Topic: Honkai Star Rail

@Shigurui Lol can't believe I ignored such an obvious solution. MC fire has been in so many of my lineups I didn't even consider taking their kit. Seeing as I will be going for Fu Xuan also might as well.

Anyone finish the TB mission yet?

@z0d15g0d - Yeah mate, was ok I guess. Liked the new areas and new enemy types. Story was fine but it was a real chore to get through as the overall pacing was atrocious. Too much downtime with far too much dialogue that ultimately said nothing. Genshin Impact levels of narrative tedium.

@Shigurui Yeah far too much dialogue for my liking and with little substance. I'm guessing they just wanted to get it all out of the way for 2.3. Oof I didn't think Genshin was like that.

@z0d15g0d - Genshin has always been overwritten but HSR was pretty concise until now, really hope it was a one off. It isn't a visual novel. Hoyo have the data and I'm damn certain they know exactly how fast people speed through superfluous dialogue. Give us a proper skip option. I'm interested in Stelle's/Caelus' story and that's it.

@Shigurui I agree. I really needed a skip function. As I play on PC both the mouse and spacebar act as the action button so I'm double-tapping just to get there that extra millisecond faster.

@z0d15g0d - I still have to do it all again on my alt acct. Once my skip finger recovers lol. Is there no dialogue skip mod available on PC? Not sure how much Hoyo allow mod wise, I've seen loads of amazing PC costume mods for HSR and Genshin and they seem to let those slide. Might be worth looking into.

@z0d15g0d @Shigurui I started the new story content but was bored by the nauseating dialogue, especially Boothill and the dreamscape kid, and checked out for now. I'm sure it gets better and I will play it soon but playing other games for now. Overwritten doesn't begin to describe it.

@Shigurui I haven't looked at mods yet I assumed Hoyo were like Nintendo and pretty much banned any kind of modding. Good shout I'll check them out as outfit changes should be the norm in this type of game lol.
@themightyant Yup this was the longest it took me to get through any of the updates.

@z0d15g0d There are mods, but also plenty of reports of mods getting players accounts banned, hence not worth it at all imho.

@Shigurui Like HSR I think Genshin's writing was better at the beginning but as time has gone on it has got more and more long winded. I assume because they want their content to last as long as possible with each release, so a scene that could be said and done in 2 minutes takes 10 - 20 instead. Not a fan that HSR seems to be following suit.

@themightyant - Yeah the early days of Genshin weren't too bad, Inazuma got a bit more wordy and Sumeru was unbearable. There were one or two sections in there that put Metal Gear 4 to shame. No idea how bad Fontaine has got, I noped out after that tedious detective and courtroom thing and haven't been back since.

@Shigurui All the detective stuff was tedious, not least that it wasn't a puzzle and often didn't follow logic, I might have enjoyed it was a good detective mini-game. But again it seemed specifically designed to eat up TIME. It's one thing I've really appreciated about HSR so far, while it absolutely is a time-sink compared to Genshin it hasn't taken the piss. I hope it's a one off and not a sign of things to come.

As for HSR I finally decided to stop farming the Pioneer of Dead Waters domain for Acheron and Jingliu. I don't have the best pieces even after a solid month including the 3x bonus week... but I can't be arsed anymore. I'm going to build some other characters I got like Clara and upgrade some light cones.

@themightyant - There was more detective nonsense after that courtroom part? Oof, no thanks. I think I'm completely done with Genshin now lol.

I did ok in the Pioneer domain, got decent enough pieces for Acheron and Welt to not feel the need to chase it further for now at least. Quantum domain always screwed me over so I fully understand the need to just move on and use your resources elsewhere.

I've been hammering Swarm Disaster lately, finally beat difficulty 4 with barely any of the Pathstrider unlocks so I'm working through those now, brute forcing difficulty 5 is never going to happen, another 100 or so hours and I might get there lol.

@Shigurui @themightyant Looks like we all stopped Pioneer farming around the same time lol. Universal consensus of having enough of mostly trash rolls. I've gone back to farming Streetwise. Looking to make my Clara an even better beast now I have Robin who gives guaranteed crit hits.

@z0d15g0d SNAP! Also farming streetwise for Clara, but it's early days.

Also realised I can guarantee Fu Xuan now even if I lose the 50:50 (which I almost certainly will. lol), i'm around 40-50 into pity but have 110 wishes worth of stellar jade plus 19 gold passes. I will be starting to pre-farm for her next week. Would be nice to win the 50:50 and have some left over to get another character... but with my 5-star luck it's unlikely!

Not sure who I will aim for next after FX, will depend on who would most fit my account, I still need a top tier Fire, Wind and Physical DPS to cover all elements, so perhaps Firefly if she's good; and a top tier healer like Huo Huo or Luocha.

After that I guess it's about expanding out to different playstyles like DoT and FUA. (Black Swan, Kafka, Topaz, Adventurine) and any new characters they bring. Is Jade going to completely stomp Seele as a multi-target Quantum Erudition DPS?

I might also save for Acheron's lightcone on rerun too. I don't usually do signature lightcones but Acheron has just completely changed the meta and her LC is completely OP in always giving her 2 stacks every turn.

Who excites you coming up?

@themightyant Haha nice! Looks like Clara is back in fashion. I just tried her against Star Crusher VI and she absolutely demolished it. With Robin every counter did enhanced crit hits even though my CR is only 33% and CD is 132%. Lots of farming to do but those 2 together are pretty deadly.

I got Gepard trying to pull for Topaz so I'm guaranteed for FX which is excellent. Now I will have decent options for preservation with Aventurine, Gepard and FX. In the future there may release relics that benefit TB fire as they're the only one with taunt in the game if I'm correct.

I'm hoping Firefly is good also as the only passable fire DPS character I have is Himeko E2.

I hope Jade does stomp on Seele as after all those months of farming for her I barely use her now as single target gets you nowhere in the current state of the game.
This became glaringly obvious when I tried to fight MoC 12 Aventurine. If your character can't hit all the dice to get the highest score you end up in an endless loop of the stacked buff getting cleansed before it activates. Using that mechanic is the only way to do actual damage on his final HP bar as Jingliu's ult only chipped 1%. I was on him till there were only 2 turns left and I gave up (rage quit).

@z0d15g0d Agree single target isn't currently always the best but I still find Seele, and particular Mono-quantum with Silver wolf, invaluable for clearing MoC on stages where I don't have the right element DPS. Obviously this will reduce as I get DPS for each element, but it's been a lifesaver. I wouldn't have 36 starred the last 2 MoC's without her. And there are still plenty of single target enemies she works well with too. Especially if flanked by mobs who can be killed to use her talent. I still think there's a place for her, but her star is sinking.

The main trouble is Acheron does more damage in many single target scenarios AND, obviously, multi-target. She's broken the game meta for BOTH and it will be hard for them not to power creep every other DPS now. Which i'm usually not a fan of.

@z0d15g0d Fire TB is pretty strong for Acheron in that Taunt counts as a debuff (1 stack for Acheron) and if you equip Trend of the Universal Market LC you will gain another stack every time TB is hit and applies burn. You do need to build with a high EHR for Taunt to reliably proc. (67% pretty much guarantees it, but lower will hit reliably, especially with multiple targets). Downside is you skip a healer / proper sustain, but it's good enough for a lot of content and getting multiple stacks for Acheron is pretty awesome.

EDIT: What's most scary about Acheron is that any future Nihility character that adds a debuff (likely all of them) will be a decent team member for her, and any character that applies a debuff might work with her. I think she will only get stronger.

Can't say the same for me, I'll be stuck in the pioneer mines for a while yet cause apparently it's a really good set for ratio. And I got spooked by welt in my 1st 10 pull into Robin's banner and it seems he uses it too

But I can't really complain this time cause I've actually been getting really lucky with relics lately. To the point where my acheron is now 4.1k atk, 121 spd, 61% CR, and 181% CD. Just need some eidolons and superimposes now

@Judal27 @themightyant @z0d15g0d

Code for 50 jades/10k credits - VAJEGY4MNMDK