This is subjective. A multi effects unit is pretty versatile and will save you a ton of money. My other guitarist uses one, and imo, they suffer the same problem: Everything is buried under levels of menues and you cannot tweak much on the fly. However, if you have it set up well, the advantages are you can switch between banks of effects in a single click, and they will give you a far wider range of options with amp sims, various emulated pedals, loopers, etc. All for a few hundred bucks! (They were selling here for $300 just before Xmas.) The line 6 board is one of the best from what I know, and if I got another MFX unit, I would go for that; I like the "amp knobs" being right there, etc. It helps un-bury some of your controls.

I started with a modest MFX pedal called the Zoom G1and it gave me everything in one shot. It seemed MFX would be the logical choice, and upgraded to a Digitech 300 MFX pedal. Better effects, more options, plus the buit in drummer was pretty damn good. :) However, I eventually went "the way of the pedal", and I have no regrets about that. It's about 5 times more expensive, but I have enjoyed the process of building my own chain with the pedals I choose. I can tweak any setting on the fly, and I like having the "real thing".

I've actually come to the conclusion that any effects unit with more than 3 knobs is suspect!! :D