Is waiting to promote a bad thing in this one?

[Ark the Pie King]

Greetings! Long time in and out Fire Emblem fan, first time poster! I've been looking into the best time to promote, and I see a lot of sources say to do it as soon as you're able, or to do it around the 10-12 mark, etc. I'm aware that any stats you have that are below the minimum get bumped up which is amazing, but from what I can tell there's no real reason to throw away free stats from any that might be above the mark. I mean I just finished Act 3 (Casual/Normal) and I haven't promoted anyone except the villagers and Lucas. So is there some downside to waiting? It seems to me that it's still work getting as many stats as possible before taking the leap to the next level.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

Promoted units get more special properties, like Falcon Knights doing more damage to Terrors, Gold Knights getting more movement, and Saints gaining a great attack spell, along with a healing aura and immunity to terrain damage. All of these conveniences just make things a lot easier.

The effects of not promoting as soon as possible are more apparent on Celica side, where if you hold off on promoting the Whitewings, Chapter 4 will be an extreme slog, you won't have Dread Fighters to deal with the high amount of Arcanists, and you won't have Genny's healing aura + terrain immunity to make walking through the swamp more bearable. Not promoting Mae and Genny also only leaves Celica as your only Seraphim user, which is pretty detrimental for the Terror-focused Celica side.

The thing is, in FE games pre-Awakening, you can almost never reasonably hit 20/20 level for your units before the game ends, so by holding off on promotion, you're just wasting your own time and making it hard on yourself. Echoes is one of those games,especially with classes that have three tiers. Unless you like grinding forever (EXP gain is severely nerfed after going past level 10 in any class), you'll just be wasting time. Promoting early is almost always good.

 

Edited May 26, 2017 by SatsumaFSoysoy

[Xaos Steel Wing]

The above post and the reddit post just about sums it up.

Just about, because there is one more thing to consider: after level 10, experience gains slow down significantly. So unless you plan to sit in dungeons and grind all the way 20, it will be a very slow slog to get to 20 during the story.

You may as well promote right away to get the most out of the promotion stat boosts. That's what sets Gaiden/Echoes promotion apart from the series: instead of promotion adding a set number to each stat no matter when you promote, promotion only boosts your unit's stats to the base stats of the promoted class. The more you delay promotion, the more your stats increase and so it the benefit of promotion is lessened. If your units stats surpass the promoted class' bases, you get no stat benefit to promotion at all!

But if you do want to delay promotion to get some extra levels, only go to level 10 and then promote.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Xaos Steel Wing

[TadpoleSuperHero]

It's not a bad thing, just depends on your playstyle. 

If you aren't grinding much, just playing straight through the game, giving each shrine and dungeon only a single run-through fighting only when necessary, you should definitely promote early. You need those advanced skills, and honestly, you don't need a crew of 20/20/20 beasts to handle the final boss on Normal mode (dunno about Hard mode or higher, only played on Normal), not even close. 

If you're taking your time and grinding, you will always have higher stat potential by waiting to promote. That's how it is. If you want to min-max stats, wait until max level to promote. If you just want to play through at a normal pace, then don't necessarily promote ASAP, but promote early. Feel it out - you'll want Falcon Knights for Celica's Act 4 (they're almost required unless you're maxing characters out before then), and you'll benefit from increased ranges for snipers and mages, the magical resistance of Dread Fighters, etc. 

It depends on playstyle. I was going to wait til max level to promote like previous FE titles, but found the skills and movement bonuses too advantageous to skip over, and found that I didn't need to even come close to maxing out my character's levels and stats to handle the final boss. It's tough, but in a good way, and doesn't require overpowered characters. There's a nice balance to Echoes - if you want to grind, you can, and become hilariously overpowered, but if you don't, you can still play through the game and enjoy it. 

[Lord_Grima]

In Echoes, the promotion stat gains are not boosts. Instead it raises your stats to a predetermined/ known base for that class.

For Example:

• In Awakening/ Fates - Promoting from cavalier to paladin gives +X Atk, +X Spd, +X Def, and +X Res
• In Echoes: Sov - Promoting from cavalier to paladin gives a unit only a few stat gains. Depending on how far below the base stats of the promoted class you are:

Cavalier	24	9	3	5	0	5	2	7
Paladin		28	12	5	8	0	8	5	8

So if I made Gray a Cavalier, and he had: Gray 25 13 5 7 4 8 6 7 He would gain +3 HP, +1 Spd, +1 Mov   So, grinding past class unlock can give you extra stats, but then you miss out on promotion stats. And as others have said the Exp gain drops the higher lvl you are.

[Slumber]

Not necessarily. You'll still get stat points that likely won't get bumped up from promoting, so if you're trying your best to get every ounce of juice out of your units, you can wait til level 20 like other FEs.

However, your units gain pitiful EXP from level 10 onwards, regardless of what class tier they're in, and units gain the bulk of their power from promotions. It'll take a loooong time to get to level 20 without grinding, and you'll likely be crippling yourself in the short term by waiting.