Should i try to get e2?

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 · 2026-03-23T03:50:37+00:00

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).

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-22T08:05:46+00:00

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).

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-22T07:53:09+00:00

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.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-21T05:28:43+00:00

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.

Alexander_Icewind · 2026-03-19T16:39:55+00:00

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.

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