Introduction
Disclaimer: This guide is directed towards new players who want to follow the meta and the statements in this guide will reflect that. If you aren't a player that cares about the meta or you want to get the characters on the Starter Supply because of their looks playstyle or any other reason then please disregard this and skip the guide so you don't get demoralized, thank you!
Imagine this, you are new to the game and while following the tutorial you are presented with this shiny new supply labeled "Starter supply" with a 30% discount slapped on the first 10 pulls, most beginners would assume the characters are specifically picked to help beginners and provide them with a smoother transition into the late game, yet unfortunately that is not the case. The banner is actually not a good investment for a beginner looking to optimize.
Starter Supply History
The "Starter Supply" Isn't picked depending on which character is "good" at the time for the individual, but it seems to follow a pattern. The Valkyrie that was released during the "Chinese New Year" patch is put on the starter supply alongside the "Summer Valkyrie" which as the name implies is released during the summer, if you take a moment to look over the Starter Supply history you will see that it has nothing to do with how good the characters are for new players in particular, only their release date.
Take a look at the different versions of the Starter Supply.
You can see why I have this hypothesis, it fits the pattern without any deviation.
- Azure Empyrea ( CNY ) + Herrscher of Thunder ( Summer )
- Herrscher of Sentience ( CNY ) + Herrscher of Flamescion ( Summer )
- Palatinus Equinox ( CNY ) + Herrscher of Humanity ( Summer )
- Herrscher of Finality ( CNY ) + Herrscher of Rebirth ( Summer )
First I wanted to lay the groundwork and establish that this banner isn't created with new players in mind.
Now that it's out of the way we can move on to the other problems in the next section.
Starter Supply Issues
- Other Gacha supplies were changed and have 90 pull guarantees while this is still set at a 100 pull Guarantee.
- Pity from this Gacha does not carry over to other banners and pulls spent on it will be lost ( except the x1 refunded pull )
- There's a 50-50 on this banner while it doesn't exist on any other banner.
- In the past crystals spent on this banner did not count towards any concurrent spending events, this probably changed.
But you see, those aren't even the big problems with this supply, those deserve their own section.
Issue #1
The first main problem has to do with the startup costs of the Valkyries on the supply.
I recommend looking at general investment with the plan to maximize rewards and minimize the cost to get those rewards.
When either character from this supply is looked at using those assumptions they end up having a very high cost to low reward.
New players are lacking too many various things ( Gear / Ranks / Other Characters ) to make them function at the minimum.
The costs will be discussed in my upcoming guide on Part 1 vs Part 2 Banners as a whole.
So I don't leave anyone hanging though, a quick summary would be...
The average amount of pulls for a Part 1 character would be 48 pulls for the character and 92 pulls for the gear.
With this in mind, getting Herrscher of Finality would take roughly 140 pulls, you then need 70-80 pulls for Herrscher of Truth
( ADV supply has diminished rates from 1.5% per pull to 1% per pull ) and then 92 pulls for her gear as well. [310 pulls total]
This is assuming you got Herrscher of Origin for free and her gear from the Battle Pass, comparatively Senadina would cost on average 48 pulls for the character and 30 pulls for the weapon = 78 pulls total. Even if you were to get gear for Helia ( 30 ) Thelema + Gear ( 78 ) and Lantern + gear ( 78 ) that would only be 264 Total Pulls.
I am not saying this is the expected number for everyone, this is just using averages and Part 1 uses the same assumptions.
Issue #2
The next big problem has to do with the performance of the characters on the banner being poor even if you manage to fully gear them and their respective teams. This will be covered more in depth in the following section on Herrscher of Rebirth and Herrscher of Finality, but to give a brief summary... it comes down to the characters on the supply being too old in the of meta with extremely limited "Top scores" with little to no places where they are better than other cheaper options.
Issue #3
The last problem is it will always come back to "Why pull Starter Supply when I can save and pull a Part 2 Supply"
This will also be covered in my upcoming guide, but I will summarize this here for convenience.
Part 2 Supplies...
- Have better meta characters.
- Are alot cheaper.
- have lower startup costs.
- have better gacha odds.
- You don't need to Gacha for their stigmata.
- Can be used with Dreamseeker.
Herrscher of Rebirth
Herrscher of Rebirth (HRB) is a Valkyrie released at the launch of patch 6.8.
She came as a shock to all, being the first Battlesuit to take on two different forms, one for DPS and one for Support.
Its also the first Seele Battlesuit that isn't QUA type.
While in "Soul Shaper" form she functioned as the long awaited replacement to Herrscher of Sentience in the physical team.
While she extends rotations she also has the longest impair duration in the game at 30-45 seconds.
She also gives Valkyries 100% critical rate, and increases their damage if they were already past the critical cap.
Gone were the days of spam resetting for crit RNG until you get a good run, she solved so many problems we used to have.
On the other hand, she has access to "Life Binder" form that enabled her to enter a "DPS mode" and work as a dedicated DPS with a team built around her, this additionally allowed Herrscher of Sentience to still find support use by enabling her with Impair.
While she's amazing for the Physical team, the question is if there are any Physical DPS characters worth investing into as a new player in the first place, and if she's "worth it" over Herrscher of Sentience for players who already have her.
Teams
Herrscher of Rebirth has two different team types, one where she's the support and the other where she's the DPS.
You can toggle this passive to switch between her forms.
In this team, Herrscher of Rebirth acts as the support enabling the main DPS with her Impair and crit related buffs.
Some common choices for Physical DPS characters include Hare, Senti ( brick DLC ) and Palatinus Equinox.
While Herrscher of Rebirth is a very strong support in this team she is held back by the Part 1 Physical DPS.
Simply put, their performance leaves much to be desired, none of them are recommended for investment for a new player.
They are either too old or already had the bosses they are the best at stolen by another character with little usage remaining.
Now in this team, Herrscher of Rebirth is the DPS while Herrscher of Sentience enables her with her Impair related buffs.
While she's a strong PSY type Physical DPS, she isn't a strong DPS in general and unfortunately her boss has already been stolen by Lunar Vow: Crimson Love. While she is getting a boss designed for her in the upcoming Patch 7.5, having a single boss is normally a sign of a "dead" DPS character. Herrscher of Sentience has SP issues and does not do well in extended fights, this issue is somewhat ( but not even near completely ) mitigated with Cosmic Duality.
If you don't have this weapon then her SP issues are even worse, even having this weapon doesn't fix SP issues entirely.
This weapon is currently obtainable only through the "Exchange Shop" using 4000 Weapon Resonance to purchase it.
Because it's no longer recommended to pull on Part 1 Gacha, the chances of a new player getting 4000 Weapon Reso is near 0.
This team is known as the "Triple support" team strictly for Memorial Arena.
This team doesn't have a dedicated DPS, instead the damage is split between Herrscher of Rebirth ( support form ) and T-Aide.
This teams DPS is actually very low but it still manages to shine as one of the best teams in Memorial Arena due to the constant spamming of Time-Fracture, inflating their DPS by slowing down the timer. It's worth mentioning this is not possible in Abyss.
Boss Coverage
For this section, we will be covering the Abyss bosses she can cover as the outright "best" option.
This will stick to her Support coverage, as a DPS she only has a single boss and it's not even released yet!
If you are wondering why Herrscher of Sentience was not included in this image...
The coverage with Herrscher of Sentience as a DPS has been negatively impacted by the release of Fenghuang of Vicissitude.
She was able to steal a majority of the bosses that previously went to Herrscher of Sentience, leaving her with a single boss.
Although, you can technically say that Brick Senti *probably* has melee Assaka if it ever came back....
For a list of the bosses that were stolen by FoV...
- Type Counter Parvati
- Type Counter Husk
- Melee Herrscher of Corruption
- Melee Assaka
- Bloodlust Homu
The only boss that Brick Sentience still has is "Flying Fish" Stun weather. Melee Assaka gone for years
Review
Herrscher of Rebirth is a strong Physical Support and has very good synergy with the other Part 1 Physical DPS units.
She can be called the "backbone" of Physical teams although Herrscher of Sentience is a good option for Red Lotus.
While there are many things that Herrscher of Rebirth has going for her, she also has alot more cons and reasons you shouldn't consider investing into her at this point in time if you care about meta and optimization. The issues aren't as simple as
"You need to pull her Weapon and Stigmata" while this is true it wouldn't make her not recommended to pull at all.
The first point I would like to address, is she has a reliance on her S2 rank-up if you wish to be competitive.
Meme from ayaya_
Her S2 is very important for the added SP saving time in your rotation.
If you don't have this unlocked then you will just outright lose 20-30 points compared to everyone else.
Against some bosses such as the current boss Pishacha, If you don't have her S2 Rank-up then Senti could win in Nirvana.
Currently, the Myriad scores on the SEA server are as follows.
The Highest S0 Herrscher of Rebirth - 763 Points
The Highest S2 Herrscher of Rebirth - 830 Points
The Highest Herrscher of Sentience - 818 Points
As you can see, there is actually a pretty decent reliance on her S2 Rank-up especially if you want to compete.
This isn't a problem if you aren't aiming to be competitive, these problems are only apparent in Nirvana ( competitive endgame ) but what about Red Lotus where you aren't so competitive?
That's a good Segway into the next problem, in Red Lotus you could instead replace her with Herrscher of Sentience and have similar and sometimes better performance. Herrscher of Sentience has a faster initial startup and higher burst DMG.
Because of the lower disturbance in Red Lotus, there are times where Herrscher of Sentience is a better Support than HRB.
If you aren't aiming to compete then honestly you could just wait until Sentience is free again instead of spending an arm and a leg on a support that isn't needed currently at the lower Abyss tiers.
You also won't have access to Terminal Aide Stigmata or weapons, which had a huge discount on its releaase.
Instead of spending 40~ pulls like everyone else did, you would have to spend on average 92 pulls just to play catchup.
My next point I would like to address is Physical itself, it's not in a good spot for investment at this time, none of the DPS have amazing performance and you could instead brute force Physical weathers ( which rarely appear anyway ) with another team while waiting for a Part 2 Physical Valkyrie. If you look at the patch history you can see there could be a pattern in the making.
Patch 7.3 - Lightning ( Sena )
Patch 7.4 - Ice ( Thelema )
Patch 7.5 - Fire ( Lantern )
Patch 7.6 - Physical?
Now I could be completely wrong and next patch they release a Lightning support for Sena and replace Helia, but this is something worth considering anyway. Even if this pattern is wrong and we don't get a Physical Valkyrie next, it's still better to hold out and wait for one that will be much cheaper and way stronger instead of investing into relics of a forgotten past.
If you want to run Herrscher of Rebirth DPS you do need to get Cosmic Duality somehow, which means getting 4000 Weapon Resonance from Exchange shop, you could farm weapons from Foundry and convert it to Resonance but this would take ages!
Keep in mind, there are no alternatives to Herrscher of Sentience in this team, she is the only support to enable her properly.
Look at it like this, Herrscher of Rebirth as a support is practically useless if she doesn't have a Physical DPS to enable and none of the Physical DPS in the game right now are recommended to pursue. In the event you wanted to run Herrscher of Sentience as your DPS her new Divine key "Brick" weapon is required for her to function as a DPS without any alternatives.
And finally, the last point I would like to mention is Astral Ring and Part 2 Valkyries, while it's true that currently Herrscher of Rebirth is the backbone to Physical teams we don't know how she will interact with future P2 characters or if she will even be needed. There is a good example of this with Lunar Vow, she was praised as being this amazing Lightning support and then it turns out that she's not best in slot a single time with Senadina literally anywhere.
It's completely possible for them to make the Astral Ring or Stellar Outburst provide Impair which would render Herrscher of Rebirth completely useless in Part 2 teams.
Don't get me wrong, if you already invested into Herrscher of Rebirth back during her release she's still a good P1 support, but in regards to new players It's not worth wasting your valuable crystals on her or Physical at all in its current state if you care about following the meta.
Note:
If you are set on investing into Herrscher of Rebirth and using her as a DPS then I would recommend you buy the "Level Rush"
This bundle would provide you with a large amount of crystals and the needed Herrscher of Sentience to enable her.
While you won't have anything you can do about the lack of Cosmic Duality, you will have a similar but much weaker option.
Taking advantage of the Starter Manual, you can grab "Keys of Oblivion" here and use that as a temporary weapon on Senti.
Herrscher of Finality
Herrscher of Finality (Hofi) was released during "Version Kiana" in patch 6.4.
She is an IMG dps battlesuit with mechanic and playstyle changes when she's used in a specific team.
In an ideal world she wants to be paired up with Herrscher of Origin and Herrscher of Truth to unlock her full potential.
In either of her teams she is able to trigger the "Absolute Time Fracture" to stop time even in Abyss to inflate her score.
While her coverage in Abyss and Memorial Arena is diminishing, she still holds some bosses.
In the Abyss she has RGBenares and Husk Existentialism as bosses she can "Top Score"
She remains a competitive option on Husk Mysticism as well despite no longer being the top option she's still hanging on.
As for Memorial Arena, she still has Husk Existentialism and Husk Mysticism having lost the other bosses.
Herrscher of Finality is a very popular character because of her unique gameplay mechanics in the Herrscher trio team.
The question is if her performance and coverage is worth the steep investment cost.
Teams
This is her main team, often called the "Herrscher Trio" it enables you to unlock the full potential of her kit.
When all three of them are paired together you unlock the unique and sought after gameplay mechanic changes to her skills.
This enables them to form a tight synergy between the characters unlocking certain things such as "Joint Bursting"
Mei Joint Burst
They also get a new Ultimate animation known as the "Joint Ultimate" activated when you use the Ultimate on Kiana.
All characters take to the field with their own special Ultimate animation.
As you may have noticed all three of them are Imaginary type DPS, giving them good performance on IMG type enemies.
She is able to perform well against Abyss Benares due to the [Symphonic Environment]
This is her "Pure Fire" team and while it's not as flashy it can arguably out perform her Herrscher Trio team situationally.
It can be daunting to play however, there are some techniques to take advantage of such as the art of animation canceling.
She's a decent Fire DPS, although overshadowed by new releases such as Fenghuang of Vicissitude and Lantern.
Boss Coverage
One upon a time this team was at the very pinnacle of boss coverage.
While the team manages to hold onto a shell of it's former glory the coverage provided compared to the cost is quite low.
It's still true that they could technically be an "okay" option on many of the bosses, but so could other teams for a lower price.
For a list of the bosses that were stolen...
- Abyss Kevin was stolen by Senadina and Thelema.
- Bloodlust Homu was stolen so many times, now it's Senadina and FoV at the top.
- Melee Herrscher of Corruption was stolen by Brick Senti, and then by FoV.
- Ignite Benares was most likely stolen by FoV who just outright deals alot more damage than she does.
- SSS Benares was stolen by FoV.
- SSS Parvati was stolen by FoV.
- SSS Andrius was stolen by Lunar Vow.
Review
Unfortunately, due to being a much older DPS with a strict team Herrscher of Finality was hit much harder than Rebirth.
There aren't many good things you can say about her in terms of Meta, but Kiana will always hold a special place in our hearts.
She does still have ownership of a few bosses in Memorial Arena and Abyss, so she's not dead, just not a good investment.
If you want to be competitive with this team, you have alot of things to catch up on, Herrscher of Truth was released with a special discount supply back in Patch 6.3 where you spend 190 pulls for the character + full gear and a 80% chance for SS rank.
Not only that, but in the following patch 6.4 Herrscher of Origin released with a special supply of her own.
Because of this, most players have Herrscher of Origin and Herrscher of Truth ranked up alot, Finality too with ADV supplies.
If you weren't here in Patch 7.4 to get the free Herrscher of Origin, then that's just more ranks that people have on you.
Additionally, you would need to find a way to obtain her in the first place to build this team.
Lantern is very likely to negatively impact her coverage, by stealing Abyss RGBenares top score from her.
Lantern, a Fire DPS has her core teammates as Senadina ( Lightning ) and Thelema ( Ice ) so she could do Symphony weather.
Even with Herrscher of Origin being free in Patch 7.4 with her gear in the Battle Pass I would recommend you wait until Herrscher of Finality is farmable before you pursue this team as opposed to investing crystals into her in her current state.
This also lets you buy other more useful things from the Battle pass like Cezanne and Herrscher of Human stuff.
One of the big issues is the team itself, while the Herrscher team can be fun she will eventually fall behind because her teammates are not replaceable, for her to get the unique mechanics she needs to be paired with two specific units.
Unless Mihoyo decides to give them a Divine Key or release the "Core" system again there's not many ways to buff her.
Keep in mind that this entire guide is directed towards new players who want to follow meta.
If you don't care about that then I have good news for you too, Herrscher of Finality is not "weak" by any means and I'm certain if you took a few patches to fully gear the team it will still let you retain Agony 3 and one day maybe even Red Lotus.
Summary
If you want to have good progression and get the most out of your crystals then I recommend skipping the Starter Supply unless you don't care about meta. Neither of the characters featured on the Gacha are considered "Good" investment wise and pulling them would only do more harm than good if you are a meta player.
Herrscher of Rebirth while an amazing physical support is held back by a lack of meta Physical DPS units. A support without anything to support won't do beginners any good. There's a decent chance she has poor synergy with future Physical DPS units.
Herrscher of Finality, while she was once a "God Tier" DPS unfortunately fell off due to other newly released characters, she has a very strict and expensive team lineup and the low performance doesn't match the extreme cost to invest into her and her team.
TLDR:
Meta Player - Skip Starter Supply, invest in Part 2.
Non Meta Player - Do as you want and have fun!
Closing
That's all for this guide~ I hope this helps!
Thanks to everyone that follows or leaves a like I really appreciate it!
If you have any questions feel free to message me here or on discord "Kithicide"
