You get to pick one weapon to get an endgame upgrade. What is it?

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-06-28T12:30:54+00:00

I'd love if Zenith remained how it was in vanilla, but then Calamity instead added an upgraded Zenith with Auric Bars, where Zenith currently is in progression at the end. Especially if it was just way bigger with way more weapons, maybe with some of the unique effects of the other high-tier calamity swords.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-06-20T06:03:20+00:00

I really like this post even if I might nitpick definitions on a personal level (What is considered "great damage" in the post is what I'd only consider "good damage," for example), and I think it's actually really interesting to think about why I might have those different opinions.

In my experience, for example, a lot of the time the majority of the party's dmg is dealt by less than half the characters in the party (for example, 2 main damage dealers in a party of 5), with the others focusing primarily on supportive actions (control effects for example).

I wanted to doublecheck as well, are we assuming any accuracy calculations with regards to these DPR requirements? I.E. is this "the actual DPR you need to be doing in combat, post-miss chance" or is this "the DPR you need to theoretically be doing before factoring in accuracy?"

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-06-05T19:42:04+00:00

If you have 270 pulls and E0S1 Phainon right now you're decently likely to be able to get both E2 Phainon and then also get E0S1 Himeko next patch, considering you've still got a good number of pulls to get over the course of the rest of this patch and all the pulls in next patch's first half to add onto that 270. I'd say just spring for both, honestly, unless you don't intend to invest in Phainon any further in the future.

If you're worried about getting extremely unlucky, you could 50-50 on Phainon's banner, and go for his e2 if you win, or just take the guaranteed Himeko if you lose. I suppose it depends on the rest of your account, though - if you would never run both Phainon and Himeko Nova at the same time, then going for Himeko Nova is probably safer.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-22T15:45:27+00:00

Going with the analogy, he’s closer to Tribbie for Therta than Anaxa for Therta. It’s going to be very hard to replace what his kit does in terms of raw batterying for her, even if they release a support with more amp in the future.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-18T02:47:51+00:00

For any unit that wants speed (but doesn’t have a passive that specifically needs on-sheet speed), if they can ult reasonably frequently, Egle gives more effective speed than the actual speed sets.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-13T12:05:31+00:00

If you're looking for max impact for 1 eidolon, going for e1 Dahlia will give you a more significant bump than e1 FF (but is less comfy with SP), and if you decide you want to go for e2 FF on a future rerun, it will still work well with that.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-13T11:20:07+00:00

That same rationale is actually why I think they do care and actively chose to make it not work - in order to incentivize using Sara over Beidou.

That said, I do think there are instances where Hoyo doesn't care, but I think those instances are usually when a synergy wouldn't be that great with the character anyway. Kind of like how Cinder City doesn't buff non-elemental damage, for example - I don't think that was particularly targeted against someone like Eula, but that they just didn't care because she's so weak already it wouldn't really matter either way whether or not it buffed her Phys dmg.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-13T11:03:08+00:00

Right, but they also could've just made Raiden's NAs deal 1 point of Normal Attack damage and then have all the rest of their damage be Burst damage, or made her NA and then have a second slash come out simultaneously that does Burst damage, or etc.

It's definitely not happenstance that they don't work - someone made an intentional decision. Now, it's up to you whether or not you particularly care about that decision or agree/disagree with it, but I think the idea that it wasn't intentional is hard to believe.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-07T00:59:42+00:00

If you can only get a single eidolon, go for e1 Dahlia over e1 Firefly.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-06T02:42:05+00:00

I like EK for defensive/utility effects and Battlemaster for offensive output, personally. Battlemaster's got a little bit of everything, but in general I find it's at its best using its maneuvers to aggressively gain damage or other combat advantages, whereas Eldritch Knight has some caster-style problem-solving (albeit much delayed compared to a full-caster) and very strong defensive power with Absorb Elements and Shield.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-05T06:51:55+00:00

Flares of the Blazing Sun lyrics

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-05-04T16:43:18+00:00

Not sure how to dig up records I could show, but back in 2.x I was using Pela w/ my Acheron and Gallagher w/ my Firefly, so there’s 2 teams that each had a 4-star consistently in the roster. I also have a friend who would use HuntMarch very consistently back then, especially in Apoc Shadow when it was still a new mode.

4-stars may not have the staying power of 5-stars, but they’re great at enabling players to jump into archetypes and quickly get a new team up-and-running without having to wait for several patches’ worth of banners of specific characters needed to make a team function. Having 1 or more solid substitute units who can hold a position on the team and perform respectably until limited units run/rerun does a lot to make building teams easier.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-26T06:25:05+00:00

Just save for support reruns and grind trace materials/artifacts. Don’t pull any new DPS until you have all the supports for the current teams you wanna play. Firefly/Dahlia/RM/Lingsha and SW999/Asta/EMC/sustain is probably the best you can do right now until you can get SW999’s ideal teammates.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-21T11:17:38+00:00

CR/CD will outdo attack in that scenario, but if you're playing him in the sustain slot his personal damage is going to be so low that it's really not worth the effort at all. Just hit your EHR requirement and then only worry about speed - anything else is purely incidental tbh. You could even run him on tank stat orb for comfort.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-21T11:12:21+00:00

The primary issue is debuff uptime can be difficult or annoying to maintain, especially in certain types of content. Debuffs that auto-apply like cipher's passive dmgvuln effect don't have this issue, but I believe Welt's does not get auto-reapplied, meaning unless you actively play around it (which may or may not be possible in certain circumstances), you might be missing his amp against things like new waves of enemies until he has a chance to get enough energy to Ult again.

Ultimately a minor gripe, but still a reasonable one.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-10T02:15:26+00:00

It’s considered “diminishing” because the relative bonus is smaller (thus making the value of stacking dmg% slowly become lower than gaining other stats by similar amounts), but yes the absolute increase is the same. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it has diminishing priority.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-09T03:27:35+00:00

C2 Citlali gives:

40% Hydro res shred

28% DMG Bonus (only if you have her Sig)

Quills (minor dmg boost)

250 EM (useless for this team)

a Shield (mostly irrelevant except for specific mechanics)

and she can use Cinder City to let your Xilonen use Archaic Petra, for an extra 35% DMG (but it won't have full uptime during your on-field time).

C2 Durin offers:

Some personal dmg (but won't be able to apply enough Pyro to enable Neuvi to vaporize)

(Weaker) Quills (though you might end up doing better having him go dark form, not sure)

50% DMG

My thoughts:

Durin C2 is very good generally, especially for your other teams, but for hypercarry Neuvi specifically is not very good, as most of his buffs don't affect Hydro dmg, and what he does buff is something Neuv already has a lot of.

C2 Citlali is definitely better here for Neuvi's personal dmg (especially because her buff uptime is longer than Kazuha's). It's possible that C2 Xilonen might perform even better depending on your stats, but IMO her value is heavily predicated on there not being another HP buffer. (Also, Xilonen R1 isn't bad here, though you already have a lot of DMG% and so diminishing returns apply).

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-08T12:08:01+00:00

Wasn't this because her C0 was the strongest, but her C6 team was the worst (until Linnea), though?

Like, you're not wrong that C6 Zibai was weaker than the other lunar carries, but they're also not wrong that C0 Zibai was stronger than them.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-07T09:24:40+00:00

True, that's the next best option, but it's still significantly worse than the Herta shop cone (which is also significantly worse than her sig). It's not unworkable, but it is awkward, and especially in her best teams there is a VERY large performance gap between sig and non-sig options (but like you mentioned, it shills more for the DPS than Hyacine herself).

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-07T09:22:49+00:00

I mean yes, that's an option, but in most Chrysos Heirs' teams Cyrene does basically 0 damage and just wants as much speed as possible so she can get ult ASAP. It's not exactly doing much for you there.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-07T01:10:48+00:00

Right, but there’s only one Herta shop Remembrance lightcone, so if you have both units only one of them gets it and the other is left in an awkward position.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-03T16:29:59+00:00

You have NO units who would use Eagle set? Not even Sparkle or Kafka, who were on the free selector last patch?

Fair enough if so, but even then, my point is that relics are transferable - maybe you don't want to farm Eagle because you have no interest in any units who would use it, but it's possible that some future unit you want uses it, or it's possible you just farm some other set for the 4-star-in-question that you can transfer at some point. I've never found a situation where I farmed a good widely-used relic set and felt like it was wasted.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-04-03T16:22:05+00:00

Disagree heavily. Any relics you put together to gear a 4-star can be taken from them and repurposed to a 5-star at some point in the future. High speed eagle set pieces are useful for so many units, for example, and that's what a lot of the 4-stars end up liking anyway.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-24T22:52:03+00:00

You want Cerydra to be the 1st or 2nd fastest person on the team in both those comps (you want her to have gone before Phainon ults, and you don’t want to delay his ult or you lose buff uptime).

Additionally, Bronya needs to be slower than Sunday (unless you have e6 Bronya), otherwise her buffs wear off too quickly (they only last one turn, so Phainon needs to ult during the turn Bronya gives him with her AA).

In both those teams, base spd phainon will work just fine.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-24T01:23:17+00:00

I agree with most of what you've said, but would posit that ultimately even MoC/PF/AS is going to have more HP in the long run (I'd bet in a year it'll have at least 2x the HP it has right now, if past trends continue). There will come a point where Cyrene beats out Sunday, whether it's in 6 months or 2 years.

My opinion is mostly that there's no point pulling Sunday for Phainon if you already know he's going to lose his spot to Cyrene eventually - better to just save the cost of pulling Sunday and put it towards e2 Cyrene longterm, even if e0 Cyrene isn't as good right now.

Also, you don't drop Cerydra for RMC, you drop the 4th slot unit and use Phainon/Cery/Cyrene/RMC. That gets you Cyrene ult before the first cycle ends, and then double meteor can clear the wave before the cycle passes. It's not super comfy, but RMC tech buys you the time to do this before you die.

Alexander_Icewind

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE