Fire Emblem: Awakening Starter Classes Guide: Mage, Knight

With the possibility to truly switch classes for the first time ever in the series, Fire Emblem: Awakening has a lot of starter classes to choose from, allowing players to have a lot of freedom in customizing their army to their liking. While it’s true that characters won’t be able to switch to all starter classes, the choice is so broad that you will soon be forgetting about the limitations of the system. At the end of day, it will be up to you to create a really effective team with the right combination of classes and skills and we’re here to help you making these choices but going over all the starter and advanced classes of the game, with some general features and skills coming as default for the class.

• Mage

The Mage will be one of your main damage dealers in the game, using powerful elemental spells from a distance, helping the main attackers take down the enemies’ frontlines. Like the Cleric and the Priest it’s a magic oriented class and as such, it has very low physical attack and defense. If involved in a direct confrontation, the mages stand very little chance of survival: their role is give another type of support than clerics and when used together with archers, they can make life easier for the units which can only attack directly. The mage learns the Magic +2 skill at level 1 and the Focus skill at level 10; they can promote to Sage or Dark Knight, depending on your choice.

• Knight

Now we’re finally talking about some heavy hitters: the Knights can equip lances and can dish out some decent damage. However they’re even better at taking damage with great HP growth and decent defense stat. Since they’re so good at receiving damage, the Knights can be used in a variety of situations: to block the enemies paths, to lure them into attacking the unit while ranged fighters dispose of them and many more. Unfortunately, the knight’s speed and movement aren’t too hot but with the appropriate pairing up this can be solved easily. Also, make sure to keep the Knights away from magic using units since the resistance stat is pretty low compared to Defense. Also keep them away from enemies equipped with Armorslayer, Wing Spear and Rapier since these weapons deal extra damage to knights. Knights learn the Defense +2 skill at level 1 and the Indoor Fighter skill at level 10; they can promote to General or Great Knight depending on your choice.