Promotions and You

Both of these are relatively simple.

Every class has a baseline for their Attack, HP, and Defense stats. A Wanderer at level 12 has 55 HP, 76 Attack, and 59 Defense for example. This does not include any equipment, skill, or Seed bonuses – it’s just the absolute starting value, known as the hero’s base stats. A promotion will increase these. If you give a Titan Soul to this Wanderer, then they become a Pathfinder with 92 HP, 117 Attack, and 100 Defense. In regards to base stats, a promotion is mainly designed to reduce the difference in tier levels and level the playing field. It effectively brings all classes up to a theoretical “T7” class. This means that the base stat boost isn’t as noticeable for the T6s as it is for T1s – it’s a comparatively smaller jump for a Dancer than a Monk.

• For example, a Geomancer at level 40 has 1K Attack inherently. This is boosted to 1.1K as an Astramancer (aka 10% bonus). By contrast, a Mage goes from 500 base Attack to 1,000 at level 40 (100% bonus), just with the promotion alone. This promotion bonus is phenomenal for lower tier classes and gets less impactful as you go up the ladder.

The second thing a promotion does for everybody is also fairly simple. It unlocks the ability to use rank 4 skills. This one typically isn’t that impactful so we’ll breeze through it. The vast majority of rank 4 skills are identical to their rank 3 counterparts, just with slightly bigger numbers. In general, the use of rank 4 skills is not going to make or break a hero. Rogues specifically need to keep an eye on their Evasion if they’re using Evasion or Crit gear / spirits because the jump from rank 3 to rank 4 might overcap them on either stat. (Wanderers and Ninjas in particular need to keep an eye on these due to their innate skills giving them a lot). Note that there are two exceptions here that do gain a second effect at rank 4 (all other skills with a secondary effect gain it at an earlier rank).

• All Natural goes from 30% Crit Hit Chance at rank 3 to 30% CHC & 100% Crit Damage at rank 4. This is a great damage boost for crit based classes that may be lacking a bit of CD. Any hero with this skill will get a large Power spike when promoted due to Crit stats being very good for Star Power.
• Fireball picks up a flat 200 Attack. It goes from 130% bonus Attack at rank 3 to 160% + 200 at rank 4. This might not seem that significant, but it provides a hefty boost to Attack if the hero has a high amount of bonus Attack in their other skills. It can often outperform the very similar Electric Arc and Dragon Breath, which both have higher Att% values (170% & 175% respectively).

For the optional bonuses, let’s get the easy one out of the way first. Some classes can use an additional item type in one slot after a promotion. A Thief can only wear Gloves in slot 4, but a Trickster can wear Gloves or Shoes as an example. This is a nice bonus but usually isn’t gamebreaking or a major reason to promote a class. It mainly means some heroes have a different BiS item in one slot when promoted vs not promoted. Knights for example can only wield Axes or Spears, but Lords can also use Maces and Swords. This specifically is handy because it means a Knight cannot use some great weapon choices like the T12 weapons Titan Sword or Merry Christmace until they’re promoted. Usually however, this is not a big deal.

Next up is one of the major ones – ability to use all four skills. Non-promoted classes typically have one or two skill slots locked. T1 and T2 classes can only use two skills and T3 / T4 classes can only use three. T5 and T6 classes do not get this bonus from the promotion because they can inherently use all four. So, what does this mean?

• T1 and T2 classes are pretty crippled by this restriction. A hero who can only use two skills leaves an awful lot of power on the table. Even the Fighter classes (typically very simple builds that don’t need much skill power) are heavily nerfed by two locked skill slots.
• T3 and T4 classes have it better. The addition of the third skill (plus their generally better innate skills) helps a lot. Losing slot 4 is a hindrance, but it’s not as big of a deal compared to T1 / T2s who are missing slot 3 as well.

Finally, we get to the upgraded innate skill. This bonus is the most hit or miss. Some classes gain a lot of mileage out of the boosted innate and some barely notice it (plus the obvious mention that some classes don’t even get this bonus at all). In addition to the larger numbers on their innates, the classes below gain additional effects. If you’re curious what the actual numbers on these skills are over their various ranks, that information can be found in the official ST Data Spreadsheet.

• Soldiers gain extra benefit from Champion leaderskills. Depending on what Champion you’re using, this can be great or not very noticeable. Champions that provide extra defensive stats like Argon and Lilu will grant more of those stats to a Mercenary. Yami’s extra CHC and Evasion are both pretty wasted on this class, as another example.
• Barbarians are one of the major beneficiaries of this effect. They gain a huge Attack boost that makes them a viable damage dealer / tank hybrid. The combination of higher inherent Threat plus extra damage because of it makes them a great choice for duo setups when paired with a strong attacker.
• Knights can block one lethal hit directed at an ally. This is one of the “not really noticeable” upgrades.
• Samurai are similar to Knights in that they can take it or leave it. Their upgraded innate lets them dodge the first attack of the battle guaranteed. Note that this is wasted if the quest monster attacks another hero – it only applies on the first turn of the battle.
• Thieves are another one of the major beneficiaries. They gain a mini-weapon skill to ALL weapons they can wield (not just Daggers) but the important one is the Polonia synergy. A Trickster increases the item cap of Polonia’s item-stealing leaderskill AND increases the chances of it happening.
• Monks have a very basic but highly effective upgrade. The promotion allows them to learn the fantastic Destructive Strikes. This is one of the best attacking skills in the entire game.
• Musketeers don’t gain a massive bonus, but it’s definitely noticeable. They gain a stacking buff to their Crit Damage on consecutive critical hits, effectively giving them an additional 100% CD if they can crit consistently to keep it active. This bonus falls off if they miss a critical hit and will need to be re-stacked back up to 4.
• Wanderers are simple. Their Evasion cap is increased from the normal 75% to 78%. This is pretty great for damage mitigation although it can be difficult to see it in action since dodging is a random chance event.
• Ninjas get a big one. When a Ninja takes a hit in battle, their innate skill effectively disappears. They lose their massive bonuses to Evasion and CHC until the end of the battle. A Sensei on the other hand can recover these boosts after two turns when it falls off.
• Most Spellcasters surprisingly do not gain an upgrade to their innate skill with a promotion. The only one is Spellblades, who get an additional 50% stat power from all items with innate elements (read – any item with an Element enchantment that you can’t remove). The upgraded Spellblade innate ability offers a pretty significant change to their build style.