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Should You Summon: Dragonyule Ilia

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Article by DoubleU9

Introduction

Dragonyule Goddess

Disclaimer: The opinions below are written by GamePress and do not actually reflect Nintendo or Cygames.... maybe. If they somehow do, it's merely coincidental!

Welcome to another edition of Should You Summon, a secondary opinion piece to help you decide whether to summon for the latest characters or not in the game. The start of the month has brought along another Prize Summon Showcase, in which players can receive an additional reward on the units they summon. For the second time coming, Ilia stars on a Prize Summon Showcase, this time donning Dragonyule alchemy gear and rocking a close-range manacaster in the flame element.

Blessed Alchemist

Dragonyule Ilia enters the game as the first close-range manacaster of the flame element, a weapon archetype which so far has seen poor meta utility in endgame content. Not only does she have the awful reputation that most close-range manacaster units bring since their inception, whose main gimmick is to provide boosts to the user’s standard attack that allow them to act as a source of consistent damage outside of just skills. She must compete against the likes of Gala Leonidas though, who remains dominant in the rapid-fire archetype thanks to his solid damage and support utility. As such, Dragonyule Ilia will have to bring some amazing firepower to be considered a solid pick within the flame element.

Adventurer Overview

To start with, Dragonyule Ilia comes with an identical alchemy gauge that her original version presented. This alchemy gauge is tied to the passive ability Alchemic Agility, which states that the alchemy gauge will fill when standard attacks and her unique dodge attack (which deals 7 hits of 10% damage) connect. However, unlike the base Ilia, who had to use her second skill to convert her charges of the alchemy gauge into empowered alchemic cartridges, the Dragonyule version is simply granted a cartridge each time one alchemy gauge is filled. Unlike the base version of Ilia, these charges have no timeframe in which the user must consume them before they expire, which may be the reason why the Dragonyule versions are not impacted by curse of nihility.

By generating alchemic cartridges, she can directly amplify the damage of her first skill Full Throttle Ride. At 3,810 SP, this skill will consume the entire alchemy gauge and all alchemy cartridges, dealing 1 hit of 180% and 9 hits of 90% damage. The skill will deal additional damage and increase the area of its effect based on the number of cartridges consumed:

  • 1 or fewer cartridges: 1 hit of 700% damage.
  • 2 cartridges: 1 hit of 1,200% damage.
  • 3 cartridges: 1 hit of 1,900% damage.

Depending on how many alchemic cartridges are consumed when this skill is used, Dragonyule Ilia will be granted a unique ‘Starfall Spirit’ buff for 15 seconds. This buff can stack up to 3 times, with each stack increasing the user’s strength and critical rate by 15%. To help her maintain these stacks as consistently as possible, Dragonyule Ilia comes with the second skill Dragonyule Boost. At an staggering SP cost of 18,000, which completely fills the alchemy gauge, granting her three alchemic cartridges straight away, and granting the entire team a team defence amp (maximum level of 3).

Performance Summary

Overall, Dragonyule Ilia finally presents the close-range manacaster archetype with an excellent unit that will have endgame potential. Without just considering a dragon battery build, which can be activated with the combination of overdamage and Gala Leonidas’s chain co-ability combo = shapeshift prep, Dragonyule Ilia’s significant damage boost she grants from Starfall Spirit allows her to maintain great damage within the flame element. In combination with co-abilities which grant additional critical rate, critical damage, strength or standard attack damage, Dragonyule Ilia can prove to have strong, consistent damage output from her standard attacks. If players to run a dragon battery build on Dragonyule Ilia, she can also have great area of effect damage, thanks to her boosted Full Throtte Ride and the use of Gala Mars form to provide skill prep at the end of a shapeshift. This is great to have in the recently released Legend Jaldabaoth fight, where clearing waves of additional enemies prevent his tome counter from going down.

Her only major drawback is a lack of utility opportunity, not including her area of effect clearing and defence amps. Her inability to dispel, as well as no affliction application, means its hard to recommend including more than one of her in a cooperative team. However, if the players around her can provide the affliction and dispel utility to better help her damage output, she will have no issues being a constant source of damage in flame endgame content. As such, I would recommend summoning for Dragonyule Ilia if you lack solid flame damage staples for endgame content, or you would like to experience an excellent close-range manacaster unit in the game.

Recommended Co-abilities

There are a lot of co-ability options to choose from to help boost Dragonyule Ilia’s damage output. If you are planning to go with the dragon battery option, you must bring along Gala Leonidas. Thanks to the high hit count of a close-range manacasters standard attack, in combination with the overdamage buff, Dragonyule Ilia can abuse the combo = shapeshift prep, which grants her 3% shapeshift gauge per 50-hit combo. This enables a constant stream of shapeshifting, allowing her to further heighten her damage capabilities that you may expect. Outside of this chain co-ability, the next two best options come from the units Gala Laxi and Kimono Elisanne, who provide the standard attack co-ability and the combo = critical rate chain co-ability. If you are missing these two, other co-abilities which can further improve her standard attacks include a basic strength co-ability, the critical rate co-ability, and the critical damage co-ability if you can keep up her critical rate. These can be found on blade adventurers, dagger adventurers and the adventurer Halloween Mym respectively.

Recommended Wyrmprints

Assuming you only have access to the popular scorchrend affliction, and not taking into account the broken states of an enemy, the following wyrmprint setup should be a baseline to further enhance Dragonyule Ilia from depending on the fight you are facing:

  • Emissaries of the Heavens (+20% Flurry Strength)
  • The Cutie Competition (or equivalent +25% Scorchrend Punisher)
  • Moonlight Party (+22% Critical Damage when HP equal to or above 70%)
  • Enter the Blue Rose! (+12% Critical Rate (Manacaster))
  • A Small Courage (+20% Skill Damage)
  • Savage Hawk (or equivalent Sword Psalm III print)
  • Any +20% Skill Damage print from the Rise of the Sinister Dominion.

If you are doing a dragon-focused build, you may want to swap out some of the wyrmprints for the following, which either boost damage while in dragon form or provide the dragon damage affinity:

  • Dueling Dancers (+10% Flurry Devastation)
  • Entwined Flames (+14% Dragon Damage)
  • Pecorine’s Grand Adventure (+13% Strength when HP is at or above 70%)
  • Rivalry of Kings (+40% Skill Damage (Manacaster))

If you are planning to take advantage of the broken state of an enemy, I can also suggest running one of the two wyrmprints:

  • Sniper’s Allure (+25% Broken Punisher 4-Star)
  • Gale of Beauty or Worthy Rivals (+30% Broken Punisher 5-Star)
Recommended Dragon

For dragons, the best choice for most endgame content will be Gala Mars. The ability to grant Dragonyule Ilia access to her Dragonyule Boost at the end of her shapeshift ensures she can continue maintaining her maximum Starfall Spirit buff stacks throughout the fight. Especially in combination with Gala Leonidas’s chain co-ability and overdamage, allowing her to chain dragon forms relatively quickly after each shift. Outside of Gala Mars, the next best choice is Gala Reborn Agni, whose passive abilities and strong dragon form still make him the best damage dragon for the flame element at this point of time. For those missing out on these Gala options, the recently fifth unbound Arctos could be considered your next best choice, as Dragonyule Ilia’s ability to sustain a sufficient critical rate meshes well with the critical damage passives that he grants flame attuned adventurers. Free to play players can consider High Brunhilda as their best choice, who grants a good mix of strength and HP passives to provide a solid balance of defence and damage.

Conclusion

On summoning rates and wyrmsigils

  • A prize summon showcases offers the standard 4% base chance of summoning any 5-star within the summoning pool.
  • Dragonyule Ilia is being offered at a boosted 0.5% summoning focus rate and is the only focus adventurer of the banner.
  • Dragonyule Ilia is a limited adventurer, meaning she may not return as a summonable unit for some time. As such, this is the best banner to attain her if you so desire.
  • Outside of Dragonyule Ilia, the adventurer Dragonyule Nevin, as well as the dragons Horus and Ariel are sparkable from the banner.

Final Verdict: If you desperately need an excellent flame damage adventurer, summon

While Dragonyule Ilia seems like a fantastic damage adventurer for the flame element, there are other options that have been offered recently, or will be offered within the next banner, who provide relatively good damage capabilities, while still maintaining supportive utility. However, if you are someone who does own the flame element roster and is looking to experience the excellent gameplay of close-range manacasters, Dragonyule Ilia’s damage holds up to some of the best within the flame element, and maybe even surpasses depending on how her supportive partners can help assist her.

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