The Dark Bishop Class - Fire Emblem Three Houses
The Dark Bishop is a bit of an odd class, being both male-exclusive and the only dark magic specialist Advanced Class or beyond, despite 75% of the dark mages in the game being women. To help offset this odd situation, the class doesn’t have a Magic Uses x2 skill that the other magic Advanced Classes have. This leaves the Dark Bishop feeling like a bit of a black sheep.
In order to qualify for the class, you need to have acquired the certification for the Dark Mage. The class also requires a Dark Seal to take the exam. Essentially this means that to even take the exam, you’d have had to have beaten the Death Knight twice, as he’s your source of Dark Seals throughout the game. Like the rival reason Advanced Class, the Warlock, you’re going to want A in reason for the exam, but with a little luck you can sneak through with lower.
Analysis
The Dark Bishop’s bases are identical to it’s black magic rival, the warlock. It grants the newly-promoted unit a minimum of 17 magic, 12 dexterity and 14 speed. As it’s a magic-using class, I’ll also take note of its 10 luck, however it needs to be taken into account that every other Advanced Class also guarantees 10 luck. For stat boosts for classing into Dark Bishop, the class grants 4 magic (second only to the Gremory Master Class) and 2 dexterity. The 4 magic is worth noting, as it’s a point higher than its Warlock rival.
Dark Bishops had pretty lackluster mobility. You keep your default 4 move. Granted it is a mage-type, so you don’t take movement penalties for sand terrain, but it’s still really nothing impressive.
The class has an odd set of Class Skills: Miasma Δ, Fiendish Blow and Heartseeker. The class’s Mastery Skill is Lifetaker. These skills wind up being a little incongruous when taken together.
Miasma Δ grants the Dark Bishop 10 uses of the titular spell. It replaces the other caster Advanced Classes magic x2 skills. It’s worse than those skills though as Miasma Δ is really nothing to write home about as a spell. It’s stronger on a unit who lacks a robust spell list.
Fiendish Blow is a mixed bag. It’s extremely strong, granting 6 additional magic during the player phase, but it’s also an easy skill to acquire by mastering the Mage class. It doesn’t stack with itself. That’s its main problem.
Heartseeker has no business being on this class. It’s like exclusively for the use of boss Hubert on a fortified tile. Adjacent enemy units suffer a 20 point penalty to evasion. Your Dark Bishop shouldn’t be in melee range.
Lifetaker heals the unit equipped with it whenever they defeat an enemy. It’s too situational. For builds that want to be at low health, it turns off their skills. For Dark Bishops, you don’t want to be taking too much damage. For everything else, all casters can cast white magic in Three Houses.
The growths of the Dark Bishop are adequate but inferior to the Warlock. It grants 10 percent to magic, which is what the class really wants, but it suffers a 5 percent defense growth penalty. Compared to the Warlock, it lacks a charm boost.
Good Dark Bishops
To no one’s surprise, Hubert makes a good Dark Bishop. Unintuitively, I think the best way to use Hubert in the class would be with a Magic Bow. Basically, I think that the best way to use the Dark Bishop would be with magic-based weapons to take advantage of the Fiendish Blow over a more conventional tomefaire. I think that using the Dark Bishop as a bow-user who is able to cast is the main draw. Following the same train of thought, Hanneman also makes a good Dark Bishop. Both have strengths in both bows and reasons.
Ignatz and Felix both have budding talents in reason and have strengths in bows. Ignatz is the stronger choice here, boasting Physic and a good reason to go into Dark Mage to begin with (Poison Strike). Felix gains the potent Black Magic Crit +10 which is worth noting, however it doesn’t affect Miasma Δ. (Balthus is of note too... with like a Bolt Axe... and Black Magic Crit...)
Of the people who I wouldn’t consider typical casters, Yuri makes the strongest Dark Bishop in my opinion. He has the Fetters of Dromi, and his Personal Skill, Honorable Spirit works in tandem with Heartseeker. The chance to half damage from his Hero’s Relic can give Yuri a little more bulk, and it also bestows Canto while granting an additional square of movement. I’m not saying that it’s the best way to use Yuri, but it’s certainly something that you can do. Yuri’s budding talent even gives him the Deadeye bow Combat Art, which will chew through your magic bow, but gives Yuri a long range attack in a pinch.
Conclusion
Magic weapons are good and Dark Bishop is a good class to play around with them when wanting to optimize your skill economy. Unfortunately it’s a little weaker than most of the more weapon-specific classes. I really can’t recommend it for a dedicated caster build, as most will wind up better off as a Dark Knight due to better movement, Canto and a tomefaire. I can’t really recommend it for leveling either due to the exclusivity and inferior growths to the other Advanced Classes that fill a caster role.
I’ve done more of these: find them here.
