FE13 Promoted Class Tier List

[kryptonite]

One with Re-classing (access to any skills) and one Without (access to only base and promoted skills)

No Re-classing

Top:

Sorcerer - Nosferatu, Ruin, and Vengeance... What's not to love?

Grandmaster - Can go mixed, and add Ignis, which is free damage.

Dark Flier - Galeforce. And if you could actually make use of the stats, attacking both Def/Res along with high Mov and no terrain cost? Also Pair Up mitigates flying weakness somewhat.

Dark Rider - See Dark Flier, minus flying and Galeforce, as well as the crippling flying weakness, but add self-healing powers.

Great Lord - One of the better class skills, Aether.

High:

Manakete - The tankiest of tanky, and can destroy those pesky wyverns. Buyable dragonstones are awesome too. Too bad they only get 2 skills without re-classing.

Hero - Sol is one of the better skills out there, especially coupled with Hand Axes and the ilk. :3

Sage - Tomefaire, along with Tomes and Staves (which can utilize Tomefaire as well). It just adds upon itself. The ultimate glass cannon and a powerful support unit. o.o

Assassin - Lethality is awesome, and Pass is great. Also, bows.

Warrior - Bows and high Str, combined with Rally Str...

Paladin - Aegis is nice, as is the high Mov.

Great Knight - High Mov and Weapon Triangle

Mid:

Falcon Knight - The ultimate lance user with Lancefaire and high movement with no terrain cost, decent staff user too, only thing is bows.

Wyvern Lord - High movement and no terrain cost, and a decent skills with Quick Burn and Swordbreaker, mitigating their Wyrmsbane weakness.

Berserker - That Axefaire. That missing innate critical bonus hurts though.

Swordmaster - Need I say it? Swordfaire and Astra is a nice pair, and they also get that 1~2 physical sword. o_o;

General - Their low Mov is mitigated by Pair Up, and they get Pavise too to help bolster their high Def.

Taguel - Awesome against those pesky mounts, but limited to 1 range hampers them.

Low:

Valkyrie - Worthless skills all over, sadly. Only salvation is tomes with staves.

Bow Knight - High Mov and access to Bows.

Sniper - Bowfaire is the only thing they have going for them over the other Bow using classes. No, Longbow is worthless. They should have gotten Hawkeye instead. :|

Dancer - Honestly, Olivia is more of a liability in this game with reinforcements often spawning behind enemy lines, and no, being able to use a sword does not excuse her from dying to anything that moves.

Trickster - Lucky 7 is cool, staves for them are all but worthless though. And swords too, it seems...

Bottom:

Griffon Rider - They give up lances and caps for... Lancebreaker and being a carrier of another unit. >_>

War Monk - Aside from the novelty of nuns/priests with axes, they not only tend to have low Str, but magic also blows weapons out of the water, aside from fighting mages...

Villager - Eh, well technically it is a final class?

Comments? Question? Suggestions? A list with all skills applicable? Or maybe one with possible characters as well? (seeing as how neither Sumia nor Cordelia want to be a Dark Flier aside from Galeforce, for one :P)

Edited February 25, 2013 by kryptonite

[SilentSentinel]

Taguel is missing from the list. Beastbane is nice but you are locked to 1-range.

[Othin]

Assassin below Swordmaster, Lethality is shit

Griffin Rider to Top, Deliverer is amazing

Broken Tier for Sorcerer and Grandmaster exclusively

[Bryan]

Assassin below Swordmaster, Lethality is shit

Griffin Rider to Top, Deliverer is amazing

Broken Tier for Sorcerer and Grandmaster exclusively

Seconding this.

Dark knight should go down IMO, it's not that great. Sure, DEF is nice, but lifetaker isn't that great of a skill. It's only 50% on your turn, so sol is much better. I planned to have it on one of my children, but took it off because it wasn't worth the slot.

[Sw3Et]

Lethality is shit

Care to elaborate? I haven't played awakening so is it different from previous games?

[Constable Reggie]

Skill/4% activation is absolutely pathetic is probably the main reason why. It's terrible in the other Fe games too. I'd argue to still keep assassin a little bit above swordmaster, though, since pass is really good and bows are very useful against (the many lategame) annoying fliers.

[Elieson]

Dancer up. Seriously, unless we're speaking purely about combat here, Special Dance bestows +2Str/Mag/Def/Res AS WELL AS a second turn ( third turn if used on a Galeforce user).

Extra stats through a buff and additional turn on a phase, not considered upper mid tier? Ok

Edited February 25, 2013 by Elieson

[Zarb]

I think Assassin and Swordmaster should stay right where they are.

While Lethality may have a low activation rate, it kills anything instantly.

If Astra activates (For the sake of the example, let's assume it's at 1 range.) on an enemy with Counter, It could turn an easy kill into a very deadly attack for the wrong person.

[Oshimos]

I'd argue that Valkyrie should be a tier and a half higher, or at the very least above Sniper. Mounted + Rescue is great, not to mention tomes are the best weapons and Dual Support +, while not the greatest, definitely isn't a bad skill.

Bow Knight should probably go down too.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Oshimos

[Elieson]

While Lethality may have a low activation rate, it kills anything instantly.

Just so you know, it's skill/4%. Do you realize just how low that is? This tier list is obviously built on a standard of reliability, and Lethality is beyond unreliable.

[Zarb]

Just so you know, it's skill/4%. Do you realize just how low that is? This tier list is obviously built on a standard of reliability, and Lethality is beyond unreliable.

Yes. I do realize how low that is, I was basing it off of how useful it actually is. I'm only comparing it to Astra here.

If Lethality activates, it kills an enemy. Instantly. It ignores Pavise and Aegis, it ignores pretty much everything. Counter being included.

If Astra activates it performs 5 consecutive attacks with halved damage. Which can be reduced by Pavise and Aegis. And causes damage from Counter.

And, for the record, Astra is (skill/2)% which isn't that much better.

[kryptonite]

Taguel is missing from the list. Beastbane is nice but you are locked to 1-range.

Sure, I'll add it to the list. Honestly, I dropped Panne when I got Nowi... lol

Assassin below Swordmaster, Lethality is shit

Griffin Rider to Top, Deliverer is amazing

Broken Tier for Sorcerer and Grandmaster exclusively

Deliverer is good, but mono-axes and access to Lancebreaker (when using axes) doesn't seem to help their case.

I can move Grandmaster over the other mixed classes though.

Seconding this.

Dark knight should go down IMO, it's not that great. Sure, DEF is nice, but lifetaker isn't that great of a skill. It's only 50% on your turn, so sol is much better. I planned to have it on one of my children, but took it off because it wasn't worth the slot.

While 50% only on your turn might seem like only "eh" but it saves another unit from having to heal it, doesn't rely (as much) on luck, and usually is more beneficial, unless you're dual-activating Sol, activating it on a Crit on a full HP enemy, dodging and then activating it, etc. Also being able to attack mixed is good too.

Dancer up. Seriously, unless we're speaking purely about combat here, Special Dance bestows +2Str/Mag/Def/Res AS WELL AS a second turn ( third turn if used on a Galeforce user).

Extra stats through a buff and additional turn on a phase, not considered upper mid tier? Ok

I'd argue that Dancer is more of a viability than an asset in this game. Giving another unit another turn in nice, but it needs to be paired up in order to not die, which in turn uses another unit which could be used otherwise.

Perhaps I'm just bitter about peg knights spawning on the sides of the tree chapter and making a beeline straight for Olivia. >_>

I'd argue that Valkyrie should be a tier and a half higher, or at the very least above Sniper. Mounted + Rescue is great, not to mention tomes are the best weapons and Dual Support +, while not the greatest, definitely isn't a bad skill.

Bow Knight should probably go down too.

I can see the former, but why BK down? You can pair up with your BK, move across the map, and then swap places so you can still have those deadly bows equipped AND have them be shot at close range during enemy phase...

Just so you know, it's skill/4%. Do you realize just how low that is? This tier list is obviously built on a standard of reliability, and Lethality is beyond unreliable.

True, I'll move them down.

So Assassins moved down, Valks moved up, Taguels added.

[Elieson]

I can see you saying SIN > SM due to Pass and +1 Mov, but offensively speaking, SMs are generally dealing more damage regardless. At a base they have a higher activation of Lethality by 2x, and with Swordfaire they are dealing a wealth of damage over Assassins (u less we bring Bows vs Fliers into the mix). Regardless, we can assume both are doubling.

Now, if both double say, a Great Knight, SM has a greater chance to deal more damage over SIN, thanks to Armorslayers. Astra has a higher chance to proc, therefore it's still more reliable in terms of a damaging unit as it is.

The question between the two, if argued in terms of reliability, should weigh Vantage/Avoid/Swordfaire vs Mov+1/Pass, as Locktouch is a perk iif anything.

I value pass, but not that much over reliable damage. I value Lethality 1/2 as much as Astra, and very rarely attack enemies praying that Lethality/Astra activate. Those numbers that show up tell me what Im going to deal as damage, and with Vantage to help SMs survivability and offensive lead over SINs.

TLDR;

Assassin below Sage

[Oshimos]

I can see the former, but why BK down? You can pair up with your BK, move across the map, and then swap places so you can still have those deadly bows equipped AND have them be shot at close range during enemy phase...

Well, if you want a pair-up unit for the move, GK/DK is generally better unless you need the speed. If it's ferrying people around, fliers work much better. Then there's their weapon choices, which, while you have two of them, they're the worst two weapon types (Swords only having Ragnell for 1-2 and bows being 2-range only). BK skills are pretty much completely worthless outside of niche bowbreaker fliers, and this doesn't take reclassing into account. Lastly, BK caps are pretty sub-par, being identical to Griffon rider except for 5 less defence. I'd stick them above Snipers but below Valks.

[kryptonite]

I can see you saying SIN > SM due to Pass and +1 Mov, but offensively speaking, SMs are generally dealing more damage regardless. At a base they have a higher activation of Lethality by 2x, and with Swordfaire they are dealing a wealth of damage over Assassins (u less we bring Bows vs Fliers into the mix). Regardless, we can assume both are doubling.

Now, if both double say, a Great Knight, SM has a greater chance to deal more damage over SIN, thanks to Armorslayers. Astra has a higher chance to proc, therefore it's still more reliable in terms of a damaging unit as it is.

The question between the two, if argued in terms of reliability, should weigh Vantage/Avoid/Swordfaire vs Mov+1/Pass, as Locktouch is a perk iif anything.

I value pass, but not that much over reliable damage. I value Lethality 1/2 as much as Astra, and very rarely attack enemies praying that Lethality/Astra activate. Those numbers that show up tell me what Im going to deal as damage, and with Vantage to help SMs survivability and offensive lead over SINs.

TLDR;

Assassin below Sage

Alright, sounds good. Done.

Well, if you want a pair-up unit for the move, GK/DK is generally better unless you need the speed. If it's ferrying people around, fliers work much better. Then there's their weapon choices, which, while you have two of them, they're the worst two weapon types (Swords only having Ragnell for 1-2 and bows being 2-range only). BK skills are pretty much completely worthless outside of niche bowbreaker fliers, and this doesn't take reclassing into account. Lastly, BK caps are pretty sub-par, being identical to Griffon rider except for 5 less defence. I'd stick them above Snipers but below Valks.

I agree except for bows can attack and even counter at one range when they're equipped on the pair up unit, providing the main unit can attack/counter...

[Oshimos]

I agree except for bows can attack and even counter at one range when they're equipped on the pair up unit, providing the main unit can attack/counter...

Yeah, but... so can everything else, while also being able to attack at one range while being the main unit in a pair. Bows are still the worst weapon type.

[Elieson]

If you want a unit paired up an backing you up, give a Warrior a fcking bow. That +10 str bonus from Pair up combined with his higher cap yield better damage than a BK will ever do.

Unless you desperately need the added Skill, BK is pretty chump as a Paired unit.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Elieson

[kryptonite]

Alright, I'll move BK down...

(I must come off as "easy"... >_>)

[Redwall]

There's no way that a judiciously-fielded Dancer can ever be considered a liability. The only times my Dancer ever got hit were by the Mire Sorcerers in Chapter 21 on Lunatic mode. Anyone playing at a leisurely pace should have enough HP + Res to survive a single Mire, and anyone playing at LTC speeds can use an Angelic Robe + Tonics to survive and reap the benefits of a Dancer in Chapter 21 (namely, that she'll allow you a fast clear of the level; I got five turns on Lunatic, but I am certain a good player with Galeforce can go even lower). If you're letting your Dancer get hit from anything else, you're not using her correctly.

Griffon Rider has got to be in the high tier; Deliverer is absolutely amazing and allows for easy skipping on all difficulty settings. Being locked into axes can be played around extremely easily, as Axebreaker is very uncommon, only ever appearing on enemy Heroes. Even when I reclassed my Griffon Rider, I never once used a lance with her.

[Zarb]

I can see you saying SIN > SM due to Pass and +1 Mov, but offensively speaking, SMs are generally dealing more damage regardless. At a base they have a higher activation of Lethality by 2x, and with Swordfaire they are dealing a wealth of damage over Assassins (u less we bring Bows vs Fliers into the mix). Regardless, we can assume both are doubling.

Now, if both double say, a Great Knight, SM has a greater chance to deal more damage over SIN, thanks to Armorslayers. Astra has a higher chance to proc, therefore it's still more reliable in terms of a damaging unit as it is.

The question between the two, if argued in terms of reliability, should weigh Vantage/Avoid/Swordfaire vs Mov+1/Pass, as Locktouch is a perk iif anything.

I value pass, but not that much over reliable damage. I value Lethality 1/2 as much as Astra, and very rarely attack enemies praying that Lethality/Astra activate. Those numbers that show up tell me what Im going to deal as damage, and with Vantage to help SMs survivability and offensive lead over SINs.

TLDR;

Assassin below Sage

Okay, yeah. I was basing my entire argument off a very specific situation. (That situation being: A Swordsmaster/Assassin fighting an enemy with Counter at 1 Range where Astra/Lethality activates.) Which is an absolutely horrible way to make a good argument.

I was also completely ignoring Vantage/Avoid/Swordfaire and Mov +1/Pass. Which, once again, is a horrible way to make a good argument.

In the fighting a Great Knight situation: In a situation where no abilities activate, Swordsmasters have the upper hand. But in a situation where Astra/Lethality activates Assassins have the clear advantage. No doubt. Which is to say, in fair combat, Swordsmaster have the upper hand.

On the field, Assassins have Pass and Mov +1 so they can easily run through an enemy blockade and get to the weaker, ranged enemies set behind the bulky defensive enemies. And if an Assassin gets surrounded, she can get away a lot easier than a Swordsmaster could.

Not to mention that Assassins can use bows.

TL;DR

I apologize for making a faulty argument earlier.

In fair combat, Swordsmasters beat Assassins. On the field, Assassins are better.

In comparing Astra to Lethality, I think that Lethality is far superior.

I still say Assassins are better than Swordsmasters, but mainly due to the fact that having Astra activate against an enemy with Counter will pretty much guarantee death.

[nondecisive]

The question between the two, if argued in terms of reliability, should weigh Vantage/Avoid/Swordfaire vs Mov+1/Pass, as Locktouch is a perk iif anything.

A Vantage/Avoid/Pass Assassin is possible as well.

Also, Lethality on a Counter unit with Miracle will also equal death if both your Lethality and the opponent's Miracle activate.

Edited February 25, 2013 by nondecisive

[PuffPuff]

Seconding this.

Dark knight should go down IMO, it's not that great. Sure, DEF is nice, but lifetaker isn't that great of a skill. It's only 50% on your turn, so sol is much better. I planned to have it on one of my children, but took it off because it wasn't worth the slot.

Yeah, but having both Lifetaker+Sol isn't bad either.

-----

Valkyrie

What's there to care for worthless skills when they have such great movement and are incredible for rescues (Rescue Staff) and is a great candidate for Fortify/Physic. Glad that Paladin is above Great Knight for their better well balanced stats.

[Elieson]

a Falcon Knight can Rescue as well, and doesn't give a fuck about trees

[PuffPuff]

a Falcon Knight can Rescue as well, and doesn't give a fuck about trees

But Valkyries get better Mag=Better Staff Range!

Class Caps

Valkyries have 44 base Mag and Falcoknights have 37 base Mag.

Edited February 25, 2013 by Katarina

[SilentSentinel]

If you assume Capped Mag for both, it doesn't matter all that much.