I always felt that Hardin was better, but never really had a good case until I looked at Abel's stats in this thread, where I saw underwhelming comparisons to Sheeda, and little that could be considered better than Hardin.
This IRC log pretty much sums up the content of this thread.
This IRC log pretty much sums up the content of this thread.
[15:25] <IOS> chainey, idk about hardin>abel
[15:25] <IOS> they're pretty much the same character
[15:25] <IOS> except that Abel will always have about +1 as
[15:25] <IOS> and hardin comes with b lances already
[15:25] <FE3_Player> Hardin is the same character without as much of an EXP cost.
[15:25] <IOS> true
[15:25] <IOS> i guess abel's not doing too hot in the first few chapters
[15:25] <FE3_Player> I don't know why people think that Abel's availability lead is an instant win. I know you people used him.
[15:26] <IOS> i used him
[15:26] <IOS> but to be fair, i favoured him
[15:26] <FE3_Player> Exactly.
[15:26] <FE3_Player> I did too.
[15:26] <FE3_Player> Well, I used Kain, but still.
[15:26] <Colonel_M> Yeah... I remember using Abel and thought to myself "why am I not using Hardin" one playthrough.
[15:27] <FE3_Player> Let me break it down. Chapter 1, he's useful because everyone has to work together, but so is Jeigan and Draug, and on top of that we've now realized that Sheeda is worth leveling too.
[15:27] =-= Mode #feto +o IOS by Colonel_M
[15:27] <FE3_Player> Chapter 2, we get a bunch of all star champions like OGUMA and BARTS. Jeigan is still great.
[15:27] <FE3_Player> And Cord is worth leveling.
[15:28] <FE3_Player> Chapter 3, you have this gigantic army, and you get yet another sword user fighting axes.
[15:28] <IOS> i wonder how they actually do in chapters 2/3
[15:28] <IOS> taking abel at 2/0 in Chapter 2
[15:29] <Colonel_M> Lemme sum it up
[15:29] <Colonel_M> 2RKO
[15:29] <IOS> lol
[15:29] <FE3_Player> So in Chapter 5, while you've been training dudes like BARTS and CORD and SHEEDA, you now get this one unit that's basically Abel, but grants EXP to units better than Abel.
[15:29] <IOS> k, against pirates he has 12 atk with iron
[15:30] <IOS> so thats a 4RKO
[15:30] <IOS> javelin is still a 4RKO
[15:31] <IOS> he can 3RKO hunters though
[15:31] <FE3_Player> Which is still pretty terrible.
[15:31] <IOS> well, yeah
[15:36] <IOS> whoops, i was looking at cain when i was doing those numbers
[15:36] <IOS> abel 5RKOs fighters with iron sword
[15:36] <Colonel_M> Ouch
[15:37] <IOS> although its a 4RKO with javelin
[15:37] <Colonel_M> With major Accuracy loss
[15:37] <IOS> and he may 6RKO cavs with javelin
[15:37] <IOS> depending if they have 31 HP or not
[15:39] <IOS> holy fuck, those chapter 3 fighters have a lot of HP
[15:40] <Colonel_M> lolyoujustnoticed?
[15:40] <IOS> i forgot
[15:41] <IOS> so abel 5RKOs them
[15:50] <IOS> i definitely see hardin>cavs now though
[15:50] <IOS> after seeing how crappy they are in the first few chapters
[15:50] <IOS> and how hardin pretty much avoids this