METAPHOR: REFANTAZIO: EVERY ARCHETYPE RANKED!

[@YandereGogeta]

Glad to see a lot of good discussion in the comments! Just wanna say that this list is NOT meant to be factual or definitive, it's based off of my experience with the game and what I liked using, did not like using, and why. That is all

[@WatcherPrime]

Then your experience was head to controller then. I use Gunner as a pocket healer on top of a piercing attacks. This lets to go ham with magical and melee might.

[@YandereGogeta]

@@WatcherPrime yeah for sure I actually just played with a blindfold on and let my ancestors guide me like Nightwolf

[@ancientgearsynchro]

These are SMT devs, it is against their religion to allow magic users to have any advantages over the phys users.

[@ChazzItUp6714]

Yeah I felt that, pumping all my stats into magic for 80 hours just to get hit with the Prince Archetype

[@a_brodo3158]

@@ChazzItUp6714the royal sword skills scale off of whichever is higher btw

[@ChazzItUp6714]

@@a_brodo3158 That's why I significantly deal more damage with a heavy magic attack than with an extreme physical attack

[@a_brodo3158]

@@ChazzItUp6714 you sure? You still need to go to the front row to get the most damage from the royal sword skills even though they do scale off your magic stat

[@dokdias]

Masks should be a separate equipment slot when on Masked Dancer

[@calvinwarlick8533]

Should have been their Weapon, really.

[@arthorias06]

​@@calvinwarlick8533no way, weapon's atk stat is too important Masks should not depend on stats just like they are in the game rn

[@nintonintendo1]

No joke, my endgame party was literally 3 dudes supporting a Berserker by buffing said berserker and debuffing the enemies. Doing 20k+ damage to the final boss with the right setup was cathartic

[@JackgarPrime]

I will give one MASSIVE boost to Mage's rating for one simple reason: MP refill cheese. You find yourself a spot with a bunch of blue enemies that you can quickly run to Akademics and then back to respawn them all? That's a free MP refill with just a little time spent getting exp and items anyway. That alone makes it highly valuable.

[@YandereGogeta]

@@JackgarPrime this is true but I’m only valuing the actual turn based combat ability itself not the overworld. If I did it would be higher and merchant would be top 1

[@JackgarPrime]

@YandereGogeta Yeah the first time I used merchant to clear out a horde of blues I did a double take on the money. I thought I must have grabbed an item or something. But nope, the money gain is just out of this world.

[@esdrasbh]

This makes sense, but mage drops hard on lategame. 1mp per mob means very little when you have acess to huge mana pools... so it stops beeing "little time" to refil mp. A tier should be fair, for the early/mid game utility.

[@Wulk]

The steal MP inhereted hability feals like a cheat code

[@RedDrake110]

MP refill cheese Oh and only class with 4 resists

[@g_CashMoney]

“Faker only debuffs so it’s not very good” Yea only one of the most important skills in the game 😂

[@helpihavebats6392]

Unfortunately it can be replaced by common items and buyable ones to boot.

[@arthorias06]

​@@helpihavebats6392replace debuffing atk and def by two ranks with common item, and atk def and agil by one rank with common items Tier two Faker btw And don't get me started with the GOAT "give me more turns" skill xD (not really but it surprisingly often can clutch)

[@arthorias06]

And the most important part is Faker debuffs are almighty so random reflect won't stop ya

[@helpihavebats6392]

@@arthorias06 I suppose you can’t replace 2 Ranks at once but Debilitate is an item that can easily be farmed midgame and buyable endgame. With how Buffs work I personally don’t see top much of an difference between spamming Debilitate or Vidyartha. I dont Think Support Items can be reflected as they aren’t an attack? They’re literally just the Skills but an consumable and as a player who used Evil Eye Talisman (Debilitate) alot I never saw it reflected.

[@arthorias06]

@@helpihavebats6392 I am talking about skills that deal damage and apply some debuffs as well, they can be reflected easily so I don't see the point of author of the video about Faker being bad cause of that. Idk, if you have a character sitting on debuff duty anyways and spamming items, why not just use Faker at that point? It has consistent debuff application without any need to specifically grind items. And debuffing atk/def by two ranks is honestly OP. Inherit Dekunda, Dekaja plus maybe some heal and you are set, imo. In a game where buffs debuffs significantly boost your damage/survival, I think it's not fair to dismiss such a great class. Well, I played magic build and on hard difficulty so maybe that's why I think this class as well as Masked Dancer are very important. (Honestly can't imagine how the game plays on normal, if some bosses don't have an extra turn icon from hard difficulty, they seem piss easy)

[@DragonEdge10]

I think Masked Dancer's utility comes directly inverse to how many archetypes you've grinded for Junah (or anyone that comes after her too I guess if you needed it). The fact that you can bypass the massive wall that some archetypes have for learning them simply by having the mask has come in handy pretty often. That, and having access to weakness inflicting skills without synthesis is very strong since basically every other type of weakness inflict requires the enemy not to nullify it to begin with. To me Junah is the wildcard that I don't need to grind too hard for to fit any strategy I need in a pinch. Of course, this utility would basically be relegated to niche inheritance builds in the best case or completely fall off in the worst case the closer you get to unlocking every archetype.

[@silvosforever]

Yeah I put the Seeker, Magic Seeker, and Soul Hacker masks on Junah and she was versatile as hell from the moment she joined.

[@wilhelmpaulm]

I think he just wants to see big damage without using any start which is boring af

[@YandereGogeta]

@@wilhelmpaulm if this was the case I wouldn’t have said I was a fan of Heismay or Hulkenburg’s classes so idk what you mean

[@pedringaimer1797]

For me my masked dancer was a goat, my end game team was basilio as physical dps, prince is kind of a jojer card, junah as magic support and eupha as magic dps and debuff applier

[@SousukeAsuka]

Junah goated in my book. Masked Dancer's utility got me through the dragon trials

[@castroh19]

Making hesimay a dodge tank awsome.

[@jxrdyg]

tycoon not being auto goat tier lost me on this list

[@Dripsolo]

Came here to say this. Literally the absolute most broken class in the game and he didn't put it in GOAT tier lol.

[@YandereGogeta]

It’s not goat tier cause by the time I got tycoon I was at the end of the game where you’re getting access to all the broken royal archetypes anyways. If I got it sooner maybe I would’ve used it more but I never saw a need at all other than transferring the passives to other classes

[@KidArkx]

​@@DripsoloIts not the most broken class, if 4 people could be prince that would be 100x better than tycoon

[@jxrdyg]

@@YandereGogeta fair enough if you didnt unlock it before, but you can unlock it quite some time before and its better than every royal archetype except Prince imho

[@jxrdyg]

@@KidArkx well yes prince was made broken on purpose, but tycoon being better than every single other royal is worthy of being broken

[@ThePigKnight]

“Doesn’t do damage = bad skill” you lost me bro. Faker is great early on to get single target debuffs for bosses. Masked Dancer can emulate high ranked classes without grinding them out AND almighty weakness applies are great for breaking through defenses of some of the bosses and even late game normal encounters. Gunner is amazing for skills. The class itself is trash but it’s skills are amazing to have on physical classes for back row damage when at low life or in fights where enemies enrage at front row.

[@arthorias06]

Completely agree

[@Shione_Starlight]

True, some of these archetypes are good for skill inheritance. Putting backrow phys skills to physical damage dealers is huge especially when some fights need to be in the back row the entire fight or you just get rofl stomped.

[@ubergamer2010]

Have to agree. I used Faker and then Trickster for a majority of my run on Heismay. Before I unlocked Trickster, Gold Attack was the main attack I needed on him. Combining Trickster with a few good dmg dealing skills + Faker's Roguery + team dmg buff or team def buff effectively made Heismay an all rounder for my run. Being able to buff/debuff/add turns/do damage all in one lineage made me really appreciate the Faker lineage. Oftentimes if I didn't build my team right, having Faker allowed me to buy time or debuff the enemies to make them less threatening.

[@assyjack1692]

Run utilitarian manual on Hulkenberg to reduce press turn cost for synthesis and then have her inherit the passive that halves mp cost of synthesis. 1 turn 50 mp ultimate guards go so hard.

[@insomniacnerd5592]

That is a very sick build for defensive utility.

[@assyjack1692]

@ oh it goes so hard during some of the late game boss fights when you need to waste enemy press turns and debuff/buff

[@ItsJustEthan1]

Ya that's a good build for the 1 shot dragon.

[@garrettcollins8579]

Royal berserker is so op, with the right set up when I use the 1-3 hit synthesis skill on it I would do over 10K damage per hit.

[@yngdo3867]

after i got bas he never left my party lol same with heismay

[@NotShane97]

Basilio is goated, but my boy Strohl was hitting for over 40K with my setup and even one-shot the final boss with a 50K crit. I wish I have given Basilio a fair chance. I got Royal Berserker to level 20, but I admittedly never tried it.

[@garrettcollins8579]

@ the main strength of Basilio is his ability to spam wanton destruction on his royal archetype. This gives him massive consistency just by spamming a 20mp attack.

[@QUEXYYEN-kl3fr]

Physical magic doesn’t scale off magic stat. It scales off st if you didn’t know

[@MrSentinel07]

That include Dragoon's magic skills?

[@arthorias06]

​@@MrSentinel07 nah, you can read in description of any elemental skill if it's magic or phys one

[@Omega_21XX]

@@arthorias06 Dragoon's skills aren't even physical+element based, they are magic+element based. Making the stat distribution odd. Making them scale with STR would have made a lot more sense, but for whatever reason they went with MA scaling.

[@arthorias06]

@@Omega_21XX mayhaps On the other hand pretty great mask for Junah to clear trash mobs in dungeons

[@caldog1642]

I would put faker in c or b tier. The debuffs are really useful and would go on heismay. The argument for b is that fakers roguery exists allowing for extra turns.

[@Infernosab3r]

hell even above roguery is Vidartha, 4 stages of debuffs for 1 turn icon is incredible turn value on its own. Sure certain synthesis skills have similar effects but cost more mp and more turn icons. I'd also personally put Dancer in A tier. the ability to inflict a weakness on a whim is not something to be taken lightly and since only dancer has it for magic it gives it a very potent niche on its own.

[@arthorias06]

Faker and Dancer are both at least A, might even be S. We are talking about a game where buffs/debuffs are extremely important and weakness application is broken for magic build and late game phys builds cause of elemental phys skills.

[@suntzu4607]

Seeker lineage - Best for early to mid game - Emerald Vortex skill - Buffs - ok damage Warrior lineage - Strong offense + AoE - Royal's Hassou Tobi - Great Passives - MP hungry Knight - Great tank for early to mid against ST attacks especially against Dragons. - Great Passives - Garbage damage. No, Dark Knight's damage is garbage compared to other attackers. - Royal version is great to protect allies, but you won't need much protection with Royal Summoner's AoE heal and revive skill + equipment that can resist/null/repel. Thief - Steal and Third Eye - That's it - Royal version is great for being a pseudo tank via evasion with Heismay. Gunner - Pure garbage. Dark Knight can do the piercing attacks but can also tank damage. Faker - Great skills to inherit - Pure debuffer - No damage at all Commander - Holy sh*t those buffs - Great in a party - Garbage attacker Brawler - Great damage and crit - Glass cannon - Great passives to inherit - Uses HP which is bad in late game due to huge hp cost per skill. Masked Dancer - Mediocre damage - Versatile - Best as support debuffer - Royal version is best partnered with Royal Summoner Summoner - Great damage - Better version of Mage - Skills cannot be inherited - Royal version is best partnered with Royal Masked Dancer - Can be used as a healer but can't cure ailments. Healer - Decent Light damage - Great healing - Won't have much use in the late game due to Royal Summoner's heal and equipment resistances. - Mediocre passives to inherit Merchant - Great damage - Great passives to inherit - Heavily relies on crit which is achievable Mage - Great passives to inherit for MP management and magic boosts - Good for early to mid-game against one enemy. Prince - Hero's Cry is the best - Huge MP drain with skills - Great against Humans - Great self buff - Skills cannot be inherited

[@fenniken5381]

Not fond of masked dancer myself for the same reason. If an enhanced remake does happen they need to change it so masks are key items and can be changed mid fight like persona masters namesake series.

[@jstar3382]

8:48 nah healer was funnily enough one of my best attackers because very few enemies resist or block light across the game

[@ninonysoft6865]

I agree with most, but I do genuinely feel the party-wide charge from royal masked dancer makes it B tier. Especially if you give her the accessory that halves the turns needed for synthesis skills. Yes you lose the masks, but if you are using Junah just for support you can have her inherit recovery skills instead.

[@YandereGogeta]

This comment is funny cause I actually had this exact discussion with a few of my homies, and it’s super valid to use the archetype that way, but I really just don’t think it’s well designed at all. If the best way to use the archetype is to ignore the main gimmick and only use the synthesis then I can’t rate it very high. That’s just me though ofc

[@ninonysoft6865]

@@YandereGogeta Of course! There can be two trains of thought. The first is that, despite the class is mediocre, there's this one skill that makes it great and deserves to go up one tier. The second is, because the class is medicore, one broken skill does not make it good. I just personally feel the party wide charge makes it worth it as you can just start using one shot comps to destroy everything late game.

[@alexmaganda5827]

yeh i used her fully as support and she carried me through so many fights but yeh the class is kinda lackluster other then that

[@nathanielsearle9822]

Masked dancer honestly kinda carried my team for the dragons and final boss. Gave Junah Royal masked dancer and the commander mask for buff skills and some inherited debuff skills from faker lineage and whew she was putting in WORK and that’s not mentioning masquerade charge. Honestly how I see the lineage. The masks plus inheritance skills make it a kind of “build-a-archetype” lineage. Make it exactly what you want/need.

[@SpiritOfGotham]

I mained Brawler and Gunner for most of the game, and I couldn't have been more disappointed in Dragoon switching to magic damage and being kinda worthless on my protag.

[@assyjack1692]

Dragoon aoe ice skill is definitely really good for Junah since she gets that aoe support skill to make enemies weak to fire and ice

[@lordgrugr1126]

It's been better imo if commander go the magic abilities and gunner git physical

[@asu5632]

lol why gunner?

[@SpiritOfGotham]

@@asu5632 I liked its vibe

[@goldench1ld.j4]

are you okay 😭😭

[@markramiro4354]

Bruh..4 tycoons with inherited skills that increase attack and physical skills…I fucked the three dragons and the last trial up…

[@The_Pikaboi]

I ran Mage MC and Surprised Mage is so low, Shield Blessing on Wizard allowed me to complete dragon temple in a single day with only MP items used before Eht, alongside just doing massive damage. Guess this is also why id value Masked Dancer and Faker More, as creating weaknesses and debuffs is really handy when you are casting magic.

[@R2szoo2]

Masked Dancer carried my entire team through the dragons and final bosses. I agree it's gimmick is stupid. I didn't even give it a mask. But those dancing skills that apply an elemental weakness for a turn made for insane combos against just about anything when combined with elemental master and its synthesis skills that work alongside masked dancer. Turn 1: apply fire weakness Turn 2: buff attack Turn 3: elemental master severe fire damage Turn 4: Magic Knight heals/proclamation Repeat.

[@bryans.1160]

This was literally my end game strategy as well!!!

[@arthorias06]

True, with Faker Masked Dancer and General as supports for my magic MC I nuked bosses every other turn xD Although I have to add that I actually like masks gimmick

[@ZCid47]

Honestly, mask dancer is at my top because is so versatile, its kit about inflicting weakness, a mask for damage or support and 4 skills allow you to make a toolbox for any fight in one character

[@TK-zd7ym]

Tycoon not being in "Tycoon Tier" tier is a missed opportunity my guy

[@jstar3382]

Gunner has supported my a hell of a lot, mostly because it was always a mix of buffs skills on it

[@DHYFUGaming]

I put Junah as the duo package with Eupha since their skill is soo compatible one to another for me, Junah easily provides elemental weakness especially from the royale one and then Eupha her summoning provides huge elemental damage. The fact that Junah royal requirement is faker trickster which mean I can inherit their skill to Junah which make her a really good debuffer. Because of that until the endgame, elemental is my main playstyle for my party.

[@gabereal]

Same for me

[@DHYFUGaming]

@@gabereal Nice!

[@antonyjames4698]

i think masked dancer is one of the best classes. as you can make it into any class you want and the dancers default skills get added, in that you can create a weakness for enemies. ei making them weak to lightning or fire damage. having junah with hulkenburg being royal knight and strohl with his royal archetype is op. you can use thundhead dance or whatever it is and get a weakness follow up with either of them, and extra advantage if you follow up with hulkenburg cause it lowers defence. then ill also have junah follow up with debilitate as one of her inherited skills so you can lower a bosess def all the way down in 2 turns instead of 3.

[@StacattoSoul]

Masked dancer synthesis was a critical part of my endgame build. On its own it's not great, but buffing Strohl and protag with charge lets you pull off some stupidly powerful combos in a single turn. If you want to drop endgame bosses before they get to act you NEED a masked dancer to make it happen. Even Tycoon's damage pales in comparison to what a masked dancer can help you accomplish. Dance skills are almighty, which makes them superior for creating weaknesses compared to similar skills since they can be used on enemies that are normally IMMUNE to that element. Thief should be a little higher imo. The accessory that drains an entire enemy's turn on a dodge negates the vast majority of BS mechanics the bosses will throw at you. Who cares if they gave themselves 4 more turns if they just lose them all anyway as soon as they attack. Royal Thief frees up the accessory slot for more shenanigans, but you'll hardly need it at that point. Berserker doesn't ever get "magic" damage. Use those elemental skills, they scale with STR, they're not just for utility. There are a ton of other skills that are like this too (such as faker's synthesis skills, which scale very nicely on Strohl, and are a much better option than Megidola for him). It's important to check if a skill does "physical" or "magical" damage in addition to its element when you decide how you want to build around it.

[@mac9365]

Gunner is good if you use the bow that always hits the max amount of attacks, your damage can get pretty crazy that way.

[@fanglyn]

trickster is a debuffer not a fighter. Heismay is a fkn menace with a dodger ring with max assassin, literally forced bosses to lose 8 turns at once by taunting. wtf are you on mage is super busted make all of them mage then use synthesis, keep killing/farming you recover MP if not hammer your enemies for weaknesses. brawler is honestly bad in the later game great if you are pressed for MP. Knight on paper is great but in practice its amazing early game but really bad after the mid game bc there's not really a benefit having a super tank. summoner is only good as a backup mage. Merchant is only for farming and you have more money than sense. warrior is busted and makes for a great opener in a boss fight but how quickly it burns through MP is absurd 9/10 i end up switching him out by the 5th turn bc i burned through full MP. i honestly thought berserker would be my worst actually ended up destroying everyone

[@helpihavebats6392]

For Trickster thats not a benefit as debuff items are easy to come by with Atk and Acc/Eca debuffs being buyable for cheap and Def debuffs being incredibly easy to farm off of those early game slimes (where Thief is potent for drops). Even Debilitate isn’t too noteworthy as around the 4th area some one eyed monster has Debilitate items as a rare drop (so Stun -> Steal -> Flee for tons of em).

[@PermissionMan]

I think some archetypes like gunner and in particular faker are meant to provide inheritable skills for the archetypes that are actually useful in the early to mid-game. Thief can be pretty useless for some battles, especially before you get party swap, but the heavy attack and AOE gunner skills make him much more versatile. I also found masked dancer incredibly useful when I got it because it gives access to skills that in some cases I couldn't even grind at the time, but I agree that there comes a point where it would need to be able to swap mask in battle to justify its slot in the party roster. I also very frequently used Cleric as a provider of HP and ailment cure skills when I was battling foes not susceptible to its natural attacks.

[@extorned08]

I found myself using the faker tree throughout the entire game. Especially playing on hard, having someone dedicated to debuffing/resetting buffs was incredibly helpful. Not to mention if you need to farm, oftentimes fakers 3 pip almighty synthesis is perfect. P.S. Vidyartha is so freakin good

[@arthorias06]

Hell yeah

[@yushisun8184]

Miracle Cirque allows you to one shot weak enemies for free MP and combined with Juna’s affinity passive you gain MP after each battle. It’s quintessential for late game dungeon grind and for that reason alone Faker deserves a higher tier.

[@stevemin8896]

Royal knight with omni counter, counter, magic counter and the legendary Lance that doubles counter chance Better than royal thief imo

[@funninoriginal6054]

Put in Faker's roguery and you got the bonafide "lets go gambling" build

[@OrbitStamina]

TIL the counter passives stack. time to go into ng+ and make hulk the ultimate "nuh-uh" button besides heismay ig

[@knolya5386]

Nothing came close to the tycoon . With the right setup you will do 23k damage and farm money and free MP and high critical rate right after bat This is the most broken thing in history of the turn based

[@rusty2322]

I liked gunner quite a bit personally. Just felt like a fun kit, multi hitting pierce and elemental damage. Synthesis was pretty neat too

[@ianp5367]

Right off the bat, gunner is slept on so hard in the video solely because of Mania shot. The ability to create weaknesses for slash attacks early on makes Warrior lineage even stronger.

[@stopasking968]

Yep. You can finish some early bosses in two cycles by using mania shot and then slicer on warrior.

[@burnikasago9371]

It really felt like Gunner's only purpose was to inflict poison and sleep. Which if you ask me is a rare situation. I only use it when the informat recommends it.

[@dasaen]

Masked dancer is really useful for blocking a resist, for a huge part of the game you can inflict weakness to light and then have paladins spam light synth. Also that charge buff is really OP.

[@DarkFrostbite]

The thing with Faker is that it's actually not that bad when you get Trickster because it needs 1 Knight and 1 Thief lineage. That's literally just having Hulkenburg and Heismay in your party. But what a lot of people don't know is the Synthesis is "Physical Almighty Damage." so if you do a pure strength MC (like I have) and you have the weapon that increases power of skills that cost 0mp, MC hits like a TANK (6-9k damage with high crit rates) and 1 shots near everything except major bosses. It's REALLY fun to run.

[@fenniken5381]

Faker does have debilitate which debuffs all 3 stats in 1 move.

[@fmaster99]

Royal Masked Dancer should be one tier higher at least. Actually makes magic viable in endgame. A must for magic oriented MCs who didn't prioritize strenght

[@bigbookest]

Faker's roguery is legit the best move in the game as long as u slap it on a MP sponge. If you have the weapon that increases the chances for the move to give u more turns, this quite literally makes every enemy see YOU as the boss.

[@jaffinator2166]

5:13 And why do you think I run the General’s mask? Inherit Marakukaja from Commander and Junah can buff attack and defense and deal great Fire, Ice, and Almighty damage. With the caveat that FFT inflicts a weakness. Slap on Magic Boost later and she becomes unstoppable

[@exousia2944]

For the gunner lineage, I personally use it to mostly kill mobs in overworld, cause it absolutely makes grinding a little bit faster bc of the range and easier positioning, and sure u can use merchant to get more money, but if you don't particularly care about that, gunner is just better imo. also Tycoon not God tier is kinda insane

[@gemodemplay415]

If the Masked Dancer could change masks in battle it would have been a good option.

[@carlosmorais7642]

FINALLY a video that really explains the strengths and weaknesses of each class, all the other tier lists I saw were horrible and didn't explain anything, at most they just say "this class is bad because it doesn't do what this class does", very good video overall, good job

[@goldmagistrate5732]

There should've been more physical elemental attacks

[@Pslyse]

Faker's Roguery came in clutch on a number of occasions for me. But since it's the first skill Faker has, I just unlocked it for the inhereted skill on a few archetypes.

[@TheElite711]

So my experience for Faker was that it was amazing for early game debuffs. It got replaced once I got those mentioned skills that deal damage AND debuff too, but it can't replace how useful Faker was to have early in the game before those skills. Then I also used Vidyartha for debuffing Attack and Defense by 2 stages in the late game. It was hard to go wrong with this for me. I had 1 character set up with it and it was always helpful to have on hand. I'd probably go with C tier, lowest would be D. I'd never use it as a class on its own, but crossing certain skills from it was always good stuff.

[@YandereGogeta]

Chapters have now been added! I must have forgotten to save them before the video went live, my mistake!

[@TheJaredPunch]

Prince has the best design, incredible support with Hero’s Cry. It’s the master of all.

[@fortello7219]

I would personally move Mage up a few ranks. The synthesis option for multi hit elemental type really comes in handy up until you're getting 3rd tier archetypes. You'll want to rank up Hulkenburg as a Mage eventually for Magic Knight so it's worth it to keep her as one early game for synergies. Plus it's fantastic on the protagonist since it restores MP in the overworld.

[@juliogarciabarrena1311]

Healer's final form's synthesis might be the most powerful light damage combo I came up with if using the talisman of shadows, talking about 4k damage on lvl 40. It also has really solid magic damage, it's a very versatile archetype imo

[@mmpsp693]

I can't watch the video as I am very adverse to spoilers, but will check later after I unlocked all 40! Still 27 to go.

[@finnmchugh99]

Idk if anyone else felt the same way, but the path to get Royal Thief is probably the most demanding to achieve. It needs archetypes from not just the Thief but also the Gunner, Knight, Seeker and Mage. The rest of the archetypes demand like at most, 2 archetype lineages... im just at the Port Town and i hope to get it before endgame.

[@dacbiet]

Holy shit was not expecting Hassou Tobi to be in Metaphor. Such a goat skill from persona and SMT

[@newbatthis]

Faker has one of the best debuff skills Vidyartha. 2 rank ATT + DEF debuff is great for end game bosses. Dancer has one of the best synthesis skills in Masquerade Charge. Hugely buffing up a single physical attack. Endgame my comp was the Heismay starting with a debuff on the boss. Then Junah using the synthesis charge. Then any party member with Magic Seeker's Vitalja to buff my MC. Then finally MC with boosted almighty + the acc for buffed synthesis dmg to use the Royal Sword synthesis skill to royally fuck the enemy's day up. On human-type bosses I can hit upwards of 25k.

[@The_Pikaboi]

Vidyartha is great but def prefer Debilitate cause some later bosses love Heat Riser and leaving the Evasion unchecked can be pretty awful.

[@TheDeeOfJay]

The Masked Dancer lineage should allow you to change masks mid-battle once per turn. That'd make it so much more useful.

[@brappycap6084]

Completely ignoring the dancers mask gimmick and giving them the accessory that reduces synthesis cost and having them spam masquerade charge and support skills is amazing And making Junah or Eupha the dragoon (also with the synthesis reducing accessory) and spamming mania bullet to maximize phys damage as well as the powerful magic synthesis is also amazing

[@Ruukasu97]

the destroyer doesnt have magic skills, he has physical elemental skills stat scale of st and require you to be in the front line

[@fenniken5381]

Thief does seem to become an evasion tank, which can be valuable.

[@lucilleadams13]

Lost me when you put knight in B tier. That class was VITAL for endgame bosses imo. Great vid overall

[@goldmagistrate5732]

Royal Knight got put in S tier though.

[@Saber_fgc]

Royal knight is in S if we're talking endgame

[@mariojumpman8949]

it single handedly carried me through the dragon fights

[@Alexeiyeah]

Metaphor has that classic Mob x Boss class building. Gunner (1st) was pretty good against most mobs, due to also inflicting status conditions. However, due to bosses immunities, he loses his value.

[@Nenacu]

Hulk is all the healing you need. Paladin, proclamation, medialine, party all in the back. Nothing can kill you.

[@phill6504]

Just FYI the knight's taunt skill can actually prevent certain enemies from using their AOEs and they will be forced to attack with ST skills or even basic attacks. Its not 100% but I believe most intelligent humanoids that aren't casters will be caught by this.

[@matteosocciarelli7935]

A ninja with the Knight’s taunt ability is a godsend against bosses with 5+ turn icons ❤

[@RedWeeb4926]

Yo I appreciate that Alonzo Shoutout man. I thought his story was the best one, would've been 10/10 if they just left it at the part where he died and leaving you with the trickster archetype as a parting gift like a mini lelouch accepting his consequences through self-sacrifice and making you "Zero" of sorts. Alonzo actually got me, I thought he would'nt die because his tree was the faker tree but the death promoting him into rank 7/8 actually made me question myself until the post side-quest.

[@praisethewhiterabbit5112]

Tbh Tycoon deserves to be in goat tier, it's straight up broken You can easily boost it's damage through the roof by inheriting some of the merchant passives by other party members, and equip it with an accesory that doubles crit dmg (colliseum reward). It also has a weapon that offers increased money skill dmg for an extra fee (which is not a problem). 30k crit for 7k gold sounds very broken, especially combined with it's synthesis skills which basically allows you to wipe the whole field for 9999 gold

[@praisethewhiterabbit5112]

This is the power of capitalism

[@JohnnyKin]

I like the way Juna says "Masked Dancer" so thats why i always keep it on her 😁

[@borealfirewall5709]

Healer definitely is the definition of master of one. It heals like no other and even has some light skills to spice things up. I'd have put it in A but I agree with you

[@Hurricayne92]

I just dont understand why you would want to use MP to heal when items are usually more than enough.

[@swagfun9054]

For me, the main strat I came up with for endgame + dragon trials + elegy of the soul was just continuously using thunderhead or hellfire dance + skyfall bolt or meteophor from my protagonist for whom I only put all their level ups in magic. For that reason, personally, I liked masked dancer a lot. However, I don't know if it was Junah specifically, but she was really frail for the most part. Luckily I focused a lot on evasion as well since it depletes enemy turn icons really fast and you don't take damage but that was the main downside I saw in the class. I didn't know there were that many other skills that added weaknesses. The only downside I can see for that is that enemies that are immune to the base element wouldn't be able to have the weakness added to them right? So for the omni-immune dragon it came in handy.

[@starrk7158]

I would personally rate thief higher for the Plunder life ability, it deals a lot of good damage almighty damage and it heals the caster for the same amount, which is some insane life steal longevity. Bottom of A, top of B tier for sure.

[@rajendra82a]

Royal Thief is an absolute pain to unlock. You need to level up five different lineages to meet the requirements. Compare this to most others that simply need two or three at best.

[@salamanderspeak4268]

Faker level 2’s Vidyartha (-2 Atk and -2 def) was my go to class on Juna in the late game.

[@painuchiha2694]

I’m confused as to how healer isn’t the worst archetype when having a weakness to strike is enough to get killed soo often in this game Healing and light magic is fine if only most other archetypes didn’t already have light synthesis.

[@davidrivero4991]

Tycoon is so broken that it honestly may be better than all the royal archetypes

[@YandereGogeta]

With what I’ve learned since making this video probably yeah

[@memrigaming]

Not me spamming faker/trickster’s 0MP AOE one shotting mobs in one action with str build protagonist, keeping all the MP for bosses

[@pablocl3186]

royal knight or just paladin with inherited counter from dark knight is the most op class in the entire game due to counters + taunt, effectively neutralizes the dragon superbosses

[@zelden3836]

Royal Knight bro makes the final boss a dog show for me

[@kurothefox6020]

The Masked Dancer weakness implant is useful in scenarios where you can't hit an opponent to apply a weakness, so if an enemy repels Fire a weakness implant is better without the damage, but Masked Dancer is a nieche use still

[@arthorias06]

If it works on every boss, will you still call it niche?

[@kurothefox6020]

@@arthorias06 true, only thing that stops it from working is Makarakarm

[@svenproglhof1768]

Goat Tier category, instantly DMC 3´s Vergil 2nd battle OST kicks in. Absolutely based.

[@MGNashi]

Seeing how OP some of the Royal Class are, I really regret not spending more time upgrading my virtues :(

[@personars0569]

Dynast with halve synthesis cost accessories is op.

[@jaffinator2166]

20:08 one applies Dekunda. One lowers defense. The final pierces. All scale off strength. While Powerful Pulverizer is obviously stronger don’t discount the others

[@funninoriginal6054]

So, a couple of thoughts here now that i finished my first run (on hard) 1) Honestly i think Faker should be lower than gunner. While the ladder has at least _some_ use cases, like certain optional dungeons with flying enemies, you legit never have to actually *use* faker in the whole game. It's resistances are the worst out of every archetype, and it's only saving grace, Faker's Roguery, is obtained in tier 1, meaning you can just inherit it to something else right away without bothering with faker. And the debuffs are completely worthless since items that debuff are incredibly common, with the debilitate one costing a measily 2k. 2) Healer should be at least in B tier since, unlike Mage who stagnates in Wizard until the end game, you can get Savior really fast and it's one of the archetypes who has the best magic increases, next to Masked Dancer, Summoner and Mage themselves. It also has the "revive all allies with full hp" synthesis which is much more useful than just normal healing since no item can replicate that, especially if you have the utlitarian manual which makes it a single action only.

[@ColeWendlerC17]

A lot of this I agree with but I’m ngl Royal Masked Dancer with the Mend mask (I believe, the one with all the heals) is the only reason I got through any of the endgame lol. Not sure if I was just too stubborn to try maybe grinding savior on her or something but she carried me with that archetype lmao, I’d put it A at least

[@bloodyair269]

all i do is running with full merchant/tycoon party throughout dungeon and stunning enemy+fortune slot crits everything. 0 MP wasted on mobs, hero leaf along the way, pocket full of money and item drop like crazy. that damn archetype is busted as fuck.

[@fenniken5381]

Mage is great for element coverage and does need multi target spells.

[@wilhelmpaulm]

magical physical uses your physical stat so dragoon is great for Strohl for example since he's got low magic, that's the same with the commander lineage

[@hxntaiguy3318]

Ok finally beat the game, and can watch this video, but I did like two jobs you put on low tier which where masked dancer and trickster, mainly because of the debuffs are useful towards the end game bosses and enemies, but I will say the classes mostly only work for junah since her thing is her high magic and high mp states but to really get the full benefit of trickster you need the second class, with the awesome skill that reduced a opponent strength and defence down two levels is good, and the other that gives you four extra press turn is great, but the lack of any really good damage does bring it down and the lack of team skills really is bad, which is why I get why its a low on the tier list and the same for mask dance, the class only really works for junah and maybe the protagonist since he can be whatever you need him to be, but any one else who use the class are going to fail with it since their stats dont really work for the class, and sadly mask dances only really get good with its third tier with the high tier masks that only junah can use since its her royal class, also the dumb thing for the mask dancer is if two people are equipping the same class and you want them both two be mages of the element master rank you would need to two copies of the same mask with mean down the hunt fir material to make them, which will take time away from other classes you could rank up, so yeah those class are fun in certain battles but lacks too many fault to be the best class sadly, and one more thing yeah gunner is the worst class besides its free hp regeneration on stun enemies it bad over all.

[@MaterFleur]

100% agree with Masked Dancer. Concept was nice... But in practice it gave 0 help to the already flawed non-changable Archetype Problem

[@verymelonman12]

I see where you come from, but I personally put the Merchant and Faker line at S tier.

[@Lumi_Hitori]

Dragoon should be patched to have physical elemental skills with crit chances, change my mind

[@redbone9553]

Faker's Roguery is a broken ass skill if you are willing to gamble the cost. Getting 2-3 or even potentially 5 by casting it twice during your action insane value, and if you use the skill with all turn nodes blinking already, it effectively have no risk. Pairiing it with a block skill or a counter skill, and you can force enemies to not act while you can. The biggest hurdle to using the character is tempting the cost of using that skill, but once you start using it, it's insanely fun.

[@adrianzambranoleon1889]

I will say hard dissagree on the knight take, the lineage is easily S tier, making a hybrid of the best knight lineage passives gives you a counter/ repel machine, like stacking for the scion skills: counter, magic counter, omni counter and a weapon i don’t remember that doubled counter chances, that alone saved me in a ton of battles from the end game since omni counter drained the entire enemy teams turn bar. The best example i can give is from the dragon in the tower of altabury, thst guy had 7 turns left and my party was almost wiped out, then one omni counter from hulkenberg and all of a sudden it was my turn

[@ItsJustEthan1]

Healer has an extreme attack on its final tier. If you farm her early, that skill alone can carry. Synthesis is also broken, especially if you use the item to reduce the icon cost since it applies light weakness. Also, great magic scaling. It's one of the few classes that excels in both offense and support. Knight is also underrated. The redirction is really strong for certain fights. Also has great support. Seeker lowkey sucks. The fire weekness makes it rough for a lot of fights. Also has only ok skills on the eliete tier. The cost is just too high even with the mp recovery. Id much rather use Saviour and just inherit the skills i want. Also, the Royal thief is the strongest by far. The toughest fights become a joke with that archetype. The enemy can just never attack. Especially if you focus debuffing with Heismay you are nearly untouchable.

[@rynemayet9515]

Dragoon’s skills are all physical (except for a couple of synthesis), just with elemental damage; Similar to the destroyers elec/wind/lights skills, or the merchant’s almighty damage. The class still isn’t particularly great with that in mind. Having high MP cost skills that work best on characters with low MP pools is its biggest offense imo.

[@LaharlKratosVegeta]

Gunner is the worst!? It's pierce and status effects. It's amazing and helped me through some of the toughest fights