Secondary Classes: Samurai or Lance Fighter?

[The Royal Red]

Okay so for my playthrough, I am trying to decide which class I want to have as my secondary. (To ask a small side question, in a Nohr playthrough, you can have a Hoshido secondary class, correct?)

So, which class should I choose as my secondary?

Samurai can promote to Trueblade, which can give me good ol' Astra, as well as the Weaponmaster class, which has unique skills and can wield all three weapon types.

Lance Fighters promote to Holy Lancers and Basaras, which I enjoy somewhat more since it is a footsoldier wielding a lance, which is something I have always liked and was sad it never appeared in Awakening, except as a General.

Additional info: My child will recieve Wyvren Rider and Fighter (I think Fighter, I know it can promote to Hero, I'm marrying Belka, FYI)

Which class would be the best for me to have and what would be the most beneficial for my child ti have as well?

[astrophys]

Your child will not receive Fighter, as class inheritance works differently in this game:

Your child will start out as a Nohr Princess and then inherit her father's first class that is not in common with her starting class and her mother's primary class (or secondary if they overlap).

Belka!Kanna will be a Nohr Princess, whatever you pick as your 2nd class on your Avatar, and a Wyvern Rider. She WILL NOT get Belka's Fighter.

[Yunanuy]

Basara because Breaking Sky.

[The Royal Red]

Your child will not receive Fighter, as class inheritance works differently in this game:

Your child will start out as a Nohr Princess and then inherit her father's first class that is not in common with her starting class and her mother's primary class (or secondary if they overlap).

Belka!Kanna will be a Nohr Princess, whatever you pick as your 2nd class on your Avatar, and a Wyvern Rider. She WILL NOT get Belka's Fighter.

Okay thank you for clarifying that for me. But, can I still let Kanna inherit, say a Hero skill from her mother as well as the Wyvren Rider class?

And also, which class will I inherit from the marriage? I've heard that marriage will also allow you to share a class with your spouse, so then which class will I get from Belka?

[gayserbeam]

Basara because Breaking Sky.

I'd argue against that.

Breaking Sky isn't very useful until very late-game, because most enemies will have at most 25 STR which gives a pretty mediocre bonus of +12 damage. Moreover, most enemies have 0-5 in the offensive stat they aren't using, so it really only works at all on units with the same weapon type as you. It might activate very often, but many of those activations will give bonuses of +5 to +10 damage.

Meanwhile the combination of Astra (which you could get from Samurai) and Dragon Fang (which you'll get naturally) will be significantly more powerful and reliable even with the lower activation rate.

Edited July 6, 2015 by gayserbeam

[CocoaGalaxy]

In my opinion, the fact that you have the Yato, which is a sword, swings it (further) to Samurai over Lance Fighter.

Both options are actually overly good though, in a sense

Anyway the Avatar also has the minorly complex "problem" of the fact that it has two different promotions that are route locked.

Since you said Belka, I'm assuming the Nohr and hence Dark Blood route.

Technically Draconic Curse is "superior" to any and all other seal skills, meaning "less" of a reason for Lance Fighter, though I'd imagine the seal skills aren't the first priority.

The other one is that the whole Breaking Sky doesn't work as well with the tomes in Dark Blood, nor does it work as well with Dragonstone either way.

(Plus the fact that Dragon Fang is superior most of the time, and it might even be superior to Astra against higher defense foes)

(I wonder how Astra Dragonstone would look like..that'd be a rolling larf)

Er..there's nothing wrong with Lance Fighter per say, I guess to sum it up would be the whole "Yato is a sword, use swords"

Edited July 6, 2015 by CocoaGalaxy

[astrophys]

You get Wyvern Rider from Belka.

You could have Belka pass down a Hero skill, to my understanding, yes.

[The Royal Red]

You get Wyvern Rider from Belka.

You could have Belka pass down a Hero skill, to my understanding, yes.

Okay, thanks!

[The Royal Red]

Er..there's nothing wrong with Lance Fighter per say, I guess to sum it up would be the whole "Yato is a sword, use swords"

Haha, that is a rather valid point. And I suppose if I find it really dire that I use lances, I can use them in the Weaponmaster class as well.

Edited July 6, 2015 by SilentSavior

[AstraSage]

Okay thank you for clarifying that for me. But, can I still let Kanna inherit, say a Hero skill from her mother as well as the Wyvren Rider class?

And also, which class will I inherit from the marriage? I've heard that marriage will also allow you to share a class with your spouse, so then which class will I get from Belka?

Your Avatar will also gain the ability to reclass as a Wyvern Rider via Marriage Seal. And yes, Kanna can inherit a Hero skill from Belka.

That said, if we're accounting Wyvern Rider (Revenant Knight's skills works well with both options) as part of both character's class sets, it's a toss up between the Astra/Strength Seal/Line of Death Skill Combo for Samurai against the Lance/Tome weapon synergy of reclassing between Lance Fighter and Wyvern Rider Promotions...

[Bovinian]

I'd argue against that.

Breaking Sky isn't very useful until very late-game, because most enemies will have at most 25 STR which gives a pretty mediocre bonus of +12 damage. Moreover, most enemies have 0-5 in the offensive stat they aren't using, so it really only works at all on units with the same weapon type as you. It might activate very often, but many of those activations will give bonuses of +5 to +10 damage.

Meanwhile the combination of Astra (which you could get from Samurai) and Dragon Fang (which you'll get naturally) will be significantly more powerful and reliable even with the lower activation rate.

Can you really call Astra a reliable skill when its activation rate will cap at around 15ish% at most? Especially since OP is playing Nohr route and therefore won't have access to the Hoshido skill. I'd honestly prefer the 3x more likely to activate Breaking Sky, because a physical Kamui won't have any problems against the squishy 0 Str enemies, and it's just there as a fallback for when Dragon Fang doesn't proc. Though CocoaGalaxy brings up a good point that it forces you to not use the Yatogami for a while, so that may be a point against going Lance Fighter.

Tbh I wouldn't put too much focus on procs other than Dragon Fang at all, and just choose the secondary class carefully depending on what you want your spouse/Kanna to have access to.

[B.Leu]

Eh, you could always buy the skill 'Hoshido' with the My Castle. It gives you +10% for skill activation. Quite handy.

I got the feeling that Kamui is the only character that can use the 'sword skills' well, added to that, he is very powerful and has high stats, so... If you want you could always go for Hero for Sol, or Cavalier for Luna, but I dunno, I find Astra to be better. Plus you'll get Swordfaire, more damage is always good.