The Best Wyvern Rider in the Series - Haar (Radiant Dawn)

                      

          

                      Here he is. The entirely predictable # 1 candidate. The greatest Wyvern Rider in the series (in multiple ways): Haar. Haar is an amazing unit in Radiant Dawn and quite frankly he got one of the greatest upgrades in unit performance from Path of Radiance to Radiant Dawn. In Path of Radiance you could definitely choose not to use him without there being any impact on the team (I don’t think I’ve ever used Haar in PoR), by contrast not using Haar in Radiant Dawn is either a mistake or a self-imposed challenge. Either way, Haar is WAY too good in Radiant Dawn to not ignore and I’m here to celebrate his awesomeness. I suppose I should explain why Haar beats Camilla on this list:                                  

1. Weaknesses:  To put my Fire Emblem spin on Jon Bernthal’s Punisher from Daredevil Season 2: “When thunder mages put Haar down he gets back up. When archers put Camilla down she stays down.” Haar’s “weakness” to thunder magic is a trivial non-issue.

                                    Thunder mages are pretty rare among the enemy ranks in Radiant Dawn and when they do show up he has a number of different ways of dealing with them. He has Nullify, he can simply dodge them (which is a viable strategy in RD since the RNG isn’t anywhere near as likely to screw you over like it does in Conquest) or he can 1 RKO them with a myriad of different weapons. Or he can take a hit. That works too. His physical durability is plenty good enough to help him survive hordes of enemy units with physical weapons even after getting hit by a Thunder Mage. You could give him a Goddess Icon too to avoid getting critted by such mages. Worst case scenario: Like Camilla you could have Haar move out of the way. It’s not like he’s forced to fight them.

                                     By contrast Camilla always fears the bow. I’ve already explained this in my Camilla post yesterday so I won’t spend too much time belaboring this point, but Camilla can’t really do all that much against bows and if she does get hit, chances are she’s going to die in a single hit (or in a single Dual Strike since enemies LOVE doing that).  

2. Durability: They’re both exceptionally durable, but Camilla’s durability can be undermined via Hidden Weapon stat debuffs, the Enfeeble and Hexing Rod staves, and Seals. Haar never has to face this problem so he can fly into the midst of enemies and is more likely to survive (at least for a significantly higher portion of his game).

3. Haar’s the more dominant one in his game: Haar seems to outclass his competition in Radiant Dawn more than Camilla outclasses hers. Nobody really reaches Haar’s level in Radiant Dawn. Camilla has to share a tier with Corrin and Xander. Again, it’s a rather minor flaw, but it is something to say that Haar’s contributions stand out more than Camilla’s.

                       As you can see, the difference between Haar and Camilla’s usefulness isn’t really that big. They’re both exceptionally powerful and they’re both the best units in their games. Haar manages to reign victorious but they’re both awesome units and you should use them both in their respective games. :P

                       Haar in Radiant Dawn is the embodiment of what a powerful Wyvern Rider is designed to be. He’s an uber tank that can take any hit from any physical attack that comes his way, his strength is massive enough to let him tear virtually anything apart, his growths are sufficient enough to keep him on top (70 % strength and skill growths combined with a 65 % defense growth is just awesome) and should his speed start to falter you could always feed him a Speedwing or extra bonus experience. His Mastery Skill, Stun, is basically a critical hit that can also paralyze enemy units. 

                      Haar’s amazing starts from the moment he first joins you. This is in the prologue to Part 2 of Radiant Dawn. Here Elincia doesn’t have Amiti and Marcia’s no longer as powerful as she once was back in Path of Radiance. As Elincia, Marcia and Nealuchi struggle to fight off the Dracoknights Haar swoops in to save the day. None of the Dracoknights do significant damage to him and he wrecks them all pretty hard. The next level Haar is available in is in the Part 2 Endgame where he trivializes the entire level by swooping in on Ludveck and smashing the douchebag’s skull in with a hammer. This generally takes between 1 - 2 turns to complete.

                         Mekkah pretty much sums up Haar’s performance for this rest of the game so rather than retread what he’s already written I’ll just let him do the talking:

                         “Haar decides he might as well join up with the Greil Mercenaries in 3-2 after probably killing Ludveck in 2-E in a matter of 1-2 turns, and proceeds to show everyone what consequences a powerful flier at this point of the game has. The map layout and objectives for the upcoming chapters all greatly favor Haar. In 3-2, he can fly over to the boss in 2 turns and get rid of him with I believe just a Stun or critical proc. In 3-3, you basically have to seize several points of the map (though "putting things on fire" sounds cooler), and who is better at that than a flier that can get anywhere on the map in a moment's notice? In 3-4, Ranulf and Ike both need to reach the top of the mountain. Haar can carry one of them while the other makes their way up there the hard way. 3-5, Haar's best friend Reyson joins the fray, and together they can Canto-destroy the entire map, starting us off with a nice 1-turn. 3-6, Haar can fly into the swamp to kill all the laguz with ea-...oh, he is taking a nap in that one. My bad.

3-7 is boring but Haar can contribute anyways if you want Ike to get to the Black Knight ASAP. 3-8 and 3-10 he's just a high move unit that greatly assists the rout, 3-11 he can carry Ike to the seize point, 3-13 you should be glad you don't have to fight him, 3-E he's useful but not as turbo amazing. Part 4 has a lot more terrain to fly over, most notably the desert.” (Source: http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29384&page=16#entry1808204) 

                       So in short, Haar is awesomeness incarnate. Not only is he the best Wyvern Rider in the series he is definitely in the “Top 10 Best Units of the Entire Fire Emblem Series” list. Fantastic unit, fantastic eyepatch, great personality and fantastic design. It’s impossible to not like Haar.