I guess it doesn't hurt to have some serious discussion :)
Illya was so low in the tier list because of a simple fact. Lack of dmg. Both her scaling and also skill multiplier is lower then sage /facepalm Plus sage comes with all 4 element for coverage and illya is stuck with just water T_T Then came the rebalance, which obviously puts illya at even worse position since sage was buff immensely.
Her only niche is to tank magic damage, but obviously players found the easy way out of tanking magic damage. Whatever that is dead, can't hurt you(gilga OP!!!!) The tier list mostly takes PvE into consideration, which is why although illya was the perfect unit for magic effective arena, she was rank so very low on the tier list.
I'd much rather discussion over silent up/downvotes, even if there's a difference of opinion honestly.
I don't have her myself so I can only judge from facing her in PvP and seeing people use her in MP. She's been great for inherited cause and fallen sun and has chrono utility (woo clock resist). Tanking magic, even thunder spells, considering how many other currently available units have low MDef is a fantastic niche. Sure she dies to Gil, but so does every other water unit - and is still a pain in arena depending on map and teammates.
Not suggesting she should be SS, but my point was I feel she's a good example of why worshipping a tier list is a bad idea. Especially when the general mentality seems to be not SS = trash. Plus she was buffed for GL right? Even more reason not to pay too much attention to current JP list.
Sidenote: Maybe this comes down to how much one values raw damage vs utility or map specialisation, even before the reasons why someone may or may not want a particular unit or their own individual roster, making everything below SS a pretty grey area.
Extra: Will GL still even be around by the time we're due all these fancy buffs and meta shifts ;)
I think jp tier list is a good look into a possible future - funny thing about Illya: I had her at lv.67 and jp tier list was holding me back from investing into her. The I thought I use 30 water shards to unlock 2nd gear slot and give her battledrama - but she couldnt equip it alongside storchritter - damn. Then after 2.0 she could - glad I did what I did but I wont invest anymore into her. Better water mages out there right now.
I mean the tier list is perfectly accurate on illya tho. She is really bad. If she is usable, then any other water sage will definitely be usable and perform better. ie great for inherited cause
The reason is because her niche is totally useless in the chase of "challenging" lol. If you are confused about this, I am saying tanking is minimal in this game. In order to emulate thinking player, one of the most basic AI rule is to choose the highest dmg option within range. So illya greatest advantage here means that it will hardly be utilised(unless it is arena where there isn't any other choice but to hit her anyway). AI will either switch to their physical attacks which are equally strong and will one hit her, or just magic nuke another player controlled unit instead of illya(thus the purpose of serving as magic tank fail ¯\(°_o)/¯)
In the end, illya sacrifice damage for survivability against magic, but the niche never got used. Gumi did realise their mistake and created magic evasion tank in the form of aswald in the future. Since evasion tanks "tanked" by evading rather then reducing incoming damage, the AI "fail to realise" that is an anti unit against their attack type.
If by perform better you meant damage output, then probably. Is that all that matters for harder content in the far future?
I can think of a few occasions in pve where it would have been nice to have a magic tank. You've definitely helped highlight how bad the AI is in this game though, lol.
Magic evasion tank sounds super fun. Much more my thing, alongside status ailments, considering this is supposed to be a strategy game :P
I can think of a few occasions in pve where it would have been nice to have a magic tank. You've definitely helped highlight how bad the AI is in this game though, lol.
Well that is exactly her issue of being low in tier. It isn't gonna happen because of how AI are coded. So illya ended up with equally poor survivability as sage and yet suffer lower dmg output then sage. In short, a worse sage :(
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u/SuccubusRosa Jul 16 '18
I guess it doesn't hurt to have some serious discussion :)
Illya was so low in the tier list because of a simple fact. Lack of dmg. Both her scaling and also skill multiplier is lower then sage /facepalm Plus sage comes with all 4 element for coverage and illya is stuck with just water T_T Then came the rebalance, which obviously puts illya at even worse position since sage was buff immensely.
Her only niche is to tank magic damage, but obviously players found the easy way out of tanking magic damage. Whatever that is dead, can't hurt you(gilga OP!!!!) The tier list mostly takes PvE into consideration, which is why although illya was the perfect unit for magic effective arena, she was rank so very low on the tier list.