Reclassing / Promoting: Who? When? Into What?

[Taho]

Digging this topic back up (11 days old, not a necropost 😉 )

I'm thinking about my 2nd playthrough with 100% new units, and I'm thinking of using Jean as my Thief, as soon as I get a second seal so I can bench Yunaka (sob). Anyone's done that in Maddening or Hard?

[LukeB]

19 hours ago, Taho said:

Digging this topic back up (11 days old, not a necropost 😉 )

I'm thinking about my 2nd playthrough with 100% new units, and I'm thinking of using Jean as my Thief, as soon as I get a second seal so I can bench Yunaka (sob). Anyone's done that in Maddening or Hard?

Thieves are good, so he will probably be a solid unit. His speed should be insane, so nothing should be able to touch him.  

However, the strength growth on Thief is fairly low, so he might struggle for damage. For reference, even if you managed to get him caught up to yunaka in levels, he be slightly below her on strength. And his growth will be lower (In thief, Jean will have 40% while Yunaka and Zelkov have 45%) so he will start out behind in strength AND will have lower growth.  

Again, he will probably be a good unit because covert and daggers and speed are good, but might not be the best choice.

[Barren]

On 1/28/2023 at 2:15 AM, BloodRonin said:

I'm currently on chapter 22 on my maddening run. I kept Anna as a warrior. Using the radiant bow makes great use of her magic growth and you can forget it very early. Warriors are also the only bow back up unit. She honestly is my mvp. With the tiki ring she has over 70hp and 40% luck. So I'm rarely gold starved. That being said, I am curious how she would do as a mage. I just invested too much in non mage skills to do the switch >_<. 

Emblem rings I use often on her are tiki, 3 houses, ike, or roy.  

I currently have Anna as a Warrior myself. She’s been doing really well in that class. Especially when I give her Tiki or Byleth so that way it’ll increase her luck for more money.

 

I’m going to wait until I get Micaiah back before I turn her into a high priest because it has a higher luck cap. She’s already capped res as a Warrior. I’m currently playing Hard mode before I want to tackle maddening.

 

While an off topic question: Maddening has fixed growths correct?

[Speedy]

I got a question about Céline.

Considering her growth rates, wouldn't it be better to switch her to maybe a sword fighter=>swordmaster? She has higher Str growth than her Mag, she also has good Res and Luck. Or maybe different Str based class? I'm really considering reclassing her on my maddening run considering all of this. (And partialy because I hate her noble=>vidame outfit XD )

[LukeB]

1 hour ago, Speedy said:

I got a question about Céline.

Considering her growth rates, wouldn't it be better to switch her to maybe a sword fighter=>swordmaster? She has higher Str growth than her Mag, she also has good Res and Luck. Or maybe different Str based class? I'm really considering reclassing her on my maddening run considering all of this. (And partialy because I hate her noble=>vidame outfit XD )

Celine's base strength is fairly low, and her strength growth, while higher then her magic growth, is not amazing. So switching her to a physical unit will result is a fairly fast (but not even as fast as say Kagetsu/Merrin/Chole), but low strength unit. The closest unit to compare her to would probably be Chloe. So IL 30:

Chloe would have +8 hp, +2 Magic, +4 Dex, +4 Spd, and +1 Bld

Celine would have +1 Str and +4 Res.

I don't think that I would recommend going this route personally. You would just end up making a physical unit entirely outclassed by all of your good physical units. 

 

Celine's biggest pro, and basically the only reason to use her imo, is the Vidame class. It has: some of the best base stats in the game, sword access for levin sword, the mystic tag, and Ignis. No other class is giving you anywhere near as much as Vidame will give you, and Celine's stats seem balanced around the assumption that that is where she is going to be. Taking her out of it feels worse then just benching her tbh. 

[ruruo]

10 hours ago, Speedy said:

I got a question about Céline.

Considering her growth rates, wouldn't it be better to switch her to maybe a sword fighter=>swordmaster? She has higher Str growth than her Mag, she also has good Res and Luck. Or maybe different Str based class? I'm really considering reclassing her on my maddening run considering all of this. (And partialy because I hate her noble=>vidame outfit XD )

For reclassing Celine, I think she does well as a Sword Griffon. I'm only mid game atm, but it's feeling pretty solid. It keeps good magic, str and res growths, and better dex and spd growth than Vidame. I find it quite versatile on her. Staff access is nice and breaking with sword advantage is also pretty good, she's got me out of a few pickles. Early game you can forge a Levin Sword to take advantage of her magic stat so levelling isn't that troublesome
 

[BloodRonin]

On 2/19/2023 at 6:34 AM, Barren said:

While an off topic question: Maddening has fixed growths correct?

For the first run yes. I completed a 2nd run using rng level ups and it was so much better imo. Made some units into complete power houses early while others (like Alfred) actually kept up.

[BloodRonin]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:34 AM, LukeB said:

Celine's biggest pro, and basically the only reason to use her imo, is the Vidame class. It has: some of the best base stats in the game, sword access for levin sword, the mystic tag, and Ignis

Having levin sword with the mystic tag alone is pretty huge for emblem synergy (like Sigurd or marth for example).

[Barren]

21 hours ago, BloodRonin said:

For the first run yes. I completed a 2nd run using rng level ups and it was so much better imo. Made some units into complete power houses early while others (like Alfred) actually kept up.

Gotcha. Thanks

[DaveCozy]

On 1/28/2023 at 9:17 PM, Vicyus said:

Vander: general or great knight. Have done both and it makes him far more viable. Paladin is far more of an offensive class and Vander is a tank through and through.

yeah I agree here. Vander as Great Knight will also have more HP than Louis, Jade or Bunet too, which makes him a pretty viable Ike user for mid-game from my experience. HP being his best stat is one thing that gives him viability long term.

[whase]

I did very little in terms of reclassing in my first playthrough. After reaching lvl 20 in warrior I did reclass my Boucheron into a hero though, which made him a lot better. I also reclassed my lvl 20 sniper Etie into a warrior after hearing how good that was, it did not disappoint. I did turn Jade into a halberdier immediately after getting her. She was a great destructive force with a forged brave lance, but she required a lot of work yet remained pretty fragile.

Now in my second playthrough, I reclassed almost all my front liners into hero. My Alear is a lot better than during my first playthrough, though that is at least in part because of forging liberation to +5 early. Alfred, Louis and Chloe are a bit disappointing though. Warrior!Fogado and Sage!Anna are doing great. Only frontliner I didn't reclass is Diamant, but I'm doubting that decision now, his combat is only slightly better than Alfred/Louis/Chloe, yet those three are dealing a lot more damage in brave assists than Diamant is doing without. Merrin is also doing great as a thief, but still a little disappointing since Yunaka seemed to do better last playthrough. 

Maybe I'll try hero!Merrin, or maybe Warrior!Merrin, or how good is her magic stat for Sage!Merrin? I'll think of a way to make her even better next playthrough...

[Viberum]

I started my third playthroigh (mad/classic/rndm) and I’m planning on using Clanne as a warrior, Amber as a Lance General, and Bunet as a Wyvern Lord. I’m deadset on figuring out how to make these guys amazing lol.

 

I really wish we were given like 5 second seals right at the beginning so I wouldn’t have to wait to reclass them.

[ChaosStar0]

First playthrough, not sure if I will do a second as I don't see much reason to, and just beat chapter 17 so everyone is promoted. Basically everyone is in their natural Promoted classes, with the only exceptions being Etie as a Bow Knight, Louis as a Great Knight, and Lapis as a Hero. Also I find the 'Promote ASAP' Idea weird when it's not til Chapter 17 that everyone can be promoted due to lack of Master Seals. Then again I'm on Normal, but there should still be enough Skirmishes on Hard to keep everyone evenly leveled and at or near the recommended level for each chapter. Also, I gave Anna the Hurricane Axe and Radiant Bow so she's basically a Magic Warrior. Sad we don't actually get a Bolt Axe outside of Engage weapons though.

Also I had thought about making Amber a Wolf Knight, but lack of access to the ability to get Dagger Proficiency after Chapter 11 made me decide not to do it.

 

Sorry for the Necro, didn't realize.

Edited March 20, 2023 by ChaosStar0

[Speedy]

On 2/28/2023 at 10:52 PM, Viberum said:

I started my third playthroigh (mad/classic/rndm) and I’m planning on using Clanne as a warrior, Amber as a Lance General, and Bunet as a Wyvern Lord. I’m deadset on figuring out how to make these guys amazing lol.

 

I really wish we were given like 5 second seals right at the beginning so I wouldn’t have to wait to reclass them.

Yeah I also wish I could get more master seals and second seals around chapter 8, cause thats the time I tend to do divine paralogues, cause I'd say that the time when they are most doable. But at that point I have plenty of units that require promoting or class change. 😄 

Anyway good luck making those three work, I think Amber can turn out quite decent, because he has really good str growths. But Clanne and Bunet... thats gonna require quite some investment. 😄

[Graveless]

I'm on Maddening playthrough 4 now and have tried out a few other strange builds to see what you can do. 

Early Reclass:

Vander - If you swap to Great Knight or General, he'll be able to tank for quite some time. With DLC, there's a hilarious build for him with Veronica and Holdout. His massive HP means that Reprisal will be able to boost his damage numbers to silly levels in warrior. 15 Str + 21 (if at 1 hp) + whatever bow should be enough to do real work. SP Conversion means he'll even get SP out of the deal.

Early Promote:

Chloe - I think Chloe > Wyvern is probably the best early promote you can get. It bolsters her weak stats to the point where she can start one rounding many enemies. 

Celine - Getting extra staff utility is very nice and Celine's personal class is also a pretty good one. Much better than her brother. 

Diamant - Joining the pretty good personal class crew, also gaining 1-2 range. 

Lapis - Lance Hero will shore up a bunch of Lapis' weaknesses, even if she'll still be a worse pick than Diamant on average. 

Early Promote and Reclass:

Alear - Alear is a promote midgame for me if you're going Divine Dragon. If, instead, you go Wyvern or similar, you'll basically get a second Chloe with convoy access for all of the sweet effective weaponry you could want. 

Anna - I tend to go Mage Knight Anna and it doesn't cost that much to feed her a couple of kills as an axe fighter. She'll generally be ready for promotion and reclassing at around chapter 10 if you try to passively train her, will be capable much sooner with Miciah. 

Etie - Going Warrior means you can start really making use of Etie's niche of high strength + Silver Bow. She'll start killing one thing per turn and be one of the better candidates for Lyn thanks to how high impact her starting to double is. Also, that big hp bump means she's occasionally not die if exposed to any enemy attack. Also, she'll get use out of being a backup because covert's avoid bonus would not save her.

Amber - Take your pick of Halberdier, Wyvern, and Hero to a much lesser extent. The same benefit of changing Etie applies here as well. He'll have a worse weapon set, but actual bulk to make up for it. 

Boucheron - Warrior actually wastes his impressive build advantage over other characters by going too high. Instead, he can go Wyvern and wind up with the same speed as Kagetsu using heavy axes, along with net -3 strength assuming there's anyone chain attacking because he'd rather be receiving help than giving it. 

Jean - See Anna, but he's so much higher investment that I don't think its worth it to try. 

Mid Reclass:

Yunaka - Eventually the low Thief strength will make her damage fall off, but she's also a good choice for some of the early stat boosters to hit one rounding thresholds and will probably remain one of your best Res tanks for a while. So, reclass to either Griffin or Wolf Knight to become a slightly worse Merrin.

Zelkov - Second verse same as the first, though he wants to go Warrior or Wyvern. 

Pandreo - Put him in Sage to make those base stats go nuts. 

Fogado - Go with Warrior and he'll put in a lot of good work.

Goldmary - Either Great Knight to outdo Louis/Jade or Halberdier for big damage numbers.

Late Reclass:
Diamant - Eventually he's going to Successeur's low Dex cap and start having hit rate problems. At around that time, I typically have him re-class to Hero because he'll have inherited skills that fit the role. He'll loose a bit of strength and bulk, but will come out of it with a more useful class skill and the ability to hit things.

Spoiler

Mauvier - I generally just move him from a horse to a Griffin.