Blade is legitimately one of the most fun characters to play in this game, and I really hope he sees a comeback with future units and I’d hate to have such an enjoyable play style left in the dust as a result of bad luck
this might just be a preference problem but i find nothing enjoyable from blade playstyle, hell i even hate it. all he does is basic, ult and wait for hit for fua (all brainlessly) just to deal underwhelming damage. he cant even boost his aggro by himself like clara so it gets really boring for me (this is coming from a former blade main)
@@Vias.I mean thats pretty loaded for a character in this game to begin with. Like what, do you prefer Acheron where you just slap debuffs, ult, repeat? Or FF you break deal dmg, enemy not broken no damage? Like come on man you can’t act like his kit is boring, relatively it’s pretty cool however your comment about it not dealing enough damage though yeah I agree but thats the whole point of the video, he is basically the weakest limited 5 star dps now. Heck weakest limited 5 star in general even.
@@Radiant450 that just doesnt seem that “loaded” for me. About Acheron, u actually will have to think about anyway possible to maximize the amount of ult stacks u can gain, when to ult and when to not overcap stacks. But tbf, sometime it does get boring but at least i dont feel like im mindlessly just E blade enhance, Q enhanced basic, bronya/sparkle shoots him up, repeat. u dont even have to care about skill point because thats one of the few good thing about the guy’s kit. also firefly does require skills to play but the only problem with her is that she deals too much damage lol so the only time that you’ll feel like u need to actually make battle-changing decisions is like when ur dealing with her hard-counters like boss yanqing or boss SAM
@@scylla1772 Hoyo clearly love Jing Yuan man. And he still doesnt have his own dedicated summon supports too. Which is crazy how good he is now compared to 1.0. Blade need some buffers that decrease his HP everytime teammates take actions. Then maybe this harmony increase his damage depending on his HP% or something. Idk he just need Furina man...
The problem with blade is he needs a harmony or abundance character that buffs you based on how much health is healed or taken away or how much they get hit,hopefully we get one when we go back to the lufou
it is not impossible, in Genshin and Star Rail, we have seen Hoyo add supports to make older units better, so the questions is not whether they will but when. (however this could be along side a new HP scaling dps so we don't know how much it can raise Blade up)
True. Blade's situation feels like Xiao's in Genshin since he was also released in 1.x and one of his newer best support which is Faruzan didn't even come out until 3.x. Then there's Xianyun and Furina released in the 4.x that despite not being top tier makes him a more than strong enough character to comfortably 36 star the abyss.
to be fair, we already have something like that, if you pair Jingliu + Ruan Mei, you have something similar. Jingliu drains Blade HP to buff herself, Blade uses his FuA more often, and Ruan Mei buffs the entire team enabling dual-DPS teams. This was one of the best teams in the game before Acheron entered the meta.
@@lucasayabe Correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like you don't play Genshin and not knowing that in Genshin, there are specialized buffers that basically serves no purpose other than buffing a certain type of character way more than any other buffers can. For example, Shenhe is basically dead weight if she isn't used to buff cryo DPS characters. There are currently no buffers that even come close to that level of niche-ness and Ruan Mei's roles in Blade's team can be compared to that of Furina's roles in Xiao's team just being a straightforward damage buffer as Xiao's rotation does not change regardless of Furina's HP drain.
"He (argenti) sorta just came outta nowhere and didn't stick around all that long" meanwhile, argenti constantly appears wherever the plot needs him to, and just automatically does whatever the plot needs him to, like the elder scrolls or chaos emeralds.
@@waun11 oh same here. I ADORE the fact he's just here because the writers looked at some of these plot points and were like "argenti?...argenti." and called it a day.
@@boltdragon31 FR!!! and the fact that it's not limited to a main quest or event but even the SIDE QUESTS!!! he is so good and will always be one of my faves
Argenti just randomly appearing is my favourite thing about the new patches and I hope it becomes a consistent thing for him to just fucking appear out of nowhere wherever we go
Personally I think this should've been a what happened to video and not a why no one plays. Blade's a victim of circumstance, atm it's mainly just the fact that every other DPS archetype (DOT, break, nihility, FUA, and hypercarry) has fully realized top tier supports, but there isn't anything like that for HP scalers like there is in Genshin. Making this a why no one plays implicitly places Blade around the same tier as Physical Trailblazer, Arlan, Yanqing, and Herta/Himeko before Pure Fiction, and that just doesn't sit right with me at all because Blade is still completely viable and I'd even say he's still a GOOD unit, unlike any of those previous ones. Would've made more sense to me to make this as a what happened to video because like Welt and Seele, Blade started out exceptionally strong and then ran into circumstances that caused them to fall off in most players eyes. However, just like Welt and Seele, Blade is still completely useable for most content without the absurd amount of investment it takes to make characters typically put into why no one plays episodes even function properly in the first place, let alone actually be somewhat good, and I think it's a disservice to the man when there's already an established type of video for "this character was really good, but due to circumstances is still a strong unit, just isn't as popular anymore, why is that?" instead of throwing him in with the trash. Why no one plays characters like Yanqing Phys TB and Arlan are "fundamentally weak characters that don't have a workaround for their many inherent weaknesses without insane investment to even make them playable" whereas what happened to are for characters like Welt and Seele that are "strong characters that got pushed out by circumstances BUT are more than capable of coming back and being strong depending on new units or a certain Moc Buff" (Welt Sustain, Mono Quantum) Of those two options blade is significantly closer to the second. Also, Jade is coming out soon, who has a hp drain for an ally on her skill with a big spd buff and gets more FUA attacks from allies that can hit multiple enemies, so yeah, Blade might already start coming back if her hp drain counts as a separate instance of damage to both double blades FUA output and then in turn give Jade more FUA's.
I don't necessarily disagree but by this logic then Arlan would also be benefitted by a support that buffs HP Loss, Yanqing with a specialized support also could come back but lets be real, as of right now the chances of that happening are either very slim to none, since its more likely that new supports get added for new niches or for already existing meta picks.
Blade a decent unit but there have been stats showing that he has definitely fallen off in usage rate, which seems appropriate to warrant putting him in a "why no one plays". Doesn't help that MoC, PF, AS don't have much Wind weaknesses either recently, and Black swan out damages him. He's honestly more useful in PF nowadays just like Herta/Hime. Yeah he not as bad as the other units u listed, but he's mid comparably to the rest. He does need a dedicated hp oriented support but until then his usage rate will stay low. Also yes Jade does work the way you think with blade
@@thebhristopher967 I understand that in terms of Moc his usage rate is off but I think overall he's not mid definitely not broken but yeah I use him all the time and the stats only show how little he's used in these game modes by a certain percent of the playerbase I understand he lacking certain means of damage but with his kit I doubt the devs will buff him with a damage draining support the likely solution is a taunt support
Blade's E2 is such a waste, it only gives 15% Crit Rate when it could've been so much more... His biggest issue has always been the lack of consistency in getting his stacks off, so if his E2 was able to split DMG from allies to him instead, he could do damage cuz of his FUA, and be nearly unkillable due to constant heals.
I'm sure the dev team considered giving certain DPS's taunts, but decided not to, because they could potentially break the game. Both Clara and Blade rely on getting hit, but that mechanic has to remain reliable without utterly breaking the game in the player's favor. If it was too strong, "retaliate meta" would be everyone's go-to team at least for a short time
The thing with Blade is that he's a Wind dps coverage, and we only have him + Dan Heng on that specific role, so he has his own niche there. The problem is whether it's better to run him over brute-forcing comps (mono quantum or self implant dps like Boothill and Firefly). Also in order for Hoyo to release more HP scaling support they'd need to release more HP scaling dps first, which will also diminish Blade's value even more.
I'm a sad man, because I have neither Blade nor Black Swan. Therefore, Sampo and Dan Heng are my only wind characters, and Dan Heng is unfortunately just a single-target version of Destruction TB.
@@angeldiaz762 I don't have them either but most wind focused stages/mobs also favor DoT, so you can prolly make do with Scampo for now (assuming you have Kafka). Once the next Wind dps releases it's prolly gonna shake up their enemy design by a lot.
@@lewsee5562it’s a joke in the community, memeing on the watch mojo HSR top list video who said that “blade is a glass cannon” and “he doesn’t start fights, he *ends* them”
@SmithyPL Jades skill drains hp from the target she buffs. Blade can blast and aoe attack, There is some synergy there even if it's not custom made for an HP scaler.
@@SmithyPL Jade is basically 6 eidolons for Blade. He does aoe, she cares about that, drains his hp and lets him wear hp boots. They are a great pairing only limited by the fact that the best buffer for them is the best buffer for everyone (Ruan Mei)
@@SmithyPL Jade's skill places a mark on an ally and they take HP every time they take a turn. If Blade is said ally, he loses HP essentially two times and gains two stacks of his talent for his follow up. Jade and Blade would go hard in a PF that's follow up attack buffed
Once an actual hp buffer or an aggro buffer, the tables will turn. Blade finds power in moving as frequently as possible, so aggro buffing directly converts it into more fua and ultimate damage.
@Kam1_9 Lynx doesn't really offer much for Blade, and I say this as someone who tried to stick by the comp for the longest. The aggro is decent, but the HP increase isn't much and the heal is small in comparison to his HP pool. Luocha and Gallagher can heal for way more for him. Jade will be a must have for him since they can help each other build stacks pretty quickly.
I remember a comment from a year ago saying that Vars will make a "WNOP video about Blade" and Vars made a deal with him saying that if it does happen Vars has to give him 100 bucks LOL Edit: it was 11 months ago, the comment back then was made by Dooood24
Ironic that Blade is still one of my most used units despite having an E2 Acheron, DHIL, and now Firefly. His simplicity and consistency as well as having true aoe makes me still use him for whenever I have no idea who to use. I even throw him at wind weak sides to this day despite having Kafka+Black Swan since, again, he's so consistent and versatile. Also, with unlimited blade works setup he absolutely still has a place imo
He was my first true main and I still hold him in high regard because he carried my ass on Swarm Disaster which he thrived in due to him being hard to take down. Although yeah of the Xianzhou trinity of Destruction units, he aged relatively poorly. The lack of dedicated supports became a detriment and not to mention all Destruction units succeeding him were overtuned AF despite having different niches to fill.
In my opinion this video should've rather been a "what happened to..." instead of a "why no one plays..." because the only significant Issue blade currently faces is that, unlike other dps', he doesn't have a specific dedicated hp scaling or aggravate support. Though a victim of circumstance as well, being released before jingliu and dan heng il, I would argue he is still a good unit, just not top tier like before powercreep. A lot of ppl also skipped him to pull for other characters like Daniel, Jingliu, as well as Ruan mei on his rerun. He's niche but he does clear a lot of the main content, and it's also easier to build him since he only scales off hp.
For most five-stars that we have, the rule of thumb is "if the elements match, the DPS is good." But the problem is that since most bosses have three weakness elements, and a fourth if you use an Implant character, nobody uses wind if they can supply the other element
honestly, the main issue with blade is that theres no support unit that has true synergy with him; if they add supports that buff hp scaling or constant hp changes (its a possibility since firefly has a similar situation with her hp percentage changing pretty often) it would be a possible buff. that, or adding a planar/relic set that focuses on hp changes would buff him similarly to how jing yuan got buffed that one time via relic set. also i just have to say; he does go really well with fu xuan? she doesnt take away all of the damage, so his FuA trigger still fills while the hits he takes just hurt less (hell, this has saved me a few times when his hp got dangerously low). maybe its just bias, but imo this should of been a 'what happened to' video... especially since theres no mention of jade in the video, who is coming very soon and might potentially buff him due to her gimmick. his situation honestly doesnt feel as dire as, say, yanqings for example; blade just lacks proper supports, theres honestly nothing wrong with his kit. i personally still use him in MoC at least (usually on the same team as dhil funnily enough). atm hes a great sub dps if you can manage the rest of the teams sp efficiently enough, and is one my comfiest characters to grind with. genuinely one of my favourite characters both lore wise and playstyle wise.
@@ABC-yj6cy Back in 1.x it mattered, then Hoyo released Acheron, FF, and Boothill who outright ignored the whole elemental coverage strat and powercreeped all 1.x units.
@@ABC-yj6cyeven tho I have nearly all the characters (including SW, Acheron, and firefly), I often try to do that regardless, unless I wanna do something like using SW just cuz. This is a privilege of a long time player, so like around a year imo. So ye, element coverage is still important. TDLR: Ye, but less so now for the majority of people who have played for a while, or have characters who have those specific abilities to enable
If they buffed blade: When using skill he is more likely to be attacked for 4 turns(with effect resistance and damage reduction) fua stack from 5 - 4(e6 4 - 3) When blade uses Fua he gets a hp heal over time(3 turns)
What blade needs is a buff to his trace multipliers 100% HP - 175% HP (200% for fua) 40% atk - 150% atk (200% for fua) Would fix everything Basically overtuning him like every other DPS that came after him
Jing Yuan and Kafka are the only early limited dps that are still relevant in the meta. Just because Jing Yuan's main thing is follow up attack just makes him superior in the current meta, and his potential hasn't even fully shown yet since I guess they don't want a 1.0 dps to power creep everyone lmao. But he'll only get better by time since unlike Blade or Seelie, he don't have weird limiting mechanics or scaling and is a simple crit dps. It's hard to buff someone else without buffing him.
@@towa7916 with how limiting his team comp is he would be solid A but never S tier like Acheron. Even that would mean Id never touch the man though sadly
With Jade on the horizon Blade might get his “dedicated support” since she has some HP manipulation and offensive support capabilities. So he might have a chance of coming back.
Sure but its not going to be Jade specifically... Harmony units are so busted you are better off running them both seperatly as hypercarries, even though Jade IS supposed to be a sub dps😢 She really got no love in her beta and the devs overtuned Firefly to hell and back
That's unfortunate. I love Blade but I ain't pulling Jade, she's a hard skip for me On the bright side Jiaoqiu should be good for him since he likes debuffs
Recently, even JL is starting to feel like she had fallen off. I've been trying to find a new way to play her but her main team is still the best. Mine still does 250K damage every skill cast, but when I compare her to DHIL (that was buffed by Sparkle), Acheron teams, Kafka + Black swan duo, and the new Firefly break team... Yeah... She doesn't feel as powerful anymore. Even the FUA team had managed to top her even if you only have Ratio + Topaz + Robin.
@@allentayoto7387 its just because most traditional crit based DPS are kinda not favored by endgame right now, because they gotta find a way to boost their break effect toys sales. if you notice not only JL and Blade, but every single traditional hypercarry crit based dps (so no Acheron/FUA) is kinda struggling. Seele, Jing Yuan, Argenti, JL, Blade, hell even DHIL are kind of dropping down a bit right now because the buffs kind of benefit break teams a great deal more. I mean they still can clear content and can devastate, but that would require like twenty times the amount of investment you would require to build a functional Firefly team lol
@@allentayoto7387 She was really never that Op to begin with. Her multiplier is low. The only reason why she was insane is because how easy she is to build compared to any other character in exchange of how low her multipliers are. Not even just Ratio team that has outdpsed her. Even Jing Yuan comp has officially outdps-ed Jingliu comp with Robin,JY,Huohuo comp only being about 8% lower DPS compared to DHIL+Sparkle comp which just Outclassed any Jingliu comp by 20%+. It's not Jingliu's fault tho. It's just that to deal actual damage you need to break the enemies these days. It's just easy for Hoyo to powercreep units. But the real pain is Blade. Blade is outdps-ed by any 5 star DPS at the moment. Im a Blade main and im a bit sad honestly.
@@ra6765The problem isn’t buffs but scaling. DoT, Break and Acheron just have to much scaling compared to other characters having only Ruan as kind of signature support. Once all of them have their signature supports the difference will be insane
Blade can make use of sparkle its one of his best teams called Unlimited blade works. Combining Bronya and sparkles turn advances would normally be to sp consuming but with blades low sp consumption he can make us of this combination to do 4 turns in one cycle with 0 speed in a team with 161+ speed sparkle and 160 speed bronya. Plus do to bronya and sparkle spamming their skills its stacks sparkles talent quickly and permanently.
Honestly, Blade is kinda easily fix by just removing his atk scaling, buff his hp scaling and replace the A4 trace by giving him an aggro increase (like by 500%)
Argo isn’t that consistent, Even in my Clara team with her ult and agro increase from lynx, the enemy will some how still hit my tingyun for some god forsaken reason
Everyone keeps saying aggro increase but honestly splitting damage is just so much better, anyone else who gets hit, Blade gets hit, basically a Destruction Fu Xuan lol
Blade saved my bacon when he came out, nearly all of the luofu enemies are weak to wind and I didn't have Sampo. Nowadays I use him in simulated universe with Jingliu to get stacks faster. But Black Swan is way faster at killing enemies in a dot team than anything Blade can do.
ontop of him needing more specialized supports that we dont have, another thing that could be cool is seeing something like a relic set that can scale off hp and have an effect based off hp loss, could work for him and maybe also arlan?
I pulled for blade in 1.6 as my first 5 star then lost my ruan 50 and i don't regret it He is good for any starter in turn based games and we blade mains are still patiently waiting for his supporters
Gallagher is a solid healer for Blade. Heal on atk mechanics similar to Luochas, cleanse on his skill at e2 and turn advance mechanics on his ult for emergency heal/cleanse.
woah now this was unexpected. i thought he might have a place for dual dps JL team comps. but yeah i can somewhat see it, powercreep is nuts these days. hmm... i wonder if what could save blade from his despairity be a buffer that buffs from hp drains?
I think dual dps JL+Blade is very viable in PF. I've been running this duo with two good supports (any two of sparkle, robin, Ruan, bronya) for every PF until now and they put in a lot of work, easily getting 30k+ even while off element. It's definitely not the most optimal comp, but I can't be bothered building Herta+Himeko. It also kinda works for moc but it's a bit copium and usually you will have better options.
Jade is a good "support" for Blade. She drains her hp which counts as a stack for Blade and a speed boost. What Blade really needs is a support like Bronya who also drains HP
Well jade is gonna be his best option in a dual dps comp and it's pretty strong just slap on RM/Robin and I am pretty sure you have coverage on both PF,MOC, and APOCS.
You absolutely can run him dual-DPS with Jingliu. The problem is that supports have become so busted that a sub-DPS simply can't match them for value from a meta-perspective. Jingliu-Blade-RuanMei-Bronya is perhaps the best version of this but its not very comfy even for a no-sustain team because Jingliu is actively reducing everyone's health and she does this a lot. And if you add a sustain that means either Ruan Mei or Bronya have to go. Bronya is absolutely best for Jingliu, who is the main DPS, but her main buff is single target, which makes Blade's damage go down a lot. Ruan Mei is the best for Dual DPS teams since she buffs all DPS equally and adds some speed, but at the expense of Bronya who has such beautiful synergy with Jingliu and ends up making JIngliu slower because the action advance is way better for her than 10 speed.
I didnt bother getting him during his release banner because I was getting burnt out during that time and was taking a hiatus from the game, I came back in 1.4 and after using him as a support character I ended up really liking him as a character and felt fun to use him, in 1.6 I pulled for him instead of ruan mei, couldnt get his sig and was stuck with secret vow s2, built him for a month or two and he's really fun to use. Sadly after a while I realized how behind he was compared to my E0S1 JingLiu and even support E0S0 JL, later on I decided to just keep him in my 2nd MoC team after getting acheron and building a full team for her (pela sparkle fuxuan), now in this current patch I managed to get RM soft pity with guarantee and my blade has been benched since. Im really sad how I knew it was inevitably gonna happen at one point and sometimes I even kind of regret pulling for him but even now he's still the most fun character Ive ever played in the game. I hope hoyo does something in the future that will make him relevant again 🙏
I started playing during Blade's last banner. Got him at 2 pity in literally my first 10 pull of the game. I've never looked back. I adore him. HUSBANDOS OVER META
My first divergent universe run was with blade . He can do everything with so many buffs. Erudition path elation path propagation path destruction path hunt path. In the new game modes specially being versatile with path combos I think holds most weight and he’s really good his dps goes through the roof in DU with all the buffs he can use. Moc he still is strong and I use him whenever I see wind weakness
there is a nishe where blade will probably never (or rather not for a long time) be replaced, and that is aoe against enemies that apply dot's. Once his turn starts every single dot counts as a seperate hit towards him, combine that with an action advancer/speed buffer and you have 3-4 waves cleared per cycle taking only his followup into account bonus points for dot pure fiction, in which enemies move more often
I believe that many here have already pointed out, but Blade urgently needs a Support that buffs him based on lost and/or recovered HP. The only characters that currently help Blade are Bronya and Ruan Mei for the DMG/RES PEN buff, and Jingliu and Jade for ally HP drain. We need a support that does both, as Blade ends up having to share space with another DPS to constantly activate FuA, which inadvertently makes him the team's Sub-DPS. Blade depends on mechanics that don't yet exist in the game, in my opinion he was launched too early, just like Jing Yuan, if he had been created nowday, would be much stronger (like 4 stacks by standard, higher scaling, more buffs from the kit itself, etc.)
My theoretical blade support: Abundance character Basic: Basic damage to one ally. Regens party's energy by 8% of their max energy. Skill: Increases party's speed by 20% for 3 turns. Increases party's energy regeneration by 20% for 3 turns. Increases party's Max HP by 20% for 3 turns. Cuts damage taken by all allies by 500 for 3 turns. Removes 1 latest debuff to party. Ultimate: 150 energy Selects a "host" from the party (only 1 at a time) and applies a 1 time guts to them. >>>Every time an ally takes an action the host will take 300 HP of damage, then regenerates party's HP by 10% of their max HP(except the host). >>>Guts: Revives the ally with 50% of their own HP. Talent: Starts the battle with 100% energy. Other allies could use this character's stored energy for themselves. Additionally charges party's energy by 5% of their max energy every turn. Every time a character with the "host" buff takes damage, reduces their energy by 5%, then recovers their HP by 10% of own max HP. Additionally increases the energy regeneration of allies with "host" buff by 35%. When allies with no "host" buff recovers HP at full health, converts the recovered HP to shield. (up to 5000)
Imagine a character like Blade in Genshin where the character would deal more the more he got hit and would heal dealing additional damage. I would pay a pretty penny for character like Blade to be in Genshin Impact
I can see them adding a harmony unit that drains hp in exchange for buffs, kind of like how the new destruction march 7 or jade works where they mark a team mate to receive some sort of effect, ideally the harmony unit also adds extra hp through some trace, and gives a non-attack based buff like res pen, def ignore, or dmg boost. Essentially the unit takes a chunk of the marked team mate's hp and gives the entire team that buff
why i dont play blade: i dont have him i didnt play during his 1st banner and went for silverwolf then kafka (who strangely enough went linear in terms of banners) and now that i have ruan mei jingliu and huohuo i feel i finally have a team i can use him on
I still use blade a lot even though I got Firefly and Dan IL recently. His dps is definitely not comparable to the current meta units, and I do think he got outshined pretty badly. However, for me he's just very comfy to use in story quests and farming
The problem with Blade niche kit is that hoyo might avoid giving support for him because his archetype support wasn't mean anything to the whole roster, so we might need to wait to HP-based kit to be easily accessable (multiple character with HP based kit) so it is worth it for them to release the support.
As someone who plays blade i think his biggest future proof is the low so usuage I feel if they ever release a sp hungry support who is broken (maybe a reverse daniel use 3sp to grant massive buffs) blade would be able to use them so well and become super good again Supports are the life of a carry
Its so sad that blade does have a dedicated support, lynx, but her eidolons do nothing to increase his damage in spite of being the only character with a maxhp buff and a taunt that doesnt give a sheild
I think it's too early in the game to write off Blade when we haven't gotten an HP consumption harmony unit yet. I foresee in the future Huo Huo, Jade and Blade working together in tandem since Jade will speed up Blade and consume his HP faster and Huo Huo's healing, buffing and battery to spam his Ult more. Now all we're missing is a Harmony unit that directly interacts with HP consumption and this team will function better
Fr unlike in genshin impact where even if the character got powercrept that much, the combat is still less punishing and still enjoy the character unlike in HSR, it all depends on the turn that's why you can actually feel the dps loss every turn
yeahhhh i definitely think we could see Blade make a comeback as soon as we get more supports that cater to HP-scalers or can manipulate a teammate’s HP in exchange for dmg buffs… honestly i’m surprised we haven’t gotten any supports like this already but i’m sure it’ll happen eventually 🤔 well at least for now he’s still got the duo carry team with Jingliu
at least Jade is coming out soon with her skill reducing the HP of the ally she uses it on it probably won't be the perfect synergy since Jade's own kit seems to be very intentionally built to work with other erudition characters, but it's at least a second ally capable of damaging Blade
@@Eclipsed_Embers omg true! it completely slipped my mind that her kit had some HP manipulation in it lol but yeah at least players will have another option for Blade teams and hopefully down the line we’ll get a proper support character that has great synergy with him 🙌
@@colorlessguard I think it will be really nice to have a support who can increase max hp, manipulate hp or even apply dot to ally for buff. The Kafka stage in current PF just show how good Blade is if he gets a lot of dot dmg. My Blade became an Erudition character
You forgot to mention how he can quite easily get stuck at 1 hp in high level content and no longer drain hp for a while while you just have to pray you get ult or avoid damage.
Depends cuz this is an aggregiously SPD-heavy team. Probably his BIS if you have the SPD subs for them but 160/161 speed for multiple units is a huge ask.
its kinda bad, u take turns on buffs only shines when bronya skills and u inmediately ult to use sparkle + bronya and has the problem of overstacking damage bonus and crit do deminishing returns
my unlimited blade team was 9 cycle sec half this moc set up is 164 spd (sparkle e0s5 DDDlc) 161 spd (bronya e0s1sig lc ) (fuxuan e1s0) sustain did i do something wrong
The ideal support for Blade (and Arlan) would be a harmony character that takes away your health, increases your taunt, and increases the damage you deal. Something like a 5 star electro harmony character (since that is the most toxic combination i can think of)
I dont know, I just ironically combine him with Jinglui then let her mechanic trigger blade follow up in follow up team. Seems good in simulated universe with follow up or destruction path.
It's kinda funny that this video has been stressing about units that can drain unit's HP when there's literally Jade who can do that + give them speed and she's gonna arrive next banner. I think it's gonna happen sooner than we thought
@@Sared-gr2nlDoesn't his talent count every instance of DoT dmg separately though? I remember doing GnG with Nihility Extrapolation and he went from 2 to 5 stacks immediately after starting his turn and taking all DoT dmg... So maybe there is hope for it being the case that his own HP drain + Jades HP drain give him 2 stacks.
Blade feels like we just dont have the right character in game to make him work right. He feels like they put him out a way before the characters that make him work are ready. Like genshin and how many characters launch and feel clunky then half a year or year later the missing character that makes them work comes out.
My E0S0 FF does way more damage and much more often, with bottom of the barrel relics... I get that he has other advantages like being bulkier and SP positive but the gap in DPS between 1.0 and 2.0 characters is just crazy.
@@raymond7873 i haven't roll any new dps since 1.2 (yes i have ratio and build him rarely use) rn my team is clara hyper carry and blade speed turning still going through all moc clara carry hard this moc by 1 cycle first half meanwhile blade 9 cycle
I miss the 1.2 days when Blade was top tier. Now he's just barely hanging onto the meta. If a new support or a buff doesn't come soon. A new wind DPS and/or new HP DPS will probably bury the little value he has.
now I don't have blade but I think he will definitely see a lot more play if hoyo releases a dedicated support that perhaps allows him to trigger his fua far more often, among other things. just like with acheron's new best friend coming soon™
It's pretty nice that we're actually getting a character that could consume Blade's HP. By how much? By 2% every one of his turns. Now that's a lot, man, impressive. Jade looks like she has an actual decent synergy with Blade in multiple ways, but it can easily end up being nowhere near enough to make him relevant in the meta.
(Warning: leak related) Yes, I think from pre release testing they both actually deal more damage in hypercarry teams (since harmony units are busted), except maybe for specific situations like PF
What Blade needs is a support Imbibitor Lunae. Someone who consumes more sp for bigger buffs. He's the dps who consumes the least amount of sp in the roster, so even if this support is viable with other units they'll still be best suited for him.
I feel the second that we get a support that buffs you based on max HP or HP loss Blade will become a lot more relevant again. I still personally use him a lot and he still does a shit ton of damage even with a f2p LC(i do have busted supports tho) But he has fallen off a bit but he is definitely not a bad character.
Thats cope. Blade has got rly good supports already. even with sparkle bronya and ruan mei hes mid. theres hardly gonna be supports that do much more than that for him. hp buffing is nowhere near as good as action advance and he already gets a huge dmg% boost from rm and cdmg boost from sparkle. not to forget that lynx buffs hp and increases taunt value. theres nothing blade doesnt already have in terms of supports. This is not a xiao situation where he got faruzan and xianyun. this is nothing but copium. u can get e2 sparkle e1 rm and e1 s1 on blade for vertical invest but overall u get much more value on other chars. blades multipliers are unfortunately the problem and nothings gonna fix that
I think the good way to make him valuable is to slowly introduce hp based playstyle (simular to genshin and furina) I don't think that it should revolve around one support who buffs and drains hp, but they won't sell it rn. So what needs to be done, is introduction of the unit simular to blade and 4-star hp buffer/drainer. Another way is utilizing blade sp efficiency and introducing a harmony unit who can charge her skill like DHIL. Rn hoyo just isn't going that way, but when they would, i'm sure blade would be meta again
I wound up pulling him by accident when he realised, becasue I was trying to get as many Sushang copies as I could, and did so many pulls on his banner that I got first Clara (so win) and then him, all without getting a single Sushang. And then they gave her out for free a patch or two later. That having been said, now that I’ve built him up, I do use him all the time. Well he’s the only 5 star wind DPS I have, to the extent I’m building regular Dan Heng (though to be fair he’s mostly done) just so I have a second one. I got Blade’s Lightcone on his re-run and for a while one of the best teams I had fully built consisted of him, Loucha and his fellow Stelleron Hunters. A highlight of that team is that I used it against Sam in the story mission, and for the early clear of Sim-Uni 8/9 (the one with Sleepy as the final boss. Another twist is that Trend has also been reversed becasue I’m now using my Firefly team with Lynx to farm Kafka’s relic domain in the divergent universe.
Vars says Sparkle doesn't work well with blade but I guess he never heard about the unlimited blade works team (Blade + Bronya + Sparkle). I guess the argument against this is that it takes up some good supports but we have enough team archetypes so you can play other teams with other supports, i.e. FuA with Robin, Break with Ruan Mei.
it's not so important for high-spenders who always go for sig LCs, but for general usage I think another factor worth noting is how Blade's unique niche also means there aren't many Light Cones that he can get good use out of. For a long time after he released, he had literally one decent LC besides his signature and it was a gatcha LC so it couldn't be reliably raised to S5. For people who had him but not his LC that means he underperformed even more, it depressed the desire for people to pick him up in the first place, and on rerun when his place in the meta was already slipping people knew that they'd need to invest in both him and his signature just to get a unit that was okay at best.
If star rail starts to implement more hp manipulation characters like how they made firefly drain and heal herself, i believe there is a good chance they will release planar ornaments to complement the new characters which would in turn also buff clara and depending on the bonus also be a good pick for jingliu. I dont think they would release a 4pc for that though since the current ho set is very efficient to farm being with the messenger set and its probably only going to be a small difference because of the crit raye from hp set
I heard from a little oragami bird that there is an upcoming Erudition character that triggers a draining follow-up attack when her selected team mate makes a move.
As someone who’s been playing hsr since it came out I will admit Blade has somewhat fallen off in my DPS lineup since I obtained Acheron and the Kafka/Black Swan dot comp. As it stands, I can see 2 routes for increasing his value by either making him a tailored support (like Furina from gi) or another destruction character with purposeful synergy as opposed to Jingliu. For option one there would be an abundance/harmony unit that can convert excess healing into extra max HP or give other characters a dmg increase directly proportional to how much HP they have or lose/regenerate. Option two gets more experimental with a new destruction character that specializes in draining the HP of a selected ally that can be stacked all on one character or spread out across the team. For the sake of simplicity let’s assume they use enhanced basic attacks like Blade, their skill is like his where it is what enhances their basic, and they use minimal SP. Instead of damaging only themself or all characters on the team at once, their life drain can be selective. Even better, they can do this life drain a total of five times before they can no longer use their skill, so each dmg instance will count on Blade’s follow ups. To make this synergy even more apparent, said destruction character could even give the target ally they drain HP from some dmg reduction, increase their max HP, and convert some of the HP drained into a bit of extra energy in exchange for the target ally.
An Idea of a support that would boost not only Blade usability but also clara (and to an extent Yunli even tho she is not out yet), the first gacha game I played was saint seya awakening, that was also a turn base game, and by far the most used unit on that game for a long time was a unit that could link your entire team, and everyone would share the damage, not exactly a Fu xuan, as the damage was shared with the whole team, not mostly directed for one small girls shaped impenetrable fortress (you can think as a weaker version o SImuluated universe blessing), and there where units that could cut one character from the team off the link, so if you where to hit the isolated character, he would take the full damage. Now imagine a support that could link the whole team, so when someone gets hit, everyone takes a share of the damage, it would not only help trigger Blade's FUA but also constantly Clara's.
There's a reason they gave us a cutscene of Jingliu killing Blade. He has been the most interesting case study IMO for quite some time, especially because I never had him. I "tried him out" with that one event dungeon we had where we had the trial characters. Like you said, Luocha is the ONLY best sustain for him, but Gallagher could also work. I have a feeling there WILL be someone in the future who could support him, but that's also likely to come with new 5 ⭐DPS's who can use HP-based scaling mechanics. As crazy as it might sound, it might be possible to make a full "HP scaling team" in the future. The best team for Blade, currently, is the Jingliu-Blade dual carry. A no-sustain version of this team can in some circumstances funnel Tingyun/Bronya buffs into Jingliu and let her be the primary DPS while also draining everyone's HP allowing Blade to get the most mileage.
11:15 Jade is a unit that will drain an ally unit's HP, so hopefully she is the support/pairing that will make Blade good again. She also launches a FuA based on the number of enemies her tethered ally hits, and Blade has a lot of AOE, so hopefully she will buff Blade back to relevance again :3
Does Blade's low sp consumption make him the ultimate enabler for a Sparkle/Bronya combo? I would imagine that with Huo Huo for constant cleanse and ER boost, he would sap his own HP fast enough to do serious damage, plus HP boots would boost his damage and survivability while the action advance keeps him constantly attacking.
what we need is a harmony(or even abundance) character that can give a significent max hp increase, and provide a taunt onto a selected ally with their skill. now THAT would be perfect, and maybe even make the skill target take more damage too, so he can boost his ults dmg more
There should be a harmony unit where every time somebody does a follow up attack, the whole team takes a small amount of damage so he can mesh inside follow up teams
So vars. You owe me a hundred bucks.
Pay up vars
FUCK.
@@VarsII womp womp
Yeahhhh 😂
he really did it
"We love you Blade" we all say in unison
real
IN BLADE WE TRUST 🗣️
@@severedleg YEA IN BLADE WE THRUST
@@bbgkavehYOU DONT SPEAK FOR ME
In me Blade thrusts!
This is gonna age like the xiao video, blades gonna get 3 signiture best in slot supports and will deal bladillion damage.
REAL
First they need to introduce more HP scaling DPS, so they have a reason to make HP buffers
Fu xuan buffs hp.
@@samkeiser9776 her buff is so low it might just not be there, mine has 9800 HP and buffs like 600
@@samkeiser9776 fu xuan is not faruzan xianyun furina levels of buffing
never thought id see the day that a character i actually use becomes the target to one of these videos 💀
same 😭😭
"First time?" - an Albedo main
“First time?” - a Himeko main
I pick up characters to use based on these videos instead, lol
It's OK, we have snacks -Qiqi main
Remember guys, he doesn't start fights he ends them.
LMAO NOT THE WATCH MOJO VIDEO 😭
Truly the best wind destruction hp scaling dps of all time
Blade is my favourite glass cannon.
He doesn't hold a candle to my favorite character LA
Yea he ends them 5cycles too late :)
Blade is legitimately one of the most fun characters to play in this game, and I really hope he sees a comeback with future units and I’d hate to have such an enjoyable play style left in the dust as a result of bad luck
That follow up attack never gets old and I've been using him since his 1st banner. One day he will shine 🙏🙏🙏
I got him on his rerun and he's awesome. I use him in dual dps teams in PF (teammate dependant on enemy weakness).
this might just be a preference problem but i find nothing enjoyable from blade playstyle, hell i even hate it. all he does is basic, ult and wait for hit for fua (all brainlessly) just to deal underwhelming damage. he cant even boost his aggro by himself like clara so it gets really boring for me (this is coming from a former blade main)
@@Vias.I mean thats pretty loaded for a character in this game to begin with. Like what, do you prefer Acheron where you just slap debuffs, ult, repeat? Or FF you break deal dmg, enemy not broken no damage?
Like come on man you can’t act like his kit is boring, relatively it’s pretty cool however your comment about it not dealing enough damage though yeah I agree but thats the whole point of the video, he is basically the weakest limited 5 star dps now. Heck weakest limited 5 star in general even.
@@Radiant450 that just doesnt seem that “loaded” for me. About Acheron, u actually will have to think about anyway possible to maximize the amount of ult stacks u can gain, when to ult and when to not overcap stacks. But tbf, sometime it does get boring but at least i dont feel like im mindlessly just E blade enhance, Q enhanced basic, bronya/sparkle shoots him up, repeat. u dont even have to care about skill point because thats one of the few good thing about the guy’s kit. also firefly does require skills to play but the only problem with her is that she deals too much damage lol so the only time that you’ll feel like u need to actually make battle-changing decisions is like when ur dealing with her hard-counters like boss yanqing or boss SAM
Blade will never die , quite literally
He sure ain't living though, I hope he gets some unreasonably good supports like JY did
@@scylla1772jade kinda is
@@scylla1772 maybe Jade will help Blade comes back to Meta or if Yunli LC still increase the chance of being targeted then it will be for Him
@@gow_ Just for PF.
The DPS will be lower in MOC compared to Blade's classic Ruan Mei, Bronya comp.
@@scylla1772 Hoyo clearly love Jing Yuan man. And he still doesnt have his own dedicated summon supports too. Which is crazy how good he is now compared to 1.0.
Blade need some buffers that decrease his HP everytime teammates take actions. Then maybe this harmony increase his damage depending on his HP% or something.
Idk he just need Furina man...
As a Blade main, I feel like he doesn't have his best supports yet unlike many other characters
Yeah same here but when we do (get op support for him) we'll be on top of the world watching the world bow before us blade main
uh jingliu doesnt have her best support and she does better than blade. so you might just be coping there
The problem with blade is he needs a harmony or abundance character that buffs you based on how much health is healed or taken away or how much they get hit,hopefully we get one when we go back to the lufou
So he needs Furina?
@@michapiasta3072 Yes he needs star rail Furina lmao
Nah, bro fell of real hard 😂
@@michapiasta3072yes
@@tomlacapra22he still has mid scalings he will never be good and will be outshined by the next DPS who does the same thing as him
Blade was my first limited 5-star, he may not be the best but he is fun as heck and love his theme. No regrets at all
My immediate reaction to the notification was “NO VARS NO”. Anyways, in for the ride as usual
I legit screamed in pain and horror when the notification popped up. I knew a video of him would come someday, but not today!
@@lilithiris7 Uhhh... you okay?
@@VarsII bro is legit concerned😭😭💀💀
@@VarsII No.
@@lilithiris7 0:56 😮😮
Just imagine how OP blade gonna be if furina actually get in star rail
it is not impossible, in Genshin and Star Rail, we have seen Hoyo add supports to make older units better, so the questions is not whether they will but when. (however this could be along side a new HP scaling dps so we don't know how much it can raise Blade up)
True. Blade's situation feels like Xiao's in Genshin since he was also released in 1.x and one of his newer best support which is Faruzan didn't even come out until 3.x. Then there's Xianyun and Furina released in the 4.x that despite not being top tier makes him a more than strong enough character to comfortably 36 star the abyss.
to be fair, we already have something like that, if you pair Jingliu + Ruan Mei, you have something similar. Jingliu drains Blade HP to buff herself, Blade uses his FuA more often, and Ruan Mei buffs the entire team enabling dual-DPS teams.
This was one of the best teams in the game before Acheron entered the meta.
@@lucasayabe Correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like you don't play Genshin and not knowing that in Genshin, there are specialized buffers that basically serves no purpose other than buffing a certain type of character way more than any other buffers can. For example, Shenhe is basically dead weight if she isn't used to buff cryo DPS characters. There are currently no buffers that even come close to that level of niche-ness and Ruan Mei's roles in Blade's team can be compared to that of Furina's roles in Xiao's team just being a straightforward damage buffer as Xiao's rotation does not change regardless of Furina's HP drain.
@@lucasayabe jl+blade+ruan mei was a cope ass team. Hypercarry blade was already proven to be better dps wise according to calcs.
He wants people to saviour paradise for him
Savour*
@@justlivinglife6315 thank you for the correction
this breaks my heart to see my main finally get one
Poor Blade qwq My heart aches for him
"He (argenti) sorta just came outta nowhere and didn't stick around all that long" meanwhile, argenti constantly appears wherever the plot needs him to, and just automatically does whatever the plot needs him to, like the elder scrolls or chaos emeralds.
They could have easily made Argenti pretty much a one-off character so I’m glad they brung him back in the main story for a bit.
@@waun11 oh same here. I ADORE the fact he's just here because the writers looked at some of these plot points and were like "argenti?...argenti." and called it a day.
@@boltdragon31
"how do we fill the plot hole?"
".. Argenti?"
"..."
"..."
"...Argenti it is."
@@boltdragon31 FR!!! and the fact that it's not limited to a main quest or event but even the SIDE QUESTS!!! he is so good and will always be one of my faves
Argenti just randomly appearing is my favourite thing about the new patches and I hope it becomes a consistent thing for him to just fucking appear out of nowhere wherever we go
Personally I think this should've been a what happened to video and not a why no one plays. Blade's a victim of circumstance, atm it's mainly just the fact that every other DPS archetype (DOT, break, nihility, FUA, and hypercarry) has fully realized top tier supports, but there isn't anything like that for HP scalers like there is in Genshin. Making this a why no one plays implicitly places Blade around the same tier as Physical Trailblazer, Arlan, Yanqing, and Herta/Himeko before Pure Fiction, and that just doesn't sit right with me at all because Blade is still completely viable and I'd even say he's still a GOOD unit, unlike any of those previous ones. Would've made more sense to me to make this as a what happened to video because like Welt and Seele, Blade started out exceptionally strong and then ran into circumstances that caused them to fall off in most players eyes.
However, just like Welt and Seele, Blade is still completely useable for most content without the absurd amount of investment it takes to make characters typically put into why no one plays episodes even function properly in the first place, let alone actually be somewhat good, and I think it's a disservice to the man when there's already an established type of video for "this character was really good, but due to circumstances is still a strong unit, just isn't as popular anymore, why is that?" instead of throwing him in with the trash. Why no one plays characters like Yanqing Phys TB and Arlan are "fundamentally weak characters that don't have a workaround for their many inherent weaknesses without insane investment to even make them playable" whereas what happened to are for characters like Welt and Seele that are "strong characters that got pushed out by circumstances BUT are more than capable of coming back and being strong depending on new units or a certain Moc Buff" (Welt Sustain, Mono Quantum) Of those two options blade is significantly closer to the second.
Also, Jade is coming out soon, who has a hp drain for an ally on her skill with a big spd buff and gets more FUA attacks from allies that can hit multiple enemies, so yeah, Blade might already start coming back if her hp drain counts as a separate instance of damage to both double blades FUA output and then in turn give Jade more FUA's.
Her hp drain does trigger his talent
I don't necessarily disagree but by this logic then Arlan would also be benefitted by a support that buffs HP Loss, Yanqing with a specialized support also could come back but lets be real, as of right now the chances of that happening are either very slim to none, since its more likely that new supports get added for new niches or for already existing meta picks.
I agree with this it implies that this "problem" makes him as bad as certain characters (though it honestly depends on set up)
Blade a decent unit but there have been stats showing that he has definitely fallen off in usage rate, which seems appropriate to warrant putting him in a "why no one plays". Doesn't help that MoC, PF, AS don't have much Wind weaknesses either recently, and Black swan out damages him. He's honestly more useful in PF nowadays just like Herta/Hime. Yeah he not as bad as the other units u listed, but he's mid comparably to the rest. He does need a dedicated hp oriented support but until then his usage rate will stay low.
Also yes Jade does work the way you think with blade
@@thebhristopher967 I understand that in terms of Moc his usage rate is off but I think overall he's not mid definitely not broken but yeah I use him all the time and the stats only show how little he's used in these game modes by a certain percent of the playerbase I understand he lacking certain means of damage but with his kit I doubt the devs will buff him with a damage draining support the likely solution is a taunt support
You can’t make me quit this character… ever
Main Blade Forever
hows moc going for ya
@@solarenity Haven’t played in a long time but blade still works, I hope he gets a support that works with him soon tho 🤞
Blade's E2 is such a waste, it only gives 15% Crit Rate when it could've been so much more...
His biggest issue has always been the lack of consistency in getting his stacks off, so if his E2 was able to split DMG from allies to him instead, he could do damage cuz of his FUA, and be nearly unkillable due to constant heals.
Meanwhile Jingliu gets 50% crit rate by doing nothing
@@viniciusespindola7238 and Daniel gets a wholeass extra turn, and so does Firefly, om
acheron get to pick a whole ass new support,oh don't forget her crit is at e1 too.
Eidolon powercreep is real!!!!
I'm sure the dev team considered giving certain DPS's taunts, but decided not to, because they could potentially break the game. Both Clara and Blade rely on getting hit, but that mechanic has to remain reliable without utterly breaking the game in the player's favor. If it was too strong, "retaliate meta" would be everyone's go-to team at least for a short time
The thing with Blade is that he's a Wind dps coverage, and we only have him + Dan Heng on that specific role, so he has his own niche there. The problem is whether it's better to run him over brute-forcing comps (mono quantum or self implant dps like Boothill and Firefly).
Also in order for Hoyo to release more HP scaling support they'd need to release more HP scaling dps first, which will also diminish Blade's value even more.
I'm a sad man, because I have neither Blade nor Black Swan. Therefore, Sampo and Dan Heng are my only wind characters, and Dan Heng is unfortunately just a single-target version of Destruction TB.
@@angeldiaz762 I don't have them either but most wind focused stages/mobs also favor DoT, so you can prolly make do with Scampo for now (assuming you have Kafka). Once the next Wind dps releases it's prolly gonna shake up their enemy design by a lot.
@@saito853 No Kafka. But I have Acheron
”I live in an eternal midgatory, and other destruction characters, they are good at making it for me”
Remember, Blade is a glass cannon.
A glass cannon means a very powerful but squishy character. Blade is neither of those. He's a bruiser.
@@lewsee5562it’s a joke in the community, memeing on the watch mojo HSR top list video who said that “blade is a glass cannon” and “he doesn’t start fights, he *ends* them”
@@lewsee5562 I know, it’s just an inside joke with those who watched the watchmojo star rail tierlist 😭
Blade doesn't start fights, he ENDS them
He doesn't start fights, he ENDS them
Making this video before Jade's release is very reminiscent of Himeko WNOP before Pure Fiction's release lol
Jade has nothing to do with Blade, she is follow-up team specialist ideal for Pure Fiction
@SmithyPL Jades skill drains hp from the target she buffs. Blade can blast and aoe attack, There is some synergy there even if it's not custom made for an HP scaler.
@@SmithyPL Jade is basically 6 eidolons for Blade. He does aoe, she cares about that, drains his hp and lets him wear hp boots. They are a great pairing only limited by the fact that the best buffer for them is the best buffer for everyone (Ruan Mei)
@@SmithyPL Jade's skill places a mark on an ally and they take HP every time they take a turn. If Blade is said ally, he loses HP essentially two times and gains two stacks of his talent for his follow up. Jade and Blade would go hard in a PF that's follow up attack buffed
@@SmithyPL ...do yourself a favor: read the replies above and rewatch the 2.3 livestream on Jade's kit.
Once an actual hp buffer or an aggro buffer, the tables will turn. Blade finds power in moving as frequently as possible, so aggro buffing directly converts it into more fua and ultimate damage.
Lynx 🤨
@Kam1_9 Lynx doesn't really offer much for Blade, and I say this as someone who tried to stick by the comp for the longest. The aggro is decent, but the HP increase isn't much and the heal is small in comparison to his HP pool. Luocha and Gallagher can heal for way more for him.
Jade will be a must have for him since they can help each other build stacks pretty quickly.
Lynx buffs are so non-existent to the point that his damage doesn't change that much @Kam1_9
I thought the same thing lol😅@@Kam1_9
Nah, if u play him in his optimal team comp (w/ Bronya or another Action Advancer) Lynx's buff will almost never get used.@@Kam1_9
I remember a comment from a year ago saying that Vars will make a "WNOP video about Blade" and Vars made a deal with him saying that if it does happen Vars has to give him 100 bucks LOL
Edit: it was 11 months ago, the comment back then was made by Dooood24
It’ll only get worse for Blade when they inevitably release another Wind DPS since that’s one of his few remaining boons rn
Feixiao General of Yaoqing, wind hunt path, wait at 2.5
@@eugene3308 also according to leakets, she is going to be at acheron lvl.
Blade is doomed.
Ironic that Blade is still one of my most used units despite having an E2 Acheron, DHIL, and now Firefly. His simplicity and consistency as well as having true aoe makes me still use him for whenever I have no idea who to use. I even throw him at wind weak sides to this day despite having Kafka+Black Swan since, again, he's so consistent and versatile. Also, with unlimited blade works setup he absolutely still has a place imo
So should fully invest on him? I have rappa as dps but i need to build another dps, i have blade and seele
"There's no character that can attack his own teammates"
Jingliu :
He was my first true main and I still hold him in high regard because he carried my ass on Swarm Disaster which he thrived in due to him being hard to take down.
Although yeah of the Xianzhou trinity of Destruction units, he aged relatively poorly. The lack of dedicated supports became a detriment and not to mention all Destruction units succeeding him were overtuned AF despite having different niches to fill.
In my opinion this video should've rather been a "what happened to..." instead of a "why no one plays..." because the only significant Issue blade currently faces is that, unlike other dps', he doesn't have a specific dedicated hp scaling or aggravate support. Though a victim of circumstance as well, being released before jingliu and dan heng il, I would argue he is still a good unit, just not top tier like before powercreep. A lot of ppl also skipped him to pull for other characters like Daniel, Jingliu, as well as Ruan mei on his rerun. He's niche but he does clear a lot of the main content, and it's also easier to build him since he only scales off hp.
For most five-stars that we have, the rule of thumb is "if the elements match, the DPS is good." But the problem is that since most bosses have three weakness elements, and a fourth if you use an Implant character, nobody uses wind if they can supply the other element
honestly, the main issue with blade is that theres no support unit that has true synergy with him; if they add supports that buff hp scaling or constant hp changes (its a possibility since firefly has a similar situation with her hp percentage changing pretty often) it would be a possible buff. that, or adding a planar/relic set that focuses on hp changes would buff him similarly to how jing yuan got buffed that one time via relic set.
also i just have to say; he does go really well with fu xuan? she doesnt take away all of the damage, so his FuA trigger still fills while the hits he takes just hurt less (hell, this has saved me a few times when his hp got dangerously low).
maybe its just bias, but imo this should of been a 'what happened to' video... especially since theres no mention of jade in the video, who is coming very soon and might potentially buff him due to her gimmick. his situation honestly doesnt feel as dire as, say, yanqings for example; blade just lacks proper supports, theres honestly nothing wrong with his kit.
i personally still use him in MoC at least (usually on the same team as dhil funnily enough). atm hes a great sub dps if you can manage the rest of the teams sp efficiently enough, and is one my comfiest characters to grind with. genuinely one of my favourite characters both lore wise and playstyle wise.
Yay Someone who uses Blade and Lunae
My account was pretty stunt 😔
The combo of Blade and Lunae gave me super boost and I was able to clear The SU
@@yourmissright7theyre one of my favourite teams to play!! if weaknesses fit i usually pair them together with tingyun and huohuo as supports
tbh i think sparkle works well with bronya or other future harmony
Holy cow what power creep did to my boy???😢 still my go to wind dps
People still worry about elemental coverage? Lmao
@@ABC-yj6cy Back in 1.x it mattered, then Hoyo released Acheron, FF, and Boothill who outright ignored the whole elemental coverage strat and powercreeped all 1.x units.
@@ABC-yj6cyeven tho I have nearly all the characters (including SW, Acheron, and firefly), I often try to do that regardless, unless I wanna do something like using SW just cuz. This is a privilege of a long time player, so like around a year imo. So ye, element coverage is still important.
TDLR: Ye, but less so now for the majority of people who have played for a while, or have characters who have those specific abilities to enable
@@ABC-yj6cyphysical is my “weakest” element 😂
Same he's my wind dps too :'3 though I have all the quantum- and my 4 star quantum are all e6..
If they buffed blade:
When using skill he is more likely to be attacked for 4 turns(with effect resistance and damage reduction)
fua stack from 5 - 4(e6 4 - 3)
When blade uses Fua he gets a hp heal over time(3 turns)
What blade needs is a buff to his trace multipliers
100% HP - 175% HP (200% for fua)
40% atk - 150% atk (200% for fua)
Would fix everything
Basically overtuning him like every other DPS that came after him
@@IlyaV2 damn... good point ig
they dont buff characters
also please get his e2 on his base kit cus if jingliu can have free crit stats on enhanced state, why can't blade?
@@Dead_Hitori of course they don't
But still we can talk about how a character could have been better if they did certain things in the beta
Never thought I'd see Jing yuan someday overtake Blade. Oh how the tables have turned
Bro JIng Yuan has overtake him for a loong time by now. Because Hoyo keep release JY support and abandon Blade.
Jing Yuan and Kafka are the only early limited dps that are still relevant in the meta. Just because Jing Yuan's main thing is follow up attack just makes him superior in the current meta, and his potential hasn't even fully shown yet since I guess they don't want a 1.0 dps to power creep everyone lmao. But he'll only get better by time since unlike Blade or Seelie, he don't have weird limiting mechanics or scaling and is a simple crit dps. It's hard to buff someone else without buffing him.
@@towa7916 with how limiting his team comp is he would be solid A but never S tier like Acheron. Even that would mean Id never touch the man though sadly
With Jade on the horizon Blade might get his “dedicated support” since she has some HP manipulation and offensive support capabilities. So he might have a chance of coming back.
Sure but its not going to be Jade specifically... Harmony units are so busted you are better off running them both seperatly as hypercarries, even though Jade IS supposed to be a sub dps😢 She really got no love in her beta and the devs overtuned Firefly to hell and back
@@hhyyiktylm ye jades looking like a skip idk
That's unfortunate. I love Blade but I ain't pulling Jade, she's a hard skip for me
On the bright side Jiaoqiu should be good for him since he likes debuffs
@@HazZzel-they done nerf my boy jaioqiu now. he's just 5star pela atp
Finally got Jingliu so that ultra comfy ice/wind comp has been very fun to run as of late
Recently, even JL is starting to feel like she had fallen off. I've been trying to find a new way to play her but her main team is still the best. Mine still does 250K damage every skill cast, but when I compare her to DHIL (that was buffed by Sparkle), Acheron teams, Kafka + Black swan duo, and the new Firefly break team... Yeah... She doesn't feel as powerful anymore. Even the FUA team had managed to top her even if you only have Ratio + Topaz + Robin.
@@allentayoto7387 I feel the same way
@@allentayoto7387 its just because most traditional crit based DPS are kinda not favored by endgame right now, because they gotta find a way to boost their break effect toys sales. if you notice not only JL and Blade, but every single traditional hypercarry crit based dps (so no Acheron/FUA) is kinda struggling. Seele, Jing Yuan, Argenti, JL, Blade, hell even DHIL are kind of dropping down a bit right now because the buffs kind of benefit break teams a great deal more. I mean they still can clear content and can devastate, but that would require like twenty times the amount of investment you would require to build a functional Firefly team lol
@@allentayoto7387 She was really never that Op to begin with. Her multiplier is low. The only reason why she was insane is because how easy she is to build compared to any other character in exchange of how low her multipliers are.
Not even just Ratio team that has outdpsed her. Even Jing Yuan comp has officially outdps-ed Jingliu comp with Robin,JY,Huohuo comp only being about 8% lower DPS compared to DHIL+Sparkle comp which just Outclassed any Jingliu comp by 20%+.
It's not Jingliu's fault tho. It's just that to deal actual damage you need to break the enemies these days. It's just easy for Hoyo to powercreep units.
But the real pain is Blade. Blade is outdps-ed by any 5 star DPS at the moment. Im a Blade main and im a bit sad honestly.
@@ra6765The problem isn’t buffs but scaling. DoT, Break and Acheron just have to much scaling compared to other characters having only Ruan as kind of signature support. Once all of them have their signature supports the difference will be insane
Blade can make use of sparkle its one of his best teams called Unlimited blade works. Combining Bronya and sparkles turn advances would normally be to sp consuming but with blades low sp consumption he can make us of this combination to do 4 turns in one cycle with 0 speed in a team with 161+ speed sparkle and 160 speed bronya. Plus do to bronya and sparkle spamming their skills its stacks sparkles talent quickly and permanently.
Honestly, Blade is kinda easily fix by just removing his atk scaling, buff his hp scaling and replace the A4 trace by giving him an aggro increase (like by 500%)
Argo isn’t that consistent, Even in my Clara team with her ult and agro increase from lynx, the enemy will some how still hit my tingyun for some god forsaken reason
It isn't that consistent yeah, but it's still better than giving a unit that's supposed to tank absolutely nothing to draw aggro
@@brycecai4700 tingyun has infinite aggro, i asked dawei himself
@@zar236Can confirm I was the janitor that was listening to you asking
Everyone keeps saying aggro increase but honestly splitting damage is just so much better, anyone else who gets hit, Blade gets hit, basically a Destruction Fu Xuan lol
Blade saved my bacon when he came out, nearly all of the luofu enemies are weak to wind and I didn't have Sampo. Nowadays I use him in simulated universe with Jingliu to get stacks faster. But Black Swan is way faster at killing enemies in a dot team than anything Blade can do.
ontop of him needing more specialized supports that we dont have, another thing that could be cool is seeing something like a relic set that can scale off hp and have an effect based off hp loss, could work for him and maybe also arlan?
Sure it’ll be a Blade buff but when that happens Hoyo will definitely be releasing someone who does everything Blade does but 5 times better😭
I pulled for blade in 1.6 as my first 5 star then lost my ruan 50 and i don't regret it
He is good for any starter in turn based games and we blade mains are still patiently waiting for his supporters
cope
Hurts to see him in here. Gonna save all my Jades from now for that one support that could speed him up, damage him, and make use of his follow ups.
Gallagher is a solid healer for Blade. Heal on atk mechanics similar to Luochas, cleanse on his skill at e2 and turn advance mechanics on his ult for emergency heal/cleanse.
woah now this was unexpected. i thought he might have a place for dual dps JL team comps. but yeah i can somewhat see it, powercreep is nuts these days. hmm... i wonder if what could save blade from his despairity be a buffer that buffs from hp drains?
I think dual dps JL+Blade is very viable in PF. I've been running this duo with two good supports (any two of sparkle, robin, Ruan, bronya) for every PF until now and they put in a lot of work, easily getting 30k+ even while off element. It's definitely not the most optimal comp, but I can't be bothered building Herta+Himeko. It also kinda works for moc but it's a bit copium and usually you will have better options.
Jade is a good "support" for Blade. She drains her hp which counts as a stack for Blade and a speed boost. What Blade really needs is a support like Bronya who also drains HP
Well jade is gonna be his best option in a dual dps comp and it's pretty strong just slap on RM/Robin and I am pretty sure you have coverage on both PF,MOC, and APOCS.
You absolutely can run him dual-DPS with Jingliu. The problem is that supports have become so busted that a sub-DPS simply can't match them for value from a meta-perspective. Jingliu-Blade-RuanMei-Bronya is perhaps the best version of this but its not very comfy even for a no-sustain team because Jingliu is actively reducing everyone's health and she does this a lot. And if you add a sustain that means either Ruan Mei or Bronya have to go. Bronya is absolutely best for Jingliu, who is the main DPS, but her main buff is single target, which makes Blade's damage go down a lot. Ruan Mei is the best for Dual DPS teams since she buffs all DPS equally and adds some speed, but at the expense of Bronya who has such beautiful synergy with Jingliu and ends up making JIngliu slower because the action advance is way better for her than 10 speed.
Blade's meta is like how his life works, not really dead but not quite alive either. Tragic
I didnt bother getting him during his release banner because I was getting burnt out during that time and was taking a hiatus from the game, I came back in 1.4 and after using him as a support character I ended up really liking him as a character and felt fun to use him, in 1.6 I pulled for him instead of ruan mei, couldnt get his sig and was stuck with secret vow s2, built him for a month or two and he's really fun to use. Sadly after a while I realized how behind he was compared to my E0S1 JingLiu and even support E0S0 JL, later on I decided to just keep him in my 2nd MoC team after getting acheron and building a full team for her (pela sparkle fuxuan), now in this current patch I managed to get RM soft pity with guarantee and my blade has been benched since. Im really sad how I knew it was inevitably gonna happen at one point and sometimes I even kind of regret pulling for him but even now he's still the most fun character Ive ever played in the game. I hope hoyo does something in the future that will make him relevant again 🙏
He's a stellaron hunter, I'm sure Hoyo will do something about him, it's why I have high hopes he won't be abandoned :)
I will dispatch of you in seven cycles.
I started playing during Blade's last banner. Got him at 2 pity in literally my first 10 pull of the game. I've never looked back. I adore him. HUSBANDOS OVER META
My first divergent universe run was with blade . He can do everything with so many buffs. Erudition path elation path propagation path destruction path hunt path. In the new game modes specially being versatile with path combos I think holds most weight and he’s really good his dps goes through the roof in DU with all the buffs he can use. Moc he still is strong and I use him whenever I see wind weakness
there is a nishe where blade will probably never (or rather not for a long time) be replaced, and that is aoe against enemies that apply dot's. Once his turn starts every single dot counts as a seperate hit towards him, combine that with an action advancer/speed buffer and you have 3-4 waves cleared per cycle taking only his followup into account
bonus points for dot pure fiction, in which enemies move more often
I believe that many here have already pointed out, but Blade urgently needs a Support that buffs him based on lost and/or recovered HP. The only characters that currently help Blade are Bronya and Ruan Mei for the DMG/RES PEN buff, and Jingliu and Jade for ally HP drain. We need a support that does both, as Blade ends up having to share space with another DPS to constantly activate FuA, which inadvertently makes him the team's Sub-DPS. Blade depends on mechanics that don't yet exist in the game, in my opinion he was launched too early, just like Jing Yuan, if he had been created nowday, would be much stronger (like 4 stacks by standard, higher scaling, more buffs from the kit itself, etc.)
My theoretical blade support:
Abundance character
Basic:
Basic damage to one ally.
Regens party's energy by 8% of their max energy.
Skill:
Increases party's speed by 20% for 3 turns.
Increases party's energy regeneration by 20% for 3 turns.
Increases party's Max HP by 20% for 3 turns.
Cuts damage taken by all allies by 500 for 3 turns.
Removes 1 latest debuff to party.
Ultimate: 150 energy
Selects a "host" from the party (only 1 at a time) and applies a 1 time guts to them.
>>>Every time an ally takes an action the host will take 300 HP of damage, then regenerates party's HP by 10% of their max HP(except the host).
>>>Guts: Revives the ally with 50% of their own HP.
Talent:
Starts the battle with 100% energy.
Other allies could use this character's stored energy for themselves.
Additionally charges party's energy by 5% of their max energy every turn.
Every time a character with the "host" buff takes damage, reduces their energy by 5%, then recovers their HP by 10% of own max HP.
Additionally increases the energy regeneration of allies with "host" buff by 35%.
When allies with no "host" buff recovers HP at full health, converts the recovered HP to shield. (up to 5000)
Imagine a character like Blade in Genshin where the character would deal more the more he got hit and would heal dealing additional damage. I would pay a pretty penny for character like Blade to be in Genshin Impact
Hu Tao does that
I can see them adding a harmony unit that drains hp in exchange for buffs, kind of like how the new destruction march 7 or jade works where they mark a team mate to receive some sort of effect, ideally the harmony unit also adds extra hp through some trace, and gives a non-attack based buff like res pen, def ignore, or dmg boost. Essentially the unit takes a chunk of the marked team mate's hp and gives the entire team that buff
why i dont play blade: i dont have him i didnt play during his 1st banner and went for silverwolf then kafka (who strangely enough went linear in terms of banners) and now that i have ruan mei jingliu and huohuo i feel i finally have a team i can use him on
I would love a Halloween themed healer who gives a lot of health but also takes health form the team
I still use blade a lot even though I got Firefly and Dan IL recently. His dps is definitely not comparable to the current meta units, and I do think he got outshined pretty badly. However, for me he's just very comfy to use in story quests and farming
The problem with Blade niche kit is that hoyo might avoid giving support for him because his archetype support wasn't mean anything to the whole roster, so we might need to wait to HP-based kit to be easily accessable (multiple character with HP based kit) so it is worth it for them to release the support.
As someone who plays blade i think his biggest future proof is the low so usuage
I feel if they ever release a sp hungry support who is broken (maybe a reverse daniel use 3sp to grant massive buffs) blade would be able to use them so well and become super good again
Supports are the life of a carry
Its so sad that blade does have a dedicated support, lynx, but her eidolons do nothing to increase his damage in spite of being the only character with a maxhp buff and a taunt that doesnt give a sheild
(he does have that driver's license tho!)
I think it's too early in the game to write off Blade when we haven't gotten an HP consumption harmony unit yet. I foresee in the future Huo Huo, Jade and Blade working together in tandem since Jade will speed up Blade and consume his HP faster and Huo Huo's healing, buffing and battery to spam his Ult more. Now all we're missing is a Harmony unit that directly interacts with HP consumption and this team will function better
When Seele disappear among the sea of butterfly only makes me realize how gross is the power creep in Star Rail.
Fr unlike in genshin impact where even if the character got powercrept that much, the combat is still less punishing and still enjoy the character unlike in HSR, it all depends on the turn that's why you can actually feel the dps loss every turn
@@techzoneyt3167 Yeah, at least your own skill makes character work but in a turn based game is all about numbers, bad numbers = bad character.
@@Gr0s3d right? even if you have that high IQ in the game, not to mention the enemies are getting powercrept as well 😭. That is just unfair
@@techzoneyt3167 not really, genshin is an incredibly easy game. If the game was actually hard, you would feel worse powercreep than hsr.
@@zeer7676 Don't get me wrong im talking about hsr here.
I like how Vars goes on about Blade’s ideal support and it’s just what Jade does lol
yeahhhh i definitely think we could see Blade make a comeback as soon as we get more supports that cater to HP-scalers or can manipulate a teammate’s HP in exchange for dmg buffs… honestly i’m surprised we haven’t gotten any supports like this already but i’m sure it’ll happen eventually 🤔 well at least for now he’s still got the duo carry team with Jingliu
at least Jade is coming out soon with her skill reducing the HP of the ally she uses it on
it probably won't be the perfect synergy since Jade's own kit seems to be very intentionally built to work with other erudition characters, but it's at least a second ally capable of damaging Blade
@@Eclipsed_Embers omg true! it completely slipped my mind that her kit had some HP manipulation in it lol
but yeah at least players will have another option for Blade teams and hopefully down the line we’ll get a proper support character that has great synergy with him 🙌
@@colorlessguard I think it will be really nice to have a support who can increase max hp, manipulate hp or even apply dot to ally for buff. The Kafka stage in current PF just show how good Blade is if he gets a lot of dot dmg. My Blade became an Erudition character
You forgot to mention how he can quite easily get stuck at 1 hp in high level content and no longer drain hp for a while while you just have to pray you get ult or avoid damage.
Unlimited Blade Works is really good, tho. It even got upgraded with Robin now.
Depends cuz this is an aggregiously SPD-heavy team. Probably his BIS if you have the SPD subs for them but 160/161 speed for multiple units is a huge ask.
its kinda bad, u take turns on buffs only shines when bronya skills and u inmediately ult to use sparkle + bronya and has the problem of overstacking damage bonus and crit do deminishing returns
Funny thing is arlan prob better than blade in that comp because het fully benefit from robin buff
my unlimited blade team was 9 cycle sec half this moc set up is 164 spd (sparkle e0s5 DDDlc)
161 spd (bronya e0s1sig lc )
(fuxuan e1s0) sustain
did i do something wrong
@@bloxfruitsteve nah its just blade
The ideal support for Blade (and Arlan) would be a harmony character that takes away your health, increases your taunt, and increases the damage you deal. Something like a 5 star electro harmony character (since that is the most toxic combination i can think of)
Not to mention we don't have any suitable light cone for him
Only 1 4star and barely do anything for him
If you don't have his 5star light cone
I dont know, I just ironically combine him with Jinglui then let her mechanic trigger blade follow up in follow up team. Seems good in simulated universe with follow up or destruction path.
Aw man, that's my main. Time to watch I guess.
It's kinda funny that this video has been stressing about units that can drain unit's HP when there's literally Jade who can do that + give them speed and she's gonna arrive next banner.
I think it's gonna happen sooner than we thought
I’m interested to see if jade will help him. Since it was said that jade’s contracts take hp away from the unit it’s on when they attack.
It happens at the same time the character attacks, so theres a chance for the talent to count it as only 1 instance of HP loss
shes gonna be good for pf but for moc not much of a difference
@@Sared-gr2nlDoesn't his talent count every instance of DoT dmg separately though?
I remember doing GnG with Nihility Extrapolation and he went from 2 to 5 stacks immediately after starting his turn and taking all DoT dmg...
So maybe there is hope for it being the case that his own HP drain + Jades HP drain give him 2 stacks.
@@Sared-gr2nlno, Blade gains 2 stacks, 1 from attack animation starts and another one when attack lands on the enemies, I saw the showcases
Blade feels like we just dont have the right character in game to make him work right. He feels like they put him out a way before the characters that make him work are ready. Like genshin and how many characters launch and feel clunky then half a year or year later the missing character that makes them work comes out.
The fact that this is a E6 Blade I'm watching doing 40k dmg basic and 100k follow-up 😭
lower than my e0 blade :vv
My E0S0 FF does way more damage and much more often, with bottom of the barrel relics... I get that he has other advantages like being bulkier and SP positive but the gap in DPS between 1.0 and 2.0 characters is just crazy.
@@raymond7873 i haven't roll any new dps since 1.2 (yes i have ratio and build him rarely use) rn my team is clara hyper carry and blade speed turning still going through all moc clara carry hard this moc by 1 cycle first half meanwhile blade 9 cycle
feels like a build issue because my e1s1 blade deals a lot more damage easily with e0s0 suppprts, at least when theres wind weaknesses
@@justsomeoneontheinternet5764 what team does u use
I miss the 1.2 days when Blade was top tier. Now he's just barely hanging onto the meta. If a new support or a buff doesn't come soon. A new wind DPS and/or new HP DPS will probably bury the little value he has.
now I don't have blade but I think he will definitely see a lot more play if hoyo releases a dedicated support that perhaps allows him to trigger his fua far more often, among other things. just like with acheron's new best friend coming soon™
I think the appeal of playing Blade is basically, if your enemy kills your before you kill them, Blade will not die before you can kill the enemy.
It's pretty nice that we're actually getting a character that could consume Blade's HP. By how much? By 2% every one of his turns. Now that's a lot, man, impressive.
Jade looks like she has an actual decent synergy with Blade in multiple ways, but it can easily end up being nowhere near enough to make him relevant in the meta.
(Warning: leak related) Yes, I think from pre release testing they both actually deal more damage in hypercarry teams (since harmony units are busted), except maybe for specific situations like PF
What Blade needs is a support Imbibitor Lunae. Someone who consumes more sp for bigger buffs. He's the dps who consumes the least amount of sp in the roster, so even if this support is viable with other units they'll still be best suited for him.
blade didnt die, just the wind weakness in general
Imagine if they add DHIL as a harmony or nihility character ,Blade would love that so much because of his small sp usage
this is absolutely outrageous
Mad cope
Give king blade an hp buffer OR zhongli treatment, we need one of those two
That one pinned guy from “How Blade is OP Without Powercreeping the Game” was right 😭
I feel the second that we get a support that buffs you based on max HP or HP loss Blade will become a lot more relevant again. I still personally use him a lot and he still does a shit ton of damage even with a f2p LC(i do have busted supports tho) But he has fallen off a bit but he is definitely not a bad character.
Blade is good but I don’t really use him anymore
"Blade is good but i dont really use him anymore cuz he's not that good compared to any other DPS"
There i translated your message.
@@prophetmuhammad3890 thx
Blade, my goat. I got E1 of him whilst trying to get Arlan. Been a devoted Blade user till this day.
Thats cope. Blade has got rly good supports already. even with sparkle bronya and ruan mei hes mid. theres hardly gonna be supports that do much more than that for him. hp buffing is nowhere near as good as action advance and he already gets a huge dmg% boost from rm and cdmg boost from sparkle. not to forget that lynx buffs hp and increases taunt value. theres nothing blade doesnt already have in terms of supports. This is not a xiao situation where he got faruzan and xianyun. this is nothing but copium.
u can get e2 sparkle e1 rm and e1 s1 on blade for vertical invest but overall u get much more value on other chars. blades multipliers are unfortunately the problem and nothings gonna fix that
I think the good way to make him valuable is to slowly introduce hp based playstyle (simular to genshin and furina) I don't think that it should revolve around one support who buffs and drains hp, but they won't sell it rn. So what needs to be done, is introduction of the unit simular to blade and 4-star hp buffer/drainer. Another way is utilizing blade sp efficiency and introducing a harmony unit who can charge her skill like DHIL. Rn hoyo just isn't going that way, but when they would, i'm sure blade would be meta again
I wound up pulling him by accident when he realised, becasue I was trying to get as many Sushang copies as I could, and did so many pulls on his banner that I got first Clara (so win) and then him, all without getting a single Sushang. And then they gave her out for free a patch or two later. That having been said, now that I’ve built him up, I do use him all the time. Well he’s the only 5 star wind DPS I have, to the extent I’m building regular Dan Heng (though to be fair he’s mostly done) just so I have a second one. I got Blade’s Lightcone on his re-run and for a while one of the best teams I had fully built consisted of him, Loucha and his fellow Stelleron Hunters. A highlight of that team is that I used it against Sam in the story mission, and for the early clear of Sim-Uni 8/9 (the one with Sleepy as the final boss.
Another twist is that Trend has also been reversed becasue I’m now using my Firefly team with Lynx to farm Kafka’s relic domain in the divergent universe.
Vars says Sparkle doesn't work well with blade but I guess he never heard about the unlimited blade works team (Blade + Bronya + Sparkle). I guess the argument against this is that it takes up some good supports but we have enough team archetypes so you can play other teams with other supports, i.e. FuA with Robin, Break with Ruan Mei.
it's not so important for high-spenders who always go for sig LCs, but for general usage I think another factor worth noting is how Blade's unique niche also means there aren't many Light Cones that he can get good use out of. For a long time after he released, he had literally one decent LC besides his signature and it was a gatcha LC so it couldn't be reliably raised to S5. For people who had him but not his LC that means he underperformed even more, it depressed the desire for people to pick him up in the first place, and on rerun when his place in the meta was already slipping people knew that they'd need to invest in both him and his signature just to get a unit that was okay at best.
If star rail starts to implement more hp manipulation characters like how they made firefly drain and heal herself, i believe there is a good chance they will release planar ornaments to complement the new characters which would in turn also buff clara and depending on the bonus also be a good pick for jingliu.
I dont think they would release a 4pc for that though since the current ho set is very efficient to farm being with the messenger set and its probably only going to be a small difference because of the crit raye from hp set
I heard from a little oragami bird that there is an upcoming Erudition character that triggers a draining follow-up attack when her selected team mate makes a move.
As someone who’s been playing hsr since it came out I will admit Blade has somewhat fallen off in my DPS lineup since I obtained Acheron and the Kafka/Black Swan dot comp.
As it stands, I can see 2 routes for increasing his value by either making him a tailored support (like Furina from gi) or another destruction character with purposeful synergy as opposed to Jingliu. For option one there would be an abundance/harmony unit that can convert excess healing into extra max HP or give other characters a dmg increase directly proportional to how much HP they have or lose/regenerate.
Option two gets more experimental with a new destruction character that specializes in draining the HP of a selected ally that can be stacked all on one character or spread out across the team. For the sake of simplicity let’s assume they use enhanced basic attacks like Blade, their skill is like his where it is what enhances their basic, and they use minimal SP. Instead of damaging only themself or all characters on the team at once, their life drain can be selective. Even better, they can do this life drain a total of five times before they can no longer use their skill, so each dmg instance will count on Blade’s follow ups. To make this synergy even more apparent, said destruction character could even give the target ally they drain HP from some dmg reduction, increase their max HP, and convert some of the HP drained into a bit of extra energy in exchange for the target ally.
An Idea of a support that would boost not only Blade usability but also clara (and to an extent Yunli even tho she is not out yet), the first gacha game I played was saint seya awakening, that was also a turn base game, and by far the most used unit on that game for a long time was a unit that could link your entire team, and everyone would share the damage, not exactly a Fu xuan, as the damage was shared with the whole team, not mostly directed for one small girls shaped impenetrable fortress (you can think as a weaker version o SImuluated universe blessing), and there where units that could cut one character from the team off the link, so if you where to hit the isolated character, he would take the full damage. Now imagine a support that could link the whole team, so when someone gets hit, everyone takes a share of the damage, it would not only help trigger Blade's FUA but also constantly Clara's.
There's a reason they gave us a cutscene of Jingliu killing Blade. He has been the most interesting case study IMO for quite some time, especially because I never had him. I "tried him out" with that one event dungeon we had where we had the trial characters. Like you said, Luocha is the ONLY best sustain for him, but Gallagher could also work. I have a feeling there WILL be someone in the future who could support him, but that's also likely to come with new 5 ⭐DPS's who can use HP-based scaling mechanics. As crazy as it might sound, it might be possible to make a full "HP scaling team" in the future.
The best team for Blade, currently, is the Jingliu-Blade dual carry. A no-sustain version of this team can in some circumstances funnel Tingyun/Bronya buffs into Jingliu and let her be the primary DPS while also draining everyone's HP allowing Blade to get the most mileage.
11:15 Jade is a unit that will drain an ally unit's HP, so hopefully she is the support/pairing that will make Blade good again. She also launches a FuA based on the number of enemies her tethered ally hits, and Blade has a lot of AOE, so hopefully she will buff Blade back to relevance again :3
Does Blade's low sp consumption make him the ultimate enabler for a Sparkle/Bronya combo? I would imagine that with Huo Huo for constant cleanse and ER boost, he would sap his own HP fast enough to do serious damage, plus HP boots would boost his damage and survivability while the action advance keeps him constantly attacking.
what we need is a harmony(or even abundance) character that can give a significent max hp increase, and provide a taunt onto a selected ally with their skill. now THAT would be perfect, and maybe even make the skill target take more damage too, so he can boost his ults dmg more
There should be a harmony unit where every time somebody does a follow up attack, the whole team takes a small amount of damage so he can mesh inside follow up teams