Class advancing is pretty easy. You can use a master seal on a character over level 10(unless they are in a special class like villager, dancer, or a shape changing class) t advance to an advanced class. In most cases it is best to use the master seal at level 20, at least for the first class change. You can also use second seals to change to different class tress, but that is not necessary to get characters strong enough to beat the game with.

Pairing is.....not really explained in the game. It also only exists in one other Fire Emblem (which does not have an official english release), so having played the others wouldn't help you much there. Quick version is that kids inherit classes and stat growths fom parents along with the last skill that each parent has before you enter the chapter to recruit the kid......long version is go to this page to read up on it: http://www.serenesforest.net/fe13/children.html

Edit: Wait unless you meant the pairing up as in putting two units together on the battlefield.....Forgot about that system. You can get a detailed explanation of that system here: http://www.serenesforest.net/fe13/double.html

Pairing for my first playthrough:

Chrom- Sumia
Lissa- Henry
Loivia- Donnel
Maribelle- Ricken
Sully- Fredrick
Cordellia- Kellam
Cherche- Virion
Avatar- Lucina(I really hope where the Morgan from this pairing comes from gets some explanation at some point)
Panne- Stahl
Miriel- Vaike(because I just don't care about either)
Tharja- Lon'qu
Nowi- Gregor

A lot of these were just sort of "whatever" choices as I decided midway through my playthrough to not get all supports so I just wanted to get the children paralogues opened up quickly so I could get my first playthough finished. Somewhat dreading my second and third playthroughs atm. Second one will be for getting all female avatar conversations and third will be for getting all supports....pretty much period. The gods of grinding had better be smiling upon me when I get to my third playthough. x_x Not going to get to starting those until nearly all of the Spotpass stuff is out though.

Eh some of them are actually interesting, such as Lon'qu and Thraja where you finally learn why Lon'qu has a "phobia" of women. You just have some which are just there for the purpose of being there(such as anything involving Miriel). Also I seem to recall that one of the Fire Emblems had support conversations worse than these.....I want to say it was Radiant Dawn where most of them were basically just generic conversations, but I can't recall for sure.

Currently switching between Fire Emblem and Kingdom Hearts 3D. So far I like Fire Emblem more, but I am holding off on the inevitable major grind fest for all supports until some more of the DLC comes out so that I can grind for an unnecessary unstoppable force of destruction at the same time.

I'm findign Kingdom Heart's controls a little bit less inuitive than in the other games in the series because it is a little harder for me to between the "control" stick and the D-pad on the 3DS than on a PS2 controller or heck even a PSP. Oh well I'll manage somehow or another.

I have to say....you overpaid for Dark Dawn. Maybe I am just being harsh, but I really did not like that game. I found it to be incredibly boring and was not interested in the plot(which I have already completely forgotten other than you control children) in the slightest. I now dread the possibility of ever replaying Golden Sun 1 or 2 in fear that they may have been just as bad and my high school self was just unable to properly judge quality. >.>

I feel no shame in using a guide if I am trying to get 100% in a game and don't feel like wasting my time hunting for something down(which is most games for me). Even when I don't use a guide, I still tend to skim a game's message boards for any easily missable stuff. Actually about the only time I don't have an FAQ open for quick reference is if the game is too new to have one(which with my game backlog at the moment rarely happens). I just don't have the time to mess around like I did during college and law school. >.>

Add me to the list of people who have bought it and have yet to play it. I do intend to play it......but I need to buy a Vita first. x_x Also once I own a Vita, it will be fairly low on my backlog list since I have beaten it twice so it will take a a while until I get to it. I just got it at release for the Golden Edition bonuses.

Oh wow, Golden Gaffe is insane. Got 30kish gold for completing it which is quite a bit more gold than I had prior to running the map. Back to grinding support without fear of running out of weapons!

As for raising Donnel, what I ended up doing was going to the DLC map pairing him with something that improved his Atk. Park him in front of the boss once you have cleared the map. Put a healer at a higher level next to him. The boss should attack him on the enemy phase. He should be able to damage the enemy because of the attack boost and should survive the attack. Heal and repeat until you do more than 4 damage. Then get rid of the paired unit and repeat the process until Donnel can obliterate everything.

Oh god I learned the secret about maxing supports yesterday. Deploy two units against Florina and's streetpass team, slaughter the horde, and then profit. I'm currently grinding all my characters to A supports....I'll get back to the story in a week probably. XP

So played through a few of the storylines for Persona 4 Arena. Really enjoyed Naoto's storyline as it connected a few dots. Still have three storylines to get through, but that will probably have to wait as I am expecting to finally get Fire Emblem today. Hurray!

I don't watch One Piece, but I do read the manga on a weekly basis so you two are not alone! The best arc imo is Enies Lobby. It has my three favorite fights in the series. I love almost every arc of the series though(except for Skypeia which I dislike the first half of). Paramount War and Sabaody are both among my personal favorites also.

I got platinum in Tales of Graces f yesterday. I just needed some 60 second trophies so I ran through the game skipping all the cutscenes and got the last trophy I needed about 8 hours in. It went quicker than I thought it would. Still trying to avoid playing any games with a lot of DLC, so I'm just sort of waiting on my Fire Emblem DS to arrive on Monday. I might play P4 Arena or something today to waste some time.

You let it go and move on with your life and just trust that karma, God, or space aliens will ensure that if a crime was comitted those responsible will get their just deserts.

Eh it was less ridiculous in the days before high speed internet when it was the only time you could see awesome commercials like a dancing monkey with a tamborine(sp) and two old guys playing the banjo. Now though? Yeah kind of ridiculous.

P.S. It is the day after the Superbowl and I have no idea of who won. I guess I'll find out when I get to work today andsee if I won any money off of the quarter and final score pool.

I'm rooting for a dragon to suddenly appear and eat both the prospectors and the birds. It would be much more entertaining than a prospector flailing to hit a bird with a pickaxe.

I dunno, I found the trailer/opening/whatever that I saw the game to be hilarious.I realize that it would never make it over, but the ridiculousness of the whole thing just....can't be replicated. However, I am quite content to get Rune Factory 4 instead(which I assume is what the babies bit was about in the tease).

Oh geez if XSeed gave me Conception, I would love them forever.....and that came out weird. >.>