Here to discuss anything Star Rail. Builds, teams, etc. I love the game but I am going to have a mini-rant too and discuss frustrations and gripes with the game. Anything HSR goes.
I only started half way through the 1.4 patch on PS5 so missed Jingliu (i'm now saving for her rerun) but just picked up Ruan Mei. I am currently at Trailblaze Lv 61 and have barely touched the surface of end-game content (MoC, Simulated World, Swarm Disaster, G&G etc.) I'm almost F2P but have bought the battle pass and will likely continue to do so for a while.
My current main characters are Seele, E6 Tingyun, and then a choice of Asta, Silver Wolf, Fire Trailblazer in slot 3 and a healer, Bailu or Lynx in slot 4 depending on the content. I have other characters but can't afford to upgrade them (see rant below).
What I really need is another main DPS, as I currently have Dan Heng. Free 5-star Dr Ratio should fix this in the short term, but I want Jingliu in the long term and maybe DHIL. Fu Xuan and/or another cleansing healer would be be great too. Then I'll have the base for two solid teams and it will be more about getting new characters for different situations like MoC.
What are your characters? Where are you in the game? Did you start on PS5 or before? Did the material grind and overwhelming aspect get better? (see below)
I really like the game, it's the sort of game that when you aren't playing you think about a lot. But I do have some real frustrations too.
Mini rant
There is just so much to upgrade and the materials are so stingy and it feels overwhelming at times. I kept getting to the next Equilibrium level before I even upgraded my main team to their next levels. I always feel behind, and annoyingly gated by everything. Waiting for everything. It just feels even more stingy to upgrade than Genshin even if they hand out more wishes and free characters in HSR.
I realise this is all a ploy to get you to spend, you could literally make the game more conformable and play nearer your own pace by spending but, battle pass aside, I refuse. I feel it's a slippery slope and don't want to enable that sort of game design as standard. Moreover having more characters probably only makes this issue worse to an extent as you need to spend even more to afford to upgrade them. I have almost 30 characters but over half are just at Lv 20 (gotta get that free wish right?)... I have no idea if Welt, Yukong, Hanya and a wealth of other characters could benefit my account because I just can't build them.
Right now I'm still levelling up my main core team and haven't even really started farming Relics and Ornaments yet, that will be the next step. There's constantly more things to do than you are able to, always time gated. So i'm at the point where I almost prefer getting Eidolons and Superimpositions on the characters and weapons I do use over new ones... unless they are must pulls or will massively enhance my account. Hence going for E6 Tingyun on Ruan Mei's banner. Talking of whom I probably can't use her for a week until I've built her which will take over a week to level alongside all the other characters i'm still levelling. I spent over 100 wishes on that banner and didn't even get Xueyi... not that I could level her...
All the end game content also seems overwhelming. Forgotten Hall, Memory of Chaos, Simulated Universe, Swarm Disaster, Gold and Gears, Pure Fiction... it's hard to know where to spend your time and effort! (rant over)
Ah yes I know how you feel. I started HSR when it launched on PC and now have it on multiple platforms. I get the Express supply pass (90 SJ daily for 30 days) and the battle pass as they give a decent amount of materials and some of the the best 4 star light cones can only be obtained there. Today Is Another Peaceful Day (Insanely good for Erudition) and Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds (Tingyun).
At first I was happy unlocking all the characters then soon realised I could not level them all and equilibrium increase just made things more difficult. From leveling characters and their traces to light cones and relics there's just so much cost that goes into maxing a single character and there's almost 40 of them. So I decided to focus on just a few to make them competent enough. Surprisingly my most used DPS character turned out to be Clara before I got Argenti. I was lucky enough to get her to E2 early so mark of counter remains permanently and using her ult increases her atk by 30% she saved my bacon so many times with her counter she even works well in a sub dps position for the tougher MOC battles. So far I have 32 characters. I missed out on some of the pulls as I could not build a team around the characters. Kafka, Jing Liu (still on the fence will see how I feel on her re run) and Fu Xuan (I regret this now so waiting for her re run). My overall most used is Luocha. Such an amazing healer I won't be surprised if he gets nerfed in the future. He's a permanent character in all my teams and works best with the HP hungry Blade and his auto heal has saved the team more times than I can count. I've seen some team setups that use Shielders instead of Healers but my Gepard is not at his best and TBfire's shield just about protects from love taps, anything else and the team is in trouble.
When it comes to getting materials I usually focus on 1 character a week and any Fuel I get I save for grinding relics. Thanks to that system I have DHIL, Luocha, Tingyun, TBfire, Bronya, Argenti, Selee, Jingyuan, Blade, Clara, Yanqing all maxed out. Still working on improving most of their relics though. Each new relic release seems to mess up what I have going and have to start over. Ash Blazing Grand Duke looks like it was made specifically for Jing Yuan so if you have him I'd suggest grinding for it. He gets pretty op after just 1 follow up attack.
I'm still struggling with the end game content my success in MOC seems to depend on what perk is available that week. Ive seen some people finish MOC 10 in 1 turn and I barely survive with 1 turn to go. In some cases this has to do with not having the characters signature LC so I'm waiting on re runs for my mains and gonna get those. If you haven't already I would suggest playing Simulated Universe, even if you can't do the higher levels yet. It refreshes weekly so that should be a priority as you can get 5 star light cones and the materials needed to get them to S5. You also get jades, banner tickets and a decent amount of credits and planar relics.
This game is so massive I hope my comment and rant were cohesive enough.
@z0d15g0d Nice roster! You have a lot of DPS! That's what I need most. It also reminds me that like Genshin MOST characters are completely viable, if you have the right team around them.
Luocha is on my wanted list. Neither of my healers are perfect. Bailu WAS incredible early game, she was the first 5-star I got and kept me alive many, many times, not least she can revive a dead character once per battle and heals a LOT. But in recent/ later/ end-game content there is a lot of debuffing and freezing/ imprisoning which she cannot cleanse, and cannot auto-revive when blocked. Hence I started using Lynx (and for Mono-Quantum with Seele + Silver Wolf) who does cleanse but only on Ultimate which is still too slow to regen with my equipment/ levels, and doesn't heal as much either which means more unlucky one shot deaths.
So Yes Luocha is on my wanted list, he seems best of both worlds, and is very skill point positive, but it's not what I REALLY need most which is DPS > Sustainer > Healer. I'm fine for Buffers as I have Tingyun, Asta & now Ruan Mei. I have Silver Wolf as a Debuffer and Pela is the only 4 star I didn't have (until Xueyi)... next month I could get her guaranteed in the shop... but she will likely be on a banner again soon. Hopefully one I am wishing on!
Fu Xuan just seems overly strong especially for MoC and Quantum, so she's a must pull.
Most wanted list for limited banners is probably Jingliu >> Fu Xuan > DHIL = Luocha and I kinda miss getting Argenti for multi target and quick farming. I don't ever really wish on weapon banners in these games.
Was wondering if you got the free choice of 5-star for getting to 300 standard banner wishes? Just wondering how long that will take me. I'm at 150/300 but they front load the free wishes and it's much slower now. Expect it will be another 6 months until I definitely get Bronya though I have another 5-star due soon (68 pity I think) FINGERS CROSSED!
The one character a week is a good system, but it just feels so LONG to make progress. I keep levelling up thinking I can take on MoC but hardly make a dent. I'm already doing Simulated Universe up to the max each week, but that takes up plenty of resources and I still didn't get good ornaments. I still have characters to level and haven't touched relics really.
@themightyant Thanks! I thought DPS would be a sure thing but it seems having a solid support is where it's at. Seele and Bronya combo is insane especially if you set their relics right. Once you start focusing on relics I would suggest ensuring you consider the characters speeds. For Tingyun its best she has a higher speed than DPS but it's the opposite for Bronya. You will need to start focusing on relics to get the best out of your characters and team synergies. There are so many though that it's hard to know whats best without trying them out. The main rule I go by for my DPS is that they should all have high crit chance/dmg as most of the relics give additional bonuses if you reach a certain threshold.
I got to 300 but got Bailu as my Natasha wasn't doing well in team 2 for MOC. I regret this now as like you mentioned she keeps getting debuffed and frozen so shes just as bad as Natasha. At least with Luocha so long as his talent field is out he's still healing the whole team even if he's debuffed or frozen. and his heal also removes debuffs. I had to use materials to ascend my lower level characters just to get the free tickets to get to 300.
I'm quite glad I got Argenti as he pairs well with Tingyun and her Ult but I missed out on his LC, 50/50 failed me...again.
Pela is an amazing debuffer and I got her at E6 so she melts through ice toughness bars but shes made of glass and for some reason all the enemies like to go for her first. I'm still not sure how the aggro system works. Its mentioned on some of the preservation LC's but that's about it.
I'll defo aim for Fu Xuan when her re run happens and hopefully there will be a quantum buffer soon even though SilverWolf is amazing I'd like a quantum that can buff Seele.
I hope you get Bronya soon and you will get to enjoy Belabogs strongest team up .
Yea 1 character a week is indeed long but i'm guessing that's Hoyos way of punishing non whales. I try to dedicate 40 trailblaze power to buy 1 immersifier daily so when the Simulated Universe refreshes I can run trough it twice and not use my trail blaze power for it.
Also we need more Aetherium Wars. That was a lot of fun.
@z0d15g0d Tingyun seems to be made of glass (with my setup) and attract enemies too, it's annoying! But she's still great.
I think i've gained enough knowledge through Genshin and other games to get a pretty good grasp of all the systems. Crit Dmg/Rate at a 2:1 ratio if possible. Using online tools to find best builds etc. Currently I use Game8 for a lot of builds as they tend to stay up to date with new relics etc. but sometimes they just give general builds rather than specific ones. But even so every account is different, relying on what you have and your luck on rolls. You can't just copy it.
YouTube is always a valuable resource for things like Speed, learning about the breakpoints like 121, 134, 161 to aim for to get extra turns. Seele's a bit annoying with this though as she changes her speed constantly through battles which can mess up careful pre-set timings. I actually have a few not quite as good relics equipped to try and manipulate the speed orders. It's a bit of a mess right now, especially as I know I'll have to do it all again after I have farmed properly... it's partly why i'm putting it off till after i've upgraded and am saving some fuel for relic farming once I hit the top Trailblaze level.
It's also yet another reason why Ruan Mei is so good (hypothetically) as her buffs timer runs on HER turn not the DPS's so you can run her slower and keep the buff up, at the cost of a little skill point regeneration. This is one of Tingyun's problem with Seele. Seele acts so fast because of her kit speeding her up and ruins the rotations. Either I run out of Tingyun's buff or run out of skillpoints.
And high level Asta is underrated. Currently I get 50-70% ATK bonus to all allies on her skill (against multiple enemies, some with Fire weakness it's easy to get 4-5 stacks) and +45 speed on all allies on her ultimate. Her Skill is pretty good at ripping through toughness/shields too. Currently E4 but I want E6 to help maintain stacks.
On the whole I don't mind that I started 6 months later than most on PS5. The only permanent thing I really missed was Silver Wolf's free S5 Light Cone which would be super handy as I struggle to get her Effect Hit Rate up with my current LC and relics but you can't have it all! It's a shame they didn't allow PS5 players to get this when they ran through this event.
Picking Bailu... that's a bit rough. Sadly she's just not very good in recent content and apparently late MoC is even worse. She was in my team 100% from basically the start, but now just struggles. Bronya E1 (50% chance to get a skillpoint everytime you use her skill use) would probably have been my pick in your shoes. But you went with what seemed best at the time, games like this are filled with mini-decisions like that. I can think of many things I'd do differently in Genshin. It's all part of the process. Live and learn... and make a YouTube chanel... lol.
@themightyant Yea I don't get that. Tingyun only has 1 attack yet she gets targeted often.
I only played Genshin when it first launched but the grind and time requirements were too much for me. The 2:1 ratio seems about right for the DPS but pretty hard to acquire I think only my Seele and DHIL have that ratio.
I check out Game8 also. Its a pretty good resource but it takes a while for them to update specific characters after new relics or LC's get released. Especially when it come to alt LC's for the characters. That's where experimentation comes in I guess. Only downside to the site is the community. Going on the comments section there truly sucks most of the time.
Wow Asta? Looks like I slept on that one. I might have to invest more in her. My Himeko and Mole rat are pretty under powered. I need another fire DPS.
Yea they should have done a rerun for Silver Wolfs S5 LC. It's completely unfair that they didn't do it and expected new players to just fork out for the 5 star instead. There was also the Abundance S5 LC that came out with Huo Huo's banner did you get it?
Yup Bailu is my biggest regret so far. Such high hopes dashed to nothingness. I should have done more research beforehand. Yea thinking I could have had an E1 Bronya truly stings (thanks for that )I'd even take Welt over her now so I can have a mono Imaginary team but Dr Ratio should help me fulfill that.
Did you do his quest yet? I took in DHIL, Silver Wolf and Luocha and was able to proc Dr Ratios followup attack multiple times as it's percentage increases based on how many debuffs are on the enemy.
Pure Fiction is out in a few days lets see how that goes.
Lol do you have a Youtube Channel?
@z0d15g0d You probably don't need Asta as you have Bronya who does a LOT of what Asta does but better in most ways. They only thing Asta does perhaps better is apply her buffs to the whole party which could be useful in some niche situations like dual DPS setups. e.g. with Blade or Topaz. Similar to how Ruan Mei is different to the other Harmony buffers because of this. But she works well with Tingyun as she buffs ATK and SPD while Tingyun mostly buffs DMG (and some attack) Don't upgrade her on my recommend... I don't want you to regret again!!! lol
I went completely down the rabbithole with Genshin, and have put in over 2,000 hours and counting (over 3+ years to be fair) it's by far my most played game ever. Though Skyrim was probably nearing 1,000 across all playthroughs and platforms. That's why I initially put off Honkai Star Rail and didn't join even when it first hit PS5 (and how I missed Jingliu). I KNEW it would be another rabbit hole game and it is!
Never seen the comments on Game8. But likely wouldn't jump in, most online communities suck. Are there any other websites you use for HSR? I sometimes use Prydwen for the reviews and builds too. I like the layout and the character reviews.
Yes I got the LC on HuoHuo's event thanks. I was actually trying to pull for her too, as I had missed Luocha and knew he wouldn't be coming round for months.... and got Himeko... only good thing it it guaranteed Ruan Mei. Also I played the Dr Ratio quest, it was mostly interesting, though the end confused me a little. It wasn't 100% clear to me how involved he was and his motivation seemed to be to stop people idolising the genius society. Seemed a bit of a weak premise imo
What's your current go to team? Or do you mix it up with so many characters?
Lastly here's 3 new codes added in the last week if you haven't used them. It's only 100 stellar jade and some materials and books, but better than nothing.
@themightyant Lol I'll hold off on upgrading her then. I'll probably wait till a fire DPS more useful than Himeko comes out. Bronya's Ult buffs the entire party so will stick with her for the time being.
Wow over 2k hrs on Genshin? Do you still play it alongside HSR? 2 rabbit holes at once lol. The most hours I've put into a game was probably warframe it was something stupid like Three hundred and something days. I used to play it religiously for almost a decade. Had to stop a couple of years ago when I saw the numbers lol.
The only other site I use is the official Hoyolabs site. Lots of players show their MOC teams and results. So many completing MOC 10 in 1 turn sometimes I think they photoshop the images lol. How can there be such a massive difference when I'm using the same characters but that's down to the LC and relics stats. There's even players that 1 turn MOC 10 with Qingque as their main DPS
I'll check out Prydwen thanks. Would be great to see more players builds.
Yea the quest ending had me confused also but I'm guessing they might do something for when he launches in a couple of weeks to flesh out that story or was this his story arc seeing as he will be free? If that's the case then I agree with your hypothesis.
There's 9 team slots available now. It used to be 6. So I've got teams built around DPS for every element. Next step is to make them all mono teams but Luocha seems to the the 1 constant in 90% of all my teams lol. I tend to swap some characters in or out depending on the enemy types but in most cases it's Silver Wolf that gets swapped in. She works best in mono teams so everyone gets a chance at them toughness bars. I know some players prefer DoT to DPS but I'm just not really fond of the characters (Sampo). I was also let down with Kafka's kit. Before she launched and she was a boss I was so hoping that her kit would contain the mind control skill but they removed that last minute. That would have been excellent to have in Swarm Disaster.
What's your team setups like? Which characters are your mains?
Wow thanks! Only the first 2 are on Game8, where did you find the 3rd?
The codes I found of Prydwen. I like that they have a date, it helps to know if I’ve already used it!
Whoa! 300+ days in Warframe. I always wanted to play it, it was installed on my PS4 since launch, but never got around to it. Glad I didn’t! lol
Yes I still play Genshin, but the daily stuff is very minimal in that game, Takes 10-15 minutes. A lot complain about the lack of end game content but I prefer that, it means I can play other games. It’s when new content drops that it’s more involved but that stuff is great. There’s pros and cons to both Genshin and HSR I prefer some things in one and vice versa. I loved, and still love the expiration in Genshin, their world design is fantastic. But it’s infrequent you get a new area to explore.
As for teams as Seele is my only top tier DPS I use variations on Seele + Tingyun + (Asta or Silver Wolf or Fire MC) + (Lynx or Bailu)
I’ve tried building a second team for MoC of Dan Heng and most of the characters above, even weakening Seele’s team to compensate but they aren’t good enough yet. Feel I still need a DPS and a sustainer or healer. Give it a month or two. Slow progress
@themightyant Thanks for that. I'll check the site more regularly. Prydwen has actually just put my mind at ease as it shows the players who 1 cycle MoC 10 are like E5 or E6 so those are whale stats. I don't feel too bad now lol.
Yea I loved the world and music in Genshin but it's so large in scale it took forever to get anything done so I'll put that on the back burner for now. Plus with zZz coming out there's just not enough time in a day to enjoy all these games.
Yea a few more DPS would really help out. Have you got Qingque or Serval? I've seen some teams that pair those with Dan Heng as sub DPS and there's always March 7 for sustain. If you had Clara those 2 synergise really well as you'll be doing 2 counters each time. Though March's is only good for ice toughness bars and barely touches the HP. The 5 star preservation LC from Herta store is pretty good too.
Alas the grind will be slow but once your characters are good enough its fun watching them auto battle even though the AI makes the dumbest mistakes like wasting an ult on a bat with 1% HP left lol.
Oh and as for people 1 turning in MoC I’ve seen some videos on this, it’s almost always Uber-whales who have Eidolons (often E6) and their signature weapons (often Superimposition 5) plus have spent even more money to have extra goes at relic farming.
Prydwen actually does some calculations on this so Jingliu does 383,900 at E0 in their theory crafting (base 100%) and E6 does 887,772 damage or 231%. Add in superimpositions, better relics and E6 supoorts buffing for more and you can end up doing 400%-500% more damage per hit. It’s literally pay to win.
It’s the same in Genshin with spiral abyss. I can usually get 36/36 stars to get all the stellar jade equivalent rewards (primogems) BUT not always and not as fast. But at worst I will get 33/36 and still get 90% of the rewards. If the difference between spending real world money and not, I’ll happily not spend and just have a challenge I fail, but MoC seems much harder!
It's ridiculous that the difference is at 400%. End game truly is designed just for whales and to bait f2p players. It's not like the rewards are worth the money they expect you to spend so i'm with you and i'll take what I can get lol.
I received a "First Voyage's Blessing" cake on my birthday as a valuable item but have no idea how to use/activate it. Have you come across this item?
@z0d15g0d I do have March 7th (E3) and Serval (E1) I used Serval early on but she’s only lv 50. March is lv 20. But it’s the same problem of lack of materials. I can’t level them up yet. Seele as my main DPS is the only one I have at lv 80 lc 80 and 10/10/10 Tingyun is Lv 75 Lc 75 8/8/6 (+ 2 for each due to E6) and still squishy everyone else is lower and still have to build. Ruan Mei will take me a week or more to build when I’m done with these others.
To be honest by the time I’ve built my current top units I will have more characters like Dr Ratio that I will want to build and will likely stand the test of time better. As resources are so stingy for F2P I’d rather invest in them than units that will be replaced. Always the waiting game.
@z0d15g0d I believe it’s like Genshin and if you use it from your inventory you get something like one Fuel. I did this already as I always put my birthday the day after I start playing. lol.
You might have already done this and not noticed you get to keep the cake as a keepsake.
@themightyant You're right to save your resources. I got Himeko to Lv80 and I rarely use her now just to farm resources if I feel like a change of character but she's mostly gathering digital dust. March would have been good sustain for the time being if she was high enough but yea not worth it at lv20 maybe just to get the banner ticket from ascensions to get to 300 eventually.
I hope they give Dr Ratio's LC also for free but that's probably just wishful thinking lol.
@themightyant Lol if that's the case the fuel has long been put to use and now just a useless cake taking up inventory space. Day after you start playing eh? I'm gonna start doing that too lol.
@themightyant - Hey man, thanks for tagging me in. I'm pretty much in tickover mode with HSR lately. Logging in for daily training and to cash in my welkin type thing then do a few relic/mats runs then all the remaining BP stuff at the weekend.
I'm at TB Lvl 64. Main team is a bit soupy with Fire MC, Topaz, Jingliu and Welt. I have Gepard's cone on MC which is basically a taunt so no real need for a healer due to her pulling 99% of aggro and giving beefy shields all around. I got Gepard recently but haven't built him yet.
As for other 5* units I have Seele, Himeko and Argenti. My decent 4* are E6 Tingyun, E5 Sushang, E6 Asta and E6 Sampo. All of which are in various build states. Seele is pretty much done but she got benched once I built Jingliu. Mainly due to her having a garbage CR to CD ratio, when she does crit it's a damn nuke but her CR is abysmal and I just got depressed farming her domain and getting trash!
That’s an interesting team. Both Fire MC and Welt to freeze enemies… I like it!
I assume from your characters and Tb level that you started in 1.4 when it hit PS5, right? If so that’s a great line up already. Who do you want next?
You talking about getting depressed farming Seele’s domain reminds me both that I have all this joy to do and gives me PTSD flashbacks to Crimson Witch domain in Genshin. I farmed it for 6 months and still never got a decent complete set ended up benching all my fire DPS characters Diluc, Klee and Hu-Tao.
RNG can be ROUGH and these games are full of it, especially on artifacts/relics/ornaments.
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