what is with all the ilyanna hate?

[Anouleth]

Ilyana is not very good.

-Her offense is below average

-Her movement is below average

-Her durability is below average

-She needs to be trained

[tiff]

She's probably the best mage for Part 1 chip but there's really no point in using her beyond that.

I like her though so I use her the whole game

Edit: best mage aside from Micaiah I guess

Edited April 14, 2012 by tiff

[Anouleth]

She's probably the best mage for Part 1 chip but there's really no point in using her beyond that.

I like her though so I use her the whole game

Edit: best mage aside from Micaiah I guess

Or Tormod.

So she's the best mage in Part 1, aside from all the others.

[Titamon]

Baby I swear it's deja vu

I've said this before and I'll say it again, In this game you are either a mage with bad Magic and good speed or a mage with good magic and poor speed.

Poor Ilyana inherited the worst of both worlds

Edited April 14, 2012 by Psycho Silver

[Sasori]

I like Ilyana, but unfortunately she's just crappy in this game. She has her uses in the dawn brigade chapters as a worse Micky, but when she joins the greil mercenaries she's your worst unit available untill Lyre joins.

Not only is Soren higher leveled and statisticly better, but Ilyana gets doubled and one rounded by pretty much everyone in part 3

Another problem is that her caps just suck and thunder magic is the worst magic available.

[Colonel M]

seriously? everyone keeps harping on her speed, but she has a good base speed and soren, who everyone loves only has 5% more speed than her... her magic is good, she has the second best magic growth for any mage. soren has 80% calil has 45% tormod has 40% and his str is higher than mag growth, and bastian has 30%....

Growths aren't the only thing that matters; bases do too.

I think the highest Ilyana could ever be Part 1 is 20/1, so looking at that compared to... Level 7 Soren:

--/7 Soren - 28.8 HP | 9.5 Str | 24.6 Mag | 22.2 Skl | 18.7 Spd | 11.7 Luck | 9.5 Def | 22.4 Res

20/1 Ilyana - 28.4 HP | 12.6 Str | 17 Mag | 17.8 Skl | 16.4 Spd | 9.2 Luck | 8.4 Def | 14 Res

So let's see, we have a Soren losing Str by 3... but the heaviest non-SS Rank tomes that aren't seige tomes is down to Thoron, which sucks (65 base Hit). Speaking of, that's another issue with Ilyana - accuracy and weapon ranks.

Before bio, Ilyana has 29 base Hit (18 Skl* 2 + 9 Luck) to Soren's 55 (22 Skl * 2 + 11 Luck). Now, Ilyana has only E Wind and E Fire, which means the only El-tomes she can wield is Elthunder. Elthunder has 75 Hit to Soren's Elfire that has 85. That means we're looking at:

Ilyana

Elthunder - 22 Atk, 104 Hit

Soren

Elfire - 31.6 Atk, 140 Hit

Can you say "blowout"? Enemies obviously have way more than 4 Avoid, so chances are she's missing a lot.

Obviously you can argue a forged tome, but Soren uses it to a greater effect.

Do I seriously have to go on? Soren caps Mag, Skl, and Res at --/10, which means he can use the last of his level ups or two with BEXP and have a chance to proc Spd. Granted, his HP growth is 40%, Spd is 35%, and Luck is also 35%. His Def and Str growth are 25%, though... so...

And then let's see when Ilyana ever "catches up" to Soren:

- Ilyana caps Str at Tier 2 at 20/7. Lol.

- Ilyana caps Skl at Tier 2 at 20/10.

- Ilyana caps Mag at Tier 2 at 20/19.

And look at Soren, with a little BEXP, he'll probably cap Spd before Ilyana caps Mag.

But like it matters because Sages suck so much they can't double many things. They're left doubling... Generals... and they still have to be like Soren's Spd cap to do that.

ive used her 4 times (all 4 times iv played) and she manages to cap almost everything with only a few stat items and some bonus exp. most speedwings ive given her in a single playthrough were 2.

2 Speedwings!?! The most I give to certain characters is usually 1, with the rare exception of 2 for Haar, but that's because Haar is so fucking bad ass he can shove everyone out of the way for 2 Speedwings.

yes i know im a little biased cuz i like mage girls (who doesnt) but im just generally tired of ilyana bashing when frankly she doesnt deserve it. if she has horrible horrible speed then so does soren and bastian... anyone eles like ilyana? i feel alone in my opinion :(

Spoiler alert:

ALL MAGES SUCK IN THIS GAME!!!

Oh and Snape kills Edward Cullen.

Edited April 14, 2012 by Colonel M

[Espinosa]

"Doubling Generals" is hardly an insult in this game, though, seeing that the generals in the game aren't much slower than the rest of the enemy classes. Edward and Nolan struggle to double armoured knights for a while. Even your armoured knights - Meg and Gatrie - are reasonably speedy (and Gatrie starts doubling stuff with just a Speedwing and some BEXP).

[Zman]

Before bio, Ilyana has 29 base Hit (18 Skl* 2 + 9 Luck) to Soren's 55 (22 Skl * 2 + 11 Luck).

18*2 = 36

36+9 = 45

Ilyana has 45 base hit, not 29.

[Colonel M]

18*2 = 36

36+9 = 45

Ilyana has 45 base hit, not 29.

Oi how did I get 29...

Must've slipped on a key somewhere, but not sure where. Whoops.

Okay, so 45 Hit, which increases her Hit from 104 to 120. Still enemies definitely have over 20 Avoid.

[Espinosa]

There's also Biorhythm.

[Loki Laufeyson]

And I thought people love her.

People do but its usually not for stat/gameplay reasons.

Soren just never has enough speed.

I..never have this problem? Maybe because of transfers, but Soren usually has enough speed. Of course, not at first but once he gets going....

I dont care for Ilyana. She never has enough speed. Plus i think shes a woefully flat character. She bores me. Also im a Soren fangirl so of course im gonna prefer him over Ilyana. Hell, i prefer Calill over Ilyana and im not the biggest fan of Calills. Calill has pretty cool stats and growths though. (at least in this game.)

[Darros]

There's also Biorhythm.

Biorhythm applies to both sides. If we're assuming best when looking at Ilyana's rates/skills we'll have to look at BestBio!Soren too. The only thing we can really compare with regards to biorhythm is the type they have.

[Espinosa]

No, what I mean is that low hit rates will be even more dangerously low with Biorhythm taken into account.

[Quintessence]

Actually I had a 20/5-6 Ilyana by the end of 1-E. Plus there is the 1-5 Spirit Dust and the 1-E Speedwing.

[tiff]

Or Tormod.

So she's the best mage in Part 1, aside from all the others.

Tormod is obviously better stat-wise but has less than half her Part 1 availability and the DB is less desperate for firepower once he shows up.

And she does more for the DB than Soren or Bastian do for their teams, I'm sure.

[Camus The Dark Knight]

TLDR @ the bottom...

Meh, I used her since I am OCD about having a user for each SS weapon, and she isn't nearly as bad as people act, at least not in comparison to the other sages.I think the biggest issue is that they made Thunder magic complete garbage in this game.

I remember entering a "debate" topic on this site (Or was is FESS?) years back (FE9 days I think?) comparing her and Soren, although all the topic consisted of was people bashing her. Despite knowing the fact that she is overall inferior, I decided to defend her as I thought it might make a good debate...

Boy I was right, I got all sorts of people worked up over it, got some PMs telling me I sucked and stuff like that (One from a guy that was asking for help on clearing hard mode a few days earlier no less).

People will cling to characters they like and use any means possible to try and justify their use, other then the ones that are so blatantly inferior it's not even funny (Such as the various Jagen characters), and completely overlook "I use them because I like them", this was probably before your time, but in "Fire Emblem: the Sealed Sword" (Roy's game) there was an armor knight by the name of Wendy, so had a huge fanboi following and was often said to be the best armor knight in the GBA games which was far from the truth. But the point was most people liked her, and because of that to a casual/new player would play assuming she was some goddess of a character.

My point? Use who you want, it makes the game more fun, while Ilayna isn't the best out there, she isn't complete garbage. Her stats are fine and she doesn't really take babying to level (Or at least I didn't think so), she is the only one with access to Rex Bolt, so make good use of it (aka wreck the dragons at the end of the game).

TLDR: Ilayna isn't the best, but she doesn't suck, if you like her, then use her.

[Parrhesia]

She's a one-dimensional character with exactly one use. The dimension is eating shit and the use is ferrying shit. She's not attractive, she's not unattractive, she's not good, she's not deplorable... Shade fits her rather well, considering how everything about her seems to make her fly under one's radar. I'm not seeing the appeal.

As a unit, though, she's usable, and I rarely see hate. Certainly not to the extent of the love all these fanboys give her... nor am I seeing any Soren love based on his actual performance as a unit.

Pretty much just what the above guy said apart from the inexplicable Jagen-bashing, I can't actually remember why I decided to post here.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Furetchen

[PuffPuff]

People do tend to make garbage characters rather good out of favoritism and really liking them. Just like the same I do to my Lilina in every playthrough of getting her to 20/1 by Chapter 12X always giving her my first Guilding Ring and giving Clarine the Chapter 14X one. Getting her rod level to C isn't an easy task, but I manage to pull it off anyway in a ranked run. Favoritsm is the key to making any characters u want good. Lilina I think is the 2nd best Mag user in the game with only Niime being better because of her bases.

[Espinosa]

The difference between Lilina and the other poorly rated units, though, is that she performs very well when given the attention (levels, early supports, Speedwings), while units like Wendy or Radiant Dawn mages don't really justify the time spent working on them.

[Dark Nocturne]

i agree with the favoritism thing. i do like ilyana, mostly because i really like mage girls in fire emblems (cuz if i could be any class its mage hehe) she isnt terrible or even bad but i guess it kinda stems from me liking units like that... like how i always use flo in jagged alliance 2 even tho she suuuuuucks but i lvl her up into a decent medic anyway cuz its a challeng. (hope im not the only one here who plays that as its very much like a fire emblem game but with guns

[MacLovin]

Illyana has problems,

-Low spd

-Low durability

-MEdiocre Offense

-Suspect to crits

Now, these problems are fixable through the investment of resources.

But, those resources could be used to improve other units that are

-Far better in the long run

(Calill, Rolf, any GM, Marcia)

-Are on a smaller team

(Aran and spdwings, any DBer and a Draco, p1 Jill)

also, Illyana pales in comparision with

-Resolve!Micaiah

-Soren

-Resolve!Rhys

-3/9 BEXP dumped Calill

Also, crap caps, mediocre offense and low spd hampers her.

Soren has a wtf 60% magic growth, Ike support that's fast AND can promote without needing as much bexp as Illyana.

Using Illyana in p1 may divert resources and bexp from the already small DB team.

And, the DB p3 chapters require you to have a strong team.

Resolve!Miccy is the best Mage in fe10-hands down.

Resolve Rhys is also a nice one, and Calill has a high spd growth and can double Auras.

Rexbolt does squat, considering that blessed wyrmslayers would do better for that one Tower Chapter.

And, a Bolting Tome is quite tricky to obtain.

Also, Resolve!Sanaki is also a nice option.

Also, Favoritism can be used on any unit.

It's just, favoritism on one unit may deprive the other units of getting that resource.

And, Illyana doesn't return the investment.

And Calill's hotter than ANY fe10 magic user could ever EVEN PRAY TO BE

Edited April 21, 2012 by Folgore Green

[Snapdragon]

For what it's worth, Soren's speed problems are a lot easier to fix since he caps skill, magic, and resistance in 5 lvls or less. Even easier with transfers. And after that speed is one of his next 3 highest growths. Even when Ilyana caps her first two stats, she still has 4 more ahead of speed. And mages in general get hated in this game, not just Ilyana.

[PKL]

Why do ppl hate Ilyana? Im guessing its because shes got low move, is frail as fuck, doesnt have a whole lot of mag and her spd is balls. To make things worse, thunder magic is horrible in FE10

[MacLovin]

i respectfully disagree. i found ilyana soren laura, and even to an extent calil to be very usefull. laura i count as a mage because she has an astronomical magic speed and skill growth and average res like a mage, and she dodges like a boss. ilyana as i said usually capps just about everything for me a few times she was short of capping luck and res.ilyana usually evades every strike and had no trouble killing bosses during GM chapters. to simply say all mages in the game are bad is innacurate and i find a little lazy. if you like physical units better in that game thats fine but alot of mages in this game deserve more than a blanket statement

Oh god.

Ok

-Illyana has a crapton of issues and is just UNDERWHELMING throughout the whole game

-Soren is the 2nd best mage, and he still has issues and is on a team of units that can tear through their own chapters.

-Calill has the best growth spread, but is locked to the CRKs. So her problem is availibility.

-Tormod is like Calill, only worse.

-Miccy is the best mage in fe10, but even then she's got problems, like taking away Resolve, needing forges and not being able to simpply take a crown to promote.

-Rhy is llike Miccy in the GMs, only with a bigger team and more bexp.

-Bastian is a last minute healer and can bless a siege tome in tower.

-Oliver is a last minute staff user

-Laura has wtf growths and caps. She's also using the worst magic type AND has crap HP/def and 35% res growth isn't very high for a magic user.

-LolPelleas, he's a good 10/1 Staffbot with A staves cap for him.(Sorry kitty)

-Lehran is around for 2 turns.

-Mist is crap and needs alot of bexp pumped in AND has to wait for p4 to promote. Otherwise, she's a passable combatant and rescue staff user.

-Elincia is probobly the best magic user, if we count staves.

Ok, kid, try a draft and see how good Illyana is if she's your only DB member.

[aku chi]

-Miccy is the best mage in fe10, but even then she's got problems, like taking away Resolve, needing forges and not being able to simpply take a crown to promote.

Eh? Micaiah has 90 uses of Thani, which is better than a max-Mt light forge. And Micaiah generally lacks the Speed to double with Resolve, so she can't make good use of it.