>>718237062
Both are fantastic and I tend to spoil Merrin by giving her stat boosters/Engage+, but I think I would give it to Panette for an average playthrough. It's easy to patch up her speed and she just brings huge nuking power to kill Corrupted Wyrms and bosses.

>>718239326
Easily Merrin, Chloe is a good early/midgame unit, but eventually gets hard outclassed no matter whether you go physical or magic.