Class Favourite 13: Shapeshifters

[bethany81707]

Some units don't need weapons to fight, for they are weapons themselves. Manakete and their beast-like companions in the Modern era transform using special stones, which in most games are finite. As long as a unit holds a stone, they can transform and use their superior stats, but attack too many times and the stone breaks, losing its power and leaving the dragon unable to attack and with inferior defensive stats.

The laguz of Tellius function differently. If they spend enough turns in their weakened, untransformed state (or use an item), they can then transform into their beast form and fight using their transformation time as their resource. The ability to transform indefinitely with weakened stats exists in both games, and the royal laguz have the ability to transform into their full power indefinitely.

Xane's stunt is that he can transform into one of your units. Not strictly part of the theme everyone else has, but he's a shapeshifter and technically a manakete, so he's in.

 

Whew, so it's relatively easy to tell why I decided to split today's list Beast/Bird/Dragon instead of Classic/Modern/Veteran, but I'll spell it out anyway- Tiki would fit in both Classic and Modern, and even if she was in Classic, that's four to how many units are in Veteran due to Tellius alone? Yeah, best split them up.

And the herons showing up again even though they just showed up yesterday? Also to expand a roster that was lacking. Hopefully Rafiel has better luck today.

[Slumber]

Ranulf. He's a pretty cool cat.

TIbarn, almost entirely because of his design, but he's also got a good enough character.

Tiki, cuz she's a classic and for a bonus, one of the few units in Awakening that didn't make me want to tear my eyes out.

[NinjaMonkey]

Nailah, Vika, Nasir.

[Magical Glace]

FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE FAE

and Lethe and Leanne I guess

[Anacybele]

RANULF RANULF RANULF <3

Also Tibarn and Kurthnaga because the former is a cool badass and the latter is kinda sympathetic and interesting and holy shit when he transforms. I also just don't like manaketes and think the laguz dragons look way cooler when transformed. They also have more variety in their designs. Most manaketes are little girls. :/

Edited February 1, 2017 by Anacybele

[Augestein]

Man I was a 1 hit wonder on this topic. I'm really unpopular this time around. Haha.

[HK Motendra]

Marth's entire army was actually Xane.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Caineghis, Tibarn, Fae.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

• Beast: Volug because he's the most important non royal laguz in FE10 by helping the DB members the entire time.
• Bird: Tibarn - just a flying badass god. Honorable mention to Rafiel.
• Dragon: Myyrh because she's pretty good.

[Shadow Mir]

Beast: Selkie <3 (HM to Kaden and Velouria, and Mordecai) - I find it hard to care much for laguz, with the concept in general being one that just doesn't work in Fire Emblem (it doesn't help matters that most laguz sucked in Radiant Dawn), and Taguel as a class just flat-out sucks.

Bird: Naesala

Dragon: Tiki (specifically Awakening - HM to Nah)

Edited February 1, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[Locke087]

Beast: Ranulf, HM to Nailah and Caineghis

Bird: Naesala HM to Tibarn

Dragon: Tiki HM to Fae and her giant chicken form.

 

[SnaggyDragon]

Nah is Nowi, but better!

[Sweet_Basil]

Beast: Nailah
Bird: Vika
Dragon: Myrrh

[Cornguy]

Lethe. I appreciate her character development. Its similar to Shinon's, except she actually stops being racist. I feed my HMs to the wolves today. Good characters, one good endgame unit and one good Jeigan esque unit.

Naesala. Bloodpact not withstanding, he's a very unique character. Also looks like if Hector became a demon. HMs to everyone really, a pair of wings makes anyone look good.

Myrrh. I already feel sad for most of the manaketes, just for the loneliness factor. But jeez that second to last chapter. HMs to Tellius for having nice dragon designs.

[BANRYU]

Mordecai / Vika / Tiki. Mordecai is precious and I love gentle giant characters, Vika is cute and I don't really have any other bird preferences lol ;; (only other one might have been Janaff) and ofc Tiki, the most precious of dragon babs who becomes a cool character when she grows up too. (HM to the sadorable Myrrh... also precious and has a badass dragon form)

Edited February 1, 2017 by BANRYU

[Just call me AL]

Volug because of design (especially since he looks like he could transform into an actual werewolf), and the fact that he hauls butt.

Janaff for birds because I've always had a fondness for the guy.

And how many dragons can defeat their game's final bosses without gaining a single stat? (And I don't mean deliver the final blow either.) With that in mind, Tiki for me. Honorable mention to Fae, though.

[Tolvir]

Nailah, Naesala, and Nasir. Just noticed that there is a connection between these three names.

Nailah was cool. I liked the wolf laguz idea, and she was an awesome unit. I wish the wolf laguz would of received a bit more attention as they felt shoehorned in Radiant Dawn's story. Almost like they forgot they wrote the idea down in PoR, and someone picked up a crumpled up piece of paper one day in the writing room of Radiant Dawn.

Naesala was cool. Liked his design, and his story was interesting. He was also an awesome unit, and a difficult fight in PoR.

Nasir because I liked his design the most from the Tellius dragons, and all the FE dragons. Though that isn't saying much for me, I am not a fan of any of Fire Emblem's dragon designs to begin with. I much prefer the Dungeons and Dragons Draconomicon styles better.

[LucarioGamer812]

Velouria, semi interisting design to me and her stats, 40 defense with no statue caps? That's gg in my book. Tibarn as well, he is the king of the Hawks, and Tiki no question, the original and best Manakete, even being level 3 on my shadow dragon was able to wipe the floor with enemies in the endgame and in Awakening had a minor role in the story, was a good character in that, and had a pretty big role in the future past dlc

[SavageVolug]

Beast, Volug he can be surprisingly reliable even in the tower provided he gets level ups and a satori sign. Although I have also had good success with both Muarim and Skrimir as well, both are absolute BEASTS (pun intended)

Bird, Tibarn no duh. He's a giant eagle what more do you need? Although both Janiff and Ulki can be quite powerful as well even in the tower

Dragon, Kurthnaga. This guy is AWESOME, he is the only playable Black Dragon laguz and is very good if leveled properly.

I have used all of these characters on Normal difficulty, I don't know how well they work on Hard (AKA Lunatic)