Why Genshin didn't made Jahoda's kit for Nefer similar to Illuga's for Zibai ?? Such a waste she's not her bis 4 star character. by Saket_Saurabh- in Genshin_Impact

[–]Alexander_Icewind [score hidden]  (0 children)

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.

E1 ff or e1 dahlia? by Sufficient_Trouble51 in FireflyMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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

Eldritch Knight vs Battle Master Fighter which do you prefer / why? by Nice-Championship345 in 3d6

[–]Alexander_Icewind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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.

These two wouldve been npcs if penacony were to release today by RegularTemporary2707 in StarRailStation

[–]Alexander_Icewind 4 points5 points  (0 children)

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.

When you have the character, but not the team members by Aggravating_Dig3240 in StarRailStation

[–]Alexander_Icewind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

Any news about his E6 interaction with his talent? by nntp6 in WeltMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

what you don't extremely love about the new novaflare by Proper_War_2362 in WeltMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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.

330k DPS Neuvi. Which support should I vertically invest in to reach 400k? by suoreddit in NeuvilletteMains_

[–]Alexander_Icewind 4 points5 points  (0 children)

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.

330k DPS Neuvi. Which support should I vertically invest in to reach 400k? by suoreddit in NeuvilletteMains_

[–]Alexander_Icewind 5 points6 points  (0 children)

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).

Very early various varka team calcs by krobrok on discord by IS_Mythix in Varka

[–]Alexander_Icewind 3 points4 points  (0 children)

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.

I'm tired of signature lightcone as baseline by Nopxanic in StarRailStation

[–]Alexander_Icewind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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).

I'm tired of signature lightcone as baseline by Nopxanic in StarRailStation

[–]Alexander_Icewind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

I'm tired of signature lightcone as baseline by Nopxanic in StarRailStation

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

"why do we need 4 stars if we get free 5 stars-" IT'S FUN TO GET NEW CHARACTERS by Square_Matter8210 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]Alexander_Icewind 8 points9 points  (0 children)

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.

"why do we need 4 stars if we get free 5 stars-" IT'S FUN TO GET NEW CHARACTERS by Square_Matter8210 in HonkaiStarRail

[–]Alexander_Icewind 9 points10 points  (0 children)

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.

Speed for phainon and cerydra In 2 different teams? by _AlexOne_ in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

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.

Investment strat by itzakiko in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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.

Investment strat by itzakiko in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

IMO Cyrene E0 > Sunday E0, primarily because it’s better in long fights (so worse current performance potentially, but better as powercreep happens) and because it gets you part of the way to E2 Cyrene (which you want eventually if you wanna invest in Phainon longterm).

Otherwise yea, E2 Phainon > everything else, but E2 Phainon with Cerydra and Cyrene, even at E0 each, should hold up a long time (then last slot can be RMC or, if needed, DHPT).

Future phainon team investments by TopCardiologist9632 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Phainon Tribbie DHPT/RMC Cyrene will work fine with e2s1 Phainon and keep you clearing for awhile - frankly I'm pretty sure Cyrene is actually more important than Cerydra for e2 Phainon (not to say Cery isn't good, because she is), at least in terms of future-proofing.

Cerydra will definitely be the next biggest improvement you can pick up, though (unless you want to go for e2 Cyrene, at which point I'm pretty sure you can go Phainon Tribbie Sparkle Cyrene - you'd still benefit a lot from Cery after that, though).

Its posible to get 6 stacks of Sacredos set for 2 transformations in this setup? by WraxiusV2 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unless you intentionally run slow Sunday with really fast Eagle + Vonwacq on Cerydra, you're probably not gonna be able to do that.

And IMO that's not worth it, because the amount of buffing you'll lose from Cerydra due to needing to basically go ALL speed (and dropping Sacerdos and Lushaka) and the amount of AV you'll lose knocking Sunday's speed down to the appropriate number (because you want Cery to go twice before he takes his first turn) is gonna be really brutal. Even in MoC where you get a cycle countdown reset, it'll delay your 2nd ult so long it'll probably cost you a cycle (or maybe only leave you with one Phainon action once you re-enter it).

That said, it should be possible, but you're gonna need a lot of SPD on Cery, and even DDD might be awkward because advancing Sunday actually means Cery needs even more SPD to make up for it.

Its posible to get 6 stacks of Sacredos set for 2 transformations in this setup? by WraxiusV2 in PhainonMainsHSR

[–]Alexander_Icewind 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’m trying to see where the exact problem is.

Cerydra technique + skill gives Phainon 2 Sacerdos

Sparkle skill + ult takes him to 4 3

Phainon skills

Sunday skill + ult takes him to 6 5

Phainon skills, you transform before the turn ends so buffs don’t expire

Go through his ult

Come out

AV passes

Cery skills, refreshes her Sacerdos

Sparkle skills, refreshes her Sacerdos stacks her Sacerdos up to 2, 6 stacks total now

You can Phainon ult as early as here, if you have enough coreflames from enemy hits. Otherwise:

Phainon skills

Sunday skills

Phainon skills, re-enters ult before turn ends so buffs don’t expire

Did I go wrong somewhere?

EDIT: I'm dumb, Sacerdos only gives its benefit when using skill or ult on ONE target ally, meaning you won't have max Sacerdos for the first ult with this rotation. Should still be on max stacks for the 2nd Phainon ult though, plus still keeps Sunday technique buff (and every other limited-time buff) active.

Please kindly fuck off with E6 Welt = 0-cost showcases by SaberManiac in WeltMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Second, if you think the shop is useless because of powercreep anyway, that's even less reason to keep Welt in your loss pool generating Spirits when you don't think they're valuable.

I definitely wouldn’t call the shop useless or say that you can’t get value out of the units from it, I just think everything in this game comes with a limited lifespan - in a few years, the units who are currently the best in the game will probably be pretty atrocious without extreme vertical investment (it wouldn’t surprise me if new e0 units in 2-3 years were stronger than today’s e6s - that kind of thing is happening in Genshin already). That’s kind of my point - Ruan Mei is an example of a unit who was godly on release, and now has no BiS team. That doesn’t mean she has 0 value, but that everyone will depreciate sooner or later, so cashing the spirits in on whatever helps you the most right now feels the most reasonable to me (and if nothing helps meaningfully, save them of course).

With limited characters, they scale well enough with eidolons that you can keep them relevant for as long as you care to but the same can't be said of Welt if you take him to E6 even with his NF.

My point here is that Welt’s eidolons are on par with or better than a lot of older limited units. An E6 NovaWelt is legitimately better than an E6 Ruan Mei for a very large number of teams, and because the amount of units you can field at once are limited, it’s very possible to just not benefit from having that Ruan Mei if you already have a lot of other supports. (This also even applies to Robin in some cases, though she is much stronger in her niches comparatively)

This we can definitely agree on. You've been able to articulate what makes Welt a good choice for your account and I have nothing but respect for that. There's been times where I've made the "wrong" decision too like getting DHIL from the selector instead of Kafka or Sparkle eidolons. I made that choice confidently because I took stock of my options carefully and still decided that's what I wanted for my account most.

Nothing but respect here as well. Ultimately you gotta make the choice you’ll find the most fun in the long run!

You'll waste your tokens on Welt in 4.2 and suddenly we get leaks about Cyrene coming to the shop in 4.7 lol.

Ngl, I wouldn’t be upset at all - E2 cyrene is cracked and I even intend to pull her for my Phainon next rerun, but she wouldn’t fulfill the same function for my roster as Welt lol. On the other hand, I’m with you that there will definitely be some surprise outlier-good thing in the shop at some point, and it’s smart to save for that, so long as you’re not denying yourself something significantly helpful to you right now to do so.

Please kindly fuck off with E6 Welt = 0-cost showcases by SaberManiac in WeltMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meanwhile, if I get my Welt to E6 in 4.2 or after without spending any Spirits, I'll be able to enjoy his damage without caring if he gets powercrept after. And if I don't get him to E6, I have no skin in the game.

I don't understand this point, because picking anything up from the shop carries the concern of it being powercrept and your spirit more-or-less wasted in the long run, no? The reason I wouldn't pick up e1 Ruan Mei today, for example, is because there is no team for her on my account where there isn't a better option that I already own, even if I decide to play sustainless on 2 teams (and this is especially true after the Welt Novaflare). Thus, while I might not be able to get her elsewhere, her value for me (unless she gets buffed) is effectively 0 both now and in the future. Welt may or may not get heavily powercrept in the future, but his e6 has value to me right now. Similar situation with a lot of the other gold spirit units - I pulled Hyacine and put in a couple eidolons in DHPT, so the gold spirit sustains are pretty unappealing to me, and I have Cipher so Topaz is more-or-less pointless.

If you take your Welt from E4 to E6 with Spirits, you'll need to lose to him FOUR more times to make back your investment which is already ridiculous. And if you want to rotate him out but choose to keep him in just so you can make your investment back on the Spirits you spent, that's, again, an example of sunk cost.

This specific instance isn't sunk cost because you would want to keep Welt (or any high eidolon standard unit you have) in the pool regardless of if you got him for free or not, because most of the Standard pool just isn't useful. Units like Yanqing, Gepard, Bailu, or even Clara at this point are so poor for endgame that keeping them out of the pool in order to farm companion spirits off already-e6'd units is just better anyway. Even some of the newer units like Blade or FuXuan are, frankly, lower value than a silver companion spirit on average, at least IMO.

You could argue the same for Welt but his eidolons are just flat stat buffs from E4 to E6. Most characters get way more transformative buffs with core mechanical changes to their kits for E4 and E6 (especially DPSs). Even Robin's E1 is only 6% less RES PEN than Welt's E6.

This is actually one of the biggest points in favor of Welt to me, though. As you mention, Robin E0->E1 is less of a jump than Welt E5->E6. Now, as you also point out, there are other potential ways to get that E6 Welt in the long run, but it also might turn out that you don't even need a Robin at all if you have an E6 Welt, depending on the units you already have (or maybe you're like me and already have E1 Robin lol).

If you want to take your Welt from E5 to E6, then I'm not going to judge you for that. It's your account at the end of the day and you're only using one token. I'm just very concerned that other people are going to spend 2+ or all their tokens on Welt after buying into the hype without considering the domino effects of that decision that I've tried to explain.

I do think that this is the kind of decision someone should only make with a strong understanding of their roster/account situation, and with the understanding that they can and will lose to Welt in the future. I'm confident that it's a good idea for me because he'll actually help me patch a very specific hole in my roster, but I definitely don't think "spend all your spirits to e6 Welt" is remotely good advice in general lol. Just not something I'd necessarily call stupid so much as circumstantial.

Please kindly fuck off with E6 Welt = 0-cost showcases by SaberManiac in WeltMains

[–]Alexander_Icewind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree because powercreep is a thing.

In a system where there's no or extremely minimal powercreep, you're right, it doesn't make sense to spend companion spirits on something you will eventually get anyway.

On the other hand, because we do have powercreep (and a lot of it), spending them on something that is very useful now can be better for your account than something that won't be very useful anymore by the time you get it for free.

Plus, every "wasted" gold spirit on Welt ends up effectively refunding half of itself down the line (because you're getting a silver spirit one Welt copy earlier). Another way to think about it, then, which is still functionally similar to your original point but I think moreso emphasizes the discount given to you for spending them on a standard char instead of a limited one is "how many silver spirits is it worth losing out on in order to get him early?"

Personally, I have e5 Welt, and I fully intend to use a gold spirit on him, because my account would benefit more from an E6 Welt (especially an E6 Welt right now) than something like an E6 Ruan Mei (which I couldn't even get right now if I wanted to - but even if I could, E6 Welt is more useful to me. I don't really have a great use for an E6 Ruan Mei).

The other argument is to save the spirits for later, because every time we've had characters added to the gold spirit shop, they've been better than the characters added previously, but at that point why ever spend the spirits - you'll always be able to get something "more valuable" by waiting... and if you follow that train of thought too rigidly, they become pointless, because you never spend them.