What is your favorite class story-wise, and what is your favorite class gameplay-wise?

[Extrasolar]

So I was thinking earlier, and I was wondering, what's everyone's favorite FE class or classes favor/story wise, and what's everyone's favorite class or classes mechanics/gameplay wise, and why?

For the former, my favorite is definitely Mage/Sage. I'm a fan of magic and magic-using characters in general, and I really do like the way FE does magic with the variety of tomes, effects and animations (well, except the magic oversimplification in Awakening and Fates....a return to the diverse magic of Elibe, Magvel and Tellius in FE Switch would be a dream come true for me). The bit of lore we learn about magic in the series as a whole is cool too — that it's cast by channeling elemental spirits, and is somewhat cast from their life force, because a mage can die if they use it carelessly. Talk about hardcore. Lol.

Clerics/Bishops would be second on the list for me, just because I'm a huge fan of clerics (I play one most of the time when playing Pathfinder, and even in other games I tend to focus on being a white mage if I can).

My kneejerk reaction for the latter was gonna be Mercenary/Hero, since they're almost always excellent units, but I thought about it more, and I'm gonna say my favorite class mechanics wise is Myrmidon/Swordmaster. In the games I've played a lot, they make amazing dodgetanks, crit monsters, and when Astra is involved (especially when you can crit while you Astra, because overkill is the only way to go), pretty much everything dies. Well, until Fates' weird RNG nerfed dodgetanking. While Hana is painfully useless imo, at least we have weirdly tanky Hinata who still does good damage and crits a lot, and godly Ryoma.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Extrasolar

[Slumber]

I like Mercenary/Hero story-wise, and Pirate/Berserker gameplay-wise.

Mercenaries tend to have some of the more interesting stories/personalities, even if a good chunk of them are just pit/arena fighters. Thief/Assassin and Shaman/Druid are typically pretty good, too, but Gaius and Tharja have soured those for me a bit.

Pirate/Berserker's great just because I think it really encapsulates the risk/reward aspect of taking risky moves in FE. Axe Fighter is my favorite class in FE5, but from then on, it's pretty dry until Boyd, who's a respectable unit. Nolan's also one of the two members of the DB who seemingly actually fills a role in the team.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Slumber

[maybe]

pirate is my favorite everything for being pirate, why is pirate not in the poll

[Rex Glacies]

Story wise, it's Wyvern Knights, because dragons are awesome and riding on them is even cooler.

Gameplay is Myrmidon, because swords are awesome, and the class is incredibly neat. Plus, why bother investing in defense if you can avoid everything?

[Extrasolar]

38 minutes ago, unique said:

pirate is my favorite everything for being pirate, why is pirate not in the poll

I conflate them with axe fighters, since that's what they are outside of the ability to walk on water. Brigands are in that same category too.

1 hour ago, Slumber said:

Axe Fighter is my favorite class in FE5, but from then on, it's pretty dry until Boyd, who's a respectable unit. Nolan's also one of the two members of the DB who seemingly actually fills a role in the team.

It helps that Nolan is one of the rare Dawn Brigade unit that has fairly good stats and potential, lol. He's definitely no Boyd, but he's not awful either. I think a lot of the problem with axe fighters early that, with pirates and brigands, they were pretty much the kneejerk "low level enemy unit," alongside enemy cavaliers...and apparently they were unimportant to give to the player to the point that all axe fighters were deleted from FE 3 Book 1 (iic) and they were also nonexistent in Gaiden!

Talk about harsh, lol.

1 hour ago, Slumber said:

Thief/Assassin and Shaman/Druid are typically pretty good, too, but Gaius and Tharja have soured those for me a bit.

Yeah, shamans are neat lorewise imo. I'm a big fan of Dark Is Not Evil, in that darkness-based powers aren't inherently any less moral just because they happen to originate from creepy, unknown primal forces, and it's people that decide what to do with that power. I wish we got more Shamans than we have playable in the series, but since they're normally Evil Dark Mages Worshipping Evil God (TM) that tend to work for the bad guys, we don't get very many of them unless they're defectors like Salem and Knoll, or cinnamon rolls who somehow know it in a world that has little to no dark magic to begin with like Pelleas.

Tharja, though, yeah, everything wrong was done with that character imo. Gaius for the most part is harmless for me, but his candy obsession does kind of wear itself thin at times. I do like the upbeat thief archetype in the vein of Ricken and Dew, just because I find kind of cheeky flippant characters like that fun. "Dark and brooding" assassin/thief doesn't tend to do it for me - one of the things I like so much about Volke is despite appearing to fall into the stereotype at first glance, he's actually a lot more playful than he appears to be.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Extrasolar

[Slumber]

1 hour ago, Extrasolar said:

I conflate them with axe fighters, since that's what they are outside of the ability to walk on water. Brigands are in that same category too.

It helps that Nolan is one of the rare Dawn Brigade unit that has fairly good stats and potential, lol. He's definitely no Boyd, but he's not awful either. I think a lot of the problem with axe fighters early that, with pirates and brigands, they were pretty much the kneejerk "low level enemy unit," alongside enemy cavaliers...to the point that all axe fighters were deleted from FE 3 Book 2 (iic) and they were also nonexistent in Gaiden!

Talk about harsh, lol.

Yeah, shamans are neat lorewise imo. I'm a big fan of Dark Is Not Evil, in that darkness-based powers aren't inherently any less moral just because they happen to originate from creepy, unknown primal forces, and it's people that decide what to do with that power. I wish we got more Shamans than we have playable in the series, but since they're normally Evil Dark Mages Worshipping Evil God (TM) that tend to work for the bad guys, we don't get very many of them unless they're defectors like Salem and Knoll, or cinnamon rolls who somehow know it in a world that has little to no dark magic to begin with like Pelleas.

Tharja, though, yeah, everything wrong was done with that character imo. Gaius for the most part is harmless for me, but his candy obsession does kind of wear itself thin at times. I do like the upbeat thief archetype in the vein of Ricken and Dew, just because I find kind of cheeky flippant characters like that fun. "Dark and brooding" assassin/thief doesn't tend to do it for me - one of the things I like so much about Volke is despite appearing to fall into the stereotype at first glance, he's actually a lot more playful than he appears to be.

Salem's actually probably my favorite of the Dark Mages from a story perspective. Most games have Dark Mages as scholars who are simply dabbling in old/dangerous magics for scholarly reasons, while Salem is using a magic that's explicitly associated with the people who are trying to take over the country and revive a super powerful Earth Dragon. It's pretty much a type of magic synonymous with evil in the Jugdral games. Salem, however, is a pretty timid/meek guy, and has too much of a conscience to keep supporting the Lopto Sect as the child hunts kick up. So he takes refuge in a group of Robin Hood-esque bandits, and fully plans on dying to help them when you meet him. It's just a neat, simple story that hasn't quite been done with any other Dark Mages. It's also interesting because he's the only full-fledged member of the Sect who defects. Every other bad guy who defects in FE4/5 is either independent, or is affiliated with a group that happens to be under the Lopto Sect.

Matthew's another who's kind of like the inverse of Volke. At least, he develops into more of kind of the inverse of Volke. Whereas Volke is aloof and clearly gets a kick out of it as he works more with Ike and his crew, Matthew seems jovial until you find out his real work as a spy, and when Leila dies, he becomes much colder and crueler(Though still good at heart).

Edited May 11, 2017 by Slumber

[Extrasolar]

5 minutes ago, Slumber said:

Salem's actually probably my favorite of the Dark Mages from a story perspective. Most games have Dark Mages as scholars who are simply dabbling in old/dangerous magics, while Salem is using a magic that's explicitly associated with the people who are trying to take over the country and revive a super powerful Earth Dragon. Salem, however, is a pretty timid/meek guy, and has too much of a conscious to keep supporting the Lopto Sect as the child hunts kick up. So he takes refuge in a group of Robin Hood-esque bandits, and fully plans on dying to help them when you meet him. It's just a neat, simple story that hasn't quite been done with any other Dark Mages.

Agreed with this. I do like that Salem was our first real look into the fact that not all Loptyrian dark mages were classically evil, as well as being someone who existed in that environment, but broke away from that hive mind.

I mean, he's kinda our only break from the Evil Dark Mage thing. I know that we get the explanation that a lot of the Loptyr sect's antagonistic actions are the result of persecution and prejudice over hundreds of years, but that doesn't change the fact that 99% of the Loptyrian cultists we see are classic evil assholes who are evil for the lulz and don't get much depth outside of that.

Knoll...sort of did the same, but his is more out of guilt and atonement, and the rest of his companions were dead rather than turned on him like with Salem.

I think a story like his is one we should see more often. As timid as he is, he still stood up against the hugely powerful main religion and all of his companions when he thought his cult's actions were going too far. Showed he didn't just blindly follow the religion He suffered for it, but that's still quite the accomplishment, and shows he's a well-meaning guy. It all worked out in the end. A more strictly moral dark mage would be pretty interesting in the future imo, with an attitude usually reserved for people like paladins and clerics.
 

3 minutes ago, Slumber said:

Whereas Volke is aloof and clearly gets a kick out of it as he works more with Ike and his crew, Matthew seems jovial until you find out his real work as a spy, and when Leila dies, he becomes much colder and crueler(Though still good at heart).

Oh yeah, Matthew is definitely one of my favorite thieves for his story, and I like that it highlights the contrast between a thief/spy's usual profession skulking about, stealing, and assassination and Matthew's original upbeat attitude, until shit gets real with Leila's death. For as minor a character as he and Leila ultimately are in the wide scheme of things, they're one of the more memorable parts of the game for me. It's something I never really appreciated the first time I played the game as an 11-year-old back in the day, but replaying it much older I can appreciate it far more.

That's why I've wanted a FE in which at least one lord is a thief/assassin, focused on that sort of shadowy world. FE is for the most part idealistic, and the interplay and contrast between idealism and cynicism could be very interesting. Thieves are one of the best classes to play with that, other than shamans, I think.

[Thinks Their Own Way]

Story wise: Thief/Rogue/Assassin/Whisper; the reasons as to why we have people in these classes in our group, I find to be more interesting than the typical heroic classes. I like Jaffar and Niles the most.

Game play wise: Dancer/Songstress/Bard; the ability to allow someone to move again is always useful, it's like having Galeforce as a unit (but less broken than Galeforce in Awakening). I like Tethys the most.

[saisymbolic]

Story wise, I tend to favor units using magic as magic has the potential to expand upon the world. Dark mages, in particular, as dark magic is known for being either extremely hard to master or extremely dangerous to dabble in. Pelleas actually happens to be my favorite Dark Mage, and it's a shame the story didn't utilize his character more. Next would be transformation units but only laguz. Naesala and Reyson are two of my favorite characters, thought I sort of love-hated how Naesala turned out in RD. Finally, I love me some infantry lance wielders. Surprisingly, I'm not a fan of the Spear Fighter in Fates, much preferring the Soldier/Halberdier class. Too bad that I don't really like Nephenee, Aran has a lacking personality and Levail is an enemy unit. Wyverns are my heart, and a majority of my favorite characters happen to be Wyvern Riders.

Gameplay wise, Wyverns and Soldiers all day. I tend to prefer bulky units that can dish out some good damage and have decent movement.

[property of nuvelle]

Story wise: Mercenary, Peg Knights, and Myrmidons. Most of my favorite characters seem to come from those classes. (Thany, Catria, Inigo, Joshua, Lon'qu). I would love to see more Female Mercenaries though.

Gameplay wise: Myrmidons and Mercenaries here. I'm an idiot who misplaces Peg Knights all the time RIP Thany :( so it's mostly on my part, but I feel like they don't do as well as the former two. I hear people disliking dodge tanks for getting RNG screwed but my guys usually hold out pretty well when it comes to avoiding. Hana does amazing when I did Birthright and Revelations. Hinata is probably the only myrmidon I will never touch. Mercenaries are just all around good for me. I don't think I've had any terrible ones. These two classes just have such a good mix of Strength, Skill, and Speed.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Story wise is kinda hard. Maybe mages or Peg Knights?

Flavour wise, I really like Master of Arms (you didn't put it in :[) and Archer. I like the thought of being able to use multiple weapons proficiently, adapting to the situation, and if I got to pick, I would take out Lances on MoA and put in Bows instead.

Gameplay wise, probably mages. I love blasting fools up with magic, and enemies generally have low Res in all FE games, so mages tend to be awesome units.

Edited May 11, 2017 by SatsumaFSoysoy

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Transformation units is my top answer for both categories. The very sight of an armored knight dueling with a wildcat, dragon, or whatever the hell wolfskin are supposed to be really gets me energized. The Radiant Dawn scene where Zelgius and Ranulf prepare for their duel was really memorable. I also want a Fire Emblem game that features attack dogs and/or familiar creatures as units. Personalized spirit summons, that sort of thing. We be on that DnD type shit.

My backup answer for story is archer. I love the personalities of archers that are extra skeptical, snarky, or competitive with the main lord. Innes, Shinon, Takumi, they're all great. And it works given their position on the back lines where they see the "hero" in action from a distance. I also fancy myself a marksman in real life. Bows, slings, guns, I've got good eyes and good patience for sharp shooting. My backup answer for gameplay is armor knights. I like physical walls to validate my ranged units. Keep them out of range of mages and they're one frontline unit that won't die to a critical hit. In general they just take a lot of stress out of my gameplan.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Gustavos

[NekoKnight]

Story-wise, I like wyvern riders for their cool mounts and empathic bond. Most characters treat horses like tools but flying mounts, particularly wyverns, are more like companions. I also enjoy Manaketes because dragons, and i dig their lore (immortality and eventual insanity? We Dark Souls now)

For both lore and gameplay, I like magic users in general. I'd like to see a revival of light/dark/anima with a diversity of spells and classes.

Lastly for gameplay, I generally enjoy soldiers and mercenaries for their balanced stats. Oboro and Raven always have a spot on my team.

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by NekoKnight

[Topaz Light]

For story, I tend to really like classes like Thieves, Dark Mages, and transformation units, particularly Manaketes. The latter two tend to offer great worldbuilding and lore and are just interesting in general, with Archanea 'verse Manaketes being probably my favorite race in the whole Fire Emblem series... granted, it's not like there are that many to choose between. Thieves tend to be just plain excellent characters a pretty good chunk of the time. They often have very interesting backstories and relationships with other characters, and it also contains characters like Matthew and Legault, whose personalities are just a lot of fun.

As for gameplay, I actually like a number of classes.

• Knights are pretty solid, and they hit hard, even with their low movement. While there are an unfortunate amount of mediocre Knights and Generals, the good ones are always great fun to use.
• I also really enjoy Dark Mages here, too, because their more gimmicky spell lexicons often allow them to pull off weird and interesting stunts other units can't really replicate.
• Thieves also made it onto this list as well for their nice utility, and for making fairly decent swordfighters in a pinch provided you don't leave them in the dust too much EXP-wise. Not present on the list, but I'm going to group Ninjas under Thieves, too, as they're similar enough and are hands-down my favorite new tier 1 class in Fates, and maybe even my favorite new class overall, although the competition there is a bit fiercer.
• Myrmidons are really nice. I love how they're speedy and agile and able to avoid attacks well, while still often packing sufficient power to dish out good punishment to foes. Not to mention, they tend to have some pretty snazzy animations in most installments.
• Fighters, Pirates, Brigands, Oni Savages, and general infantry axe-users have actually been surprisingly handy and reliable for me, especially in more recent games. Barst and Cord never fail to impress, and characters like Dart, Hawkeye, and Ross can be pretty beastly, even if occasionally not the most accurate. I've also gotten good results out of a sufficiently-leveled Rinkah, but I don't know how reliably-replicable that is. Of course, I tend to like putting my Avatars into axe-using classes, too, but I don't know if they really count, hehe~
• Soldiers and Spear Fighters are a class I have a bit of a soft spot for ever since wanting to recruit them in Fire Emblems 7 and 8 but being unable to. The aesthetic of a middleweight infantry spearfighter has always kinda appealed to me, and their well-rounded stats tend to make such characters fairly reliable in the games they show up in. In Gaiden/Echoes, they're also the first class in the armor line, so that's pretty neat.

Didn't really include it in either list because there's actually a story behind it, but I'm also rather fond of Troubadours, and I included them in my votes for both categories. The reason for this is because, when I was a kid playing Fire Emblem 7 for the first time, Priscilla was the first character you can miss encountering entirely that I discovered completely on my own. As she's the first Troubadour to show up in the game, I also discovered her class alongside her, and at the time I remember thinking she was just such a cool and neat unit with her horseback healing class and stronger healing staff. Troubadour's still got a fond place in my heart because of this, so it's one of my favorite classes, too.

Edited May 11, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Ebony]

1 hour ago, NekoKnight said:

Story-wise, I like wyvern riders for their cool mounts and empathic bond. Most characters treat horses like tools but flying mounts, particularly wyverns, are more like companions. I also enjoy Manaketes because dragons, and i dig their lore (immortality and eventual insanity? We Dark Souls now)

 

Similar answer here. Anything draconic tends to be a favorite of mine. It just also happens a lot of my favorites/characters I tend to like happen to ride wyverns (Haar, Jill, Michalis, Cherche).

Gameplay wise... Wyverns again, though I tend to also be alright with Dark Mages. Soldiers/Mercenaries for flair.

[Enaluxeme]

All of them and all of them again! I like diversity. Also, some characters just nail their classes.

 

The myrmidon from Echoes looks super sexy, though. So sad that I'll have to promote them for the magic defense and higher movement.

[Tuvy]

Where is the Monk

Give me the Monk

[Flee Fleet!]

Story wise, pretty much all magic users along with healers and clerics because I love magic and divine power. Transformation units, mainly the manaketes, I also like.

Gameplay wise it's Myrmidons, but also flying units.

 

[Magical Glace]

Storywise, Mages and GBA Shamans.

Gameplaywise, Archers, Pegasi, and Mages.

[Dragoncat]

Story: Shapeshifters.

Gameplay: Wyverns.

Wyverns can double as my favorite storywise too.

[SavageVolug]

Story wise my top three are 1) Cavaliers/Paladins 2) Fighters/Pirates 3) Laguz, I really like the laguz characters and their background in the Tellius games.

Gameplay wise I like the following classes:

Cavalier/Paladin (Almost every cavalier I've had is a great unit, but I love Sain and Kent they are so funny together. Kent= Responsible, Sain = Girls,girls, girls. Did I mention I really, really, really like girls? Oh, Heellooo beautiful lady.

Great Knight (I like tanks than can get where you want them quickly, I made Gilliam one and I love Dussel's character)

Pirate/Berserker (Dart. He's the best berserker I've had)

Fighter/Warrior (Bartre, Boyd, Nolan)

Mercenary/Hero (like with the cavalier every mercenary I've had is awesome. However I really like Harken, Raven and of course Ike among others.)

Wyvern rider/Wyvern lord (Heath and Haar are some of my favorites)

Shaman/Druid (I love the druid class it is hands down my favorite magic casting class. The staff animation of a druid is without a doubt the best. My favorite druid/sorcerror would either be Canais from FE7 or Henry from Awakening I also like Ewan from FE8 and I made him a druid.)

Troubadour/Valkyrie (Healers are essential, my favorites are those that are on Horse back)

I did not list these in order of importance to me but most of those listed get selected for almost every battle.

[Extrasolar]

Yeah, it wasn't until I put together this list that I realized just how diverse the class options in FE are. I really like that aspect of it.

3 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

Flavour wise, I really like Master of Arms (you didn't put it in :[)

Aw crap, you're right. That one doesn't have another class to roll it into, I just realized. I will add it.

Just realized I left out Mage Fighter too, and Basara... Granted, MF was featured in only a single subseries, and Basara is brand new. I'm rolling Dark Knight into Shaman, cause it's pretty much just a shaman on wheels, and also Sorcerer is in that category.

8 hours ago, Topaz Light said:

The latter two tend to offer great worldbuilding and lore and are just interesting in general, with Archanea 'verse Manaketes being probably my favorite race in the whole Fire Emblem series...

Yeah, Archanea manaketes are really interesting to me, too, just for the fact that they got shafted so hard in-story and are really sympathetic with their reasoning for not wanting to take human form and degenerating because of it. Medeus is a more interesting/nuanced villain than he seems at first glance (though the story does kind of gloss over the fact that his backstory is sympathetic) since he actually makes good points about his conflict with Naga and the Divine Dragons, and the fact that everyone else of his race is sealed and/or dead.

I just wish we got more male manaketes outside of Bantu playable, and a more diverse roster of them rather than the huge amount of Divines we get. Also, unlimited use dragonstones are the way to go in my opinion. Glad they introduced that, since being able to use your manakete a total of around 50 times before they become functionally useless is really lame.
 

3 hours ago, Tuvy said:

Where is the Monk

Give me the Monk

I mean, it's basically a bishop/cleric that doesn't start with the ability to heal... Light Mage and stuff is similar to that too ;-;

8 hours ago, Topaz Light said:

but I'm going to group Ninjas under Thieves, too, as they're similar enough and are hands-down my favorite new tier 1 class in Fates, and maybe even my favorite new class overall, although the competition there is a bit fiercer.

Yeah, same. I forgot to write it in, but I'll fix that. Also Outlaws are the equivalent of Thieves.

[Topaz Light]

On 5/11/2017 at 8:47 AM, Extrasolar said:

...unlimited use dragonstones are the way to go in my opinion. Glad they introduced that, since being able to use your manakete a total of around 50 times before they become functionally useless is really lame.

It was actually that way in the original NES version of FE1, before they changed it to finite in FE3 and it stayed as such until Fates.

I'm with ya, though. Infinite-use, but rare and hard to acquire, Dragonstones would be my personal way of implementing them.

Edited May 13, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Nightmayre]

Story-wise I voted for Pegasus Knights and Dark Mages. The first because I really liked the concept of pegasus riders in general, and the second because most dark mages I've seen in the series tend to be interesting characters.

Gameplay-wise I voted for Pegasus Knights. They always felt like the units with the most potential to me (mostly due to freedom of movement) but due to their fragility and bow weakness, they were always a challenge to keep alive, which made them interesting to use. I always tried to keep a high-level pegasus rider in my team in every run I've done.

[NinjaMonkey]

I can't think of a time where the class of a unit has anything to do with the story (apart from the Lord classes, obviously).

General otherwise.