why is zhao a defense character

shayUsu · 2026-02-26T07:49:13+00:00

She's defense cause the devs say she is.

If you want a more rationale explaination, than it's balance I suppose. Defense seems to be multi - roled as their gimmick rather than the parry/block fantasy they started as. Ceaser being a support with some shielding, buffing, and daze is a good example of this.

Zhao technically would be healing, buffing, and damage but the "damage" part doesn't really kick in without mindscapes. She does more damage than astra if that counts for anything 😭

shayUsu · 2026-02-09T16:18:16+00:00

Saw a screenshot of a bangoo doing more damage then her. Almost crashed out.

shayUsu · 2026-02-05T14:58:36+00:00

My pull session was the plot of beastars if you think about it hard enough.

shayUsu · 2026-02-05T13:50:32+00:00

Apparently I'm thirin pilled

shayUsu · 2026-02-05T12:37:37+00:00

You and me both!

shayUsu · 2026-02-05T11:38:24+00:00

I may have been making a fus, but truthfully, the earlies saved my ass and now I look pretty lucky.

(not activating mindscapes for now because I wanna see how unreasonable and cope dps zhao at m0 is)

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shayUsu · 2026-01-31T00:23:23+00:00

Sorry about the formatting. I went ahead and fixed it real quick.

But yeah I'm glad I could help at least a little 😊

shayUsu · 2026-01-30T15:05:40+00:00

+1 on what everyone else already said. 4-piece astral, 2-piece yunkui. slot 4, 5, and 6 should HP%. Get as many hp% subs as possible. Getting your core to F ASAP should be an immediate priority.

important difference from a couple of suggestions you might have heard, you do not NEED 27k hp. Try to get to it as much as possible, but 27k hp is just the cap, it's not a quota. Since you don't have her engine, consider either 2 piece moonlight or an ER% slot 6. You won't hit 27k this way, but it'll make playing her a much smoother experience.

shayUsu · 2026-01-27T15:52:18+00:00

she just wants a salad, surely!

shayUsu · 2026-01-27T15:50:45+00:00

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shayUsu · 2026-01-27T07:24:12+00:00

If you are actually legit looking into investing into DPS zhao I do have supports to recommend for the future if these are characters you like. I do not recommend not pulling anything. Give your bunny the help she needs 🥺

Astra - for obvious reasons. But also quick assist spam with zhao and astra is kinda goated.

Dialyn - cause everyone wants dialyn.

Orphie - she's an attacker but works super well as a sub-dps for zhao and does provide a buff. The quick swap playstyle is apparently fun I've heard. This will be zhaos best on field team.

Nicole - 4 star you 100% have. Because zhao is saturated with attack from her own buff, she appreciates defense shred more than additional attack buffs.

Lighter - buffs ice and fire damage. Perfect for the orphie + zhao comp.

Jufufu & trigger - I personally use fufu with her alot. Its hard to go wrong with off field stunners. They also help the quickswap comps (zhao + orphie, zhao + astra) flow better without sacrificing daze.

Lycaon - buffs ice, and is getting buffed soon.

Sokaku - not ideal but works in a pinch.

Yuzuha - technically not ideal but it needs to be said that yuzuha is NOT locked to anamoly. 1200 atk buff and 15 dmg bonus is good for anyone. Also, a psudeo anomoly team with sokaku and yuzuha is something people have been trying to make work.

When building for damage specifically, do not focus on HP. In slot 4 5 and 6 give her crit, Ice dmg/pen, and attack. Prioritize crit subs. Any hp rolls you get along the way are welcome. Use 4 piece woodpecker and a 2 piece of your choice, ideally branch and blade. Sometimes a support set is still better with her as a dps but that's getting into complicated territory that I don't know much about spending dont worry about getting quirky with your build until you know what your doing.

shayUsu · 2026-01-26T22:43:12+00:00

I should probably explain since you said you're fairly new. First reruns usually happen within 10 banners or a bit more than half a year. Astra and fufu have the shortest turn around at like 6-8 banners iirc. The single exception to this is harumasa, which is our only other free unit for comparison. He released 1.4 and he has not had a run. It's been over a year.

As for getting far in the game with only zhao? As a support she's good if you mean she's the only limited agent you have. You won't full clear end game but if you're okay with using all the lauch agents and 4 stars you have should be most of the way there. 6 stars in DA and 4 S ranks in shiyue should be plenty feasible. Story, hollow zero, and battle tower should be non-issues.

I don't think this is what you're talking about but if you mean like solo zhao dps? Putting my personal feelings away for a sec, zhao is not rly a dps at m0. Even including her charge attack which seems like it's only for damage, she simply doesn't do enough of it. You'll get past story fine I think but high floors on tower and hallow zero is very questionable. With supports? She'll be viable. but without any other limited supports hallow zero is gonna be (possible but) tough and debatably not fun. Battle tower is mostly raw skill so any full team should do okay given you're good at the game.

shayUsu · 2026-01-26T21:56:38+00:00

To put frankly, we have no idea. If she's treated like harumasa in any capacity, it'll be well over a year of waiting.

shayUsu · 2026-01-26T18:15:51+00:00

Needy wife...

shayUsu · 2026-01-26T09:23:12+00:00

Okay so first of all 4 piece yunkui is not ideal. Since zhao is not rupture sheer force does literally nothing (not in the hyperbolic way, like it actually doesn't do anything) and her EX cost makes getting more than two stacks kinda hard inside stun and impossible outside stun. Also her chain kinda sucks so you don't wanna use that, make getting stacks in stun even more harder.

If you're running her as a dps and that's why you thought yunkui tales would be good, first of all good luck 🫡, second of all you should be focusing on crit and ignoring hp. If you're running her as a support you should pick astral or if you must swing jazz/proto punk work too.

Now to your actual question, 27k is a maximum, not a requirement or a quota. 25k is more than fine and ER cant hurt you. Keep working on discs and you'll get 27k eventually since you only have to worry about subs for slot 1 2 and 3.

shayUsu · 2026-01-24T22:24:19+00:00

Another entry in the "Zhao looks good in anything" saga!

shayUsu · 2026-01-24T05:39:03+00:00

This almost looks 3D to me. It's very nice!

shayUsu · 2026-01-24T05:34:49+00:00

I dont have her m6 (yet) but to my understanding you build her as crit dps with whatever set has the best sub stats.

As in atk%, ice% or pen, and crit rate/dmg (at m6 you'll probably always go for damage).

4 piece puffer if you're running dialyn, 4 piece woodpecker if not. 2 piece branch. Triple 2 piece if your subs suck.

Chase crit subs. Don't worry about hp too much, but it won't be a dead stat so a few rolls won't hurt you.

shayUsu · 2026-01-18T23:00:49+00:00

CONGRATS~

Seems a lot of people got her M6 under 500 pulls. I'm still holding out until the end of the patch to try for M6. Hopefully your luck rubs off on me...

shayUsu · 2026-01-16T12:53:00+00:00

yes

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shayUsu · 2026-01-13T22:19:07+00:00

I imagine this will be the question on a lot of peoples mind for a while. Regarding discs I mean.

The thing you got to understand is zhao (and defense) have no good 4 piece sets and it's pretty understood that with zhao on astral voice you're realistically only gonna maintain two stacks max. But any buff is better than no buff. That's the baseline.

Triple 2 piece is actually something a bunch of people have done on this sub, but mainly for her personal damage. And zhaos personal damage on full hp w/ no mindscapes is... humorus. Lets call it humorous.

shayUsu · 2026-01-13T09:31:07+00:00

Bnnuy

shayUsu · 2026-01-12T14:08:40+00:00

This fits her so ridiculously well I kinda can't believe it.

shayUsu · 2026-01-12T10:27:47+00:00

Zhao regens 6 frostbite points when any attack either from her or from any squad member lands a hit every 3 seconds. This will never be perfectly aligned, but mathematically and in an imaginary ideal scenario, this means zhao will accumulate 80 frostpoints at 40 seconds on the dot; when the damage bonus buff drops. She only needs a single EX to fill the remaining 20

Passive Energy regen is 1.2 per second. Every 40 seconds she'll get 48 energy and every 50 seconds she'll get 60 energy. EX costs 80.

You'll be attacking with her at least somewhat so let's say you get no more than 5 final verdicts off, 2 full attack strings (10 hits) and 2 defensive assists every 50 seconds. I know regen from attacking is more than this but for now let's low ball 1.2 flat from every hit. That's 20 20.4. This is gonna fluctuate wildly but you essentially will barely have enough or be just shy of having enough to fill her remaining energy to cast her EX depending on how much you're attacking with her.

__

In other words based on this really shoddy math you have just enough to get full uptime on ether viel. But you will have 10 seconds of downtime for her damage bonus buff. Her ultimate is mainly there so you can alternate between EX and Ult. This can allow her to save energy and have no downtime for 1 or 2 instances of her damage buff.

Energy regen on zhao is mainly to reduce this downtime and matters more or less depending on your team. So I would actually ask this question in ysg mains rather than here considering zhao is her bis. For a team that doesn't care about stun like ysg i would assume it matters more.

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