Should you Reclass Alear?

[BloodRonin]

I am at the mid point of my maddening playthrough (rng run) and after sinking over 150 hours into both my playthroughs, it really makes me wish the avatar character had the ability to go more than just melee damage. 

Has anyone reclassed their Alear? If so what did you turn them into/why?

I am thinking of turning Alear into a flyer maybe. 

[Ether]

I definitely felt better about Alear after making her a wyvern knight, but mine was fairly blessed statistically based on what folk have been saying about how folk talk about Alear's combat. Still, what was mostly a snap decision based in me learning that fists were actually quite mediocre on Alear, I have no regrets. Will probably be my go-to build now.

[RobinLucinaFan]

Hero Alear is pretty solid.

[Anathaco]

I turned mine into a Bow Knight at around chapter 12, instantly regretted it tbh. The extra range + Lucina made him useful for chain attacks, but his strength became too low to do anything to anyone outside of that, so the extra range was basically wasted on him.

Turned him back into his personal class around the time I got Corrin and haven't looked back since. Might try him as a General next run to see how that goes, but for this run a) i already have two generals lol and b) he'd probably be best just sticking to utility.

[Archeleon]

Honestly feel that Divine Dragon is just Alear's best overall option.

[scigeek101]

I made mine a Paladin. Kinda regretted it because I did it on Erika's paralogue and got recked by the rapier. 

 

But Paladin does have some good movement and overall was still a good dodge tank. 

 

I think next game I might do something like Hero. Or maybe try swordmaster. 

 

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm watching a run right now where they've been reclassed to Griffin Knight. It's definitely a pretty cool option, flight is always good and staves are sneaky good on someone with convoy, because there are just so many options: Freeze, Obstruct, Physic, Restore, Rewarp, etc. Only C rank of course.

Divine Dragon's got some nice synergy with certain emblems, though. That's what I've been doing myself. Midgame, though, when you have relatively few emblems, there's a very good case to go to something else.

39 minutes ago, Anathaco said:

I turned mine into a Bow Knight at around chapter 12, instantly regretted it tbh. The extra range + Lucina made him useful for chain attacks, but his strength became too low to do anything to anyone outside of that, so the extra range was basically wasted on him.

Bow Knight only has 1 less strength than Divine Dragon, though? Really shouldn't make much difference. Bow Knight with Lucina strikes me as very good although you could certainly use someone else for it.

[Anathaco]

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Bow Knight only has 1 less strength than Divine Dragon, though? Really shouldn't make much difference. Bow Knight with Lucina strikes me as very good although you could certainly use someone else for it.

Touche. I think it was more that all my good bows were on Alcryst/Fogado, so he was using a regular steel bow compared to the forged silver sword he was using beforehand. So he felt way weaker as a result. He also lost a few points of defence as well so it was harder to keep using that sword on him.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Made Alear a Wyvern Lord, with... Axes I think? Pretty good.

Had Edelgard on ´em for most of the time which was incredibly effective and now Ike which is less grand. Smash Hammer is garbage and Aether runs counter to everything this Alear is capable of. 

I don´t think I´ve witnessed Air Raid in effect yet.

[octo_p]

My Griffin Knight Alear was untouchable. I changed back to divine dragon for a bit because Corrin's fog dragon vein was very useful for some maps, but as soon as I got someone to take that role again, I changed back to Griffin Knight and never looked back.

[Usana]

I went Wolf Knight. Daggers are really nice, so getting another early on is bonus. But you do get enough later on that if you don't really need to reclass just for daggers on the field. However, Wolf Knight gets a ponytail hairdo so . . . I went with it even if I should have picked something with good STR growth to try and fix her STR curse, but I just kinda gave up. I have come to the conclusion that she will only ever gain STR from Energy Drops. And maybe 1 every 10 levels. However, I did have several classes I considered.

Hero sounds good since Alear just feels poor offensively and throwing out double Chain attacks which don't care if she has poor offense would be nice. I also don't dislike the hero outfit as much as some seem to. It ain't super great, but I think I prefer it to warrior's appearance.

Warrior for all the reasons people normally go warrior. You lose sword access though. And Alear's BLD is pitiful so axes are basically out.

I considered Berserker for the high strength and bld growth. It is also a ponytail hairdo so that is good, but poor bld and being axe locked I thought would make for some painful play for a while. Plus Berserker this time round. . . I can't really see why you would go it over Warrior or Hero.

I even considered General. Doesn't fix STR as well as Berserker but good build and if you tank can't hurt stuff super hard it isn't the biggest of deals. Sword Locked isn't any different than Alear's base and Divine Dragon may as well be sword locked since Arts are just a inferior for a physical unit with lopsided offensive growths.

Wyvern Knight is a good solid option for every reason everyone else gave. But no ponytail. Big negative.


But anyways I have been greatly enjoying Wolf Knight Alear. Damage is fairly low since I haven't yet used every Energy Drop on her to get her back up to expected average strength at this point, but she can at least do some damage to land poison and with Lucina for Backup attacks and Wolf Knight Range she can spread poison all over the dang place. Poison plus her personal skill bolstering allies damage makes kills easy enough to score for everyone else. Plus she rocks that ponytail.

[FashionEmblem]

Alear's focus in their personal class is getting engages off more frequently—Libération charges your engage meter faster and the class skill reduces the meter's length. Combine that with the bonuses a dragon class gets with engages and it's tough to pass up. For example, Byleth + Alear gives Rally spectrum with Instruct and Goddess Dance, and being able to fire off those Goddess Dances more frequently is pretty awesome. Corrin + Alear is also very nice to set up exactly which terrain you want, though I find thief with covert's fog is best in general. Essentially, Alear becomes amazing utility with the right emblem and strategy in mind, and gets to fire off said utility more frequently.

By contrast, presumably for balance, I'd say Divine Dragon class is not great at combat due to lack of magic (arts use average of strength and magic to calculate physical attack) and lack of range (though, Levin Sword is surprisingly ok thanks to its high Might despite Alear's dismal magic). So Alear can benefit from a reclass for better combat or different utility with staff access + convoy. For staff access you could keep their base class and use Micaiah who gives Cleric+ thus B staves later on, whereas Alear will be stuck with C staves as a Griffin Knight (or lose sword access, and Libération, otherwise). Notably, Rescue and Warp are both B rank staves. Alear's low magic will stymie healing output and accuracy of offensive staves, so that's another trade-off for the versatility of the convoy. There's other utility like brave assist Hero, or Wolf Knight and Lucina poison chain attack stacking which don't depend on the magic stat, but also aren't unique to Alear (unlike the convoy).

But, in my opinion, reclassing Alear for combat has the same energy as reclassing Azura out of Songstress to make use of her stupid strength growth as a glass cannon. It's an option ... but is it worth it?

Edited February 8, 2023 by FashionEmblem

[Avarice Shadow]

On my first playthrough I made Alear a Wyvern Knight(Lance + Sword) and he turned out pretty well. Second was a Halberdier which I also turned out pretty solid. Both of those were on Hard mode. On my current Maddening run, I think I'm going to reclass to Hero because Brave Assist is sick.

[meltenvy]

I honestly think it's a bad idea until you get [redacted], since Alear is the only dragon and thus the only one that can Rally Spectrum with Byleth among other things, plus the class skill of Divine Dragon isn't particularly bad. On my first playthrough I switch around a lot, but that was mostly because I was unaware of that caveat. Went from Wolf Knight for daggers, movement, and because it could use swords, and then to Bow Knight by the end because I had no good bow user for the flier units. It worked out just fine. After Chapter 22 you can re-class Alear however you want.

Ultimately Alear is one of the only two dragon units in this game so all consideration for the subject should be about "do I lose anything by losing the dragon classification?" If the answer is no, then feel free. If yes, then Alear is kinda stuck since they're the only one that can fit the role. You have a lot of options for how you want to re-class in this game since Emblem Arena makes learning proficiencies easy and weapon ranks have been phased out, so you can switch the roles of any given unit entirely with no real downside. If you need another bow user or axe user or something, you could always make someone else one. Most units can be anything, but only Alear and [redacted] can be dragons.

Some strong effects are the aforementioned Rally Spectrum with Byleth, and Corrin allowing you to access any dragon vein in the game, affording you a lot of adaptability to the situation. Dragon also gets sync bonuses from pretty much every emblem.

Edited February 8, 2023 by meltenvy

[Azz]

I personally prefer Alear as a Divine Dragon. Instruct All is busted and between them and late-game dragon with Corrin, you have two amazing support units who also hold their own in a fight.

I do think any sword using class that has a mount may be good for Alear for more weapon diversity and movement, but still allowing them to use Libération for quicker engages and Wille Grand for 1-2 range. I do think Griffin Knight would be good so Alear could provide staff support while using their swords and you could give them Miccy to patch up their staff rank once they get Cleric++ (and S isn't needed cause Nodus is expensive and useless tbh)

[Tombstone88]

Alear on my last playthrough got massively RNG screwed (6 Defense at Level 20), so I reclassed him to Thief.  Gave him Yunaka's steel dagger (engraved for extra Avoid), threw on Corrin's ring, and kept on the Avoid bonuses from Marth (+10 initially, then up to +20).  Alear wasn't MVP of combat, but the Avoid stacking combined with fog support from Corrin at least kept him alive so he wasn't a burden all playthrough.

 

Overall though, I'd say Divine Dragon is a solid all-around class choice.  Corrin and Byleth's dragon bonuses are really good, so liberal abuse of these emblems is reason enough to stay in the class.  I feel like Wolf Knight could make for a good reclass (mobility, 1-2 range daggers, can still use swords).  I might give that a go on my 3rd playthrough.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Tombstone88

[Dark Holy Elf]

8 hours ago, meltenvy said:

Some strong effects are the aforementioned Rally Spectrum with Byleth, and Corrin allowing you to access any dragon vein in the game, affording you a lot of adaptability to the situation. Dragon also gets sync bonuses from pretty much every emblem.

I think this post is very well-said, but the main thing I would add is that there's a good chunk of game between promoting and actually getting some of those emblems, potentially around seven chapters. Might be worth reclassing then reclassing back later, because Divine Dragon is a pretty bad class if you're not using its Dragon typing, and IMO Dragon Alear doesn't make very good use of the first few part 2 emblems you get (before Byleth).

[FashionEmblem]

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I think this post is very well-said, but the main thing I would add is that there's a good chunk of game between promoting and actually getting some of those emblems, potentially around seven chapters. Might be worth reclassing then reclassing back later, because Divine Dragon is a pretty bad class if you're not using its Dragon typing, and IMO Dragon Alear doesn't make very good use of the first few part 2 emblems you get (before Byleth).

That's fair, though comes at the cost of delaying the class skill for divine dragon for a bit and the 5k gold in Second Seals. But yeah, there is this stretch in the midgame where being a dragon does little. It's the same section where an enemy drops a Levin Sword at the start and gives Divine Dragon Alear at least some presence at range (without spending resources). Even on Maddening I found Levin Sword did decent damage, when doubling, despite Alear's single digit magic stat (only really worth it on armors, safe chipping, or enemies outside melee range) and helped his combat feel less lackluster. You also get Shielding Art for free on this chapter, which is surprisingly good, especially when you can just pull it out of the convoy. I found Divine Dragon Alear was fine, if mediocre, over that stretch of the game (before shooting back up with access to later emblems).

Edited February 9, 2023 by FashionEmblem

[Dark Holy Elf]

@FashionEmblem Yeah, that's fair. If you're actually using a swordmaster then Levin Sword is more important for them (due to backup) but that's a significant "if". Certainly default Alear is workable during that stretch, and yeah, the 5k on two seals isn't nothing.

[Barren]

I’m playing this on Hard right now. Divine Dragon is turning out fine for me right now.

Whenever I get into maddening I may try out either Hero or Griffin Knight. I’ve also heard that Wyvern Knight with a sword and lance combo is also very good. Probably the best choice. 
 

Could do either Corrin as a emblem or Byleth and give Lyn to someone like Ivy for example who pretty damn good in this game.

[DaveCozy]

I think a solid class path for Alear is Dragon Child -> Griffin Knight in ch11 -> Divine Dragon when you get Byleth.

Divine Dragon is a pretty cool unique class for utility purposes, strong synergy particularly with the Byleth emblem granting the Omni-dance and instruct. While it does indeed stunt Alears combat since swords and arts are not great weapons, they can just focus on providing support instead while having decent enough stats to be placed near enemies too. You can even equip them a shield art for a free Def+5 boost if needed, while they just help everyone else.

That said, if combat is the focus for Alear, I would personally say that other classes do that better. Wyvern, Hero, Warrior, Griffin, Wolf Knight, etc. seem like better alternatives if that's the desired outcome.

Edited February 24, 2023 by DaveCozy

[Dark Holy Elf]

I think there's probably a case for reclassing Alear later in the game, too. After Chapter 22 you get:

• another character to hold dragon emblems
• a new mechanic for Alear which competes with "engage with their equipped emblem ring"

Both of these change the value of keeping Alear in Dragon just to benefit from e.g. Byleth. And conveniently, it comes around the point of the game you might be hitting Level 20 in your class anyway.

But I'm not sure. After all, there are still notable Dragon bonuses even for Alear's new mechanic.

[FashionEmblem]

1 hour ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I think there's probably a case for reclassing Alear later in the game, too. After Chapter 22 you get:

• another character to hold dragon emblems
• a new mechanic for Alear which competes with "engage with their equipped emblem ring"

Both of these change the value of keeping Alear in Dragon just to benefit from e.g. Byleth. And conveniently, it comes around the point of the game you might be hitting Level 20 in your class anyway.

But I'm not sure. After all, there are still notable Dragon bonuses even for Alear's new mechanic.

I've hit the same point in the game recently and agree/have changed my tune. Alear has switched from Rally Spectrum to just running Roy for a strength boost or Camilla for Dragon Veins (Alear and Seadall are kind of just swapping these rings back and forth). Byleth has been moved on to my mages, usually Pandreo, whom appreciate Thyrsus. The additional character certainly can take over for Alear, but I'm not running them so I can't comment too much on it—I'm personally just not a big fan of a mage without staff utility (Micaiah exists, but I don't think it's one of the better emblems for dragon synergy and is good on anyone). So, yeah, at this point Alear probably would be doing better as a Griffin Knight (convoy staff access), Hero, Wolf Knight, or Wyvern Knight.

Edited February 24, 2023 by FashionEmblem

[Viberum]

I’m on my third maddening run and have reclassed Alear to a griffin knight for the fun of it. I want to raise their mag growth for a bit just so I can make them levin swords and arts  stronger in their divine dragon class endgame lol. At least that’s the plan, I might just stick to griffin knight cus having stave utility is really nice.

[Speedy]

I finished chapter 8 and now I'm doing divine paralogues, so far I did not reclass Alear, but thats because I have so little Master Seals and Second Seals. But I will most likely reclass him into a Wyvern Knight. Mainly because I intend to turn my Chloé into a Martial Master so I need to replace my flier. 😄

I'm just not sure if I wanna make him sword/lance wyvern knight or sword/axe wyvern knight.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Speedy