timon

Apparently yes, as far as I understand (I haven't read everything) that's one of the biggest unanswered questions from the leaks. How does the game choose which A rank is going to be the paired ending, is it based on what support you get first? Is it a hard set priority system? Does it keep a "score" for support points even after A rank? Personally I hope there's just a clear UI option for the player to decide who gets with who (and who stays alone), there's no reason to hide this type of things behind some secret stats or weird development decision.

For non-Byleth supports it actually makes sense imo, you can hint at a relationship, but if a player wants to see just a strong friendship bond it works that way, too. For Byleth it makes less sense unless the UI states explictly that it's not romance, otherwise it's misleading for the player (and it's not that hard, they could've just made it A+ or something). That said I'm glad Alois and Gilbert aren't options, it felt really weird to me.

Annette is actually cute (though her head's a bit weird in the portrait), just not as much to make the effort to recruit her. Though she's definitely improved A LOT compared to the child she is before the skip. Ashe on the other hand is garbage, I can't look at him anymore, I'm sorry, that haircut is on par with Lorenz's, if not worse.

Wait what, does that mean we can S rank NPCs?

Thank you kind sir, you just made my life easier. 2 students less to recruit, poor Ashe my boi, what did they do to you. Anyway I'm pretty sure that

Can someone give me timeskip portraits of Ashe, Annette and Flayn? I've seen a picture around with everyone, luckily scrolled fast enough to not spoil myself, but I want to see those 3.

Well I'm fucking sad

Do you mean it's a Revelations kind of deal? (so "get all the characters everyone is happy"?)

Can someone isolate Annette and Ashe for me please (if/when we have them)? I'm trying to not spoil myself the designs, but I need to see those 2 to decide if they're worth recruiting. PS: fuck me Leonie I love you, I knew that you had potential. Let's just hope she's not too obsessed with dad lol

I just hope there'll be enough context before this kind of decision, it must be clear what the implications are for the choice. I'm glad though that this

I'm particularly curious to see what Byleth learns in Reason (I hope it's dark), and what his talent in Faith gives. Good magic could sway me to put time in Reason. Also Hanneman seems to be a wind mage (he's got Wind and Sagittae), though he has Thoron as well, so maybe some character will be "mixed". For Faith users I think there'll be less variety tbh, maybe some character gets one more healing spell and another one more offensive, but I doubt the progression changes too much (I mean if you're leveling Faith on someone it's probably because you need a healer). What? I thought that "this class can wield magic" meant that they can use any spell they've learned? And then if you're in a class that gives you a spell you already have you get double the uses, at least that was my understanding.

I'm trying to stay away from leaks, but I'm interested in the mastery skills, can someone post the known ones here under spoiler tag? (stick to known classes please)

I really hope the RNG rolls each time you try, I plan on save scumming some higher requirements. Though that woman that failed a 70% multiple times makes me think that the outcome is determined before you take the test. Jesus that's rough, she has one of the reqs and she's off by one level in the other (2 if we count C+), 42% is low.

You have 9 slots: 1 - Personal skill 3 - Class skills (swordfaire, vantage, terrain resistance, locktouch and so on), not sure if you get them immediately or if it depends on how much you've mastered the class 5 - whatever skills, so proficiency skills (the ones you unlock by leveling a weapon rank), unlocked hidden talents and mastery skills. Maybe even some item or story based ones. The first 4 are fixed (even if your class has no skills those 3 slots are locked), I'm not even sure you can unequip them even if you want. The last 5 slots is where you can customize your character and just do whatever you want. Note that magic spells and combat arts are their own separate thing.

I mean Byleth doesn't exactly have a lot of lines so it's possible, but I doubt they'do it anyways. For however shitty the things he did can be, it seems that he's just an asshole, nothing illegal there, I doubt they'd go as far as hiring another VA and redoing every line. Now if he broke the NDA that could be another story, we know Nintendo really doesn't like that kind of stuff.

I'm pretty sure Lysithea will be the best mage (and Gremory) in the game. That personal skill is just crazy on a mage, and the archetype of the character (young prodigy) is your typical unit that explodes later on. I can see maybe just Hubert having some comparable magic growth, but he doesn't have a Faith boon and he's a man, so no Gremory. Mercedes and Flayn seem to be geared more towards healer, which means they probably trade some Mag for some more Res, maybe in the late game they can get there, but I still don't think they'll get the sheer power of Lysithea. Also remember she gets Dark Magic, for a female that's kind of exclusive, and I'm pretty sure it will be the most powerful kind of magic. Which doesn't mean don't make them Gremory, but they're not as heavily pushed to being one as Lysithea. Eh idk, I actually see more options for Flayn and Mercedes, they can easily go Holy Knight and Falcon Knight, or you can just have more Gremories since they'll be focused on healing magic while Lysithea is nuking. Mortal Savant means sacrificing some of that juicy magic for strength you'll never use (since you want magic swords), you could just get enough sword rank to use the relic and still go Gremory. Also very important point IMO, she gets Dark Magic by leveling Reason, Black Tomefaire is useless. I guess we'll see, but right now I don't see many female characters that are better off in MS than in Gremory, you're just sacrificing a lot of firepower for a gimmick, when you can just use the weapon you want as Gremory (and if it scales on Mag I'm pretty sure the difference in stat will make up for not having Swordfaire).

I'm sorry but I have to agree with the guy above me, as much as I want an infantry army there's a lot of extensive proof that Master>Advanced. It's confirmed by this point. There's a niche exception where I could see a unit staying as Assassin, because Locktouch, but I have the feeling you can get that by mastering either Thief or Assassin itself. The only (tiny) hope is that there's something hidden behind the timeskip embargo (maybe some weird seals like the one for Dark Mage). But let's be real, they're probably keeping that for DLC.

Lysithea needs to be a gremory tbh. From what we know of her she's probably going to be your typical glass cannon, and she's probably one of the most powerful mages in the game. No reason to limit her with Mortal Savant, a Levin Sword is not enough to use your time in swords when you can train her Faith and get White Magic. Also consider that she seems to naturally learn a lot of Dark Magic, so Black Tomefaire is basically useless on her, while Gremory gives her double uses of all spells. The only reason to put a physical weapon on Lysithea is early on, when you don't have enough magic to get through a battle. But her ability means that she levels up skill levels faster than others, with Reason and Faith (where she has a strength as well) that means getting spells at a crazy fast rate, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to forget the side weapon quickly enough. Also I feel like she'd be a bit wasted as a Dancer, that class is not really a "final class", so I expect growths and caps won't be as high (this may not be true, but it was so in previous games). Turning a nuke mage in a utility unit is a bit of a shame tbh.

It's been confirmed that a blooming talent creates a strength no matter what. EDIT: found Hanneman's crest, he shares it with Bernadetta (so it's probably major? Since we haven't seen two same minors yet IIRC).

Age: secret made me laugh ngl, it's very much in line with her character. I'm hyped for Hanneboy, 51 years old is a cool age, it's been a while since the last relevant unit that old. And he looks like a nuker. On the other hand that Reason weakness kind of hinders Manuela's chances as a magic focused unit. Let's hope growth rates are good, even if not as good as students, just please don't make them lag behind (this game will be LONG, just having good bases won't get them anywhere). Also just noticed, Hanneman has a crest, does someone know if it's shared?

Levels don't reset, so promote asap. There's just one reason to stay in a lower class, and that's class mastery. Basically the more you fight in a class the more you gain "class experience" in that class, once you get enough you "master" the class and get a skill. From what I understand that skill is permanent (while class skills are tied to your current class), so there may be some classes for which is worth waiting to master, but we'll have to see what's the power level of those skills. I can imagine it could be a big thing for mages if they get powerful spells. There's also no drawback to "side promote" (if you have enough seals), the more classes you unlock the more freedom you have in battle prep (as class changing between classes you've unlocked is completely free), that obviously can affects growths and skill levels as well (if you need some Res or good Lance maybe pass some time as a PegKnight).

Innocent until proven guilty people, especially on the internet and especially on abusive/sexual matters, people love to jump on the accusation bandwagon. And even if he is proven guilty, don't expect any reaction from the fans, it may sound weird considering this discussion, but most people don't really care about VAs. They're just the voices behind the characters, I'm pretty sure the great majority of the players don't give a flying fuck about it tbh. Obviously if it turns out to be true it would be appropriate for Nintendo to hire someone else (for 3H it's obviously too late, but not for any other appearence, be it Heroes or Smash). btw I don't even know if investigations are underway, if it's not the case we might never know.

Good, now that we have a bit of info I have a general idea of where to go: Byleth - hopefully a canon class on foot? Otherwise it's between Holy Knight and Bow Knight, I'd have to see the male character models to decide (afaik we've only seen Bernadetta in those). If they're garbage then there's also the War Master option (looks cool, though I'd rather have pants), but I want my Byleth to be a heavily Lance focused unit, and I don't want to ever touch Gauntlets so I'd have to rely on faculty for those (and save scum the certification). Also with the recruitments he'd have to get good at basically everything, which is a stretch considering I'm playing on hard (no grind). Edelgard - canon class, hopefully she's allowed magic? If not maybe Gremory. Ferdinand - Great Knight Dorothea - Dancer Petra - Wyvern Lord (with bows) Hubert - Dark Knight Linhardt - idk, probably Holy Knight? I hope DLC classes come fast, we need some of these roles filled asap Bernadetta - I don't really like her, so not sure if I'll use her. If it's the case then Bow Knight. Caspar: the bench, and he's staying as a stinky noble. Or I'll just kill him off if he gets too annoying. Recruitments (at least the ones I'll use for sure): Sylvain - Dark Knight Ingrid - Falcon Knight Marianne - Holy Knight Flayn - Gremory, though I have a feeling this will change once we see her ears... Hanneman - Dark Knight (I mean what else can you do with these mages really?) Also Lance focused Byleth will give me easy access to Ashe or/and Leonie if I end up liking them, if it's the case he's a Wyvern Lord (because goddam flying ranged thief is utility porn) and she's a Bow Knight. Yeah... you can tell I'm not a fan of the variety in Masters... I end up with 3 Dark Knights and maybe 3 Holy Knights as well, which are basically the same concept. And that's without even counting other teachers/faculties/whatever that I might end up recruiting/using. Then again we'll have to see what portion of the game we end up playing with Master Classes, it might just be the later chapters.