BravuraLevi

Alear's promoted class is Swords/Arts

She might not be the best for the lategame, but she's useful for having a second staff unit after Framme, but before you recruit Ivy/Hortensia/Pandreo or promote Clanne/Celine/Chloe/Citrinne, which should make early game and early midgame much more bearable. As for lategame, she could be useful to help units move a bit further with rewarp, or set up obstacles with icelock to create chokepoints.

Chloe too, thanks to Griffon. Though thinking about it, it's likely that unless one of them has a natural staff proficiency, then it's possible you'd have to put Miccy on them for a while anyway to help them gain the aptitude for staffs anyway.

I kind of feel like we could get either Veyle or Zephia, but maybe not both? I dunno, I just feel like one of them has to stick around so that Sombron isn't just completely alone by the endgame. Though, seeing as how FE generally writes its female villains, they're more likely to be more sympathetic Camus or Sephiran types than Gharnefs or Thaleses.

Considering the last game had the Golden Deer path: Verdant Wind, I'd say it's a solid maybe. The fact that the rings are basically stands also points in that direction.

Looking at this video, the Lyn one and the chain attack tweet, it seems like chain attacks really don't do much damage. In both the videos it only does 5 damage, while in the tweet it's a measly 2- and that's coming from Boucheron, of all people. Combined with the fact that none of the rings thus far get more effective with backup units, I feel like this could be a tough game for infantry.

I could be cheeky and say Sigurd, but I get what you mean now. From what I understand though, Nanna is sort of the Caeda to Leif's Marth(which should put her at a similar importance to Diamante in Engage), so if Finn really is her dad, he could sorta count since he's still around. Granted, that was like 20 years ago at this point...

I mean, there's playable dads, but you rarely see the kids. Tauro 'She took the kids, Ike' Neo from PoR/RD and Alois ' Offscreen family' Rangeld jump to mind. Chrom, by the Valm Arc is technically also a dad, but the big exception is the man himself, Garcia in FE8- playable, his son is also playable, and he's not suuuuper old, but he's getting up there(or just has good genetics). Possibly Finn too, Nanna's whole situation seems kinda ambiguous.

I guess it could be useful as an opener against bosses who have multiple health bars, and in a similar vein, especially if the dragon enemies ever get as chunky as the later demonic beasts in TH. But yeah, against most guys, just killing them would be much more straightforward,

Pair-up was unlocked at Chapter 3. The world map also opened around that time. It's possible that the tutorials go on longer though- Lyn mode was a like a whole 10 chapters which were(in normal mode) largely tutorials.

Tharja could be fun(though I imagine a lot of places would have a... very strong reaction to her being revealed lol) but I will that if Smash Bros and Heroes(where M!Morgan wields Grima's Truth as a tactician) are anything to go by, they could just slap some dark mage stuff on Robin and call it a day. Alternatively, they could use Pelleas from RD as the Dark Magician, (though I doubt that with the whole NG+ Thing...) A joke idea I thought of was having Merlinus be a bracelet, where he offers an absolutely massive convoy and a big buff to BLD, but little actual combat utility. I doubt they really have space for jokes in a DLC that half the price of the game though.

32 would be the smallest roster we've seen in the series, tied with Gaiden. I guess it's not impossible, but I feel like we could still get a surprise or two. Well, and Veyle, maybe as a Gotoh.

There's still hope for Baselard. The chances of Knifeciah are looking kind of slim though.

Good eye! If anything I would've thought it would be the other way around, given Qi Adepts fight hand-to-hand, but giving Armour Knights an immunity to one of the big new elements of this game could bolster their viability a good bit. Giving Qi Adepts(who seem to be mostly support units as of now) the chain guard creates an interesting risk/reward scenario of putting them near the front lines to let them chain guard, or keeping them safe in the back. Will be good to see how that plays out. That's a good shout. We're still missing the retainers for the Brodians, Solmese and Elusians, but most of the marketing will focus on the royals if Fates was any indication. It would make sense for the next trailer to focus on the overworld stuff, and maybe the class system too.

I'll be sad if there's no more Trickster class, I really like the mix of support and utility they brought. I guess they might want to emphasise thieves actually being utility and not just better Swordmasters like they were in Awakening though.