by the fliers it could not kill. There’s no ostensible way for you to use the class as intended, when the game mechanics and overall design inherently punishes you for it. They could have given this class 60 HP, 35 Str, and 36 Spd and it would still be a bad class to use during the campaign. If the game followed FE4 & 5 rules wherein a character attacked outside of their weapon’s range would automatically switch to another weapon with an appropriate range, the class would have been fine. But alas, that would require actually learning things from past FEs, and IS has shown with these last two games that they aren’t willing to do that.

Desired Skills: Replicate, Bowfaire, Offensive Initiative skills, Luna, Rend Heaven

There are only two (good) ways to build a Kinshi Knight, and one of them doesn’t yet have a purpose online. The first, as you’ve no doubt guessed, is designated hitter. Take Bowfaire, (since if you’re not using a bow, then you might as well use a Falcon Knight), then load up on initiative skills. Darting Blow, Quick Draw/Aggressor, and Certain Blow are preferred, though if your Kinshi Knight is still too weak to seriously injure non-fliers, Savage Blow is a serviceable option. And to complete the offensive spread, take a proc. Kinshi Knights have high Skl and regularly pick on stronger opponents, so both Luna and Rend Heaven can dramatically improve their damage output.

The second way to use Kinshi Knights is as a dedicated AA unit, and as I mentioned earlier, Kinshi Knights struggle with this role during the campaign due to being unable to keep up with high numbers of fliers. However, there is a very late skill, that not only gets around this problem, but also improves their offense against land units: Replicate. Kinshi Knights are one of the only classes that universally benefit from Replicate, and are one of two classes I recommend getting the skill for. Even with initiative skills, bowfaire, and Rend Heaven/Luna, a Kinshi Knight may still struggle to ORKO a healthy, sturdy opponent. Two fully decked out Kinshi Knights on the other hand, can take out pretty much anything. What’s more, the Replicate skill mirrors a character’s inventory, enabling you to swap ranges (Bow->Naginata or vice-versa) after attacking with the first unit should an enemy still be in range. And as a nice benefit, with multiple Kinshi Knights you don’t have to worry about enemy fliers. Just having 2 separate Kinshi Knights with Replicate would net you 4 anti-fliers, more than enough to handle any aerial assault the game will throw at you. Basically, for both anti-air and general offensive purposes, you want to have a flock of Kinshi Knights. The ideal Kinshi Knight build looks something like; Replicate, Bowfaire/Trample, Aggressor, Darting Blow, and Rend Heaven/Luna. Aspire to make them offensive, and the class’ superiority will reveal itself.

Counters: Everything? Bow Knights, Paladins, Mechanists, Physical classes and magical classes who get weapon advantage

This class is a glass cannon. Literally anything that stumbles upon WTA, picks an advantageous range, or just happens to have a lot of power WILL take it out. Perhaps not in one swing, but still without much effort. Just make sure that they kill it quickly, since they are exceedingly good at punishing failure.

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Archer (FG2Y)

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Proficiency: B Yumi

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Skill +2 – Skill +2

Lv.10 – Quick Draw – When user triggers the battle, damage +4

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 17 5 0 7 5 2 4 1

Growth Mod%: 10 15 0 15 15 5 10 0

Cap: 40 21 15 23 21 20 20 17

Other Notes: One of the best class trees in the game

Sniper and Kinshi Knight in the same tree…yup, that’s not even remotely fair. One of the classes is the most powerful ranged attacker in the entire game, and the other is the most dangerous attacker in post-game and online. Both classes reinforce each other, and both have value for every other type of unit in the game. This tree is what power looks like, and comfortable sits among the best that this game has to offer. It is another fine choice for your Avatar, and one that I strongly recommend considering when working out your pairings.

Unique: Sniper (FG2Z)

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Proficiency: S Yumi

Skills:

Lv. 5 – Certain Blow – When user triggers the battle, Hit Rate +40

Lv.15 – Bowfaire – When user is equipped with a Bow, damage +5 during battle

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res
Bases: 19 7 0 10 9 3 6 2

Growth Mod%: 10 15 0 20 15 5 10 0

Cap: 55 31 25 35 33 30 31 28

Other Notes: Hit+10 & Crit+10, Can wield the S-rank Yumi Pursuer (which is actually good), Ties for highest Skl in the game

My, how the times have changed. Snipers are one of the best classes in this game, and by a pretty significant margin. They have the highest Skl in the game, S-rank Yumi, +10 hit, and Certain Blow – Bowbreaker can die in a fire, they will NEVER miss. Usually someone offsets that kind of laser-guided accuracy with mediocre damage. But my guess is that a squad of Snipers ambushed the balance designers in a dark alley, as they inexplicably hit like pissed off Berserkers. Snipers rarely get to fight during the enemy phase, so initiative attacks are especially useful for them. Yet for some reason, IS gave them the exact two initiative skills they want, Quick Draw and Certain Blow, in addition to Bowfaire. Add them all up and you get 40 MT with flawless accuracy before even calculating the bow. And speaking of, Snipers not only get access to the strongest weapon in the game (Pursuer), but also another weapon that addresses their (supposed) vulnerability to melee attacks. The Mini Bow is only a point weaker than an Iron Bow, has better accuracy than the majority of Yumi, and only has a -10 Avd penalty, yet it allows Snipers to freely fight back against melee attackers with all of their skills intact. They’re immune to conventional double attacks, have more than competent defenses, don’t care in the slightest about losing WTA, and the closest thing they have to a statistical weakness is 55 HP – something most classes would kill for. I get that IS wanted to make mono-attackers viable this time around to make up for the last game, but after looking at Berserker, Spear Master, and now this monstrosity, it’s clear that they took things too far. This class is completely obscene.

Desired Skills: Counter, Deathblow, Replicate, Rend Heaven, Vantage

Their defensive stats are competent, so you’d be better served maximizing their offense. Deathblow naturally complements their playstyle and innate +10 Crit, so it’s pretty much a staple. Unfortunately, it’s also very hard to get. More realistically, you’ll want an offensive proc like Luna or Rend Heaven to secure more OHKOs (Rend Heaven is better), and Replicate for insurance in case they can’t stick to the landing. It’s worth mentioning that their Spd is high enough to guarantee ORKOs against virtually everything with Darting Blow, though Snipers generally prefer not to give their targets a chance to fight back.

As was already discussed, the Mini Bow handily addresses their vulnerability to melee attacks, though Counter is still a good skill to have for when you want to fight off a crowd. And if fighting crowds is a concern for you, they can use Vantage to help secure victory.

Counters: Paladins, Bow Knights

The best way to kill a Sniper is to get to them before they shoot you. Cavalry are the only units capable of reaching them without fear of getting OHKOed in retaliation, and the only two classes capable of putting them down are Paladins and Bow Knights. Neither is inherently capable of ORKOing them, but with the right skills and weapons a safe kill is possible.

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Kitsune/~~Kyuubi~~ Nine-Tailed Fox (FG2AA)

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Proficiency: B->S Beaststones

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Evenhanded – During even-numbered Turns, damage +4

Lv.10 – Beastbane – When user is a Wolfskin or Kitsune, their attacks are effective against Beast units

Kitsune

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 16 5 1 6 8 4 1 4

Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 15 20 10 0 20

Cap: 40 20 18 23 24 24 18 23

Other Notes: Has an inherent Beast weakness

Skills:

Lv. 1 – Even Better – Recover 40% HP at the start of even-numbered Turns

Lv.10 – Grisly Wound – The enemy’s HP is reduced by 20% after the battle

Nine-Tailed Fox

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Bases: 19 6 2 9 10 5 2 8

Growth Mod%: 10 10 0 15 20 10 0 20

Cap: 55 29 29 33 34 33 27 34

Other Notes: Crit+5, Avd +10, Dodge+10, Beast weakness

It’s a bit odd to make an anti-mage class that can’t fight from a range, but what do I know, I’ve only been analyzing these games for a decade and playing them games for almost two. Anyway, Nine-Tailed Foxes potentially have the highest Res, Spd, and Skl of all the game’s classes with the right stone equipped. They don’t do anything but hit things, and they’re only good at hitting lightly armored units and slow, low defense Cavalry (read: absolutely nothing), thanks to Beastbane. But, they are very hard to hit, so with a little luck, they can fight pretty much anything not named a General. That’s about it. Grisly Fangs is the only skill any other class wants, and even that has pretty limited value. It isn’t a bad class, but there’s little reason to use it when Falcon Knights exist (and is far easier to transfer).

Desired Skills: Counter, Lucky Seven

Since all Kyuubi do is hit stuff, they already have a heal, and can’t receive a large boost from damage skills, Counter is the only skill that reliably boosts their combat efficacy. If you’d rather they not get hit in the first place, you can also opt to use Lucky Seven. However, their lack of mobility will force you to use another unit as a ferry.

Counters: Snipers, Generals

You won’t beat a Kyuubi with speed or power. You need either high accuracy to nullify their evasion or strong Def to invalidate their offense. The best classes for these purposes are Snipers and Generals respectively.

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Hoshidan Characters (FG2X)

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Rinkah (FG21)

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Personal Skill: Fiery Blood – When user’s HP is not full, damage +4

Stat Modifiers: +2 Def, +1 Spd, -1 Str, -2 Skl

Birthright:

Friend – Oboro = Spear Fighter| Spouse – Azama = Shrine Maiden

Class Pool: Oni Savage, Ninja, Spear Fighter, Shrine Maiden

Mechanist – Counter, Countermagic, Shurikenfaire, Rend Heaven, Seal Speed/Seal Defense/Renewal

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 30 35 15 65 55 40 50 35

Cap: 60 29 25 31 31 30 33 31

Offense: C Defense: B+ Support/Utility: A

Role:

Verdict:

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Sakura (FG22)

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Personal Skill: Quiet Strength – Allies within a 2-tile radius receive 2 less damage

Stat Modifiers: +2 Mag, +1 Spd, -1 Skl, -1 Def

Birthright:

Friend – Hana = Samurai| Spouse – Jakob = Troubadour

Class Pool: Shrine Maiden, Sky Knight, Samurai, Troubadour

Maid – Inspiration, Darting Blow/Tomebreaker, Astra, Vantage/Seal Strength, Amaterasu

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 45 40 60 55 55 65 35 30

Cap: 50 28 33 32 34+2 32 28 29

Offense: B Defense: B Support/Utility: A+

Role: Debuff, Support

Verdict:

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Hana (FG23)

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Personal Skill: Fearsome Blow – When user triggers the battle and defeats an enemy, enemies adjacent to the user have their HP reduced by 20%

Stat Modifiers: +2 Spd, +1 Str, Skl, & Res, -1 Lck, -3 Def

Birthright:

Friend – Setsuna = Archer| Spouse – Silas = Cavalier

Class Pool: Samurai, Shrine Maiden, Archer, Cavalier

Master of Arms – Swordfaire/Astra, Countermagic, Renewal, Luna, Aegis

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 45 70 10 55 65 35 30 30

Cap: 65 34 25 31 32 30 28 29

Offense: A Defense: B Support/Utility: D

Role: Physical Attacker

Verdict:

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Subaki (FG24)

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Personal Skill: Perfectionist – When user’s HP is at maximum, Hit rate and Avoid +15

Stat Modifiers: +3 Def, +2 Skl, -1 Str, Lck, & Res, -2 Spd

Birthright:

Friend – Azama = Monk| Spouse – Hana = Samurai

Class Pool: Sky Knight, Spear Fighter, Monk, Samurai

I hate Subaki’s worthless guts.

Great Master – Renewal, Darting Blow, Duelist’s Blow, Amaterasu, Seal Speed

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 65 45 25 55 35 40 55 15

Cap: 55 31 30 33 31 31 31 31

Offense: B Defense: C Support/Utility: A

Role: Attacker, Support

Verdict:

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Saizo (FG25)

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Personal Skill: Pyrotechnics – When user triggers the battle at under half HP, the user and enemies within a 2-tile radius have their HP reduced by 20%

Stat Modifiers: +3 Skl, +1 Str & Def, -2 Skl & Spd

Birthright:

Friend – Subaki = Sky Knight| Spouse – Oboro/Rinkah = Spear Fighter

Class Pool: Ninja, Samurai, Sky Knight, Spear Fighter

Rinkah & Oboro

Oboro = Class & Offensive Skill

Rinkah = Counter, Slightly Better growths & Slightly worse class

Basara – Rend Heaven/Lethality, Darting Blow, Amaterasu/Quixotic, Vantage, Lancefaire

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 60 60 55 70 40 70 50 20

Cap: 65 32 30 33 29 35 31 30

Offense: B Defense: B Support/Utility: B

Role: Mixed Attacker, Support

Verdict:

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Orochi (FG26)

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Personal Skill: Capture – When there is a Prison in My Castle, the user can select the “Capture” command. If a generic enemy is defeated, they will be sent to the Prison

Stat Modifiers: +3 Mag, +2 Skl, +1 Res, -1 Lck, -2 Spd & Def

Birthright:

Friend – Oboro/Rinkah = Spear Fighter| Spouse – Jakob/Hayato = Troubadour

Class Pool: Diviner, Apothecary, Spear Fighter, Troubadour

Terrible unit.

Strategist –

HP Str Mag Skl Spd Lck Def Res

Growth %: 35 5 8 6 3 3 2 6

Cap: 50 28 33 32 34+2 32 28 29

Offense: B Defense: D- Support/Utility: D

Role:

Verdict:

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Optimal Pairings [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING] (SG00)

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What are “optimal” pairings?

At the moment, optimal pairings are marital arrangements that make every playable character (excluding those who can only marry the avatar) a strong unit. For the first generation characters, this means ensuring that they each have the widest possible pool of classes that leverage the characters’ stats. And for the children, this translates to 1.) giving every child “good” stat modifiers (lowest is no worse than -2 in a non-offensive stat, and they have at least one non-Luck stat >3 or multiple non-Luck stats=3) 2.) more than one usable class, and 3.) that none of them use the Avatar as a parent.

Since we do not have a map/obstacle to use as a benchmark, and competitive online multiplayer is a fluid environment that can change at a moment’s notice, this is the only justifiable definition “optimal” presently available. By extension, there is no single “best” set of pairings as these requirements are difficult, but possible to achieve with multiple arrangements. The goal of this section is thus to demonstrate that optimal pairings are possible, and provide you with an example in case you are too lazy to do so yourself.

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What are the advantages to using optimal pairings?

By ensuring that every character is usable you free your avatar up to marry whomever you please in either First or Second generation without fear of screwing more than one person over.

To clarify, because marriageable men and women are 100% balanced in every campaign, if the Avatar marries someone in the First generation, one person will be left without a spouse and by extension one class tree. For some characters, like Niles, this is not an issue, but for others like Felicia, it’s crippling. The situation emerges if you marry a second generation character as well, but it’s far less damaging due to the character’s one additional class tree. In any event, if you plan on marrying someone First gen, make sure that you know what you are going to do with that one unmarried character.

This is the only advantage to using an optimal set of pairings. You will not be able to deploy every character at once, you will not be able to use all of these characters over the course of the campaign, and if you are able to split every combat function between 12-16 characters, then you have no need for so many reserves. I do not personally use optimal pairings and am only providing an example of optimal pairings, because this is the single most frequently asked question by players of this game.

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What are the disadvantages to using optimal pairings?

You cannot afford to play favorites with more than a couple of characters.

In order to meet the requirements I outlined, you are going to have to make a lot of choices and arrangements that you are not going to like for personal reasons. Few characters (if any) will be as powerful as those I outline in their individual character analyses – by choosing optimal pairings you are choosing “the many” over “the few,” and while that may be reasonable in politics or a life or death situation, this is a video game that was designed for you to have fun with it. Unless min/maxing is what you enjoy, then I would not recommend seeking optimal pairings.

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Birthright - Optimal Pairings Example (SG0A)

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Jakob!Orochi – Dwyer (+5 Skl, +3 Str, +2 Mag, +1 Res, -1 Spd, Lck, & Def )

Azura!Silas – Shigure (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Silas!Azura – Sophie (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Kaze!Kagero (not cool, bro) – Midori (+3 Spd & Res, +2Str & Skl, +1Mag, -1Lck & Def)

Ryoma!Oboro – Shiro (+4 Skl, +3 Str & Spd, +1 Lck, -2 Res)

Takumi!Setsuna – Kiragi (+5 Skl, +2 Str & Spd, +1 Lck, -2 Res)

Saizo!Hinoka – Asugi (+3 Str & Skl, +1 Lck, Def & Res)

Azama!Rinkah – Mitama (+4 Def, +3 Spd, +2 Str, +1 Lck & Res, -1 Skl, -2 Mag)

Hinata!Hana – Hisame (+3 Str, +2 Res, +1 Mag, Skl, & Spd)

Subaki!Sakura – Caeldori (+3 Mage & Def, +2 Skl)

Hayato!Felicia – Rhajat (+4 Mag & Spd, +2 Lck, +1 Res, -1 Str & Def)

Kaden!Mozu – Selkie (+4 Spd, +3 Lck, +2 Str, +1 Mag & Res, -1Skl & Def)

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Why is this Optimal?

Every character in both first and second generation has access to a full set of unique classes, many of which are usable by the character. Every Child has either one stat modifier that is >+3, or multiple stat modifiers that =3, except for Hisame whose stats and classes are so well placed that this ceases to pose a problem.

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Conquest - Optimal Pairings Example (SG0B)

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Jakob!Nyx – Dwyer (+3 Spd & Str, +2 Mag, +1 Skl & Res, -1 Lck & Def)

Azura!Silas – Shigure (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Silas!Azura – Sophie (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Kaze!Mozu – Midori (+5 Spd, +4 Skl, +1 Mag, -1 Str)

Xander!Effie – Siegbert (+6 Str, +3 Lck, +1 Spd & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

Leo!Felicia – Forrest (+5 Mag, +4 Res, +1 Skl & Lck, -3 Str)

Lazlow!Camilla – Soleil (+4 Skl, +3 Str, +1 Spd & Def)

Odin!Elise – Ophelia (+5 Mag, +3 Lck, +1 Spd & Res, -2 Def)

Niles!Selena – Nina (+6 Spd, +1 Mag, Def, & Res, -2 Str & Skl)

Arthur!Beruka – Percy (+6 Skl, +4 Def, +1 Str & Mag, -1 Spd & Res, -2 Lck)

Benny!Peri – Ignatius (+4 Res, +2 Str & Def, +1 Mag & Lck, -1 Spd)

Keaton!Charlotte – Velouria (+7 Str, +2 Spd, +1 Mag, Lck, & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

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Why is this Optimal?

Every character except for Beruka (who as I’ve outlined in her character analysis (FG19), is virtually unsalvageable), Keaton (who only ever wants to be in his unique class), and Charlotte (who is again, best in her default classes) has access to a full class pool, and all of the children have stat modifiers that follow the optimal pairings guidelines.

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Revelations - Optimal Pairings Example (SG0C)

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Nearly Optimal Pairings

Jakob!Felicia – Dwyer (+3 Skl, +2 Spd, +1 Str, Mag, & Res)

Azura!Silas – Shigure (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Silas!Azura – Sophie (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Kaze!Mozu – Midori (+5 Spd, +4 Skl, +1 Mag, -1 Str)

Ryoma!Camilla – Shiro (+4 Skl, +3 Str & Spd, -1 Res)

Takumi!Elise – Kiragi (+4 Mag, +3 Lck, +2 Skl, +1 Str, -2 Def)

Saizo!Oboro – Asugi (+5 Skl, +3 Str & Def, -2 Res)

Azama!Beruka – Mitama (+4 Def, +3 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Lck, -2 Mag)

Hinata!Hinoka – Hisame (+ 3 Str & Res, +2 Def, +1 Lck, -1 Skl)

Subaki!Selena – Caeldori (+5 Def, +2 Skl, +1 Mag & Spd, -1 Str)

Hayato!Nyx – Rhajat (+5 Mag & Spd, +1 Str, Lck & Res, -2 Skl & Def)

Kaden!Peri – Selkie (+5 Res, +4 Spd, +3 Str, +2 Lck, +1 Mag, -3 Skl & Def)

Xander!Effie – Siegbert (+6 Str, +3 Lck, +1 Spd & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

Leo!Sakura – Forrest (+5 Mag, +3 Res, +1 Lck, -1 Str)

Lazlow!Hana – Soleil (+4 Skl, +3 Str, +2 Spd, +1 Mag, Lck, & Res, -3 Def)

Odin!Orochi – Ophelia (+5 Mag, +4 Skl, +1 Str, Lck & Res, -1 Def, -2 Spd)

Niles!Setsuna – Nina (+7 Spd, +1 Mag, -1 Str, Lck & Def)

Arthur!Kagero – Percy (+5 Str, +3 Skl, +1 Mag, Def, & Res, -2 Lck)

Benny!Rinkah – Ignatius (+6 Def, +2 Res, +1 Mag & Lck, -1 Skl & Spd)

Keaton!Charlotte – Velouria (+7 Str, +2 Spd, +1 Mag, Lck, & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

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Why is this Nearly Optimal?

Every 1^st generation character is good/usable. Every second generation character (with one outlier) has good stat modifiers with a decent class pool. And the Avatar is not used in any of the pairings leaving you free to touch butts with whomever you please. That being said, there are three problems with this set-up – outlined in red – that help prove the veracity of the optimization requirements outlined in (SG00).

First off, Dwyer has no exceptional stats. His offensive stat modifiers are both 1 and the only defensive modifiers he has are +1 Def and +2 Spd. The best stat in his pool is Skill of all things, which still only sits at 3. Despite none of his modifiers being negative, the lack of any strong modifiers (as well as a personal skill that’s only useful on castle battles) means that he is wholly subject to his class’ inherent strengths & weaknesses. In short, even though Dwyer is the product of an ideal Felicia and isn’t a bad unit, he isn’t a useful one either making this pairing non-optimal. You can amend this by marrying Jakob yourself with a +Str,-Lck Avatar (F), but you would be doing so out of necessity not preference, defeating the purpose of creating optimal pairings in the first place.

Then there’s Soleil and her -3 Def. +4 Skl, 3 Spd, 2 Str, and +1 Res to boot are fantastic offensive stats for a physical unit. However, her -3 Def severely limits the class options available to her, as well as the enemies she can realistically fight. Why? Because -3 Defense puts her below average Def in all infantry classes and most mounted classes. With a Defense that low she’ll take too much damage from physical attackers to realistically stay in a fight or survive an enemy phase from more than 2 attackers. -2 Def is acceptable because there are several physical classes that have exactly 32 Def, but -3 is a step too far as nothing has 33 except for “mighty glaciers” like General and Wyvern Lord.

Because of that one modifier, she would have to either be classed as a Wyvern Lord or Dark Knight to avoid getting slaughtered by other physical attackers, or change into a Swordmaster or Master Ninja and forever be dedicated to killing magical attackers. For the former, if she switched into a Dark Knight then she would be exclusively locked to Swords (her Mag growth is 5% base, it’s never going to be a thing) making it blatantly undesirable. And for the latter, she’s flat out outclassed by Selkie who has 32 Str, 38 Spd, and 39 Res base as a Nine-Tailed Fox. See, Selkie can get away with having -3 Def because she has +5 Res and access to beastrues that can swing her Def into the positives. All Soleil has is the Nohrian Blade (+3 Def), which while good, just zeros her out and forces her to use a specific weapon type; it is just not enough to solve her problem. So really, the only class Soleil can realistically perform well in (that is available to her) is Wyvern Lord, exemplifying why, you always want to avoid a -3 modifier in a non-offensive stat: it forces you to set up the character in a very specific way, and if someone else does that job better, then that character is dead weight.

Finally, we have Ophelia’s -2 Spd that limits the hell out of her class options as a magical unit without Wary Fighter (which, of course, she doesn’t even have access to outside of marrying Ignatius). The thing is, it’s technically not even a problem and can be addressed if you just swap Felicia and Orochi. But Orochi is just such a mediocre partner for Dwyer that this is the only recourse available that does not involve the Avatar. *Actually, Orochi is a better mother for Dwyer than Felicia, but dammit I’m making a point here.*

The only reason I’m in this kind of situation, where two characters are in a bind is because I tried to play favorites. Setsuna is Nina’s best mother, as is Camilla to Shiro. I love those pairings and tried to keep them in thinking that, “well, it’s just two pairings. It probably won’t make a difference.” I was wrong. While Revelations does let you marry Birthright and Conquest characters, they only give everyone two new marriage options. This is juuuust restrictive enough to force you to think carefully about marrying across kingdoms, and just annoying enough to make coming up with optimal pairings on this campaign a goddamn nightmare. If you still want to do so, then by all means go for it, but as I said in the beginning, there is little to gain.

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Actual Optimal Pairings

Jakob!Hana – Dwyer (+4 Str & Skl, +3 Spd, +1 Res, -1 Mag & Lck, -2 Def)

Azura!Silas – Shigure (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Silas!Azura – Sophie (+4 Skl & Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, -2 Def)

Kaze!Kagero – Midori (+3 Spd & Res, +2 Str & Skl, +1Mag, -1Lck & Def)

Ryoma!Camilla – Shiro (+4 Skl, +3 Str & Spd, -1 Res)

Takumi!Elise – Kiragi (+4 Mag, +3 Lck, +2 Skl, +1 Str, -2 Def)

Saizo!Oboro – Asugi (+5 Skl, +3 Str & Def, -2 Res)

Azama!Beruka – Mitama (+4 Def, +3 Skl, +2 Str, +1 Lck, -2 Mag)

Hinata!Hinoka – Hisame (+ 3 Str & Res, +2 Def, +1 Lck, -1 Skl)

Subaki!Selena – Caeldori (+5 Def, +2 Skl, +1 Mag & Spd, -1 Str)

Hayato!Nyx – Rhajat (+5 Mag & Spd, +1 Str, Lck & Res, -2 Skl & Def)

Kaden!Peri – Selkie (+5 Res, +4 Spd, +3 Str, +2 Lck, +1 Mag, -3 Skl & Def)

Xander!Effie – Siegbert (+6 Str, +3 Lck, +1 Spd & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

Leo!Sakura – Forrest (+5 Mag, +3 Res, +1 Lck, -1 Str)

Lazlow!Mozu – Soleil (+4 Skl, +3 Lck, +2 Str, +1 Spd & Mag, -2 Res)

Odin!Orochi – Ophelia (+5 Mag, +4 Skl, +1 Str, Lck & Res, -1 Def, -2 Spd)

Niles!Felicia – Nina (+5 Spd, +3Mag, +2 Res, -1 Skl & Def, -3 Str)

Arthur!Setsuna – Percy (+5 Skl, +4 Spd, +2 Str, +1 Mag, & Def, -3 Lck)

Benny!Rinkah – Ignatius (+6 Def, +2 Res, +1 Mag & Lck, -1 Skl & Spd)

Keaton!Charlotte – Velouria (+7 Str, +2 Spd, +1 Mag, Lck, & Def, -1 Skl, -2 Res)

41 comments:

Donald TrumpMarch 20, 2016 at 3:56 PM
Thank you so much for the analysis. Did you get the special edition or did you just buy them separately? What anime do you watch? I've watched Tokyo Ghoul and honestly that anime is amazing. The only drawback to it is that it didn't stay faithful to the manga. I recommend you reading the manga since it missed a lot of important parts about the story. Lastly, do you have a MyAnimeList account? http://myanimelist.net/
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AnonymousMarch 30, 2016 at 4:14 PM
Hey there, checked out Keaton and Charlotte. She doesn't pass on the troubador tree, in case you didn't know. If you did, don't mind me.
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HaydenApril 20, 2016 at 12:32 PM
Hey man, I loved your write up for Awakening, Thank you for doing one for this game as well. Keep on being awesome.
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akc12April 21, 2016 at 8:40 AM
Just in case you weren't aware, the entire Wyvern Rider class tree is missing.
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JeffApril 24, 2016 at 2:59 AM
Just wanted to say, having read your previous guide on Awakening as practically scripture, thank you so much for doing this all over again for Fates. Wonderful work, and cheers!
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SpenserMay 9, 2016 at 10:08 AM
This is really great thus far! I like the commentary on the classes and the character builds you've done. Are you going to update/finish this at any point in the near future?
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ExodiusLKMay 15, 2016 at 7:14 PM
Shura's section needs a formatting fix. Otherwise, this was absolutely 10/10 and I've already recommended it to my friends who are already trying to plan out optimizations.
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UnknownMay 21, 2016 at 10:07 PM
"Izana really wishes he had a 4th class pool as his skills are best geared towards setting one up." So, if I decide to marry Izana and give him a fourth class, what's the class that Izana's skills are geared towards?
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UnknownJune 14, 2016 at 3:37 PM
You haven't done any updates in a while. Are you alright?
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HadesAugust 15, 2016 at 12:24 PM
Are there plans for children/Birthright/Revelations analyses in the future?
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AnonymousMarch 13, 2017 at 4:32 PM
Hello there! Let me first start up by saying thank you so much for creating such an in depth analysis of the guide. Secondly, I wanted to ask you about what would an ideal bane and boon for both the female avatar and female avatar. Thirdly, who would you recommend for the avatar to marry in the 3 paths provided (Revelation, Birthright and Conquest)?
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AnonymousMarch 13, 2017 at 5:52 PM
What talent would you recommend for the avatar to have?
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AnswerMeSenpaiMarch 13, 2017 at 6:19 PM
Yea I wanted to know that as well. If you could please provide a recommendation for the avatar to marry and as well as the ideal boos, bane and talent, that would really be great. Hopefully you reply ;'(
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Spenser DettwylerMarch 29, 2017 at 3:48 PM
Hey! Are you going to update this for the BR characters anytime soon? I'm really looking forward to this analysis finally being completed!
(Also, I asked this question above about Izana, but) You mentioned that Flora has a lot of potential but can't access it because of her lacking class tree. That could be fixed by marrying her, and of all the avatar-exclusives, she's probably the best one (or one of the best) for that reason. What would be the ideal class to pass on to her as my avatar's talent? Is there any one class that would save her? (there's also the DLC classes Dread Fighter, Dark Falcon, and Great Lord which might help, as well as various skill scrolls)
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Seijal PatelApril 1, 2017 at 5:26 AM
Do you know by chance how bond unit works? I noticed you don't have a section written about it.
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blackhole454April 11, 2017 at 10:36 AM
I've been using the Excel calculator file you shared. It's been extremely useful in planning out my Revelations playthrough, so thank you. On the Growth Rates tab, I'm unable to select a class for several characters (Azura, Oboro, Nyx, Gunter, Kana (F), Hisame, Velouria and Ophelia). The tab is protected, so I'm unable to fix the dropdown. Would you mind sharing the password to unprotect the tab?
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CrimsonFebruary 6, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Hoping you get around to finishing this soon in 2018!
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UnknownFebruary 23, 2018 at 7:08 PM
^same, also I noticed that Silas and Gunter would give Jakob cavalier not mercenary which means he wouldn't have access to bow knight. Also Nyx can't support with Azura so she can't get rally speed and amaterasu
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JuxtaposeNovember 8, 2018 at 7:39 AM
I'm aware that there was some major burnout with this game in March, so I find it understandable if this entry is pretty much considered "complete."

If it's not, though, do you have a general ETA on your next update? I love this article, and check in on it regularly; just re-affirming that there are people still looking at it/using it/etc..
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TomRenethNovember 20, 2020 at 8:23 AM
Hei! Love this post, it has helped me understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various classes a lot better!

To that end, I'm wondering if you could give some pointers for the Nohr Prince class tree.
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Pages

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Fire Emblem: Fates - Character & Class Analysis v0.6

Introduction (In0)

Class Sets + Inheritance Mechanics (ClS0)

Why Classes Are The Most Important Aspect of Character Building (ClS1)

A Brief Note On Skills – They Are Not Balanced (ClS2)

Character Analyses [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING] (CA0)

Gen 1 Character Analysis (FG00)

Shared Characters (FG01)

Felicia (FG02)

Jakob (FG03)

Silas (FG04)

Mozu (FG05)

Azura (FG06)

Kaze (FG07)

Shura (FG08)

Izana (FG09)

Cavalier (FG1A)

Nohrian Characters (FG1X)

Elise (FG11)

Arthur (FG12)

Effie (FG13)

Odin (FG14)

Niles (FG15)

Nyx (FG16)

Camilla (FG17)

Selena (FG18)

Beruka (FG19)

Laslow (FG110)

Peri (FG111)

Benny (FG112)

Charlotte (FG113)

Leo (FG114)

Keaton (FG115)

Gunter (FG116)

Xander (FG117)

Flora (FG118)

Villager (FG2D)

Ninja (FG2H)

Rinkah (FG21)

Sakura (FG22)

Hana (FG23)

Subaki (FG24)

Saizo (FG25)

Orochi (FG26)

Optimal Pairings [READ BEFORE PROCEEDING] (SG00)

41 comments: