Is Master of Arms any good?

[singularity]

I've taken a liking towards this class since it was due to the prospect of having all 3 weapons from the weapon triangle, and its stats also seems to be pretty decent from what I've seen, but is it actually any good?

Also, any skill recs if I make it as my +Str/-Def MU's final class? I'm planning to take Samurai as my starting class so I could get instant access to the class.

asked on one thing thread but doing it again just because

edit: forgot it was called samurai now

Edited April 7, 2016 by singularity

[Pretty Cool Guy]

I feel like it's a really cool class on paper, but dealing with two E ranks really sucks and weapon ranks take forever to level up in this game. If you're adamant on using it however, I'd save some Arm Scrolls to use on yourself.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

sick skill on pr 15 but kinda eh as a class

[Xenomata]

On paper it is a pretty cool class. Mastery over 3 types of weapons from each side of the weapon triangle, averaged out stats so that your personal stat mods determine what you specialize in, a class that allows usage of the Yato, and one pretty cool skill and one hit or miss skill.

The issue I have with the class, despite being one of my absolute favorites in the game because of how cool it looks, is the fact that weapon levels are not fun to increase. In fact I'm still only an E rank in axes, and was at one point very tempted to use my staff/rod shops Arms scrolls to bypass using my raider axe on my avatar forever. And because they don't stand out much as a class, there are obviously other classes that shout out as being better in many ways, especially the rival that is Great Knight who is stronger, bulkier, but slower.

Plus, you can't just pick one weapon to completely master, you mostly switch between all three and change depending on the scenario you have just been thrown into, not the scenario you foresaw in preparation. So picking a weaponsfaire skill to use is out of the question. I find it better just picking something and going with it, and the Master of Arms just isn't fit for that.

Does it stop me from really liking it otherwise? Hell no, have you seen the animations this class takes when using weapons?

[Tribute]

If you have arms scrolls to burn its good

[Matthewlovespie]

I don't think it's really worth it, just use Dual weapons to get an advantage you otherwise won't get, classes like Vanguard for example, you get Swords/Axe, you only fight average with a fellow sword user, by then just use Dual Club. I personally wouldn't waste Arm Scroll on it, I'd use it on a pain in the butt weapons like staff

[B.Leu]

What everyone above said

But there is Line of Death the level 15 skill of this class, which can be useful... and also kind of a poisoned gift. During battles, you do 10 more damage, but so does the ennemy.
The RNG seems to not give a crap the ennemies have 30% to hit me. How strange.

You can nullify the 10 damage that the ennemy do with Spendthrift, the level 15 Merchant skill, I quote the site for this 'During battles, user spends a Gold Bar for damage +10 and damage received -10, which means that it not only nullify the +10 of the ennemy, but that you do +20 damage in total.

By the by, wasn't it Great Merchant in the original version ?

Edited April 7, 2016 by B.Leu

[Ebony]

Personally I made Peri!Hisame into one. He seems fine for when I use him.

It pleases me aesthetically.

[Tolvir]

I personally love the class. It takes a bit to get the weapon ranks up there, but if you dont mind grinding it isnt that much of a problem. If anything just grind supports while doing it to make it more entertaining. It feels very versatile because of being able to use the three main weapons, and gets really interesting when you start throwing the weapons that reverse the triangle on the class. I have Hinata as a Master of Arms as it adds a bit of versatility rather than another Swordmaster, and he is easily one of my best units in Revelation.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Tolvir

[gayserbeam]

You can nullify the 10 damage that the ennemy do with Spendthrift, the level 15 Merchant skill, I quote the site for this 'During battles, user spends a Gold Bar for damage +10 and damage received -10, which means that it not only nullify the +10 of the ennemy, but that you do +20 damage in total.

By the by, wasn't it Great Merchant in the original version ?

Spendtrift is a cool skill for Corrin especially because you can pull out Gold Bars from the convoy whenever you want, so you don't have to worry about inventory space or proccing Profiteer. It also means you only use Spendtrift when you need it and don't waste Gold Bars finishing off enemies at 2HP.

But Spendthrift doesn't really nullify Life or Death at all because it only works on Player Phase. It's easy to kill enemies before they hit you when you do +10 damage, but on Enemy Phase you're still screwed, and nobody can really afford to take +10 damage all the time. I only give Life or Death to units who definitely already shouldn't be getting hit.

It was called "Great Merchant" (Ouakindo) because the Apothecary was already called "Medicine / Herb Merchant". But Merchant is still an odd choice considering an Apothecary is still a kind of Merchant in English. I suppose they were just trying to be more elegant and breif with the names, hence "Preistess."

Weapon rank isn't really a problem if you intend Corrin to be your Master of Arms. Yato has an E-Rank, and you'll probably get to C Swords or close by the end of Chapter 6 if you haven't been leaning on your retainers. When Corrin gets to level 10 and learns Dragon Fang, you can immediately reclass him to a class that uses Axes or Lances and he'll have a C or B in that by the time he promotes. That goes double for male Corrin in Revelations, where two early chapters limit you to basically just Corrin and the squish squad (Felicia, Azura, Gunter) so he'll be getting most of the hits. I managed to easily get Apothecary!Corrin to B Bows by Chapter 11 no-grind, because he got nearly every kill until Kaze, Sakura and her retainers joined up.

Edited April 7, 2016 by gayserbeam

[Locke087]

Hana makes a pretty good Master of Arms (it gives her some much needed bulk though, Life and Death will make it so Generals can one shot her if they actually hit her), Just get ready to do some bronze forges or Weapon Level grinding in my castle. Personally my Axes never got out of E, Lances and Swords are just better for me...

Hana makes a pretty good Master of Arms (it gives her some much needed bulk though, Life and Death will make it so Generals can one shot her if they actually hit her), Just get ready to do some bronze forges or Weapon Level grinding in my castle.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Locke087

[FluffyWarlock]

Hana makes a pretty good Master of Arms (it gives her some much needed bulk though, Life and Death will make it so Generals can one shot her if they actually hit her), Just get ready to do some bronze forges or Weapon Level grinding in my castle. Personally my Axes never got out of E, Lances and Swords are just better...

Then perhaps Great Lord would've been a better option for her.

[Locke087]

Then perhaps Great Lord would've been a better option for her.

Never used it so I wouldn't know, well the fates version at least...

Edited April 7, 2016 by Locke087

[gayserbeam]

Then perhaps Great Lord would've been a better option for her.

Great Lord's stats and weapon ranks aren't really any better than MoA, and she doesn't really need Aether, as she can nab Astra, which has the same activation rate and will suit her better, as it fills Guard Meter and nullifying hits rather than healing them (which Hana can't handle with her paper skin and glass bones).

The only thing Great Lord has over MoA is that you can reclass into it earlier for an immediate stat boost.

[FluffyWarlock]

Great Lord's stats and weapon ranks aren't really any better than MoA, and she doesn't really need Aether, as she can nab Astra, which has the same activation rate and will suit her better, as it fills Guard Meter and nullifying hits rather than healing them (which Hana can't handle with her paper skin and glass bones).

The only thing Great Lord has over MoA is that you can reclass into it earlier for an immediate stat boost.

The "Great Lord" thing was about how Locke said that lances and swords are just better for him.

Edited April 7, 2016 by FluffyWarlock

[joshcja]

Terrible class.

broken x/15 skill.

[Locke087]

The "Great Lord" thing was about how Locke said that lances and swords are just better for him.

Let me reword that if you are unwilling to my castle grind weapon ranks your one of your weapon will fall behind, but I was remembering wrong I had d rank axes and used a Hand Axe with Hana and found it very useful, it is Dread Fighter that I never use Axes on I use them like sudo master ninjas.

[Shadow Mir]

Hmmm. I can't say, other than the fact that it has a good skill, and one that's... significantly less good.

[Xenomata]

Weapon rank isn't really a problem if you intend Corrin to be your Master of Arms. Yato has an E-Rank, and you'll probably get to C Swords or close by the end of Chapter 6 if you haven't been leaning on your retainers. When Corrin gets to level 10 and learns Dragon Fang, you can immediately reclass him to a class that uses Axes or Lances and he'll have a C or B in that by the time he promotes. That goes double for male Corrin in Revelations, where two early chapters limit you to basically just Corrin and the squish squad (Felicia, Azura, Gunter) so he'll be getting most of the hits. I managed to easily get Apothecary!Corrin to B Bows by Chapter 11 no-grind, because he got nearly every kill until Kaze, Sakura and her retainers joined up.

Heavily dependent on the talent Corrin has, and you don't get the Yato bonuses until specific points in the story, so any time before that the Yato is just a better sword than most.

Because pre-promoted classes mostly only use one weapon, that means you can only work on that one weapon until promotion, and after promotion you need to move on to either forged bronze weapons, raider weapons from visitor/battle points, and/or whatever joke weapons you find through random events. So most of your time is spent grinding weapon levels, and for less than valued return on your effort.

[gayserbeam]

Heavily dependent on the talent Corrin has, and you don't get the Yato bonuses until specific points in the story, so any time before that the Yato is just a better sword than most.

Because pre-promoted classes mostly only use one weapon, that means you can only work on that one weapon until promotion, and after promotion you need to move on to either forged bronze weapons, raider weapons from visitor/battle points, and/or whatever joke weapons you find through random events. So most of your time is spent grinding weapon levels, and for less than valued return on your effort.

If you go into the game with a specific final class in mind (such as Master of Arms) you'll naturally choose a talent that compliments that class, and then go for the A Support with Hinata / Ryoma / Hana later. It is contrived, but deliberate, as you planned this ahead of time. And Yato's early-game mediocrity doesn't matter if you've been working on another weapon type up until chapter 15/17/19.

Now, if you're claiming that having three weapon types just generally isn't worth the effort for most units, I'd agree. You only have so many weapon slots and most weapon classes have overlapping effective weapons anyway. You could have a Steel Sword, a Kodachi and an Armorslayer, or you could have a Steel Axe, a Hand Axe and a Hammer. You only need two weapon types to hit every major weakness in the game: Wyrmslayers for Dragons, Beast Killers for Beasts, Armorslayers for Armours, and Blessed Lance for Monsters (as irrelevant as they are). Adding Axes is wholly unecessary, especially in Revelation.

However, Corrin specifically has very little trouble gaining weapon ranks early on and has access to the entire convoy at once. While MoA definitely isn't the ideal class for Corrin, if you're planning ahead of time its ranks won't be an issue and its balanced stats will function well.

[Unrefined-Nemesis]

Master of arms provides one of the best skills to me at least which is life and death, as a class there are better ones out there with better speed and skill.

Vantage
Life and death
Vengeance
Lifetaker
Filler here

My favorite skill set by far.

[Frelia]

How is Mozu with the MOA class? Can see make some good use of it or is it better to just promote her to a Merchant/reclass her to an Archer?

Edited April 8, 2016 by Frelia

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

from what i hear, mozu typically should only go into the class to learn master of arms then switch back out.

Edited April 7, 2016 by HF Makalov Fanboy Kai

[Omegaprism]

For what it's worth, MoA Mozu is a decently sturdy tank with good speed and fantastic damage potential in Birthright, and tanky units are at a premium on that route. It is also commonly known as the easiest route of the three, though, so, y'know, your mileage may vary. In my experience though if you like using Mozu it's easy to make her a great unit no matter what promotion you choose. Also, the animations are excellent.