Hi, finally got too frustrated with the farming for the event and decided to buy the $80 Sq for farming ce's. What I didn't expect was to get 2 ilyas from those rolls.
For a ST caster, which do you think is worth leveling more, Sanzang np1 or ilya np2?
Also, is this the best time to roll for tamamo no Mae? Was curious since you can only roll female ssr/casters for the banner.
Imo, I'd say Sanzang, cuz her np doesn't debuff her like illya's does. Also, it's easier to use sanzang's np cuz of her rapid chanting. Not to mention her third skill gives team wide support. Illya's kit is more selfish and her buffs(although targetable ) are rng dependent. As for tamano, idk
It’s best to just wait for a Tamamo rate up, I believe there’s going to be one during the Halloween rerun event.
Sanzang is priority but Illya surprisingly does compliment Sanzang well on Assassin Boss Fights (or just boss fights in general even), especially with certain ghost-type enemies in the future which Illya can one-hit kill. Build up Sanzang first for general NP spamming but give Illya some resources too afterwards for nuking potential and good survivability.
I’ll deviate from the norm and suggest Illya over Sanzang. Consider these factors:
1. Illya is the only Caster who can actually deal more NP damage against Assassins than the elite ST Berserkers (Kintoki, Cu Alter, Ibaraki) can. And you have her at NP2, so she’s 25% more powerful!
2. Illya’s kit is built for her niche: killing tough Assassin bosses who unleash their NP every three turns. She has a strong Buster NP with a built-in Buster up plus a big one-turn Buster up skill so she can kill the boss before he fires his NP. If that doesn’t work, she has two hard survivability skills so she can tank a boss’s NP turn and live to fight another day. Xuanzang probably doesn’t do enough damage to kill a big boss and doesn’t have hard survivability, so she’s dependent on someone else to keep her alive.
3. Her NP gain isn’t that big of a problem if you put her in a team with a lot of Arts cards. You can also equip Illya with a hybrid starting NP CE (I’m thinking of MLB Golden Sumo or MLB Journey to the West for the 40% starting NP and 20% NP damage up). Imagine Illya, Waver, and Emiya Assassin going up against an Assassin boss. Waver charges team NP gauges and can boost Emiya’s crit damage. You can use Emiya’s Scapegoat on Illya (oh the poetry of that) with her Invincibility skill to tank the boss’s first NP, and both Emiya and Waver’s NPs reduce the boss’s charge, so you can buy yourself a lot of time to refill Illya’s gauge. And, with 8 Arts cards and 2 Arts NPs, Illya will likely be getting 30-35% NP most turns anyway, without even factoring in Waver’s skills.
4. The debuff tied to her NP is modest, and her third skill gives you a 70% chance of avoiding those debuff anyways.
*Insert generic just because Sanzang is better doesn't mean Illya is bad argument here/all you did was list Illyas strengths without pointing out how it makes her better than Sanzang* That being said Sanzang out damages Ilya over 2 turns making her better any time you don't one shot something, and much better once HP break bars are introduced.
The question was never if Illya is good we all know she is but in terms of DPS(all Illya has) she simply doesn't match Sanzang even at NP 2 vs 1.
That is correct. Illya is good due to she has very good NP damage and relatively good NP gain, but Xuanzang is also good due to she has amazing 3rd skill with excellent buff + short cooldown but longer lasting. I even consider Xuanzang's third skill as one top skill especially for challenge quest in the future. Therefore although Illya has theologically better NP damage but overall Xuanzang's damaging can be much more lasting.
Are you sure about that? This site (https://grandorder.wiki/Noble_Phantasms_by_Damage) lists Illya's NP2 damage with class advantage at 125,174; Xuanzang Sanzang at NP1 is 75,462. Sanzang won't be able to use her 20% NP damage up skill on subsequent NPs, so I presume that means her next NP damage would be 74,462/1.2, or 62,885. Illya without her Buster skill should be 125,174/1.65 (including the Attack demerit), or 75,863. So, two NPs from Sanzang at NP1 yield 138,311 damage (only about 10% more than a single blast from NP2 Illya) vs. 201,037 damage for two NPs from Illya at NP2. So, I think NP1 Sanzang outdamages NP2 Illya only if our beloved monk can NP 50% more frequently than Illya can. Over time, Sanzang would certainly outdamage Illya if they are both NP1, but I don't think the case is as cut and dry once Illya becomes NP2. However, the nuance about break bars is well taken, and Sanzang certainly deals more damage outside of her NP.
(And if my math or assumptions are wrong, please correct me! I'm still not 100% fluent on how the game calculates these things)
You are right for the Illya's NP damage, but considering with who is more worth to leveling like the initial question, I would say all SSR are worth for leveling, but Xuanzang shown more utility than Illya.
NP damaging is just one thing, even though NP2 out-classed NP1 and Illya's NP has better OC for damaging.
A example is Shishou's NP make her the best lancer right now, but eventually Enkidu, Karna and Ereshkigal may become same as Shishou as top-class lance or even better than her, since NP is not everything especially later on multi-hp bar boss introduced. It also even doesn't matter for a servant with AOE NP but decent buster critical damage like Lancer Alter as.
So Xuanzang's one beneficial is she can also provide much support than Illya, then in a long consideration, Xuanzang win somehow. For instance, Xuanzang + 4060 Tamamo/Merlin or dual Merlin could result in snowball effect, eventually lash out enemy boss. It is just like Xuanzang gifted some benefits to supports, and supports transfers these benefits to be more beneficial to Xuanzang, a cycle snowball effect.
Also in some cases Xuanzang is also capable in paired with some berserkers and Mashu/Hans.
Illya is excellent to one-short assasin class bosses, but that is not enough especially for challenge combat in the future.
Illya’s animations are better (imo) and there really isn’t “super hard” content that you can’t do if you used Illya and not Sanzang.
Just use the one you like more
