Reclassing in this game and the weapon ranks.

[Hanes]

How do they work exactly? 

For example I plan on reclassing Barst to Hero because I know he is extremely good but if instead of promoting him to warrior and then reclassing him to Hero I reclassed him to mercenary and then promoted him would he keep his axe rank from before becoming a mercenary?

[ping]

1 hour ago, Critical Sniper said:

would he keep his axe rank from before becoming a mercenary?

Yes. Barst keeps his 30 Weapon XP (the amount needed to go from E to D) in axes, no matter how you reclass him, so he'll immediately have a D rank as a Hero.

[Hanes]

4 minutes ago, ping said:

Yes. Barst keeps his 30 Weapon XP (the amount needed to go from E to D) in axes, no matter how you reclass him, so he'll immediately have a D rank as a Hero.

Thanks. On that topic, is reclassing Barst to a mercenary outright reccomended for the different growths and stats or should I reclass him to hero only after promoting him to warrior?

[Ertrick36]

1 hour ago, Critical Sniper said:

For example I plan on reclassing Barst to Hero because I know he is extremely good but if instead of promoting him to warrior and then reclassing him to Hero I reclassed him to mercenary and then promoted him would he keep his axe rank from before becoming a mercenary?

In this particular instance, if Barst had a D-rank in axes and E-rank in swords, him changing to Hero will always result in him having a D-rank in both.  Even if he goes from Warrior to Hero, he'll get the same weapon ranks despite the fact that his axe rank will have risen to C as a Warrior.

Think of class stats as temporary boosts, and weapon ranks as persistent stats.  Hero has a temporary +1 boost to sword rank, and Barst natively has an E-rank in swords.  Weapon rank progress will be based on his native weapon ranks.  So if he's progressed to halfway through C-rank axes as a Hero, he'll be halfway through B-rank axes as a Warrior.  And if he changes from Hero to Horseman for a while, but then back to Hero, he'll still maintain the axe rank progress he left off with.

For the record, all unpromoted classes have a +0 to weapon ranks, and each promoted class will provide +1 weapon rank to at least one weapon (if it's a "master" class such as swordmaster or sniper, it's a +2, except in the case of the Berserker).  But it should be reiterated that these aren't permanent boosts.

1 minute ago, Critical Sniper said:

Thanks. On that topic, is reclassing Barst to a mercenary outright reccomended for the different growths and stats or should I reclass him to hero only after promoting him to warrior?

Growths are one of the main reasons to reclass units in the first place in this game.  That and weapon ranks.

To that end, the mercenary class line will boost his skill and speed growths.  So if you have issues with those stats, it may be worth leveling him some as a merc, though he won't gain as much strength or HP.  Though imho, I don't think he needs the boost on skill and speed too terribly much given that he has a 3-point lead in skill and a 5-point lead in speed over your starting archer, Gordin, which is pretty impressive for an axe user.  Then again, he also doesn't need a great abundance of strength and HP.

Honestly, it's up to you.

[Bartozio]

42 minutes ago, Critical Sniper said:

Thanks. On that topic, is reclassing Barst to a mercenary outright reccomended for the different growths and stats or should I reclass him to hero only after promoting him to warrior?

I prefer keeping him as a fighter and changing his class straight after he promotes, because the axe-rank is my main reason for using him. It depends on what you need of him though.

[Interdimensional Observer]

If Barst can reliably double, I'd stick to Fighter most of the time. Since Lances are quite common among enemies, while Axes fade out over time. Of course, since reclassing is cost-free in this game, picking a unit's class on a chapter-by-chapter basis works.

[ping]

1 hour ago, Ertrick36 said:

In this particular instance, if Barst had a D-rank in axes and E-rank in swords, him changing to Hero will always result in him having a D-rank in both.  Even if he goes from Warrior to Hero, he'll get the same weapon ranks despite the fact that his axe rank will have risen to C as a Warrior.

Because I'm a smartass: Since promoted classes technically don't give "+1 Rank", but "+30 Weapon XP" (+76 for classes like Swordmasters) on their main weapon type, and because higher Weapon Ranks require more WExp, Merc -> Warrior!Barst would still have D Axes, but only 8 battles away from ranking up.

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I agree with Bartozio and the Observer that Barst generally does better as a Fighter. In particular, he's closer to using the Hammer than he is to C swords for the Armorslayer (and I'm pretty sure the Hammer is quite a bit better in this game, anyway). And forged effective weaponry is one of the two big game changers (or breakers) in Shadow Dragon.