Valkyrie

Valkyrie
Generic class portrait of a Strategist from Fates.
First Seen	Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Promotes From	Troubadour(FE4-FE8, FE13-FE14) Cleric (FE8-10)
Promotes To	N/A
Usable Weapon Types	Staff Anima Light (FE8 only) Sword (FE9-10, and FE16) Reason(FE16) Faith(FE16)
Class Skills	Canto Sol (Mist only) Rally Resistance (FE13-14) Dual Support+ (FE13 only) Inspiration (FE14 only)
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The Valkyrie (ヴァルキリー Varukirī) is a horse-mounted combat and support magical class that recurrently appears across the Fire Emblem Series, beginning from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. The standard promoted form of the Troubadour class, Valkyries wield Staves as their primary equipment of choice for support purposes. They wield magic tomes for combat purposes, though the exact type of weapon varies depending on the title that they appear in.

History in the Series

In Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War and Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Troubadours promote into a version of the Paladin class that is outfitted with Swords, Lances and Staves. Presumably to avoid confusion with the regular Paladin class, this class is later replaced/renamed.

Valkyries make their first formal appearance in The Binding Blade and return in the same capacity in The Blazing Blade, where they are the sole promotion of the Troubadour class and wield Anima magic alongside Staves.

In Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Valkyries are armed with Light magic instead of Anima Magic, acting as not just one of the promoted forms of the Troubadour class, but also that of the Cleric class. In this game, the Mage Knight, the Troubador's alternate promotion, serves the role of the mounted Anima Magic user.

In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Mist is the only playable Valkyrie (戦乙女ヴァルキュリア Varukyuria). She can promote into this class from the Cleric class and wields both Swords and Staves as her equipment of choice, similar to the female Paladin from the Jugdral titles. Oddly, the Valkyrie class does not count as a horse-mounted class in this title, and is thus immune from sustaining effective damage from horse-slaying weapons like the Horseslayer.

With the onset Awakening and Fates, the Valkyrie class is reverted to how it functioned in The Binding Blade and The Blazing Blade, where it is one of the promoted forms of the Troubadour class and is armed with Tomes and Staves as its equipment of choice.

In Fates, the Valkyrie class is made unisex for the first time in the series, and has thus been appropriately renamed to Strategist (ストラテジスト Sutoratejisuto). Strategists are treated as a Nohrian class in this title.

In Fire Emblem Warriors, the class reappears, still under the name Strategist. This version can use tomes and acts as a clone of the Dark Crusader class.

The Valkyrie class makes a return in Three Houses as a once more female-exclusive class, exclusively found in the Cindered Shadows DLC. A character must be level 20 or higher to take the Certification Exam using an Abyssian Exam Pass. The recommended level requirements are B or higher in Reason and B or higher in Riding. The class gives bonuses to Reason, Riding, and Faith.

Overview

Combat

Valkyries are usually deployed as healers, but their fairly decent Magic can also be used for combat purposes. As they are battle maidens on horseback, they can move more spaces than Bishops can. Because of this, they are well equipped to support a fast-moving army without damaging the player's tempo, or to rush to the aid of far-off units in need of healing. Alternatively, if healing is not required, Valkyries can be effectively utilised for offensive purposes. Charges often depend on their ability to finish off most of the nearby enemies during the player phase, so this degree of flexibility is a welcome improvement over the likes of Troubadours and Clerics.

Stat-wise, Valkyries are similar to Bishops, save for their superior Speed and inferior Resistance. Valkyries can be used as a way to absorb hits from opposing magic units, but will often have trouble disposing of them on their own, especially ones that are fast enough to avoid getting doubled. Valkyries are thus best used to safely lure opposing mages into traps, or to protect their allies from enemy mages.

Valkyries are not without their weaknesses. As they typically promote from Staff users, they will usually start off using E-rank tomes, which hinders their otherwise decent magical offense. While they will generally inflict impressive damage to non-magical opponents that they can perform double attacks on, this is typically offset by their extremely poor defenses. This vulnerability causes them to risk being killed in just a few enemy onslaughts.

In-Game

Base Stats

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE6	19	-	4	3	5	0	4	8	8	8	-	E C
FE7	19	-	4	3	5	0	4	8	8	8	-	E C
FE8	19	-	4	3	5	0	4	8	7	7	-	D D
FE9	19	4	5	3	5	0	3	8	8	6	26	D C
FE10	43	6	16	18	20	0	9	22	9	6	26	B A
FE13	19	0	5	4	8	0	3	8	8	-	-	E E
FE14	16	0	7	6	7	5	2	7	8	-	-	E E

Maximum Stats

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE6	60	-	27	24	25	30	24	28	15	20	-	S S
FE7	60	-	25	24	25	30	24	28	7	20	-	S S
FE8	60	-	25	24	25	30	24	28	7	20	-	S S
FE9	60	20	26	24	26	40	20	29	8	6	26	S S
FE10	50	25	35	35	34	35	24	36	9	6	26	SS S
FE13	80	30	42	38	43	45	30	45	8	-	-	A A
FE14	45	25	33	28	31	33	25	32	8	-	-	B A
FEW	868	15	160	75	142	152	59	205	15	-	-	S

Growth Rates

	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Mov	Con	Wt	Wlv
FE6	45%	-	35%	25%	45%	40%	10%	20%	-	-	-	-
FE7	45%	-	35%	25%	45%	40%	10%	40%	-	-	-	-
FE8	45%	-	35%	25%	45%	40%	10%	40%	-	-	-	-
FE9	50%	35%	40%	30%	45%	40%	10%	45%	-	-	-	-
FE10	50%	25%	45%	45%	30%	85%	30%	40%	-	-	-	-
FE13	35%	0%	20%	10%	20%	0%	5%	15%	-	-	-	-
FE14	0%	0%	15%	5%	10%	20%	0%	15%	-	-	-	-

Class Skills

	Skill	Requirements
FE9	Sol	Occult skill of the Valkyrie and Paladin classes; assign with an Occult Scroll.
FE10	Canto Sol	Base skill of all flying and mounted units. Mastery skill of the Valkyrie, Gold Knight and Silver Knight classes.
FE13	Rally Resistance Dual Support+	Learnt at Level 5. Learnt at Level 15.
FE14	Rally Resistance Inspiration	Learnt at Level 5 and above. Learnt at Level 15 and above.
FE16	Canto Black Magic Range +1 Dark Magic Range +1 Uncanny Blow	Class Ability of Valkyrie. Class Ability of Valkyrie. Class Ability of Valkyrie. Mastery Ability of Valkyrie.

Promotions

	Base Class	Promotion Method	Promoted Class
FE6	Troubadour	Use a Guiding Ring on a Level 10+ Troubadour.	Valkyrie
FE7	Troubadour	Use a Guiding Ring on a Level 10+ Troubadour.	Valkyrie
FE8	Troubadour	Use a Guiding Ring on a Level 10+ Troubadour.	Valkyrie
FE8	Cleric	Use a Guiding Ring on a Level 10+ Cleric.	Valkyrie
FE9	Cleric	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Cleric.	Valkyrie
FE10	Cleric	Use a Holy Crown on a Level 10+ Cleric or train a Cleric to Level 21.	Valkyrie
FE13	Troubadour	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Troubadour.	Valkyrie
FE14	Troubadour	Use a Master Seal on a Level 10+ Troubadour.	Strategist
FE16	Any class	Use an Abyssian Exam Pass on a Level 20+ unit and pass the Valkyrie Certification Exam.	Valkyrie
FEW	Troubadour	Use a Master Seal on Elise.	Strategist

Notable Valkyries

The Binding Blade

• Cecilia - The Mage General of Etruria and one of the three Etrurian Generals.
• Promotion for: Clarine.

The Blazing Blade

• Ursula - The "Blue Crow" of the Black Fang and one of the Four Fangs.
• Promotion for: Priscilla.

The Sacred Stones 

• Possible promotion for: Natasha and L'Arachel.

Path of Radiance

• Promotion for: Mist.

Radiant Dawn

• Promotion for: Mist.

Awakening

• Pheros - A Valmese general in charge of Fort Steiger and a former priestess of Naga who believes that Walhart is a "god among men".
• Ursula (SpotPass)
• Ethlyn (SpotPass)
• Cecilia (SpotPass)
• Possible promotion for: Maribelle.

Fates

• Daniela - A ruthless and arrogant Nohrian tactician (encountered as a boss; must be captured).
• Arete - The deceased second queen of Nohr and Azura's mother.
• Possible promotion for: Elise, Dwyer and Forrest.

Three Houses

• Hapi - Member of the Ashen Wolves with a "unique constitution".

Etymology

In Norse mythology, Valkyries were warrior-maidens and the handmaidens of Odin. They rode through battlefields (either on horseback, wolves or by flying) and brought the worthiest warriors among the slain to Valhalla, the heroes' heaven. They are associated with both ravens and swans. The name "Valkyrie" means "chooser of the slain."

Two named Valkyries are Mist and Sigrun.

Trivia

• Only one single Valkyrie other than Mist appears in Path of Radiance as part of Geoffrey's allied squadron of knights in Battle Reunion. While possessing a black haired palette for its map model, through hacking, it can be seen that the ally Valkyrie's battle model is simply a reuse of Mist's palette and model.
• Valkyries possess the lowest Defense cap out of all promoted classes available in Awakening.

Gallery

Concept artwork of the Valkyrie class from Awakening.

Concept artwork of the Valkyrie mount from Awakening.

Concept art of a male strategist from Fates

Concept artwork of the Strategist class from Fates.

Generic class portrait of the Valkyrie class from the GBA games.

Generic class portrait of the Valkyrie class from Awakening.

Critical animation of Cecilia as a Valkyrie from The Binding Blade.

Battle model of Mist, a Valkyrie from Path of Radiance.

Battle model of Mist, a Valkyrie from Radiant Dawn.

Battle model of Maribelle, a Valkyrie from Awakening.

Battle model of Elise, a Strategist from Fates.

Elise as a Strategist in Fire Emblem Warriors.

Map sprite of the Valkyrie class from the GBA titles.

Map model of the Valkyrie class from Path of Radiance.

Map model of the Valkyrie class from Radiant Dawn.

Map sprite of the Valkyrie class from Awakening.

Map sprite of the Strategist class from Fates.

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