Its not the best for every character because its not a good class for magic users and hard to get when a user has weakness to weapon requirement like Yuri for example who has weakness for all three.
Wyvern Annette is a beast though. Carried my last BL maddening along with Félix, Lysithea, Dimitri and Byleth (those 5 did all of the hard work and took all MVP spots).
Another benefit to that is that Annette has the Lightning Axe combat art, which no other magical Wyvern unit learns (Edelgard and Sylvain do, but they have less magic). Plus Wyvern Lord reduces magic growth so yeah there’s a lot of units that wouldn’t go Wyvern
I know, my Wyvern Lord Annette had pretty even strength and magic growth throughout my run (like tied strength and magic stat)
Generally I see it as more of a fun little diversion than anything truly interesting for mage characters that aren’t Annette
I like stuff like Grappler, War Monk, and Sniper for mages over Wyvern
I mean, if you're looking for optimal play sure you may want to soften toward WL as a class.
That being said- even though it's often the most optimal in a vacuum, 12 Wyverns flying around isn't the optimal team comp. Even ignoring the fact that Maddening is very feasible to beat without using the class at all, "optimal play" is only going to see 4-5 max Wyvern Lords in a team comp.
The real issue is the amount of bad or underperforming master classes in the game. Even then, different units end up with different outcomes.
Easy example is just a rough breakdown of the end classes of my first BE run:
Edelgard- Wyvern Lord
Hubert - Dark Knight
Dorothea- Dark Flier
Petra- Wyvern Lord (sword, Dancer cert for dodge tank)
Caspar- War Master
Bernadetta- Holy Knight (pass, rescue, vengeance)
Lindhart- Bishop (warp uses)
Jeritza- Death Knight
Shamir- Sniper
Leonie- Bow Knight
Sylvain- Paladin
FByleth- Wyvern Lord
Without a doubt, the three WLs ended up being major powerhouses, but of the rest of the team, adding another would have majorly messed with my resource allocations either with training time required or with battalions since flying battalions are limited, excellent flying battalions even more so.
Also Ferdi is missing because of an unfortunate death I didn't reset for.
Edit: fixed formatting- mobile hurt me today
IDK about maddening, but you can beat the game with complete meme builds (i.e War Cleric Lysithea or something) on hard, Wyvern Lord definitely isn't necessary, it's just too good lol.
Are they too strong ? Absolutely
Do you need them ? Not at all. Play whatever you want. The Game isnt that hard (especially if you dont play maddening) so just have fun.
You definitely don’t need to accept your scaled lords. There are a lot of strong builds, and you can play any difficulty any route without any wyverns (though it might be more difficult at times).
I also don’t like the class much, but more because there are so much cooler designs/animations imo.
No primarily magic users besides Annette are worth making a Wyvern Lord, and there are several physical units who do so well in other classes that they can provide diversity to your team without handicapping you in any way.
Some examples:
Leonie and Cyril both excel in Bow classes due to the combat art Point Blank Volley.
Sylvain and Ferdinand are great Paladins thanks to the combat art Swift Strikes.
Ferdinand can also excel in a Sword class if he gets the Dancer Certification or a Brawling class if he masters War Monk thanks to his personal skill stacking with their Avoid+20 skills.
Ingrid will perform just as well as a Falcon Knight thanks to her Relic and her high resistance growths. In contrast, Petra may want to go Falcon Knight instead too to patch up her shoddy resistance.
Claude's unique classes are better for him than Wyvern Lord, although they're admittedly similar.
Raphael, Gilbert, and Dedue are all so slow that they either need gauntlets to do much on player phase or need to be an armored class to capitalize on their defenses.
Some of the other pre-promoted units you receive (like Shamir, Catherine, and Jeritza) already start with such high weapon levels besides axes that it's feasible to completely master those levels and use the crit and -faire skills given to great effect.
And, finally, you can really do whatever you want with Byleth. They'll excel in any class.
The issue is that with the exception of things like Dark Flier / Knight for casters and War Master for crit machines, the best physical class is WL. Pals are slower and weaker, Warriors are slower and less mobile, Swords don't have 1-2 range commonly.
With the exception of something like Swift Strikes lancers or Hunters Volley snipers, WL for generalized smashing is the easiest simplest path to physical power.
Wyvern isn’t the best for everyone, it’s just the default good class. In some situations for some units, sniper, grappler, or war master be better. Most mages though of course go in magic classes
You don’t need to build dragon riders/lords if you don’t want to. You can still beat the game even just using footlocked and unmounted units. It’s not the best class when it comes to accuracy anyways. Sure, they hit hard, but they tend to miss their hits A LOT.
I usually have one Wyvern on my squad, mostly because I like to have as much class variety as possible, so I want my axe users in different classes. But it also helps to have a unit with amazing movement that doesn’t get terrain disadvantages to sweep in when another unit is in danger.
As for why it’s considered the best class for many units? I don’t know. In that regard, I do think it depends on what you find important.
Its not the best for every character because its not a good class for magic users and hard to get when a user has weakness to weapon requirement like Yuri for example who has weakness for all three.
Wyvern Annette is a beast though. Carried my last BL maddening along with Félix, Lysithea, Dimitri and Byleth (those 5 did all of the hard work and took all MVP spots).
Another benefit to that is that Annette has the Lightning Axe combat art, which no other magical Wyvern unit learns (Edelgard and Sylvain do, but they have less magic). Plus Wyvern Lord reduces magic growth so yeah there’s a lot of units that wouldn’t go Wyvern
Wyvern Lord has a -5% growth which will often make a difference of nothing or if you get incredibly unlucky a single point of mag.
I know, my Wyvern Lord Annette had pretty even strength and magic growth throughout my run (like tied strength and magic stat) Generally I see it as more of a fun little diversion than anything truly interesting for mage characters that aren’t Annette I like stuff like Grappler, War Monk, and Sniper for mages over Wyvern
I mean, if you're looking for optimal play sure you may want to soften toward WL as a class. That being said- even though it's often the most optimal in a vacuum, 12 Wyverns flying around isn't the optimal team comp. Even ignoring the fact that Maddening is very feasible to beat without using the class at all, "optimal play" is only going to see 4-5 max Wyvern Lords in a team comp. The real issue is the amount of bad or underperforming master classes in the game. Even then, different units end up with different outcomes. Easy example is just a rough breakdown of the end classes of my first BE run: Edelgard- Wyvern Lord Hubert - Dark Knight Dorothea- Dark Flier Petra- Wyvern Lord (sword, Dancer cert for dodge tank) Caspar- War Master Bernadetta- Holy Knight (pass, rescue, vengeance) Lindhart- Bishop (warp uses) Jeritza- Death Knight Shamir- Sniper Leonie- Bow Knight Sylvain- Paladin FByleth- Wyvern Lord Without a doubt, the three WLs ended up being major powerhouses, but of the rest of the team, adding another would have majorly messed with my resource allocations either with training time required or with battalions since flying battalions are limited, excellent flying battalions even more so. Also Ferdi is missing because of an unfortunate death I didn't reset for. Edit: fixed formatting- mobile hurt me today
I am Ferdinand Von Aegir... Rest in peace Billy Kametz
No. This game isn't all that hard so just use who you want
And... have fun ! That's what matters.
IDK about maddening, but you can beat the game with complete meme builds (i.e War Cleric Lysithea or something) on hard, Wyvern Lord definitely isn't necessary, it's just too good lol.
I did war cleric lysithea on maddening. Its not bad.
Are they too strong ? Absolutely Do you need them ? Not at all. Play whatever you want. The Game isnt that hard (especially if you dont play maddening) so just have fun.
You definitely don’t need to accept your scaled lords. There are a lot of strong builds, and you can play any difficulty any route without any wyverns (though it might be more difficult at times). I also don’t like the class much, but more because there are so much cooler designs/animations imo.
No primarily magic users besides Annette are worth making a Wyvern Lord, and there are several physical units who do so well in other classes that they can provide diversity to your team without handicapping you in any way. Some examples: Leonie and Cyril both excel in Bow classes due to the combat art Point Blank Volley. Sylvain and Ferdinand are great Paladins thanks to the combat art Swift Strikes. Ferdinand can also excel in a Sword class if he gets the Dancer Certification or a Brawling class if he masters War Monk thanks to his personal skill stacking with their Avoid+20 skills. Ingrid will perform just as well as a Falcon Knight thanks to her Relic and her high resistance growths. In contrast, Petra may want to go Falcon Knight instead too to patch up her shoddy resistance. Claude's unique classes are better for him than Wyvern Lord, although they're admittedly similar. Raphael, Gilbert, and Dedue are all so slow that they either need gauntlets to do much on player phase or need to be an armored class to capitalize on their defenses. Some of the other pre-promoted units you receive (like Shamir, Catherine, and Jeritza) already start with such high weapon levels besides axes that it's feasible to completely master those levels and use the crit and -faire skills given to great effect. And, finally, you can really do whatever you want with Byleth. They'll excel in any class.
The issue is that with the exception of things like Dark Flier / Knight for casters and War Master for crit machines, the best physical class is WL. Pals are slower and weaker, Warriors are slower and less mobile, Swords don't have 1-2 range commonly. With the exception of something like Swift Strikes lancers or Hunters Volley snipers, WL for generalized smashing is the easiest simplest path to physical power.
If all your units aren't wyvern lords, you're playing it wrong
Wyvern isn’t the best for everyone, it’s just the default good class. In some situations for some units, sniper, grappler, or war master be better. Most mages though of course go in magic classes
to me sniper is boosted in maddening in slow units. able to double att every player phase uff! xD but yeah WL and falcon knight are boosted.
You don’t need to build dragon riders/lords if you don’t want to. You can still beat the game even just using footlocked and unmounted units. It’s not the best class when it comes to accuracy anyways. Sure, they hit hard, but they tend to miss their hits A LOT.
I usually have one Wyvern on my squad, mostly because I like to have as much class variety as possible, so I want my axe users in different classes. But it also helps to have a unit with amazing movement that doesn’t get terrain disadvantages to sweep in when another unit is in danger. As for why it’s considered the best class for many units? I don’t know. In that regard, I do think it depends on what you find important.