Talk:Prisma Causeway -Re-install-/@comment-38127160-20190128063253/@comment-37459050-20190130020441

Short answer: If we're going with the better damage dealer, Illya is better (mana burst) in the short run while Xuanzang works better in long-lasting battles. Both are good in different ways.

Long answer:

Although Illya has a terrible NP gain compared to Xuanzang, Illya has two NP generation buffs (2nd skill, NP) which can stack to a total of a 48% increase in NP. This makes her an NP spammer that can fire off two NP's in the span of three turns (how long the NP gen buff lasts). However, this happens to hinder Illya in the long term as her NP has a demerit of reducing both attack and defense by 10%. Therefore, NP-spamming with Illya makes her an even weaker attacker (arts deck + caster coefficient makes her punch like a noddle withouth her NP) and more vulnerable than Xuanzang. Also, as others have already said, Xuanzang has a very nice attack for a caster (although her HP isn't that great).

Xuanzang's third skill is what separates herself from Illya. It's a party-wide NP-gain buff, a star-gen buff, and a debuff immunity for 1 turn. In fact, Illya's NP effects are quite similar to Xuanzang's third skill (except the debuff immunity part; Illya has that on her third skill). While the first two effects are certainly nice, the debuff immunity on the party is what makes Xuanzang so good. While servants like Jeanne are praised for being able to remove debuffs, Xuanzang is able to prevent debuffs from being stacked altogether.

Xuanzang also has a taunt+damage reduction buff, which keeps her teammates alive.

In essence, Illya is a very selfish servant. All of her skills come back to herself. And while her third skill is targetable, it's most likely going to be used on herself to prevent the demerits on her NP from occuring. It's kinda funny, since Illya's buffs on herself is the same as Xuanzang's buffs. Illya gets 2 NP-gain buffs (Xuanzang gets 1), 1 crit-star gen buff (Xuanzang 1), a debuff immunity for 1 time (X gets for 1 turn), and an NP damage booster (Xuanzang gets one, albeit weaker and with an NP battery).

Overall, I'd say Illya is far better off when she's alone. Compare this to Xuanzang, who has basically a jack of all trades, having a party support skill, a taunt, and a rare ST buster NP as caster.