I the Fire Emblem series, wyvern classes have been through a number of changes. From being promoted olnly, to being a base class, from Bow weakness to Thunder weakness, etc…
But the one thing Wyverns can’t seem to settle on are their primary weapon of choice.
In most games, they use Lances. In SOME games, they also gain Axes upon promotion, instead of swords. But in more recent titles, axes have become the main weapon for Wyvern riding units, while gaining Lances on promotion.
Which do YOU think makes more sense for them? Wether it be for practicality or realism, or for overall theme.
Please vote which do you think should be the PRIMARY weapon for wyvern classes. Lances, or Axes?
Lances
Axes
0voters
If you have time, you can also discuss your thoughts below.
I’m honestly not sure. I feel like Radiant Dawn and onward have pretty solidly cemented Wyvern Riders as The Heavyweight, Axe-Wielding Flier Class, but I just really like the vibe of them wielding lances, too. From a practicality perspective, airborne melee fighters historically just aren’t a thing at all in real-life warfare in any era (to my knowledge???), so we don’t have any real-world data or traditions to reference, but I would imagine slashing polearms like glaives, bardiches, naginata, halberds, etc. would be the best fit for their long reach and compatibility with swooping attacks. That is 100% layman’s conjecture, though.
I’m gonna have to give my vote to axes, since it helps further differentiate them from Pegasus Knights in terms of functionality, but I’m by no means married to that choice.
Based on practicality alone it would absolutely be a lance. Wyverns are usually depicted as rather large in most games, so realistically you’ll need a long weapon to even reach the enemy. I’m not so sure about polearms however, usually these are too top heavy to be confortably used from a mount.
Thematically I’m a bit torn. While I also really love the vibe and aesthetic of wyverns with lances, axes help them be more different compared to pegasus knights and indeed match with their heavy hitter theme. It’s up to preference I suppose, but ultimately I’ll have to stick with the lance.
I think it depends on how the wyvrens and riders are depicted.
I think a more noble or militaristic, character or nation should use lances however, more malicious or barbaric nations and characters should use axes.
For example Nhor wyverns with axes exemplifies their savage nature, while Bern’s Lance using wyverns exemplify their organized military style.
All in all Axes at least on promo, Axes are more fun and makes them more different than pegasus knights.
Realistically (although we are talking about ppl riding winged snakes) and design wise I prefer lances, they’re way comfortable than axes because it’s way easy to manage both the creature and the attacks; now gameplay-wise most Wyvern riders are Pegasus riders with extra steps, which is kinda bad in terms of variety; but if that is the case I personally prefer them using only lances and magic, look at Camilla for example (ignoring how busted she could become) for me is the perfect wyvern.
Realistically, wyvern riders would make more sense using lances for reasons already mentioned in previous posts. However, lances just make sense for any mounted class so there’s less room for individuality. From a gameplay design perspective, having flying axe users adds a layer to gameplay with respect to item availability, map tactics, and affecting the utility of the weapon triangle.
I feel like axe wyverns fill a design niche that would otherwise be left empty without their inclusion.
From a pure gameplay standpoint, wyverns using axes instead of lances helps make them more distinct from their flying counterpart in pegasus knights, as well as from also-lance-using cavalry. It adds more class diversity and helps with balancing out weapon types.
i like axes on wyverns because it fits their high strength and makes them a little more distinct from other mounted units. also if you get a wyrmslayer before other dragon effectives like in fe6 it gives the player wta which feels good because wyverns are usually very scary
Honestly while i think axes make for a better fit, you can’t deny the iconic wyvern lance wielders such as Melady, Cormag, Valter and the visual satisfaction that is having a wyvern knight.
I think the issue lies more with how can we make Wyvern Riders distinct from Peg Knights. Different weapons? Different stat allocations? Maybe tailor-made skill set? In that sense axe wielding wyverns fill the empty space, but again lances are still iconic for the class.
Wyvern Riders never needed to be more distinct from Pegasus Knights. Their typical statlines already make facing either in combat drastically different. Lances make infinitely more sense practically and aesthetically, but more importantly I think flying units having access to the highest might weapons and inevitably outdoing any non-flier axe-user is probably not the best idea. I like the removal of axes from Paladins that FE8 did for this reason. You could, of course, try to smooth out the balance issues yourself, but it’s way easier to just not give them axes at all, since they were perfectly fine as lance users.
I completely disagree, Wyverns having the highest might weapons in of itself is neutral.
If designed around having axes they will be fine, this is something that is assumed by the question, that the wyverns are designed to use the weapon types.
also paladins losing axes is more about weapon triangle control, not the “insane overwhelming power of axes” Great knight are right there and suck even if they had paladin move they’d be worse than paladins, because of armoured status and because they slow, speaking of…
while axes are generally the highest might weapons they also have the lowest accuracy and high weight, and in gba games lances are generally the overall best weapon type because of their good balance of might hit and weight, swords excel in 6 yes but that’s because of it’s quirks, mostly the low hit rates.
I feel you are over estimating the differences between weapon types.
it is generally pretty easy to balance wyverns for axes, you just do nothing but give them axes.
they’ll be weighed down and not hit as well.
I have done this to fe6 and it actually makes them easier to deal with, they double less and have hit rates in the 50-60 range.
Overall, from an aesthetic POV axes make more sense…wyverns are meant to be the brute might counterparts to the high speed, delicate pegasus. Axes are weapons designed for just brute force destruction, so they fit with units that are a mix of high damage, decent defense and low speed.
they’re stronger early-game with lances, stronger lategame with axes.
If you give them lances and then promote into axe wielding then you’ve created a beast of a unit.
Personally I feel that steel axe/handaxe wyvern lords are too strong so I prefer giving them lances.
EDIT: aesthetically speaking you could give them wind magic and make it work thematically. I don’t think there’s really a stylistic “better” when it comes to wyvern class design.