What are the differences between the Echo and having Hydaelyn's Blessing? [Spoilers?]

[Tenkuu]

Yea but we saw the change that the blessing had,i cant think that it was just glamour hahahah. If the aspect of the blessing change andalso become bigger, I cannot ignore the posibility that this new blessing is more stronger.
Remember Nabriales, we didnt had the blessing. Was our own strenght that lets us defeat him.

Actually, about that. If you see both the Blessing of Light and the Echo as aspects of Hydaelyn, then that would explain why the Echo alone would be enough to defeat an Ascian. Aside from their own powers, the Ascians' only advantage over the common man/woman is that they can possess their bodies, and the Echo protects us as much from that as it does from tempering. When sending us off to fight Ifrit again right after the 2.0 endgame, Thancred even makes a comment that having been possessed by Lahabrea made him particularly susceptible to tempering, and lists that as a reason why he can't come with us this time around. So in short, yes, our own strength is greater than most people's, but we have an added protection with the Echo that makes it so the Blessing of Light really does only boost our powers and is not a necessity.

[Frederick22]

Actually, about that. If you see both the Blessing of Light and the Echo as aspects of Hydaelyn, then that would explain why the Echo alone would be enough to defeat an Ascian. Aside from their own powers, the Ascians' only advantage over the common man/woman is that they can possess their bodies, and the Echo protects us as much from that as it does from tempering. When sending us off to fight Ifrit again right after the 2.0 endgame, Thancred even makes a comment that having been possessed by Lahabrea made him particularly susceptible to tempering, and lists that as a reason why he can't come with us this time around. So in short, yes, our own strength is greater than most people's, but we have an added protection with the Echo that makes it so the Blessing of Light really does only boost our powers and is not a necessity.

The echo protect us from tempering, but physical damage is something different.
I'm a bit confuse, didnt you said that the blessing protect us against darkness?

[Tenkuu]

The echo protect us from tempering, but physical damage is something different.
I'm a bit confuse, didnt you said that the blessing protect us against darkness?

The Blessing protects us generally from the power of the Dark, not its influence. In other words, the Blessing gives us an added boost of strength so that we can match up against the Ascians. As evidenced by 2.4 with Moenbryda and then later in 3.0 though, we are almost helpless first against Nabriales, then against Igeyorhm with only a very weak Blessing restored. We still remain immune to being possessed by virtue of having the Echo but we are unable to fight back against a pure blast of dark energy. So the Echo does not protect us from physical damage. So to revise what I said, you probably couldn't beat an Ascian with the Echo alone by virtue of lacking enough Light energy to finish them off, but you could likely drive them off because the Echo would at least make them unable to possess you.

If you've played through the MSQ, the nature of the Echo continues to be a mystery. I believe it's implied that the last boss of the Aetherochemical Research Facility comes about from the echo. The ability of the echo is essentially to break down the barriers of existence, hence our abliity to see into the past from other people's perspective.

The Blessing of Light seems to protect us from the Ascians, but we also saw when it protected us from the Ultima weapon. I'd say it's primay purpose is to protect people against anything that is connected to Zodiark.

It isn't implied, it's outright shown. But yes, the Blessing of Light is directly opposed to the dark, moreso than the Echo.

[Frederick22]

The Blessing protects us generally from the power of the Dark, not its influence. In other words, the Blessing gives us an added boost of strength so that we can match up against the Ascians. As evidenced by 2.4 with Moenbryda and then later in 3.0 though, we are almost helpless first against Nabriales, then against Igeyorhm with only a very weak Blessing restored.

The only problem is we beat Nabriales withouth the Blessing of light. Igeyorhm didnt tried to hurt us, just stop us, on that time she sence we were recovering the blessing.

[Tenkuu]

The only problem is we beat Nabriales withouth the Blessing of light. Igeyorhm didnt tried to hurt us, just stop us, on that time she sence we were recovering the blessing.

That's not what I meant. We beat Nabriales in combat, but as far as actually killing him, afterward with Moenbryda and Minfilia, we were helpless. We had no extra juice to add to that beam of Light and he would have likely beaten if not killed us. You don't actually know what Igeyorhm tried to do, she might well have wished to take advantage of our helplessness to try to get rid of us for good. Either way, the fact remains that we were helpless against a pure blast of darkness aimed at us. She only knew we were recovering the Blessing after having attacked us.

[Frederick22]

That's not what I meant. We beat Nabriales in combat, but as far as actually killing him, afterward with Moenbryda and Minfilia, we were helpless. We had no extra juice to add to that beam of Light and he would have likely beaten if not killed us. You don't actually know what Igeyorhm tried to do, she might well have wished to take advantage of our helplessness to try to get rid of us for good. Either way, the fact remains that we were helpless against a pure blast of darkness aimed at us. She only knew we were recovering the Blessing after having attacked us.

Im more confuse now, are we talking about our defences and how we fight Ascians? Or are we talking about blade of light ( the only way to kill an ascian ) ?
Why you said that we were helpless to fight Nabriales withouth the blessing, and now you say that we couldnt destroy him withouth Moen's sacrifice ?

As fas as I saw, having the blessing of light doesnt not give us the power to destroy an Ascian ( yet ), we still need sertain elements to do it. On 3.0 was Nidhoog's eye like an example.

[Tenkuu]

Im more confuse now, are we talking about our defences and how we fight Ascians? Or are we talking about blade of light ( the only way to kill an ascian ) ?
Why you said that we were helpless to fight Nabriales withouth the blessing, and now you say that we couldnt destroy him withouth Moen's sacrifice ?

As fas as I saw, having the blessing of light doesnt not give us the power to destroy an Ascian ( yet ), we still need sertain elements to do it. On 3.0 was Nidhoog's eye like an example.

I'm not sure which part you're confused by. If Ascians actually fight us with their abilities, we can fight back with only the Echo, as against Nabriales in the Chrysalis, but if they throw a beam of pure darkness at us, our only defense is having the Blessing of Light. If like with Moenbryda and Minfilia we were already on the offensive and had a beam of Light going, we could fight back without the Blessing (ie Light that came from another source than the Blessing), but without it, we were helpless. We could contribute nothing from ourselves without the Blessing. So yes, we would not have been able to kill Nabriales without Moenbryda. Also, Nidhogg can't be used as an example because his power (and his Eye's) is neither Light nor Dark. With the Eye, it was merely an amount of power (aether) that was sufficient to destroy an Ascian soul.