Linhardt: Difference between revisions

Linhardt is the quintessential healer of the [[Black Eagles]] and accordingly excels in a supportive role rather than a combat-oriented role. In being a healer, he has good growths in [[magic (stat)|magic]] and [[resistance]] and an excellent array of [[white magic|faith]] spells while having low growths in [[HP]] and [[strength]]; his [[defense]] growth is low but is surprisingly decent for a magic-focused unit. With a C-rank in faith, Linhardt gets the essential [[Physic]] spell which allows him to support when far from the frontlines, so as to not expose himself to a risk of dying. Since Linhardt starts with a D+ in faith, he can get access to Physic as early as [[Familiar Scenery|Chapter 2]] if you make his sole skill goal faith and give him tutoring in it, meaning he can excel as a support unit very early on. Upon achieving a B-rank, Linhardt gets [[Restore]] which allows him to cure the [[rattled]] status when allies get hit by enemy [[gambit]]s, enabling them to move again. And finally, with an A-rank, Linhardt gets access to the coveted [[Warp (staff)|Warp]] spell. Even in a casual playthrough, the Warp spell is immensely useful, especially in the late game of the Crimson Flower route which has a lot of difficult terrain that drastically slows down infantry and cavalry units. In addition to having a varied pool of support options, Linhardt's [[black magic|Reason]] spell list, while somewhat average compared to the other mages, is also quite good, consisting of [[Wind (tome)|Wind]], [[Cutting Gale]], [[Excalibur]], [[Fire (tome)|Fire]], and [[Bolganone]]. The wind spells are all comparatively [[weight (weapon)|lightweight]] and have high hit rates, the latter of which is boosted by Linhardt's good growths in [[dexterity]] and [[luck]], meaning that Linhardt can deal reliable chip damage in addition to healing allies. However, despite this, Linhardt still makes for a poor frontliner and should chip with the [[Caduceus Staff]] or [[Thyrsus]] equipped when possible as they boost his max range by one and two respectively, decreasing the chance he will be attacked on the enemy phase. Because Linhardt lacks any boons or budding talents in weapons, he does not learn any unique [[combat art]]s, which prevents him from providing any reliable combat utility that does not involve magic spells, such as dealing high amounts of magic damage with [[sword]] arts ([[Hexblade]]/[[Soulblade]]). Another of Linhardt's weaknesses is the missed potential of his personal skill, [[Catnap]], which restores his HP by 10% when he uses the wait command. The skill is not worth activating as it heals two HP at base and will heal four HP at most which means the skill heals less than a [[vulnerary]]. Moreover, Linhardt will almost always have something better to do than simply waiting, whether it be healing an ally or using [[Draw Back]] or [[Reposition]] to adjust allies' positions. If for any reason Linhardt is equipped with any HP-based skills such as [[Vantage]] or the Defiant skills, the self healing can backfire against him if engaged in combat.

Since Linhardt has some of the best faith spells in the game and is ill-suited for the frontlines in terms of stats and weapon proficiencies, Linhardt is best following a magical promotion path. The path best suited to capitalize on Linhardt's support capabilities is [[Monk]] to [[Priest]], ending at [[Bishop]]. If you want Linhardt to solely heal your units and avoid combat as much as possible, it is preferable to stop at Bishop instead of moving on to the master tier classes as the Bishop provides the pinnacle of White Magic support; Linhardt is somewhat more limited when it comes to promoting to master tier classes due to the fact that his offensive growths and skill proficiencies are slightly lackluster compared to the other units geared towards magic; the only master class that completely lines up with his skill proficiencies is the [[Gremory]], but that class is unavailable to him due to being locked to female units. As such, the only magical master-tier classes that he has available to him are [[Holy Knight]], [[Dark Knight]], and [[Mortal Savant]]. The Holy Knight simply has worse support capabilities than the Bishop as it lacks [[White Magic Heal +10]] and [[White Magic Uses x2]] in exchange for [[White Tomefaire]] which only boosts the heavy and low-might [[Nosferatu]] for Linhardt. Moreover, Linhardt simply does not need seven movement or [[Canto]] in a supportive role due to him having Physic, which by the endgame will have such a massive range that it practically renders the poor movement of infantry mages irrelevant. If you want Linhardt to sacrifice his supportive capabilities for high mobility and combat prowess, the Dark Knight is superior to Holy Knight since it gives Linhardt [[Black Tomefaire]], which boosts nearly all of his offensive magic save for Nosferatu. The Mortal Savant is an inferior version of Dark Knight, having similar class modifiers while having lower movement, lacking canto, and giving Linhardt an insignificant boost to his strength growth in the final stage of the game and inherent [[Swordfaire]] which is equally useless considering Linhardt is poor viability on the frontlines and in melee combat as well as his low strength. If you do want to make Linhardt into a Dark Knight for the endgame then it is better to promote him into a [[Mage]], in order to obtain [[Fiendish Blow]], rather than a Priest for the Intermediate tier.