Class Choices

[ZanaLyrander]

I'm curious about what classes other people have been choosing for their favorite characters. Each character has a favored class line, so for characters where you choose not to keep them in that class line, which class do you prefer and why?

For my part, I've been using the Dark Knight a ton. This is partially because I find most of the tome classes kinda sluggish, but also just because I love Dark Knight's combos. Dark Knight has become my main class for Shez, mainly because I love Shez's dark magic spells. Between Essence of Darkness, Fiendish Blow, Cornelia's staff, Dark Magic+, and a spear with Boost Combat Art/Magic lvl 3, my Shez's spells are absolutely devastating. For a while I was using Dark Spikes and Hades (learned from Lysithia), but I eventually realized with this setup, having both of those was overkill, and I replaced Hades with Luna. The massive AoE and crowd control of Luna combined with the insane damage boosts Shez has allows me to oneshot many commanders and whole armies of basic enemies with one Luna. On some more densely packed maps I've seen one cast of Luna rack up over 100 kills.

I've also been having a lot of fun with Marianne and Dorothea as Tricksters, a good Witstrike weapon like Blutgang or Ridill, and suddenly they do a ton of damage (plus the added utility of Locktouch is really nice to have).

What are some other character/class combinations that surprised you?

[Fabulously Olivier]

So, dancers obviously have no preferred users. Native sword users will be more effective but they already have preferred movesets that are IMO more fun. Dorothea and Manuela are obvious dancers, and I think their unique abilities are actually better utilized here. Marianne is my favorite because of Blutgang.

 

My preferred great knights are those who already have mounted outfits. Lorenz has a pretty decent personal axe, and Jeralt looks like a Great Knight.

 

Leonie has those dual quivers, and I think she should have been a bow knight to begin with. She'll also carry that outfit over whereas all the natural bows lose theirs. Her having essence of fire makes her a fair bit different from the natural archers who all have wind or ice.

 

Annette with Crusher is fun. And if you make her a wyvern rider, you can pretend she's Cherche with that bonnet of hers.

 

I like Ignatz as a Mortal Savant since he has a great personal outfit, can knock back enemies easier in this class, and wears a sword on his hip anyway.

 

Hapi is basically a weaker Lysithea in almost every way. Granted, every mage is weaker than Lysithea, but the comparisons with Hapi are way too close. May as well make her a Dark Knight to dodge the comparison entirely, and her unique tome is worthless anyway.

 

Constance's Essence of Light makes her a great Holy Knight. I don't like her outfit anyway, so no big loss there.

 

Sylvain should have been a Dark Knight to begin with, and he doesn't lose any effectiveness whatsoever by switching.

 

I already have Bernie-bear as an ice archer. May as well make Shamir an Assassin. She'll keep her outfit, and neither of the native assassins are ice.

[ZanaLyrander]

Huh. Do archers even benefit from Essence of Ice? I don't think there are any ice type combat arts for bow users unfortunately. Not that Bernie needs it, she can spam her combat arts all day anyway.

Funnily enough, I tend to make Lysithea a Dark Knight or Mortal Savant, because she gets Proficient Witstrike, and thus can use her magic stat for everything regardless of what class you put her in or what you equip her with.

I love the pink coloration on Constance's armor in Holy Knight and Dark Knight, it looks so cool.

Edited July 6, 2022 by ZanaLyrander

[Burklight]

2 hours ago, ZanaLyrander said:

Huh. Do archers even benefit from Essence of Ice? I don't think there are any ice type combat arts for bow users unfortunately. Not that Bernie needs it, she can spam her combat arts all day anyway.

Shamir and Bernadetta both have ice personal abilities.

[Sire]

I tend to be the boring guy and have the characters in their master-tier canon classes, especially if they have a unique class. I may mess around more later, especially once I start my 4th playthrough run, but for now I'm staying fairly vanilla as I try to master every class.
-- That being said, here's a wall of text for some of the people I thought more about.

M!Shez [Asura]: Shez's unique class is way too much fun to use. Excellent combos and mobility, with access to Magic as well. I haven't tried F!Shez yet, but I imagine I'll still stick to the unique class after mastering the others.
Edelgard [Emperor, Any?]: I find El's Emperor class to be fun and her personal skill adding fire to everything is great. Honestly, she seems good at anything and I've had fun with all the options I had her in. I do still need to try spellcaster Edelgard though and see how crazy the Fire Spells can get.

Petra [Trickster, Falcon Knight]: Petra's focus is on her crit potential and dodging. She seems to keep her unique special in Trickster and it has high crit potential, while the Falcon Knight allows for easier dodges due to increased invul frames. I thought about Wyvern Lord Petra due to her keeping her outfit in Three Houses, but I don't think that works in Three Hopes.
-- I may just keep Petra as a Trickster though and use an Evasion Ring for the increases Invul Frames, instead of going Falcon Knight. Alternatively, a Crit Ring for more consistent Crits...

Paladin [Ferdinand, Sylvain, Jeralt]: As I delve more into the movesets of Holy Knight and Dark Knight, I do miss the moveset of the Paladin. The ability to easily rack up hits and run around the map juggling enemies is great. Also, these characters have their unique Special Attacks as Cavaliers/Paladins and lose it for Holy/Dark Knight, which is another reason to go back to just being a Paladin.
-- Sure, Holy Knight is amazing due to the self-heal potential and can still juggle enemies with their Class Action, but it doesn't last as long as the Paladin (who gets two bars).
-- Dark Knight has some flashy moves and has some synergy with Essence of (Element) skills. However, I honestly think it's best suited to those with Dark element, and I tend to prefer the Holy Knight moveset a bit more despite their similarities.
== Rodrigue is a special case as he gets Essence of Light, making him the perfect Holy Knight. The downside is that he loses out on his unique Special Attack for some reason, but the gameplay synergy is just too good to ignore.
== Jeritza is also a special case since he has Essence of Dark, although he uses a variant of the Dark Knight class. They seem to play the same, so I guess the difference is the outfit and the skills obtained.

Bishop [Mercedes, Flayn]: These two get Essence of Light, and Bishops have lots of Light attacks. While I could make them Gremories, I believe their unique Specials are also tied to Bishop, which is another reason to keep them here.

* * * * *

As an aside, how to "Innate Abilities" work? I've looked over the Class Abilities and Learned Abilities, and I do not see them. Alternatively, I'm just blind.
-- Do "Innate Abilities" work in a similar fashion to "Hidden Abilities" in Three Houses?

Edited July 6, 2022 by Sire

[Fabulously Olivier]

17 minutes ago, Sire said:

I tend to be the boring guy and have the characters in their master-tier canon classes, especially if they have a unique class. I may mess around more later, especially once I start my 4th playthrough run, but for now I'm staying fairly vanilla as I try to master every class.
-- That being said, here's a wall of text for some of the people I thought more about.

M!Shez [Asura]: Shez's unique class is way too much fun to use. Excellent combos and mobility, with access to Magic as well. I haven't tried F!Shez yet, but I imagine I'll still stick to the unique class after mastering the others.
Edelgard [Emperor, Any?]: I find El's Emperor class to be fun and her personal skill adding fire to everything is great. Honestly, she seems good at anything and I've had fun with all the options I had her in. I do still need to try spellcaster Edelgard though and see how crazy the Fire Spells can get.

Petra [Trickster, Falcon Knight]: Petra's focus is on her crit potential and dodging. She seems to keep her unique special in Trickster and it has high crit potential, while the Falcon Knight allows for easier dodges due to increased invul frames. I thought about Wyvern Lord Petra due to her keeping her outfit in Three Houses, but I don't think that works in Three Hopes.
-- I may just keep Petra as a Trickster though and use an Evasion Ring for the increases Invul Frames, instead of going Falcon Knight. Alternatively, a Crit Ring for more consistent Crits...

Paladin [Ferdinand, Sylvain, Jeralt]: As I delve more into the movesets of Holy Knight and Dark Knight, I do miss the moveset of the Paladin. The ability to easily rack up hits and run around the map juggling enemies is great. Also, these characters have their unique Special Attacks as Cavaliers/Paladins and lose it for Holy/Dark Knight, which is another reason to go back to just being a Paladin.
-- Sure, Holy Knight is amazing due to the self-heal potential and can still juggle enemies with their Class Action, but it doesn't last as long as the Paladin (who gets two bars).
-- Dark Knight has some flashy moves and has some synergy with Essence of (Element) skills. However, I honestly think it's best suited to those with Dark element, and I tend to prefer the Holy Knight moveset a bit more despite their similarities.
== Rodrigue is a special case as he gets Essence of Light, making him the perfect Holy Knight. The downside is that he loses out on his unique Special Attack for some reason, but the gameplay synergy is just too good to ignore.
== Jeritza is also a special case since he has Essence of Dark, although he uses a variant of the Dark Knight class. They seem to play the same, so I guess the difference is the outfit and the skills obtained.

Bishop [Mercedes, Flayn]: These two get Essence of Light, and Bishops have lots of Light attacks. While I could make them Gremories, I believe their unique Specials are also tied to Bishop, which is another reason to keep them here.

* * * * *

As an aside, how to "Innate Abilities" work? I've looked over the Class Abilities and Learned Abilities, and I do not see them. Alternatively, I'm just blind.
-- Do "Innate Abilities" work in a similar fashion to "Hidden Abilities" in Three Houses?

Innate abilities are equivalent to Hidden Talents, and the chosen classes for each character are often a reference to their old Hidden Talent. IE: If Felix maxes out Dark Bishop, he'll learn Nullify Magic.

[Anomalocaris]

I gave each of my characters an "alternate" classline on my first playthrough, in addition to their preferred class.

• Shez: Fluegel/Brawler
• Dimitri: High Lord/Swordmaster
• Dedue: Armored Knight/Brawler
• Felix: Swordmaster/Thief (He's the only one using two classes of the same weapon type)
• Sylvain: Holy Knight/Dark Mage
• Annette: Mage/Brigand
• Mercedes: Priest/Archer
• Ingrid: Pegasus Knight/Swordmaster
• Rodrigue: Holy Knight/Priest
• Yuri: Thief/Archer
• Balthus: Brawler/Mage
• Constance: Mage/Dancer
• Hapi: Mage/Armored Knight
• Seteth: Wyvern Rider/Holy Knight
• Flayn: Priest/Dark Knight
• Catherine: Swordmaster/Wyvern Rider
• Shamir: Archer/Thief
• Jeritza: Death Knight/Mage
• Spoiler character: Brawler
• Other spoiler character who joins alongside the first: Dancer (lol)

For the out-of-house recruits I deliberately avoided raising them in their preferred classes, so I could "save" those classes for their native routes.

• Linhardt: Dark Knight
• Bernadetta: Thief
• Dorothea: Dark Knight
• Petra: Pegasus Knight
• Lorenz: Dark Mage
• Ignatz: Brawler
• Raphael: Armored Knight
• Marianne: Pegasus Knight

Side note, for anybody playing Azure Gleam, I recommend side-classing Annette as an axe class. Besides obviously allowing her to use Crusher, her Paralogue actually seems to assume you've done so, because her side of the map is filled with nothing but lance enemies.

[ZanaLyrander]

Crusher Annette is really fun. I really wish there was a class that allowed her to wield Crusher and still be able to cast magic, but no such luck. Still, the sheer visual spectacle of this absolutely tiny girl smashing the shit out of people with a hammer that is as large as her entire body would make the build worthwhile even if it wasn't actually really effective, which it is.

[Burklight]

Has anyone done any testing to figure out exactly how much the "Apex xxx" abilities increase crit damage? It feels wrong putting someone in a class that doesn't use their apex ability, but depending on what the multiplier is may not be that important.

[ZanaLyrander]

1 minute ago, Burklight said:

Has anyone done any testing to figure out exactly how much the "Apex xxx" abilities increase crit damage? It feels wrong putting someone in a class that doesn't use their apex ability, but depending on what the multiplier is may not be that important.

That's a good question, and one of the things that bugs me the most about Three Hopes compared to Three Houses: a lot of the abilities are very vague in terms of the magnitude of their effects. Like, there are plenty of abilities that raise critical rate or make elemental effects 'more powerful', or increase damage, and most of them don't specify how much of an improvement it makes.

[Burklight]

2 minutes ago, ZanaLyrander said:

That's a good question, and one of the things that bugs me the most about Three Hopes compared to Three Houses: a lot of the abilities are very vague in terms of the magnitude of their effects. Like, there are plenty of abilities that raise critical rate or make elemental effects 'more powerful', or increase damage, and most of them don't specify how much of an improvement it makes.

If I dont have an answer by the time I get home tonight I might sit down in training mode and see what I can come up with. I'm currently at a point where I have more skills unlocked on units than I have space for and it's impossible to min max for certain builds without knowing.

[whovian21]

I've used a lot of different classes on the characters I play often, just for variety's sake. Anyone can pretty much be anything and do okay on normal unless they have the wrong strength/mag stat for it (and Invert Physical/Magical or a Witstrike/Brawnstrike/Lightning Crash weapon fixes that). My current goal is to master everything on Leonie because I like trying out different stuff with her personal skill.

I also rushed Lysithea through Mortal Savant so I could have her use Thunderbrand and feel better about the fact that as a mage she's totally outclassed by Hubert (as a Dark element mage) and Constance (as a Light element mage) because women aren't allowed to get Essence of Darkness apparently (seriously why do five of the magic-focused characters just not get an Essence skill).

On 7/6/2022 at 4:02 PM, Burklight said:

Shamir and Bernadetta both have ice personal abilities.

Do they even do anything for personal abilities? I've only ever seen an Essence skill show as active during Marianne's personal skill, and even there I can't actually tell if it's doing anything.

[ZanaLyrander]

Another unusual class choice I stumbled upon recently is Mortal Savant Edelgard. Sure, it means Amyr goes unused, but the benefits are tremendous. It allows Edelgard to actually take advantage of her very high magic stat, and powerful spell list (one wonderful thing I learned recently is that Hades is both a Dark spell and a Fire spell, meaning it can benefit from either Essence of Dark or Essence of Fire).

In addition, Edelgard has the crest of Seiros. And I have discovered that equipping her with the Sword of Seiros and Shield of Seiros basically makes her immortal. She rapidly heals over time, and heals off of every attack, and her healing is massively boosted. She can recover from just about anything. Not to mention there is some delicious irony in Edelgard using the Sword and Shield of Seiros in her war against the Church of Seiros.

[Burklight]

26 minutes ago, ZanaLyrander said:

Another unusual class choice I stumbled upon recently is Mortal Savant Edelgard. Sure, it means Amyr goes unused, but the benefits are tremendous. It allows Edelgard to actually take advantage of her very high magic stat, and powerful spell list (one wonderful thing I learned recently is that Hades is both a Dark spell and a Fire spell, meaning it can benefit from either Essence of Dark or Essence of Fire).

In addition, Edelgard has the crest of Seiros. And I have discovered that equipping her with the Sword of Seiros and Shield of Seiros basically makes her immortal. She rapidly heals over time, and heals off of every attack, and her healing is massively boosted. She can recover from just about anything. Not to mention there is some delicious irony in Edelgard using the Sword and Shield of Seiros in her war against the Church of Seiros.

It's a shame she can only use Lifeforce and not Impossible Feat as well. Felix with his holy weapon completely mitigates the damage taken from Impossible Feat, Edelgard could totally get away with both.

[ZanaLyrander]

Just now, Burklight said:

It's a shame she can only use Lifeforce and not Impossible Feat as well. Felix with his holy weapon completely mitigates the damage taken from Impossible Feat, Edelgard could totally get away with both.

Damn, you're right, I hadn't even considered that. I tend to avoid those self damage abilities because they seem risky, but Edelgard could use them no sweat, the healing she gets from Seiros' Favor is bonkers. I've seen her heal for more than 14,000 hp from a single cast of Hades into a crowd of enemies during a mock battle. And for context, I've also discovered that the stat cap for HP, even with the limit remover from the Tactics Instructor, is 12,000 + any bonus from your current class. So she healed for more HP then she could possibly have with one cast. In this build, Edelgard has only two states: dead, and full health, there is no middle ground. You either kill her in one shot, or not at all.

[Burklight]

3 minutes ago, ZanaLyrander said:

Damn, you're right, I hadn't even considered that. I tend to avoid those self damage abilities because they seem risky, but Edelgard could use them no sweat, the healing she gets from Seiros' Favor is bonkers. I've seen her heal for more than 14,000 hp from a single cast of Hades into a crowd of enemies during a mock battle. And for context, I've also discovered that the stat cap for HP, even with the limit remover from the Tactics Instructor, is 12,000 + any bonus from your current class. So she healed for more HP then she could possibly have with one cast. In this build, Edelgard has only two states: dead, and full health, there is no middle ground. You either kill her in one shot, or not at all.

Doesn't have the damage absorb, but Ferdinand can run Lifeforce + Impossible Feat and heal it all off no problem with his relics.

I've been playing around more with stuff like that. I think Impossible Feat is one of the best damage skills in the game currently, because the dot it puts on you doesn't count against your damage ranking. You don't really have to be that careful. Really, the only risky one is Wild Abandon, which will basically make you fail your damage ranking if you get hit a single time by just about anything. It's also pretty neat for running stupid stuff like Impossible Feat + Lifeforce + Desperation + Vengeance. 

[ZanaLyrander]

Huh. While looking over which characters learn which abilities, I had an idea for an odd choice that I'm definitely going to try out on my next run.

See, in my current run, I've been getting a lot of use out of Bow Knight Leonie, who I have setup with The Inexhaustible for the Combat Art cooldown reduction, Armsthrift for Combat Art durability cost reduction, along with Deadeye, Flame Volley, and Essence of Fire. It's a fun setup that basically turns Leonie into a combination Sniper Rifle and Shotgun.

And as I was looking over the Blue Lions for my next run which is going to be another Azure Gleam run, I noticed there is a character who can do this exact same build, having access to all of these abilities and combat arts: Dedue. So, yeah, I guess I'm gonna go with Bow Knight Dedue for my next run, why the heck not?

Edited July 11, 2022 by ZanaLyrander

[AlteanGeneral]

I made my felix an assassin and hes been very fun to use.