Okay, so we've already talked about Fire Emblem: Three Houses a lot, but now, it's time to get serious. It's time to get... advanced. That's right, these are the late-game classes that are only achievable at level 20 onwards, and, no surprise, most of them are insanely powerful.

RELATED: Fire Emblem Three Houses: The 5 Best Classes For Female Byleth (& 5 Worst)

Now, disclaimer, each and every character can be strong as any class (given enough instruction and careful planning of course).The classes themselves are also made to be relatively balanced, so ranking them is difficult. That said, this is, in our opinion, the order in which we feel they stack up.

13 Hero: Not As Good As Previous Games

Unfortunately, the Hero just isn't up to snuff in Three Houses. It gets Vantage as a class-specific skill and Defiant Strength as a mastery skill, meaning that when a foe initiates combat when the hero is at less than 25% health, he gets +14 strength! Outside of that incredibly risky utility, this ability isn't all that great.

Still, Swordfaire, plus Defiant Strength, plus Vantage? A true glass cannon. Swordmaster seems like the better choice in most situations. It's odd because the Hero is great when given to a character with certain mastery skills, but mediocre as a class on its own.

12 Warlock: Weird Mastery Skill For An Otherwise Awesome Class

Warlocks are cool! They look menacing, are basically just better mages, and get Dark Magic Tomefaire as well. Their stat growth is almost exactly the same as Dark Bishop/Bishop, and they're just overall the standard to advance mages into.

What really kills the momentum is their mastery skill, Bowbreaker. When using magic against bow-users, Warlocks gain +20 to hit/avoid, which is... fine, we guess? It's just odd. Archers aren't hard counters to magic users. Our priests, mages, and dark mages never had any trouble killing archers by the dozens!

11 Bishop: Healers With Healing Mastery Skill

What an odd 180 turn. Magic users were at the top of our intermediate class ranking, but are now at the bottom here. Still, the advanced level is all about the class/mastery skills, so it makes sense that the mages would be at the bottom for these sub-par ones.

RELATED: Fire Emblem: Three Houses - The 5 Best Things To Do On Your Day Off (& The 5 Worst)

Bishops are high-level healers, healing for 10 extra hit points when compared to a Warlock. Their mastery skill Renewal is only decent, sadly. Renewal gives Bishops 20% of their health back at the start of every turn.

10 Fortress Knight: Almost Too Tanky?

The Fortress Knight is obviously the "upgrade" from the Armored Knight. It's an aesthetically awesome class that towers over most enemies and it gets +15 Defense in its stat growth, which is absurd.

Otherwise, its class abilities are only alright and its mastery ability is just mediocre. Pavise has a chance to halve damage from most melee sources. Those are all damage types that should barely scratch the Fortress Knight anyway!

9 Grappler: Makes Brawler Redundant

It's just so sad to see the punch-centric class go so early. The Grappler, like the Hero, gets the mastery skill of its preceding class as a class ability, making the mastery the player worked so hard to get sort of worthless.

The Grappler's abilities are ultimately not bad. It's the Combat Art that really makes it worth pursuing, which is called Fierce Iron Fist. It's basically a stronger gauntlet attack that hits a guaranteed three times! Other than that, the Grappler is not as overpowering as some of the other classes.

8 Sniper: Sadly Not On A Horse, But Soon

The Sniper is only next to go because it's outclassed by the Bow Knight in Master Class. Still, the Sniper is great since it gets Bowfaire and Bowrange +1 as its class abilities. It's the perfect class for any student singularly studying the bow and arrow.

It's just super heavily focused on Dexterity and nothing else. Its mastery skill Hunter's Volley is just a slightly worse version of Fierce Iron Fist, considering it only hits twice instead of three times.

7 Assassin: RNG-Based Instant-Kill God

The Assassin. An upgrade on the Thief, thankfully. This time around, it actually gets skills that aren't just dependant on stealing or opening things. The Assassin is meant to be an instant killer, especially with its master skills Lethality and Assassinate.

RELATED: Fire Emblem: Three Houses: The 5 Best Classes For Male Byleth (And The 5 Worst)

Assassinate is a higher damage Combat Art that has a random chance to instantly kill. Lethality rolls the dice based on the unit's Dexterity to insta-kill the enemy again. Combined, this means that an Assassin unit might wipe out entire maps by itself if the player is really lucky.

6 Warrior: Second Best Melee-Based, Non-Mounted Unit

The Warrior is the powerhouse class for sure. Raw power, high strength, but its mastery skill Wrath is good, but not great. Honestly, if a class that has Vantage becomes a Warrior, it might be unstoppable, considering Wrath gives +50 crit whenever a foe initiates combat.

We couldn't even imagine a character that has all three, Wrath, Vantage, and Defiant Strength. Honestly, Warrior has good class skills, good stat growth, and a great design. It's just that everything after this point is objectively better.

5 Swordmaster: Astra Is Just Too Good

Honestly, Swordmaster is just as good of a class as Warrior. Their stat distributions are great in the right areas, they both have a +10 critical and axe/sword-faire skill, and they decimate enemies.

Astra as a mastery skill is much better than Wrath, though. Astra hits an enemy a whopping five times, at 30% power. While Wrath is only good when the unit is low, Astra is good anytime, anywhere.

4 House Leader Classes: Obviously Unbalanced, But Weirdly Not Overpowered

Weirdly enough, the unique house leader-based classes, the High Lord, Armored Lord, and Wyvern Master are not at the top. All three of these classes have great stat distribution and get Axe, Lance, and Bow-faire respectively. These aren't obtainable until after Chapter 13 and they are only available for Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard.

Sure, the stat growth is good, but the skills are honestly sub-par. Charm raises hit/avoid by 10% for all allies around them, while Pomp & Circumstance raise Luck and Charm by 4. Sure, that's good for an intermediate-level skill, but not for an advanced one!

3 Wyvern Rider: The First Of The Mounted Gods

Yes, the mounted classes are near the top again. Canto is just insane as a class skill. FE: Awakening had Galeforce and that broke the game, Three Houses is similar with the skill Canto. All mounted units are just super strong because they can hit and run in any situation.

The only reason the Wyvern Rider is fourth is because its mastery ability is only great and not mind-blowingly amazing. Seal Defense is exactly what it sounds like: when the player unit damages an enemy, said opponent loses 6 defense for one turn.

2 Paladin: A Literal Destructive Tank On Hooves

The Paladin has Canto, Terrain Resistance, and Lancefaire. Its stat distribution is heavily targeted towards making it basically an armored tank riding a horse, and its mastery skill covers up its weaknesses.

By the point in the game where players will be able to obtain Paladin, there will be enemy mages, monsters, and bowmen everywhere. Most of them will have spells and combat arts that counter cavalry, and Aegis works to counter that right back. Basically, it works like the Fortress Knight's Pavise, but with magic and arrows instead of physical damage.

1 Dark Bishop: The Best Mastery Skill In The Game

Finally, the Dark Bishop. This class has the Mage's Fiendish Blow by default, Heartseeker (which makes it easier for enemies to be hit), and Miasma Delta, which is just a strong dark spell.

Dark Bishop gets Life Taker, which might be the best skill in the game. Any time the Dark Bishop defeats an enemy, it gets 50% of the damage it dealt back as health. This, in combination with Dark Mage's Poison Attack, makes the Dark Bishop a self-sufficient killing machine.

NEXT: Fire Emblem Three Houses: Every Character In Blue Lions, Ranked