Class Pathing

[Voiced]

In regards to some units...

1. For units like Sylvain and Lorenz. If I wanted them to be Dark Knights - Do I take them down the normal Paladin route? Or do I take them down the Warlock route?

2. For units like Dedue and Raphael. If I wanted them to be Wyvern Lord/War Master - Do I take them down the normal Fortress Knight route? Or do I take them down the Warrior/Brawler route?

[Benice]

16 minutes ago, Voiced said:

For units like Sylvain and Lorenz. If I wanted them to be Dark Knights - Do I take them down the normal Paladin route? Or do I take them down the Warlock route?

Not an expert, but I would go with Sylvain down Paladin route and Lorenz as the Warlock route, since IIRC Sylvain isn't that good a spellcaster, whereas Lorenz fares quite well as one.

16 minutes ago, Voiced said:

For units like Dedue and Raphael. If I wanted them to be Wyvern Lord/War Master - Do I take them down the normal Fortress Knight route? Or do I take them down the Warrior/Brawler route?

Sheerly from a personal preference standpoint, I'd take the Warrior/Brawler route, as I think Fortress Knights aren't very good in this game. I think that those classes also boost their offensive growths? I think that both Dedue and Raphael are innately tanky enough to not need Fortress Knight to retain their tankiness. (At least on normal and hard, I don't know much about Maddening.)

Edited September 27, 2020 by Benice

[ChaosStar0]

1.  I sent them down the Warlock route to boost their Magic. Sylvain is a very physically tanky mage.

2.  I go Warrior if Counterattacking and Fortress Knight if Tanking. Also probably not a good idea to make Dedue a Wyvern Lord. He has a Weakness in Flying. Getting a Neutral to A rank is tough enough.

I'm learning how bad it is getting A rank with a Weakness getting Manuela's Reason up. Lysithea, Felix, and Dorothea are the only ones with a Budding Talent in their Weakness, so should be the only ones actually training their Weaknesses. And that's only if you want Felix as a Mortal Savant, or Lysithea to use a Levin Sword.

[LJ_Reflet]

1.) If you want either of them to end up as Dark Knights, the warlock route is ideal as Dark Knights are primarily a magic class and Paladins are more physical. But yes, as others stated, Lorenz is better off as a warlock and Sylvain is better off as a paladin. However, Sylvain has a pretty decent spell list as he is one of the few that learns Seraphim. It’s just his magic damage output won’t be impressive.

2.) This is just my own personal opinion, but I just like the warrior/brawler path over fortress knight. Fortress Knights suffer from bad speed and low movement, and you want these guys up front. But as bad as I find Fortress Knights, Dedue’s speed is already low enough so you can capitalize on his DEF if you take him down that route. War Master is great though.

Edited September 28, 2020 by kia_kula

[Azz]

13 hours ago, Voiced said:

In regards to some units...

1. For units like Sylvain and Lorenz. If I wanted them to be Dark Knights - Do I take them down the normal Paladin route? Or do I take them down the Warlock route?

2. For units like Dedue and Raphael. If I wanted them to be Wyvern Lord/War Master - Do I take them down the normal Fortress Knight route? Or do I take them down the Warrior/Brawler route?

1. Sylvain generally fairs better as a paladin while Lorenz is much better going down warlock. However, alternating between cavalier/paladin and mage/warlock for skill levels is a possibility (also Lorenz has frozen lance so he makes use of his better magic stat). Also I would recommend having Sylvain at least unlock warlock for the class change stat boosts to magic since Sylvain could be a bit weaker magic wise if he stays in cavalier/paladin until her gets to dark knight. Also both should master mage for fiendish blow (Not completely necessary depending on difficulty of course but very recommended).

2. Warrior and brawler routes definitely. Fortress knight is just not a good class and are only good if you intend on making someone a guard adjutant (and even then, grappler is probably better since at least they can do things outside of being a guard adjutant). I'd recommend going brigand then grappler rather than bothering with brawler or warrior since brigand can get you death blow and grappler can get you fierce iron fist (and also has more movement) compared to brawler which is pretty useless (especially since fighter does help develop brawling skill level) and warrior gets you wrath which is only useful in specific wrath/vantage set ups. 

[ChaosStar0]

Sylvain does have a Magic Growth of 30%. Add in the 10% from the Mage, Dark Mage, and Warlock classes that gives him a decent 40% Growth Rate for quite a few levels. He most likely won't have as high a Magic stat as Lorenz but still decent. Felix actually has the same growth rate, but has a 55% in Strength compared to Sylvain's 45%, so the Mage classes aren't that great for him.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

18 hours ago, Voiced said:

1. For units like Sylvain and Lorenz. If I wanted them to be Dark Knights - Do I take them down the normal Paladin route? Or do I take them down the Warlock route?

Definitely master Monk (for Magic +2 and Draw Back) and Mage (for Fiendish Blow). Beyond that, Lorenz can make a good "magical Paladin" - he has the Frozen Lance combat art, which synergizes with Lancefaire. Sylvain doesn't have this option, so if you want him doing magical damage, Warlock is his best bet. Although, I guess he could use the Arrow of Indra on CF.

18 hours ago, Voiced said:

2. For units like Dedue and Raphael. If I wanted them to be Wyvern Lord/War Master - Do I take them down the normal Fortress Knight route? Or do I take them down the Warrior/Brawler route?

Either way, I'd go Fighter (Strength +2) and Brigand (Death Blow). Then, if you want War Master, I'd go Grappler. It's more mobile than Warrior, and gets Tomebreaker and Fierce iron Fist as mastery. Only go Warrior if you really want Wrath. If you want Wyvern Lord, go Wyvern Rider. It's just a Wyvern Lord Jr.

[Barren]

On 9/28/2020 at 12:53 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Definitely master Monk (for Magic +2 and Draw Back) and Mage (for Fiendish Blow). Beyond that, Lorenz can make a good "magical Paladin" - he has the Frozen Lance combat art, which synergizes with Lancefaire. Sylvain doesn't have this option, so if you want him doing magical damage, Warlock is his best bet. Although, I guess he could use the Arrow of Indra on CF.

Either way, I'd go Fighter (Strength +2) and Brigand (Death Blow). Then, if you want War Master, I'd go Grappler. It's more mobile than Warrior, and gets Tomebreaker and Fierce iron Fist as mastery. Only go Warrior if you really want Wrath. If you want Wyvern Lord, go Wyvern Rider. It's just a Wyvern Lord Jr.

Even if you do go for Wrath, it's also a decent idea to get Vantage from the Mercenary class to use the classic Vantage + Wrath combo. Bring that to Warmaster and have a forged Killer's weapon equip with Retribution and around half health and let them rip things apart

[ChaosStar0]

From my experience Killer weapons aren't that great. Silver+ seems to be the best in terms of Might, Weight, Durability, and Hit. Of course I could be wrong. But yeah, Vantage+Wrath is a great combo for a Counterattacker.

[Barren]

5 hours ago, ChaosStar0 said:

From my experience Killer weapons aren't that great. Silver+ seems to be the best in terms of Might, Weight, Durability, and Hit. Of course I could be wrong. But yeah, Vantage+Wrath is a great combo for a Counterattacker.

Was it because your units had low strength or were you just not lucky with the crit chances? I also tend to give them a high crit battalion so they can piggy back off of that

[DriftingWaterBottle]

For Dedue and Raphael, they learn Battalion Wrath at C Authority. So if OP happens to prefer focusing on their Brawling rank and has enough time for their Authority rank, mastering Warrior is not a necessity for their Vantage + Wrath build. 

Edited September 30, 2020 by DriftingWaterBottle

[ChaosStar0]

2 hours ago, Barren said:

Was it because your units had low strength or were you just not lucky with the crit chances? I also tend to give them a high crit battalion so they can piggy back off of that

Neither. I just looked at the stats of the weapons. Brave weapons all have worse Might, Hit, and Weight than Silver+ weapons. Durability often varies. I haven't looked too closely at Killer weapons, but I know from previous games that Killer weapons are best on high-crit characters. Besides most of the time crits are superfluous. Most of the time they trigger when I'm killing the unit I'm attacking anyway, or they trigger when I'm trying to soften up a unit for another unit to take down. I am having a bit of trouble upgrading from Silver to Silver+ due to it taking 16 Smithing Stones to do so. The 1 Might increase isn't really worth it, but the 10 Durability increase is.

[Barren]

1 hour ago, ChaosStar0 said:

Neither. I just looked at the stats of the weapons. Brave weapons all have worse Might, Hit, and Weight than Silver+ weapons. Durability often varies. I haven't looked too closely at Killer weapons, but I know from previous games that Killer weapons are best on high-crit characters. Besides most of the time crits are superfluous. Most of the time they trigger when I'm killing the unit I'm attacking anyway, or they trigger when I'm trying to soften up a unit for another unit to take down. I am having a bit of trouble upgrading from Silver to Silver+ due to it taking 16 Smithing Stones to do so. The 1 Might increase isn't really worth it, but the 10 Durability increase is.

I see. Have you considered equipping them battalions with high crit or in some cases battalion wrath?