If you can have only one pt 4: Illya Vs Xuanzang

Xuanzang has my vote, and this was a close tie in my opinion, at least for my current knowledge of the game, with no real knowledge of future interludes and upgrades.

In my experience, Illya is a very hard hitter, even more than Xuanzang courtesy of her buster buff skill and additional Buster steroid on her overcharge effect, but her main problem is getting to use her nuke NP quickly, and she must sacrifice Invincibility to activate her increased NP gain. Her 3rd skill provides Debuff immune, guts, and a reliable heal on one ally, but otherwise, her entire playstyle is meant to focus on her as the main damage dealer, with a selfish kit despite her slight damage mitigation as a Caster.

Xuanzang is more of a team-based servant that can throw rather hard punches by herself, and what gives her my personal vote. Her NP gain also comes with an NP steroid, and this allows her superior uptime on her NP, despite its lower damage output, in addition to an NP gain up coupled with a one-turn Debuff Immune for the whole team. Her taunt skill is useful for protecting the other members of her team, but her main problem is a lack of evade, invincible or healing skills, which have to be provided by the team to make use of her taunt.

Despite this, I feel Illya excels as the top Caster ST nuke and can become a true monster with the proper team lineup (Merlin), but I think Xuanzang fulfills multiple roles on a team with a great extent, with a damage output that nears the top among Casters, as well as an array of support skills that ensure her team can protect her and vice versa, especially since Illya's role can be easily outclassed by that of a Buster-Chain Berserker.

This is just my personal opinion, and I believe both to be incredible, if not near equal in value. Either I'm slightly biased or my opinion is simply unreliable. (or simply because Xuanzang peaks as waifu material in my book, but I stand by my arguments regarding her gameplay)

Best monk.

Illya is a pure DPS...but as a caster, that’s no good. You’re typically better off using a berserker like Herc/Vlad/Calter.

Xuanzang is a tank, has zero difficulties pulling out her NP, doesn’t need to live through nasty demerits, and plays better with Merlin (and Tamamo). Illya tries to be a nuker in a class that isn’t suited for biking, while Xuansang is a better team player who can still dish out damage where it matters.

Never used Illya, but my vote would be for Xuanzang. I don't like NPs with demerits, and Illya loses 10% ATK and DEF for 3 turns. If she were AoE, I'd probably take that as her job would be to wave clear. But an ST caster, if they're geared toward being the main DPS, needs to be able to hang in there and do more than a single battle-ending NP. Casters already have a 10% penalty, after all, and she's only got 1 Buster card as well.

I haven't compared direct damage, but Xuan has 1k more ATK, and while her only steroid is NP damage, with Merlin that stacks multiplicably with his Buster and ATK up, at least, though. I could see using her as hybrid support/DPS in a mixed battle with some assassins.

As someone with a level 100, 10/10/10, NP3 Illya, this discussion feels silly.

But in my objective opinion, Sanzang outclasses Illya in all the areas that matter for a DPS caster. Better NP uptime, and no demerit after firing the NP. The extra damage on Illya is nice but you'd better hope your target dies in one hit. With an attack and defense demerit on her NP (assuming the random chance debuff immunity on skill 3 didn't hit) she's kind of dead weight for next three turns. Atlas uniform can get past most of her weaknesses but they're just so much impactful than any weakness Sanzang has.

That said, I don't believe there's a scenario where the differences between the two are ever a decisive factor, or the difference between victory and defeat. Illya simply requires more compensation and support if you want to run her as main DPS. They ended up on two different tiers on the tierlist for a reason.

I guess game play wise it's Xuanzang. I know Illya gets a buster up in skill and NP, but the demerit of attack down is too much for me, and it she seems to have bit of difficulty charging her NP and you wouldn't use Kaleidoscope type of CE on real quest fights for DPS.

As much as casters are not suppose to tank, but the taunt can be helpful at times when your team really needs it and Xuan can get her NP more often so the DPS output can be more consistent. Sure, she don't have much hard survival which might need some help in that department, but I can live with it by teaming her up with Mash.

i go with Monk to.
The problem with illya for me is thet she have a full art deck with buster np and only buster buff. wats the point in thet? she is supposed to do damage only with her np, but she have an awfull np gain for 3 art card. i mean, she need 2 np up skill to actually be relevant.
As rin said, it is common rule among mage to supplay from elsewere if you miss something.
Illya need attack up , some defence and np battery in an arts team.
Monk need hard defence, buff (attack and buster) in an arts team.
So both work good with merlin, and you can add a waver in the mix for both. Thing is, with Monk in the team, merlin and waver will be stronger compared to illya.
Plus, this comp is more about np spam (and buff stacking, i mean, xang here have np damage up, buster up, attack up and def down. she miss nothing!) in the first place.
you dont take merlin for a 1 turn super burst right?
illya cant do thet, or better, she can, but is not going to fit as well as Monk

I've both of them and actually field both of them together... I prefer using Xuanzang than Illyasviel due to several reason. Damage wise Illya will win but in sustainable damage Sanzang win. Although Illya can burst heavy damage via her NP, Sanzang can fire her NP at least twice or thrice if you lucky in a row.

Plus that crybaby monk is much lewder than that loli 😘

I've never used either one but after reading other people's arguments and their analysis, I'm going to side with the Sanzang. Her skills are more beneficial for the entire team (tank, NP generation increase, crit star generation increase, and debuff immunity).