The best pre-promote in fire emblem is...

[zapdoszapdosrulzandpwns]

Fe7: Pent-He has really good stats and can heal really good as well and is better then erk IMO.
Loise(sp)-Now everybody might think "What is this guy thinking?" and I admit she is not good by her self but she comes with an A in support with pent whitch makes them awsome as a team.

Fe8: Seth: He has some good growth rates and is useful even in the last chapter. That's all i can think of for now.

fe9: Haar: He is almost as good as Jill, who is an awsome unit, and Haar has some nice growth rates and can take a beating. A little slow however.

Stefen: He might be hard to get, but he is worth it. He comes with an S in swords and has a stat capped(I forget ) and can cap up to three stats(str,skl and spd) and can hold his own even in the last chapter.

 

[jellsprout]

Do you count Athos as a prepromote? If you do, Athos. If you don't, Harken. Harken is about the only prepromote where there is actually debate if he is better than a character from the same class that you get before promotion.
From other games, I wouldn't know. I only own FE7.

 

[zapdoszapdosrulzandpwns]

Do you count Athos as a prepromote? If you do, Athos. If you don't, Harken. Harken is about the only prepromote where there is actually debate if he is better than a character from the same class that you get before promotion.
From other games, I wouldn't know. I only own FE7.

Athos isn't a prepromote because nobody can class change into an archsage.
Harken is good but when I got him I just gave his brave sword to Raven.