Nino vs Erk vs Pent

[Radiant Dragon]

Pent is leagues ahead of the other two. Erk has the advantage of availability and is often Good Enough, while Nino's only real use is to pad the EXP rank (although pretty much any low leveled unit can do that since FE7's enemies are so bad). Pent, meanwhile, has basically everything a unit could ever want except eight move and a pair of wings. Insane bases, great weapon ranks, 1-2 range, staff access, A-support, etc.

[Mr SU]

Pent is easily the best, there's no questioning it.

I love Erk and Nino, they have both have really solid strengths and weaknesses. Nino has amazing potential and awful availability. Erk has meh potential and Amazing availability. But their biggest problems aren't their availability or potential. It's the fact that Pent exists. He's has amazing stats and can clear out maps with ease with no effort required to train him up. I like to call this the pent effect, another example of this is in Fates with Ryoma. There is ZERO reason to use Hana or Hinata because Ryoma completely outclasses them, Hinata may have better strength and def, but Ryoma has enough strength and def. Hana may have better Skill/speed but ryoma has enough skill and speed. I really dislike these types of Pre-promotes because they invalidate other units that I really like. Not saying I dislike Pent personally, he's a good character, but I hate that he invalidates Erk and Nino because I really like those two.

[Augestein]

Pent is easily the best, there's no questioning it.

I love Erk and Nino, they have both have really solid strengths and weaknesses. Nino has amazing potential and awful availability. Erk has meh potential and Amazing availability. But their biggest problems aren't their availability or potential. It's the fact that Pent exists. He's has amazing stats and can clear out maps with ease with no effort required to train him up. I like to call this the pent effect, another example of this is in Fates with Ryoma. There is ZERO reason to use Hana or Hinata because Ryoma completely outclasses them, Hinata may have better strength and def, but Ryoma has enough strength and def. Hana may have better Skill/speed but ryoma has enough skill and speed. I really dislike these types of Pre-promotes because they invalidate other units that I really like. Not saying I dislike Pent personally, he's a good character, but I hate that he invalidates Erk and Nino because I really like those two.

Eh. I'd say Erk still has stuff going for him. You can drop Serra if you don't like her and still have 2-3 healers in the meantime after Erk promotes and not have to grind out a WEXP rank for magic while trying to avoid S ranking a staff. Plus, he joins a bit earlier than Lucius, so he's more than likely going to have a bit of a level lead anyways and he's less brittle than Lucius as well.

[SimpleTactician]

I voted for Erk. Combined with Lucius, they can decimate the early game, considering most of the enemies barely have any resistance. Pent is awesome, but I like Erk more because of his usefulness prior to Pent's appearance. That, and I usually have good Erks. I usually never bother with Nino.

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

taking an old quote here 'Nino is amazing for those 25 chapters she doesn't exist in!"

[TheAstraWolf]

Erk is bleh, Pent is based, Nino is fun but not for long

[Kon]

Statwise Pent is better than Erk and Nino, but Erk has everyone beat on availability, so he has my vote.

[Gradivus.]

Erk's earlygame isn't very remarkable, he's just another decent combatant in a team where Marcus can stomp everything, Pent is a stronger (mainly because of his defenses) and RNG proof prepromoted Erk who gets A staves for free, so Pent gets my vote.

[Junkhead]

Is Erk rather underrated? He's usually overlooked by Pent, but Erk exist for a great part of the game, and he's pretty not-bad. I never used him all that much, but he tends to excel in Spd and apparently patches up his slight atk issues with Thunder (and a Priscilla support, or something).

Erk's earlygame isn't very remarkable, he's just another decent combatant in a team where Marcus can stomp everything, Pent is a stronger (mainly because of his defenses) and RNG proof prepromoted Erk who gets A staves for free, so Pent gets my vote.

That's a poor way to handwave just about every other character. Most people aren't aiming for turns, and even an effeciency-like run, it shouldn't be a Marcus-solo. Edited August 27, 2016 by Soul~!

[Rezzy]

Erk as a unit, because I value availability and Pent isn't that much better, level for level.

Pent is good out-of-the-box, but I don't want to spend half the game without a mage, so I always end up using Erk. I've only had one time where he didn't turn out decent.

I'm also very fond of Ests, and usually use Nino, but I won't try to convince anyone she's better than the other two options.

[saisymbolic]

Erk, because of bias availability and because the RNGoddess tends to bless him when I play. By the time Pent has arrived, I've already got most of the units I'm going to use and I don't need another magical one when I have Lucius, Priscilla, Serra and Erk.

[LowTierFE7Tresh]

Pent all the way. His adopted son and the Est ain't got nothing on him

[_Erai]

Even if Erk comes earlier he still isn't as good as Pent.

Nino comes so late it's pointless to train her.

[Rezzy]

Pent and Erk are very comparable, so it's really a matter of whether you value availability or decent stats without having to level him up. At average 20/20, Pent has 1 point of Magic, 2.6 Skill, 5.2 Luck, and 2.6 Defense over Erk, while Erk has a 4.7 HP, 3.4 Speed (capped on average), and 1.3 Resistance advantage over Pent.

[Gradivus.]

That's a poor way to handwave just about every other character. Most people aren't aiming for turns, and even an effeciency-like run, it shouldn't be a Marcus-solo.

Fair enough. To explain my reasoning though, I wasn't taking a turncount-based stance, I was referring to the fact that Marcus' ability to kill enemies very easily makes Erk less important for the progression through the earlygame, he generally just teams up with some other units to pick up kills on everything you don't have Marcus handle. While it's wise to hold back on using Marcus and training your units instead, it's still viable to choose against doing so if you don't mind missing the exp because it makes the earlygame easier. Erk's earlygame isn't bad, but it's more like "doing something while getting better" and less him contributing anything essential, which is why I object to the "he's better because he existed for longer" argument.

That said I'm not very experienced at this game (haven't gotten myself to touch HHM thoroughly yet, just watched some videos of it), so my argument is probably flawed, but I'll stick to finding Pent better because he's RNG proof and defensively stronger, while also coming with a free A staves. You could describe it as "Erk kills everything once he reaches critical mass while Pent overkills everything", but I disagree with writing off Pent's defensive and staff rank advantages like that because they do make Pent safer at taking on multiple enemies at once and allow him to take a supportive role more easily.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Rezzy]

As stated above, Pent's not actually that much bulkier than Erk. He only has slightly better Def and a bit more Luck, but has lower HP, Speed, and Res, so I'd say Pent's bulk advantage is overstated, if existent at all.