Sky Battle! Pegasus vs Wyverns

[Mrbrkill]

Flyers, high mobility units, high movement units that soar over obstacles and give archers a reason to exist. There are generally two main class lines that make up your Air Force, the lovely ladies of the pegasus knights, and the fearsome wyvern riders. Since you don't usually want too many flyers with there arrow and wind magic, throughout all of fire emblem history, who is better?

Consider them in each game the pair appears, and how they fair as player units, and how loathsome they are when coated in red paint. The after you consider each game, chose what is the superior chose for a flyer.

Personally, I'm not a complete scrub, but haven't played all the games, so I have a slightly smaller field of view, but here is my opinion.

Fire Emblem 6

This game is fairly clear cut. Between Milady and Ziess, and the fact GBA peg knights have low con and a love for steel lances, wyvern riders win for me.

Fire Emblem 7

Now enemy peg knights still are typically a none issue, Florina, Fiora and Farina all are really awesome units and come earlier then the fairly mediocre Heath (in my experience) and the late Vailda. Point peg knights.

Fire emblem 8

I don't have quite as much experience with this one but, I've found Vanessa to be alright, and Cormag and Tana to be awesome. I'm not really sure but I want to lean Cormag because it's a GBA game, but not sure so I will say it is a tie.

Fire emblem 9

A new weight system a does help peg knights, but the fact wyvern riders gain axes rather then swords, and the fact it is Marcia vs Jill is about a tie, but Haar is better then other peg knight prepromotes, so I would say that wyvern riders get a point.

Fire emblem 13

Awaking completely flips the tables. The lack of weight helps the peg knights out the most, making enemy peg knights a fairly sizeable threat, where wyvern have axes that are more easily dodged tanked, and a very exploitable resistance stat, where peg knights are almost immune to magic. Then when you compare units, Sumia, Cordilia and Cynthia (all great) to Painne who eats a second seal and the tardy Cherche and he even tardier Gerome. That's not even mentioning galeforce... So easy point to peg knights

So for me it's 2 peg knight, 2 wyvern rider and one leaning wyvern rider, so I am fairly undecided.

[Tables]

Tanith is, I'd say, much better than Haar in FE9. Tanith is a pretty good mid to lategame unit - not amazing, but definitely a solid filler, and a cool unique skill plus the magic to use magic weapons gives her extra niches to exploit. Haar has good strength and defence, but poor speed makes him liable to get doubled by a decent number of faster enemies, plus he joins about 5 1/2 chapters later.

For FE8, Vanessa is great for her utility, although her stats are mediocre. But really the utility she provides early in the game makes up for it. Tana is decent, but her low base level really hurts her. Cormag is great on Ephraim's route, thanks to joining relatively early, while on Eirika's route he's not worth the effort of using, too weak when he joins. Couple that with Tana joining effectively a chapter later on Ephraim's route (since she's doing almost nothing in chapter 9), I'd say Wyvern Riders are better on Ephraim's route but Pegasii on Eirika's. Of course, this even ignores the complication that Pegasus Riders can promote to Wyvern Knights, and it's probably their better promotion path...

FE13, enemy Wyvern Riders are one of the most threatening units early on, while Pegasus Knights are a lot less of an issue. Wyvern Riders have good Strength, Defence and Speed, meaning they'll hit you hard and can be tough to take down, especially if you have few archers. Pegasus Riders don't exist early in the game, but they'd probably die much more easily and be less threatening due to lower strength. For playable units though, Pegasus Rider is better no contest, because Galeforce. If Galeforce didn't exist, it'd be closer, but both promoted Pegasus Knight classes offer something really cool still (flying magic users or flying staff users), while Wyvern Lords are good with great skills but just not quite THAT good.

Also, you skipped FE10? I mean it's absolutely no contest there - you have Jill who would have been a mediocre unit if she were just about any other class, being a contender to a top tier place, and Haar who is the best unit in the game, with his class being a significant factor in why.

[Nicolas]

PK wins, because they join earlier.

Wyverns overall are much better, but they sometimse join too late to use their amazing str and def.

[PKL]

FE9 is pegasi, no contest. Marcia breaks the game too much and Tanith is better than Haar in almost every way. I'm actually leaning towards pegs on FE8. A bit crazy I know, but they do promote to wyvern knight usually so...

[Just call me AL]

FEs 1-3 and their remakes: Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Riders are the same class in this. However, Falcon Knights do appear in FE2 and the DS FEs. With the former being effective against monsters and are in a game where Wyvern Riders are nonexistent, and the latter having a bit of a speed edge over the Wyvern Riders. (Said speed edge is more pronounced in FE12, where a Pegasus Knight can get a two point speed boost.)

FE11: Caeda hands down. The reason being is her Wing Spear, which is like Ephraim's Reginleif.

FE12: Palla and Catria are the best flyers in the game though Caeda's no slouch either. (But her Wing Spear is less effective due to the lack of prevalence of Cavs and Armors among enemy ranks.) In fact, Est is the only one among the flyers in this game who's a slouch.

FE4 pt 1: No wyvern joins your team. Wheras Fury, a pegasus knight, does. However, she does kinda need help with her Strength. Fortunately, she can use swords right off the bat, which could help offset her Strength problems.

FE4 pt 2: Fee has availability, but is otherwise a clone of her mother. Beowulf, Noce, Lex, Arden, and Jamke can help her Strength. On the other hand, she does get an eventual Str boost from having Lewyn as the father. Femina is garbage, plain and simple. Altena has Gae Bolg, which is one of the strongest weapons you'll ever get in the game.

Tables pretty much covered the rest. Though I will note that I have no clue about how Pegs and Wyverns fare in FE5.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Just call me Al

[Tables]

Also I'd just like to add, I disagree that you don't want to use too many flying units because of bows and wind magic. I think the limiting factor is usually on how many good flying units there are. Flight is really good, and usually bows aren't widespread enough that having lots of fliers will be a crippling disadvantage. In a recent FE13 Lunatic (no grind/no wifi features) run, around 60% of my team was flying units at one point, I believe*, and I can only think of one place where I had a little trouble from enemy bows as a result (that being chapter 16, Forged Silver Bow Warriors everywhere and Forged Longbow/Silver Bow Sniper reinforcements from behind).

*(Wyvern Lord Sully, Wyvern Lord Panne, Dark Flier Morgan, Sorcerer Avatar and Sorcerer Miriel were my 5 main combat units. I'm not sure if I had Yarne in my team at that point but if I did, he was a Cavalier)

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

In FE8: Cormag as wyvernlord is probably the best, but Tana as falconknight is awesome as well.

In FE9: Tie between Marcia and Jill.

In FE10: Jill without a question!

In FE12: Minerva is promoted with only average stats. Michalis is pretty good stats for his level except for luck. The pegasus sisters belong to the best units in the game (including Est).

In FE13: Everbody can be the similar, because of no limit training. However wyvernlords have better caps.

Flyers, high mobility units, high movement units that soar over obstacles and give archers a reason to exist. There are generally two main class lines that make up your Air Force, the lovely ladies of the pegasus knights, and the fearsome wyvern riders. Since you don't usually want too many flyers with there arrow and wind magic, throughout all of fire emblem history, who is better?

Consider them in each game the pair appears, and how they fair as player units, and how loathsome they are when coated in red paint. The after you consider each game, chose what is the superior chose for a flyer.

Personally, I'm not a complete scrub, but haven't played all the games, so I have a slightly smaller field of view, but here is my opinion.

Fire Emblem 6

This game is fairly clear cut. Between Milady and Ziess, and the fact GBA peg knights have low con and a love for steel lances, wyvern riders win for me.

Fire Emblem 7

Now enemy peg knights still are typically a none issue, Florina, Fiora and Farina all are really awesome units and come earlier then the fairly mediocre Heath (in my experience) and the late Vailda. Point peg knights.

Fire emblem 8

I don't have quite as much experience with this one but, I've found Vanessa to be alright, and Cormag and Tana to be awesome. I'm not really sure but I want to lean Cormag because it's a GBA game, but not sure so I will say it is a tie.

Fire emblem 9

A new weight system a does help peg knights, but the fact wyvern riders gain axes rather then swords, and the fact it is Marcia vs Jill is about a tie, but Haar is better then other peg knight prepromotes, so I would say that wyvern riders get a point.

Fire emblem 13

Awaking completely flips the tables. The lack of weight helps the peg knights out the most, making enemy peg knights a fairly sizeable threat, where wyvern have axes that are more easily dodged tanked, and a very exploitable resistance stat, where peg knights are almost immune to magic. Then when you compare units, Sumia, Cordilia and Cynthia (all great) to Painne who eats a second seal and the tardy Cherche and he even tardier Gerome. That's not even mentioning galeforce... So easy point to peg knights

So for me it's 2 peg knight, 2 wyvern rider and one leaning wyvern rider, so I am fairly undecided.

Tanith´s and Haar´s only one good point are their weapon levels. Tanith has a very good sword rank and Haar a very good axe rank. Both can use bravewapons. But they join late in this game and statwise they will be outclassed by Marica and Jill at this point.

But I agree that Marcia and Jill are both equal awesome.

Tanith is, I'd say, much better than Haar in FE9. Tanith is a pretty good mid to lategame unit - not amazing, but definitely a solid filler, and a cool unique skill plus the magic to use magic weapons gives her extra niches to exploit. Haar has good strength and defence, but poor speed makes him liable to get doubled by a decent number of faster enemies, plus he joins about 5 1/2 chapters later.

For FE8, Vanessa is great for her utility, although her stats are mediocre. But really the utility she provides early in the game makes up for it. Tana is decent, but her low base level really hurts her. Cormag is great on Ephraim's route, thanks to joining relatively early, while on Eirika's route he's not worth the effort of using, too weak when he joins. Couple that with Tana joining effectively a chapter later on Ephraim's route (since she's doing almost nothing in chapter 9), I'd say Wyvern Riders are better on Ephraim's route but Pegasii on Eirika's. Of course, this even ignores the complication that Pegasus Riders can promote to Wyvern Knights, and it's probably their better promotion path...

FE13, enemy Wyvern Riders are one of the most threatening units early on, while Pegasus Knights are a lot less of an issue. Wyvern Riders have good Strength, Defence and Speed, meaning they'll hit you hard and can be tough to take down, especially if you have few archers. Pegasus Riders don't exist early in the game, but they'd probably die much more easily and be less threatening due to lower strength. For playable units though, Pegasus Rider is better no contest, because Galeforce. If Galeforce didn't exist, it'd be closer, but both promoted Pegasus Knight classes offer something really cool still (flying magic users or flying staff users), while Wyvern Lords are good with great skills but just not quite THAT good.

Also, you skipped FE10? I mean it's absolutely no contest there - you have Jill who would have been a mediocre unit if she were just about any other class, being a contender to a top tier place, and Haar who is the best unit in the game, with his class being a significant factor in why.

In FE8 Tana starts with lower level, but her bases are pretty decent and she has better growths (especially strength) than Vanessa.

In FE10 Haar is the best in the middle game, but in the finale his poor resistance and low speed cap are a major downer. Jill herself has pretty low strength base, but her growths are insane. She is like a pegasus knight with high speed, luck and resistance growth, but also good strength growth. Her only weakness is her defense, but bexp can equal it. She has a defense cap of 36! Jill is better than Haar, because of her speed. In my opinion Jill is even the most all around unit in the game.

In FE13 Sumia is a classic pegasus knight with high speed and luck growth and poor strength and terrible defense. Cordelia is pretty much a dracoknight with great strength and good defense. Cherche is similar to Cordelia, only she is a real draconknight with low resistance. Cynthia and Gerome have the big advantage that they got insane base stats, because they are children.

Edited March 24, 2014 by MisterIceTeaPeach

[BrightBow]

FE 1-3, FE 11-12 and Tear Ring Saga have Dragon Knights as promotions for Pegasus Knights, so it's a moot point. Technically Falcon Knights are in the remakes but they have very special availability issues. They require online, can only be bought three times a month and can only be bought three in total despite despite there being a lot more female characters around. Oh, and the online shop will no longer be available in the near future. Joy.

FE2

No Dragon Knights, so the Pegasus win by default.

FE4

The game is lacking Dragon Knights for the most part. And by the time one comes around she is actually somewhat of a downer. Athenea is statistically impressive but she just so happens to join when the Loptu church and Velthomer throw all their mages at you, who cut through her HP like butter. While almost nobody in Gen 1 had any Res, this is no longer the case in Gen 2.

And not only has Fee been around for longer then she has, but she usually does have a lot of Res. So this is the point where she will start to really shine. She even gains the ability to use staffs, adding another mounted healer.

Even the Gae Bolg is a letdown because of the weapon's enormous weight (only beaten by the Knight Killer) and the fact that the Skill bonus and the Def bonus aren't quite as valuable because of the dominance of magic and because her skill bonus is not enough to turn her into a critical machine like Aless. She is good and all but she is far from enough to get that point for Team Dragon. I'd argue that she even outdoes Fee.

FE5

Eda and Misha are pretty much non-issues, so the point depends on Dean and Karin. It goes to Karin because she is doing the flier stuff for so much longer then he does. Dean crushes her when he is around, though. He is even pretty good on foot.

FE6

Miledy. That's it.

FE7

There is not a whole lot of competition for the Pegasus goddess Florina.

FE8

It probably depends. I don't think that Eirika's route cripples Cormag that much. But by the time he joins, it wont be too long until some really nasty Res targeting enemies show up. Eprahim Cormag is a beast, though.

FE9

Marcia and Tanith got tons of availability over Jill and Haar respectively. Haar in particular isn't all that great while Tanith even got another her in her pocket.

FE10

Dragon Knights is such an awesome class in this game that Jill still rocks despite being quite frail and with a rather overspecialized growth speed. They have no vulnerability to arrows (in a game with crossbows no less) .

Only the Rare Wyvern Slayer and Thunder magic can slow them down. And Thunder is the weakest kind of magic in this game. They take any other hit like a tank and hit back just as hard.

And that isn't even taking into account that Haar is a freaking god in this game.

FE13

Dragon Knights offer to little and are too late to challenge Sumia.

Edited March 24, 2014 by BrightBow

[Duke of Dozel]

FE 1-3: Reclassing the Peg Knights into Wyverns Riders is great. The only flaw is the RES: There is none.

Peg +1

FE4: I won't take gen 1 into account, since you don't get any wyverns. But in Gen 2, Altenna is better than Fee, no matter who her father is.

Dragon +1

FE5: Since there is holy scrolls in the game, and everyone has a stat cap of 20, neither have the advantage over the other. However, you get two wyverns and only one Pegasus (as far as I'm concerned) so dragons win.

Dragon +2

FE6-8: Is this even a fair comparison? This is an easy point to Wyverns.

Dragon +3

FE9: Sure, Jill is great, but she is still heavier than other pegasus'. Also, you have Elincia and her great growths.

Peg +2

FE10: Haar. That is all.

Dragon +4

FE13: Galeforce, Lancefaire, High Speed, Higher Skill, Higher Magic, and tomes + staves? Wyverns just don't measure up.

Peg +3

All in all, Wyvern riders have had a better streak.

[Shadow Mir]

FE 1-3: Reclassing the Peg Knights into Wyverns Riders is great. The only flaw is the RES: There is none.

Peg +1

FE4: I won't take gen 1 into account, since you don't get any wyverns. But in Gen 2, Altenna is better than Fee, no matter who her father is.

Dragon +1

FE5: Since there is holy scrolls in the game, and everyone has a stat cap of 20, neither have the advantage over the other. However, you get two wyverns and only one Pegasus (as far as I'm concerned) so dragons win.

Dragon +2

FE6-8: Is this even a fair comparison? This is an easy point to Wyverns.

Dragon +3

FE9: Sure, Jill is great, but she is still heavier than other pegasus'. Also, you have Elincia and her great growths.

Peg +2

FE10: Haar. That is all.

Dragon +4

FE13: Galeforce, Lancefaire, High Speed, Higher Skill, Higher Magic, and tomes + staves? Wyverns just don't measure up.

Peg +3

All in all, Wyvern riders have had a better streak.

Bold: I'd only agree that Wyverns have it better in FE6 - they fail to measure up in FE7, and it's arguable in FE8 (mainly because of the split routes thing).

In FE8: Cormag as wyvernlord is probably the best, but Tana as falconknight is awesome as well.

In FE9: Tie between Marcia and Jill.

In FE10: Jill without a question!

In FE12: Minerva is promoted with only average stats. Michalis is pretty good stats for his level except for luck. The pegasus sisters belong to the best units in the game (including Est).

In FE13: Everbody can be the similar, because of no limit training. However wyvernlords have better caps.

Tanith´s and Haar´s only one good point are their weapon levels. Tanith has a very good sword rank and Haar a very good axe rank. Both can use bravewapons. But they join late in this game and statwise they will be outclassed by Marica and Jill at this point.

But I agree that Marcia and Jill are both equal awesome.

In FE8 Tana starts with lower level, but her bases are pretty decent and she has better growths (especially strength) than Vanessa.

In FE10 Haar is the best in the middle game, but in the finale his poor resistance and low speed cap are a major downer. Jill herself has pretty low strength base, but her growths are insane. She is like a pegasus knight with high speed, luck and resistance growth, but also good strength growth. Her only weakness is her defense, but bexp can equal it. She has a defense cap of 36! Jill is better than Haar, because of her speed. In my opinion Jill is even the most all around unit in the game.

In FE13 Sumia is a classic pegasus knight with high speed and luck growth and poor strength and terrible defense. Cordelia is pretty much a dracoknight with great strength and good defense. Cherche is similar to Cordelia, only she is a real draconknight with low resistance. Cynthia and Gerome have the big advantage that they got insane base stats, because they are children.

The assumption that "being children = insane bases" is only true if you've been raising the parents, you know... Also I wouldn't say Wyvern Lords have better caps in Awakening... As an aside, I'd hesitate to consider Wyvern Lord better for Cormag, given he gets no speed from a Wyvern Lord promotion.

@BrightBow: Doesn't FE12 have Elysian Whips that don't need online to get?

Edited March 24, 2014 by Levant Caprice

[Just call me AL]

@BrightBow: Doesn't FE12 have Elysian Whips that don't need online to get?

Yep. There's two in particular. One's on a Desert Map while the other's in a chest.

[BrightBow]

@BrightBow: Doesn't FE12 have Elysian Whips that don't need online to get?

Two of them apparently. On is hidden in the desert, the other one is all the way into chapter 16.

Edit:

Damn those ninjas. Anyway, that is still pretty limiting.

Edited March 24, 2014 by BrightBow

[PKL]

Two of them apparently. On is hidden in the desert, the other one is all the way into chapter 16.

Edit:

Damn those ninjas. Anyway, that is still pretty limiting.

Oh, it's not. By the time someone like Catria wants to promote, you get the Whip and shes ready to start putting the hurt.

[Duke of Dozel]

As I said, the Wyverns in FE1-3 (which includes it's remakes) are better except for their terrible, terrible RES. And since the final chapters ALWAYS add killer mages, it's kind of a scare to even bring them.

[PKL]

That's wrong in FE12 at least. Falcon Knight Catria is definetely better than the Dracoknights due to their awful spd cap in the higher difficulties. Dracoknights like Palla win before spd becomes a huge issue though.

[Duke of Dozel]

I don't think I ever reclassed Palla. In fact, I usually bench her. I thought about changing Est also, but since Catria was already a Draco, I kept her as a Peg Knight.

[Samias]

In FE9, pegasi are better without question. Marcia has better availability over Jill and Jill takes a lot longer to get going even if her caps are better. What Tanith lacks in raw stats (though they are still serviceable) is made up for with one of the best skills in the whole game. The level 1 falcoknight reinforcement has godly bases but the level 20 peg knights are still serviceable. Haar has a brave axe but he joins late and is good but doesn't have the same utility level.

Generally speaking I think in most games the peg knights have been slightly better or equal, FE10 being the only game where I can definitively say that wyverns are better.

[Refa]

FE1 Wyvern

FE2 Pegasus

FE3 Wyvern

FE4 Pegasus

FE5 Wyvern

FE6 Wyvern

FE7 Pegasus

FE8 Wyvern

FE9 Pegasus

FE10 Wyvern

FE11 Wyvern

FE12 Wyvern

FE13 Pegasus (I think? I dunno anything about FE13...)

So that's 8 wyverns, 5 pegasus. Geez, I wonder which one I think is better than the other?

[Tables]

In FE8 Tana starts with lower level, but her bases are pretty decent and she has better growths (especially strength) than Vanessa.

In FE10 Haar is the best in the middle game, but in the finale his poor resistance and low speed cap are a major downer. Jill herself has pretty low strength base, but her growths are insane. She is like a pegasus knight with high speed, luck and resistance growth, but also good strength growth. Her only weakness is her defense, but bexp can equal it. She has a defense cap of 36! Jill is better than Haar, because of her speed. In my opinion Jill is even the most all around unit in the game.

In FE13 Sumia is a classic pegasus knight with high speed and luck growth and poor strength and terrible defense. Cordelia is pretty much a dracoknight with great strength and good defense. Cherche is similar to Cordelia, only she is a real draconknight with low resistance. Cynthia and Gerome have the big advantage that they got insane base stats, because they are children.

Tana: Her bases are pretty good for her level, and her growths are good, but she starts weak compared to her chapter. 9A is full of axes with a Sniper near your starting position, pinning her down. 10A has Ballistae, and again, lots of axes. In both cases her flier utility is still useful however. 9B she barely exists, due to being in Gheb's loving care. 10B has Ballista ships all around, and she dies to those pretty quickly. But stats aren't all that matter. Vanessa could have 1 in every stat and no growths, and she'd still be a useful unit since rescuedropping and the like is so valuable, and Vanessa can do that in between chapters 2-8 usefully before Tana is even around. I prefer Tana as a combat unit, but Vanessa's use in the earlygame and ability to gain levels then gives her the edge, I think. Tana's bases are the real issue - she takes a lot of effort to get going, while Vanessa has already gotten going by then, and Cormag's bases are good enough.

Haar: Who cares about endgame? You deploy the Royals and beat each part in like 1-2 turns. Haar being mediocre there makes almost no difference. The amount he dominates, oh, 2/3rds of part 2 and almost the entire GM section is ludicrous. Jill has a really shaky start, with low AS thanks to bad STR, bad STR and not too great DEF either. Her STR growth is mediocre to average, which for someone with such bad base STR is not okay. It's not all bad for her, though - once her STR growth kicks in a little, her AS picks up really quickly and she starts doubling, and axes means she deals good damage too. And flight utility is obviously useful. Of course, all of those things also apply to Haar. Jill is stronger late game, but Haar dominates everything until then, so it doesn't really matter. Jill takes a lot of resources to get incredible, otherwise she's just good.

FE13: Characters who start in classes doesn't matter much because Second Seals. Class itself matters a lot more and that's why Pegasus > Wyvern.

FE1 Wyvern

FE2 Pegasus

FE3 Wyvern

FE4 Pegasus

FE5 Wyvern

FE6 Wyvern

FE7 Pegasus

FE8 Wyvern

FE9 Pegasus

FE10 Wyvern

FE11 Wyvern

FE12 Wyvern

FE13 Pegasus (I think? I dunno anything about FE13...)

So that's 8 wyverns, 5 pegasus. Geez, I wonder which one I think is better than the other?

First let's discount the four games where Wyvern and Pegasus are the same line, and so kinda not sensible to compare. Then we're left with 5 Pegasus, 4 Wyvern. So I'm gonna guess Pegasus?

[XeKr]

Wyverns are usually the better class (since speed is overkill, Res is mostly useless, plus have you compared their GBA/Tellius bases lately? >_>) but the Pegasus characters are generally better since they are typically recruited earlier.

Basically flight is the most defining characteristic they have, so availability is usually what matters.

I think Milady is the main exception, as her stat lead is hugely significant. FE10 somewhat, but I think if they all switched mounts Haar/Jill would still be toptier. Debatable, as they would certainly require substantially more investment, but it'd be better than having no fliers. I have little idea what the general perception would be in that case, besides assuredly less hype.

Also, Ill irrationally hype Tantivy/Quick Burn/Swordbreaker Avoid stacking + high Hp/Def, which gives the Wyverns existent durability in Lunatic, unlike the Pegasus units who, in my experience, are mostly reduced to Speed/Flight Pair Ups and Rally Speedbots. It helps that legit combat units can reclass to Wyvern (Panne, Lon'qu), while not so much for Pegasus.(less levels to grow unpromoted).

Amusingly, as far as I can tell atm (from FE6 on, ignoring hybrids), pretty much all Pegasus characters would rather ride Wyverns, except those in FE13 (and its not really all because of Galeforce).

EDIT: base Wyvern!Thany with 22 hp/10 def tho?

Edited March 24, 2014 by XeKr

[Shadow Mir]

Wyverns are usually the better class (since speed is overkill, Res is mostly useless, plus have you compared their GBA/Tellius bases lately? >_>) but the Pegasus characters are generally better since they are typically recruited earlier.

Basically flight is the most defining characteristic they have, so availability is usually what matters.

I think Milady is the main exception, as her stat lead is hugely significant. FE10 somewhat, but I think if they all switched mounts Haar/Jill would still be toptier. Debatable, as they would certainly require substantially more investment, but it'd be better than having no fliers. I have little idea what the general perception would be in that case, besides assuredly less hype.

Also, Ill irrationally hype Tantivy/Quick Burn/Swordbreaker Avoid stacking + high Hp/Def, which gives the Wyverns existent durability in Lunatic, unlike the Pegasus units who, in my experience, are mostly reduced to Speed/Flight Pair Ups and Rally Speedbots. It helps that legit combat units can reclass to Wyvern (Panne, Lon'qu), while not so much for Pegasus.(less levels to grow unpromoted).

Amusingly, as far as I can tell atm (from FE6 on, ignoring hybrids), pretty much all Pegasus characters would rather ride Wyverns, except those in FE13 (and its not really all because of Galeforce).

With all due respect, I don't quite buy that. I always thought that Pegasus Knights had better skills in both of their class trees (as opposed to Wyverns, where I believe that Wyvern Lords' skills aren't anything to write home about, especially when hyping an isolation skill that's almost never worth it IMO, and a breaker skill that only works against one of five weapon types, never mind the part where Swordbreaker probably won't come in time for anyone who it'd even be relevant against; besides, WTD generally does plenty to hamper swordies), for one, and second, Second Seals are rare early on, which means there's opportunity cost to Panne and Lon'qu reclassing to Wyvern (particularly the latter, who loses a whopping five speed in addition to losing his sword rank).

Edited March 24, 2014 by Levant Caprice

[Refa]

First let's discount the four games where Wyvern and Pegasus are the same line, and so kinda not sensible to compare. Then we're left with 5 Pegasus, 4 Wyvern. So I'm gonna guess Pegasus?

That might hold true for FE1/FE3, but considering (in FE11/FE12) male units can reclass to wyvern knights but not pegasus knights AND there's an exclusive pegasus promotion, it's just nonsensical to not include those titles. Also if you're discounting FE1/FE3 then it would only make sense to discount FE2 considering there are no wyvern riding units in that game.

[Anacybele]

I tend to like Peg knights better as characters, but wyvern riders are overall the better class, imo. Also, RD Haar, man.

[Shin]

So that's 8 wyverns, 5 pegasus. Geez, I wonder which one I think is better than the other?

Clearly it is the mighty archer who shoots them both down! Fear Ronan! Generally I think both are roughly on par, both can fly and stuff so they're not that bad.

[Thor Odinson]

Pretty much roughly even. Really depends on the circumstance of each game that people detailed before me. They fly. They carry things and kill things dead. They're great.

On a more personal level, I prefer wyverns as a class more (especially when they got axes) and I tend to mostly like wyvern characters' personalities more as well, but by no means do I dislike pegs.

Except Est.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Thor Odinson