Boey. Boey and Mae are roughly equal as units, but lately I’ve actually come to believe Boey is outright better than Mae for a few reasons. His extra bulk makes him not die as fast in act 2, and the priory fountains can patch up his offenses. If he doesn’t ORKO, you just take an extra turn or two to clean stuff up, just like how Mae has to take an extra turn or two to hang back if she’s not bulky enough to kill everything at once. So pretty much the same in act 2, and in act 3 neither does a whole lot. Then in act 4 they get to promote and throw around Sagittae/Seraphim and have a good time. So overall, pretty equal.
Ah, but why do I think Boey is better now? Well, a buddy of mine introduced me to an interesting strat meant for a run without backtracking (that means no promoting Palla and Atlas before the desert). Give the sea shrine exp fountains and act 2 golden apple to Boey at the end of the act, and now you have a promoted Boey rolling into act 3. It’s awesome, and something that Mae explicitly cannot do because of her higher promotion level and the fact that priestess has 1 movement in sands for no good reason (also swords at 1 range on EP is bad too). Go, Big Boey!