#dark flier

The class exam recommends you have a B+ rank in reason and a C rank in flying. These requirements for a 100% success rate are very reasonable. Taking into account the relative strength of the class and the requirements for other level 30 classes, I’d go even farther and say the requirements are overly generous in favor of the player. 

Analysis

The Dark Flier’s bases are low. Really low. Like level 1 generic student low. Generally speaking, you won’t ever get a base stat boost for classing into Dark Flier. (They’re 6 magic, 7 dexterity, 8 speed and 8 luck at a minimum of level 30.) The stat boosts that they provide are a little more generous, if not really offensively stacked. For class-changing into Dark Flier, the class grants 3 dexterity and 2 speed with an additional 2 speed while mounted. Notably for reasons to-be-discussed below, it grants 3 resistance. The low passive offenses are indicative of the Bow Knight, if slightly more exaggerated, probably in the intention of balancing the class. 

Dark Fliers have excellent mobility with 5 base movement and an additional 2 while mounted. This leaves them with 7 spaces of flight that can ignore most terrain, making them on-par with the high mobility mounted classes and only slightly behind the highest-mobility fliers. 

The class has three Class Skills: Black Tomefaire, Canto and the very interesting Transmute. Upon mastery, the class gives you Transmute for use in other classes. These are good skills and about 40% of what makes Dark Flier a good class. 

Black Tomefaire gives a weaker mage a little more kick and can put a more potent one in the kill range. It’s a very good skill, but it discourages a dark mage from entering into the class. 

Canto is always good. I can’t understate how good the skill is. The ability to us your remaining move after taking an action does wonders for positioning. 

Transmute is a really interesting skill. If you take a spell attack during enemy phase, you gain +3 to all stats until the end of your next turn. It may not be the best skill on a Dark Flier necessarily, but +3 to all stats is a huge buff that can potentially lead to doubling or can allow you to more effectively duel the mage or mages your were fighting. It may not be super good, per say, but I think it’s neat. 

The Dark Flier’s growths are rather lackluster. The only meaningful boost to its growths is a 10% boon to speed growth. If you want to take advantage of Transmute, it additionally grants 10% resistance. Dark Flier definitely isn’t a class to level in, but it makes a really solid endgame class to work towards. 

Good Dark Fliers

Constance makes a natural Dark Flier and her incredible magic makes her a force to be reckoned with in the class. However I wouldn’t put her in the class. It may be her canon class, but I personally think she makes a much better Warlock outside of Cindered Shadows due to doubling her casts of bolting and the better growths. Additionally, flight is antithetical to her budding talent in brawling. 

Annette is my personal choice for the best Dark Flier in the game. Due to her rally prowess and magic specialization, the additional positioning benefits of Dark Flier are a considerable boon. The class also helps to shore up her unimpressive speed. The class may not do anything in favor of her axe abilities if you want to use her Hero’s Relic, however her Relic is locked to Blue Lions so outside of that, reasons to focus axes on Annette are fairly minimal. With that considered, if you want to use axes, the requirments to class Dark Flier are pretty easy, so you do have time to learn axes if you want to give her a Bolt Axe or something in a pinch. Dark Flier Annette is really good, she was a lot of help on my New Game maddening run, and I can’t recommend her enough in this role. 

Marianne as a Dark Flier is something that I would recommend putting her in, at least for the Transmute mastery and the option to class her as a flier if you need to. The requirements are fairly lenient and it gives you a little more time to work up to the more intensive Holy Knight, where I think she works the best. Transmute works very well with Marianne’s high resistance and her Soulblade Combat Art, as well as Frozen Lance. Dark Fliers are even proficient in swords, if you want to make use of her Hero’s Relic. (Also Dark Flier is a really good class to put Marianne in for her paralogue.)

If you want to be cursed, Edelgard makes a notable Dark Flier. She has a budding talent in reason that gives Black Magic Crit +10 and her Personal Skill, Imperial Lineage+ gives her +4 resistance should she take the wait action. This pairs very well with Transmute. Like Annette, you can train her in Axes for use of a Bolt Axe, her Hero’s Relic or the Lightning Axe Combat Art. If you want to go mage Edelgard, your options are really only this or Gremory, and this is the much more interesting choice. 

Flayn has the highest resistance growth in the game and is a potent mage in her own right, even if her spell list doesn’t quite pop the same way as the above options. For exploiting Transmute, she’s the best available option and on the turns that she isn’t, she can act as an excellent support mage. Her Sacred Weapon, the Caduceus Staff also increases the range of attack magic, which can grant her stupidly easy linked attacks due to the class’s mobility. (She also has a special linked bonus with Byleth and Seteth, which can grant a boost to damage.)

Conclusion

Dark Fliers should be deployed in limited quantity due to the lack of good magic flying battalions. Really the only good option is Constance’s Nuvelle Fliers Corps. Anna’s Secret Transport Force can work in a pinch as well, being a stride battalion. Due to these limitations, you should aim to get at much out as the class as possible with a limited number of deploys. To that end, I’d keep your strongest magic users out of this class, particularly Lysithea as she gains no benefit from Black Tomefaire and almost no benefit from Transmute. 

I think the best Dark Fliers have good support abilities but lack warp in addition to their black magic abilities.