Tactics Ogre: Reborn Full Class Tier List (Updated)

Tactics Ogre: Reborn has been out for some time, so we’ve been able to play through the game and all its story routes. More importantly, we’ve had some time with the endgame, which gives us the ability to make judgments about the class’ individual power levels and separate them into a tier list.

This tier list aims to take into account the early, middle, and end-game. Some classes will be stronger than others based on stat gains, or classes might seem very powerful the moment you get them and slowly get worse — just remember, planning and strategy is at the core of team composition in Tactics Ogre: Reborn, so every class is certainly viable as long as you build around them well.

Enjoy the Tactics Ogre: Reborn class tier list and be sure to comment any disputes you have over the tier placements in the comments below!

S Tier

• Patriarch/Matriarch: In the endgame, these are the strongest units period. Stronger than Denam, even. At a baseline, they are a strong Lizard/Lamia only caster. They can use Summons, but instead of Nature’s Touch like some other high-level classes they get tank abilities. Being generic, they are the best targets for body-swapping, which lets you sacrifice a generic unit to give their INT/MND stats to a new body. Despite not having Nature’s Touch, this gives them the highest realistic damage ceiling, and they become near-unkillable with the tank skills as well.
• Lord: This is Denam’s unique class, but it only has one unique skill that almost never gets used: First Aid (which is a small passive heal skill, and different from the Ranger’s First Aid). The kicker is that the Lord can use skills from any other class that Denam can use, letting you mix-and-match skills for truly broken builds. There are so many options for Lord that I can’t lay them out all here, but he gets to use a tank skill, a weapon skill, Meditate, and whatever support you want for a unit that gets to do everything.
• Princess (Catiua): Lucky Star and Princess’ Whim are the name of the game. Lucky Star can increase the Luck of all nearby units and Princess’ Whim can proc to remove debuffs from nearby allies. Her magic set is varied, including Light support magic, heals, Exorcism, and some draconic magic. She can also use Summon spells, but only Wisplight — though what more could you even ask for? All in all, she’s just very strong at her baseline and only gets stronger as the levels go longer due to Lucky Star.
• Dark Priest (Catiua): As a Dark Priest, Catiua debuffs enemies instead of buffing allies. She can throw out Sleep, Silence and Max HP reduction like nobody’s business with multiple passive skills that activate in an area around her. This makes her a popular candidate for the “Stinky” armor set that makes AI ignore a unit when targeting. She becomes a semi-frontline caster that weakens the whole enemy army while killing them.
• White Knight: Once you get these, they will be your frontline for the rest of the game if you care to min-max. Velocity Shift is the most individually-powerful skill in the game. It reduces the RT of the user and nearby allies by a flat 35. If the White Knights stick together and Velocity Shift each other, it lets you chain together turns; this is further compounded with auto-skill buff cards, turn reset magic like Paradigm Shift, and any Quicken buffs you can apply. Even besides that game-breaking ability, they also get a Stun-Bringer self-effect, making them efficient debuffers with very little effort! The class is exclusive to Mirdyn, Gildas, Ravness and Ozma.
• Knight Commander (Ozma): Ozma gets access to two unique frontline classes and both are ridiculously strong. Intercession gives the Negate buff for resisting magic effects, Ivory Tower is like a stronger Evade that can avoid a whopping three physical attacks, and Intimidate shows up to remove buffs from enemies. She can also Double Attack for a dual-wield build, or use a Beastslayer or Dragonslayer skill to deal with beast enemies. One of the real reasons to use this class is her access to a unique Whip finisher, Demon Rose, which deals crushing damage and charms enemies.
• Rune Fencer: This class can do everything! No, really, everything. They are amazing Spear users as Meditate on a melee class lets them spam finishers, they get access to support magic and healing so they can Quicken the entire team in between swings, and in the late-game they can even use Summons alongside Nature’s Touch for huge bonus elemental damage. They also have Conserve MP, making spells free. They are seriously strong and one of the best classes a generic unit can be.
• Shaman: This class is exclusive to the Phoraena sisters, Deneb and Iuria. They get Nature’s Touch, Summons, the Apocrypha magic, and staggering INT/MND stats. There’s not much more to say about them; they are the strongest damage-dealing casters in the game, only outmatched by Patriarchs that have been body-snatched for higher INT.
• Lich: Nature’s Touch, but no elemental Summons makes them weaker in all-around damage than Shamans, but they make up for it with support. (Thankfully, Liches can still use the Dark summon for single-target damage). Necromancy Magic might not seem impressive, but Curse III and Life Force carry a lot in the late game. Salvation pairs with Life Force nicely; it’s a skill that either distributes the Lich’s MP to allies or sucks up all of theirs for a big cast. Reflection is really, really strong; it doesn’t just negate magic, it reflects it (obviously) and applies to other allies.
• Familiar (Fairy): Familiars mostly aren’t worth considering if you aren’t using a Fairy, so we’ll only focus on Fairy Familiars (Gremlins and Pumpkinheads have different spells when familiars). Their loadouts aren’t impressive, nor are their stats, nor is their potential for debuffing the enemy through blowguns and spells. Rather, the ONLY focus here is Lingering Kiss, which splits the Familiar’s HP with a friendly target and resets the target’s RT, giving them another turn. Turn manipulation lets you annihilate the board with your strongest casters or get more free Velocity Shift procs. These little ladies belong in every top army, usually sitting next to your beastmode Shamans and kissing them over and over.

A Tier

• Ranger (Vyce): The ranger can use Fusils or 2-handed bows, or he can dual-wield melee weapons, and can use Lobber for support. The real reason he’s so high is because of his build versatility — Double Attack with two separate weapon types lets you have access to double the finishers. You can also use Jiygla’s set and make him a super-strong archer. Or, you can use Lobber along with a weapon-skill earring to make him a grenadier with consumable items… there’s a ton of options, and they’re all very strong.
• Berserker: They might seem basic, but their skills are powerful throughout the entire game. Risk Management keeps them alive, and they can dish out massive damage with Berserk and Sanguine Assault. They are a one-note class, in that they want to get in and do as much damage as possible, but they do it very well. For a unique combo, try doing the classic Berserker build using a Pumpkinhead instead of a Human, and use a Warlock for the Empower Golem skill. It’ll stack with Berserk and Sanguine Assault for absurdly high damage numbers.
• Hoplite: If you ignored Lizardmen and Lamias throughout your playthrough for Human units, keep reading. Hoplites get access to certain skills you wouldn’t have access to until you get Buccaneer — ones that let you ignore magic damage and physical damage. They can also Stop enemies that are next to them, which is an exceptional debuff that doesn’t show up often. They’re amazing spear users or can brawl up-close while trying to activate the Stop ability. They’re simply amazing frontliners with high damage potential and weapon versatility.
• Juggernaut: This is the flipside of the Hoplite and focuses more on tankiness. Juggernauts can Intimidate to remove buffs from enemies, or randomly activate Stop (like the Hoplite), or randomly Silence nearby enemies and reduce their max MP. Juggernauts are very, very strong due to the sheer power of their skillset and massive HP pool. They also throw boulders like beasts for a ranged counterattack which is just the coolest thing ever.
• Wicce (Deneb): She can give herself Spellcraft and Spellstrike using a single skill, she can charm units next to her (but not females!) with a passive skill and even has a special active Kiss spell that can Stop and Hobble enemies. Unique for a caster class, she can also use whips, which makes Deneb a kind of mid-to-close range support fighter in many cases. (You can also use Daggers, of course, but that’s not as cool or unique.) She doesn’t get summons or most of the Draconic magic available, but you’ll probably want to use her turns on support magic, finishers, or a Kiss anyway.
• Gryphon: Good damage and survivability along with decent loadout options puts Gryphons in A-tier. Numbing Hook is a good stunner and they have a life-sap ability that can help tremendously in tough story fights. These are the only beasts which can fly without rings to do so, but that’s a bit less impressive in the late game. Before you are able to farm Sidhe Rings and other end-game items, Gryphons are amazing at dealing with the backline; they can fly right in and through strong boulders at casters and archers.
• Buccaneer: The hallmark abilities here are Speedstar, Evade, and Apostate. Speedstar gives Quicken buff on activation, Evade completely nullifies the next physical attack, and Apostate negates two magic effects at max level. Notably, they can also use Double Attack or Fusils, which gives them many weapon-loadout options. Couple this with naturally high stats (and growths) and they can be very powerful damage dealers with heaps of survivability. This class is actually not exclusive to Azelstan either! It can also be used by Canopus, Denam and Vyce.
• Wizard/Enchantress: This is the first dedicated magic user you get outside of Cleric, but don’t be surprised to see them so high up. They have a very strong passive skill that other classes don’t typically get access to: Conserve RT. When it activates, the next spell cast by the Wizard has an RT cost of 0, which lets them cast without putting themselves all the way back in the turn order. Their damage will be less impressive than other casters, especially because they can’t use summons, but they make for amazing debuffers.
• Hydra: Dragon Scale is one of the strongest abilities in the game; if Dragons had nothing else besides Dragon Scale, they’d be usable. It’s a simple damage reflect, but the AI does not make an effort to play around it. Hydras get Poison as their status effect on abilities, which makes them strong throughout the entire game. Zombie Hydras are even more effective tanks, because once they get killed with Dragon Scale up, they eventually rise again!
• Non-Hydra Dragons: Well, they don’t all get Poison like Hydra, but they all get Dragon Scale. It’s hard to rate all the dragons individually, so they get lumped together; I prefer Water Dragons for most of the game for the Breach effect, but some prefer Fire or Dark.
• Fusilier: They are the premier ranged-damage class in some ways. 2-handed fusils get very long range, Course Correction makes that range even more effective, and they get strong finishing moves. The real star here though is Lobber which makes them exceptional backline supports that can heal or revive the entire team. Many use Fusilier as Hobyrim’s class due his uniquely low RT and due to the irony of having a blind blaster.
• Dragoon: “Can only do big damage to dragons or beasts” seems like a really niche thing for a unit to do, but those unit types show up throughout the entire game, including the post-game. Dragoons are nearly always useful, even after their skills are made semi-redundant with the Dragonslayer set and when other unique classes are able to use the “-Slayer” abilities. The weapon type diversity works in their favor, too. Using a 1-handed crossbow in addition to a 1-handed hammer lets them excel in midrange and get access to two AoE fire-finishers.
• Knight: Out of all the non-unique human classes, this is de facto the strongest tank. Phalanx and Guardian Force drop the enemy damage numbers significantly, and Rampart Aura lets them hold the line. They can also heal instead of doing damage, so they can just sit there and be brick walls forever. They don’t do much outside of that, but if you give them a powerful weapon they can still do serious damage with finishers.
• Terror Knight: They’re best when they’re less “knight” and more “terror.” Lament of the Dead is one of the strongest passive abilities, applying Fear to all nearby enemies, and Fearful Impact reduces the RNG element from fear application. Once enemies are feared your team will take less damage and do more, so Terror Knights just make everything else more effective. Their Dark magic isn’t very powerful, but being able to Drain HP or Drain Mind from range can be the difference between winning and losing.
• Necromancer: They’re like Liches, but they trade powerful skills like Nature’s Touch and Reflection for undead-support skills (should you choose to use zombies) and a lower RT. There’s not much else to say beyond that; I rate Lich significantly higher because of how powerful Reflect is, but if you’re using a lot of Undead, the Necromancer matches them on a perfectly even footing.

B Tier

• Astromancer (Warren): While not a bad casting class, Warren does not bring anything unique to the table outside of the passive skill Stardust Grace which can remove Stun, Silence or Petrify from nearby allies. His stats are high and he can still cast powerful support magic while an Astrologer, but many Warren fans just opt to use him as a Lich or Wizard instead.
• Vartan: They’re very strong early, but that’s kind of skewed to how strong Canopus is and how great the stat gains are on the class. They can use magic, ranged weapons, and melee weapons, giving them versatile roles depending on where you want them to fight and what finishers you want to use. Their unique skills that instill an element are strong on their own, but not spectacular. These are great in the early game, but late game, they get outshined in most categories (including by Rune Fencer who will eventually get to use Summons).
• Paladin (Lans): Lans gets access to everything the Knight does and some more. Intimidate IV is fantastic, he can remove Gordian Locks randomly, and he has a skill that allows him to sacrifice himself for a revive-chance on your entire party. So, he’s a slightly better knight, and most will use him as a Knight with Intimidate, but he lands himself in B-tier because by the time you get him he’s probably already been outpaced by whatever endgame team you used to get him.
• Ninja: Guaranteed debuffs on their attacks makes their niche clear, despite them looking from a distance like a jack-of-all-trades. Ninjitsu spells aren’t very impressive damage-wise or range-wise despite looking very cool. They get access to Double Attack, but don’t have the stats to really back it up — again, despite 1-handed katanas being very cool. You’ll usually use them with a 1-handed melee and ranged weapon in each hand, throwing debuffs around and using Steelstance to survive enemy attacks.
• Octopus: They have strong AoE abilities and debuffs but don’t have much damage. Like all beasts, they’re very tanky, too — just not as much as Dragons, Gryphons, Golems or others. They are also limited on non-water maps, relying on a passive skill to allow them to act as if they were in water.
• Songstress: Here’s where you can finally use those unique “Instrument” weapons you came across. Instruments come with free “Song” spell casts, and Songs are otherwise unique to Songstress. They’re flimsy when it comes to HP, but they have a surprising amount of debuff utility through instrument finishers to go alongside their buffing. Most of the time, they’ll sing a song to give Spellcraft and some MP to allies; if you’re in need of defense, they can also cast a spell that gives Renewal in an AoE — it’s a buff that doesn’t show up until endgame, but provide healing-over-time. However, between all the casting classes available and all the support classes that make the casters stronger, it’s hard to justify one over a Fairy Familiar. Outside of Iuria you can only get the Songstress class on a Pumpkinhead.
• Warlock/Witch: In many ways, these are the “basic caster.” They can use Draconic magic, but not Summons; their stat gains are stronger than Wizard, but they don’t get Conserve RT; they have more damage than an unpowered Rune Fencer casting a missile spell, but they’ll have less than a Shaman at any stage in the game. They uniquely get Empower Golems and Golemsbane, which uniquely makes them work well alongside Pumpkinheads (who count as Golems). If you want to run the Pumpkinhead Berserker massive-damage-combo with Empower Golem you’ll need one, but otherwise, Warlocks aren’t anything special.
• Beast Tamer: If you’re using a dedicated Beast or Dragon team, they get to punch up above their weight by buffing the rest of your team. Outside of that, though, their focus is mostly on Lobber for healing and support. They don’t get any magic and don’t get any impressive weapon skills to make them all-star damage dealers, but they’re definitely usable.
• Swordmaster: Unfortunately, the name feels like a misnomer. They aren’t that strong with their unique 2-handed Katanas. They also have unique War Dance spells for buffing and debuffing, but with a low MND stat, they don’t hit that often. Pre-empt lets them anticipate attacks with a counterattack of their own; between that and Mind’s Eye, their niche lies mostly as a “tricky support frontliner and 1v1 master.” They aren’t bad by any means, but it can be awkward to find the space to add one to your army and position in a way that lets them pull their weight without your entire team dying to Acid Rain III or another random AoE spell. (If you’re in the end-game and looking to make a new body-snatched unit, having a high MND stat will make the Swordmaster’s dances more effective. You can also give them a Sweepblade for free Summon casts on top of that and have an absolutely diabolical Swordmater unit, and it’s a great candidate for the Stinky Set if you’re not using Dark Catiua. However, it still won’t show off much actual “swordmastery.”)
• Cyclops: In previous versions of Tactics Ogre, the Cyclops’ identity was as a magic-using beast. Now, their niche is in strong passive skills like Howl that stun enemies around them. Outside of that, they don’t do much else, as their melee damage and spell damage are low, but their skills are universally usable anyway.
• Cockatrice: They fly and are bulky, but not as much as the Gryphon. They have more (and better) status-effect abilities, but have a harder time hitting them. All beasts share similar weaknesses (no finishing moves, can’t use equipment, etc.) so for the Cockatrice it comes down to if you want the flying and the debuffs.
• Archer: The archer is a straightforward class, but their damage is problematic. They are great at sniping squishies, but ping nearly everything else for a pittance of damage — usually 1 at a time. They are great in the early-game when they let you kill a boss early and quickly, or get rid of a cleric before the boss gets healed, but their niche gets replaced quickly. In the uber-late-game, getting Jiygla set bonus changes things, but even then, the Jiygla bow usually goes on Vyce.
• Cleric: Major Heal is a really good spell when Mother’s Mercy procs, but otherwise, Clerics get outmoded by healing items for a significant portion of the game. Revive is nice to have, but it can be accomplished by Blessing Stone too. Exorcism is unique for a while…until you are able to craft it on items and slap it on your Lord. They aren’t bad Quicken-bots, but then again, why not use a Rune Fencer for that?

C Tier

• Warrior: There’s very few reasons to actually use a Warrior. The only niches they can occupy that other units can’t aren’t very impressive (like using Double Impact with Whips). They are usable for sure, but through an entire playthrough I didn’t feel a need to use any after Chapter 2.
• Golem: Golems are extremely hard to kill — harder than any other beast-type unit — but they don’t have the utility or status effects of the other beasts that make them worth it. Gordian Lock is a fantastic ability that turns any Golem into an unkillable tower, but it is ultimately unreliable. They have a cool skill that extends the range of their Rampart Aura, giving them the theoretical biggest Rampart in the game. That’s a great strategy if you can plan for it, but ultimately very niche. Enchantresses and Warlocks can empower them, but even with an empowerment buff, they won’t be doing much damage at all.
• Divine Knight: They get access to unique spells with powerful effects, like Requiem, but they don’t do much damage and take up an entire skill slot as if they were beasts. Angels don’t get very high stats, or access to summons, so their missile spells and AoE won’t do much either. They fly and get access to Evilsbane, which will empower allies to do more damage to Umbra-type units, but that’s useful mostly in Palace of the Dead and you will already need to get through San Bronsa Ruins, which is harder, to get a Divine Knight. They can still make for powerful utility units, but they aren’t worth the effort required.