UID: 202030258 (EU)

Hello captains! Welcome to this 5.5 Beta guide.

The topic today will be the newly added ELF.

1. Introduction and How to obtain

2. Skill details

3. Skill Comparison with [Tesla Zero]

4. Test run Line ups and Results

5. Conclusion

Let's dive in~ [emoji]

✼ Introduction and How to obtain ✼

[Blade Durandal]

[Blade Durandal] is a new S-Rank ELF, she is a physical DMG dealer while also providing physical support. She has to ability to gather enemies.

She can only be obtained by pulling in the ELF Supply.

2. Skill details

Overview

Basic

✦ ELF has two forms of Basic ATK: Basic ATK 1: Attack continuously dealing 2100% ATK of Physical DMG. Basic ATK 2: Thrust forwards to deal 2100% ATK of Physical DMG. Restore 0.85 SP every second in battle.

✦ ELF Basic ATK restores 5 bonus SP. CD: 2s

Unlocked with 3 stars

✦ ELF's attacks have a 40% chance to deal 60% ATK of bonus Physical DMG. CD: 6s

Unlocked with 4 stars

✦ELF's Basic ATK boosts its Total DMG by 30% on hit for 10s. Triggering it again resets the duration.

Ultimate

✦ Blink to the targets location, pull in enemies and unleash AoE attacks dealing 600% x 8 ATK of Physical DMG. Afterwards, pull in enemies again and deal 1800% ATK of Physical DMG. Enemies hit are inflicted with Dissociated stacks (lasting 5s) and each stack makes them take 1% bonus Physical DMG. 5 stacks max. Ultimate also reduces switch CD.

✦ Dissociated lasts 10s

Unlocked with 3 stars

✦ Ultimate boosts ELF's Crit Rate by 90% for 20s

Unlocked with 4 stars

✦ ELF's Ultimate deals 30% bonus Total DMG

Passive

✦ Switching Valkyrie boosts team Total DMG by 2% for 8s. 2 stacks max.

✦ [Lineup] When team leader is a Physical DMG dealer, team deals 5% bonus Physical DMG.

✦ ELF's initial SP increases by 50.

Unlocked with 3 stars

✦ [Lineup] Each stack of Dissociated boosts Physical DMG taken by affected enemies by 2% when there's at least one Physical DMG dealer on the team.

✦ ELF deals 40% more Physical DMG.

Unlocked with 4 stars

✦ ELF's Ultimate CD shortens by 30%

✫ Comparison with [Tesla Zero] ✫

[Tesla Zero]

Short Overview

✦ First ATK of Ultimate bleeds enemies for 10s

✦ [Lineup] Team deals 3% bonus Physical DMG and an additional 2% bonus Physical DMG if all 3 members are the same type.

✦ [Lineup] With at least 1 Fast ATK Valkyrie, team deals 4% bonus Physical DMG, last hit of ELF's Ultimate becomes Heavy ATK with strong trauma charge.

✦ [Lineup] With at least 1 Burst Valkyrie, team deals 4% bonus Physical DMG.

✦ Last sequence of Ultimate makes enemies take 6% bonus Physical DMG for 10s.

Skill Comparison

Note! Most skills of [Tesla Zero] that provide Physical DMG buffs to the team are locked behind specific lineups. Unfortunately fulfilling all lineup requirements (1 Fast ATK Valkyrie, 1 Burst Valkyrie, 3 Team members of the same type) is not possible with the most common Physical teams.

That means most of the time the 19% bonus Physical DMG cannot be taken advantage of.

✸ Test run Line ups and Results ✸

I used some of the most common Physical teams in a DMG test using the ELF's [Tesla Zero] and [Blade Durandal] on various star ranks to compare their DMG impact.

[Palatinus Equinox] team

Rotation

HoS Evasion -> HoS Spear Charged ATK -> SnS QTE -> SnS Weapon Skill -> ELF Ultimate -> SnS Charged ATK (2 stage Charge) -> SnS Ultimate -> HoS Ultimate -> PE QTE -> PE Evasion -> PE Charged ATK -> PE Weapon Skill -> PE Ultimate tap (change to Guardian Form) -> PE Charged ATK -> PE Weapon Skill -> PE Ultimate

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[Bright Knight: Excelsis] team

Rotation

HoS Evasion -> HoS Spear Charged ATK -> SnS QTE -> SnS Weapon Skill -> ELF Ultimate -> SnS Charged ATK (2 stage Charge) -> SnS Ultimate -> HoS Ultimate -> BKE Ultimate -> BKE Evasion ATK -> BKE Basic ATK 5x -> BKE Evasion ATK -> BKE Weapon Skill

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[Miss Pink Elf♪] team

Rotation

HoS Spear Charged ATK -> SnS QTE -> SnS Weapon Skill -> ELF Ultimate -> SnS Charged ATK (2 stage Charge) -> SnS Ultimate -> HoS Ultimate -> MPE QTE -> MPE Weapon Skill -> MPE Ultimate -> MPE Charged ATK 9x -> MPE Weapon Skill -> MPE Charged ATK 4x

⚝ Conclusion ⚝

[Blade Durandal] is a very strong Physical support ELF with a lot of utility and high Physical DMG output.

She not just provides various Physical DMG buffs to the team but also a Total DMG buff which further enhanches her support capabilities.

Her switch CD reduction skill has a huge impact on the performance of your team, especially in Memorial Arena.

Because of this skill she can be used in Elemental teams as well, providing good utility.

Also her gathering can be quite useful.

In my comparison she always had the best result on 4*, out damiging 4* [Tesla Zero] by quite a lot.

She is definitely worth to pull for if you are searching for a strong ELF with good utitlity.

Is [Blade Durandal] worth to pull if I already have 2*/3*/4* [Tesla Zero]?

2* [Tesla Zero]

The difference between 2* [Blade Durandal] and 2* [Tesla Zero] is quite huge so I'd recommend to not invest into [Tesla Zero] any further and try to get [Blade Durandal] at some point in time.

3* [Tesla Zero]

3* [Tesla Zero] has a similar DMG performance as 2* [Blade Durandal] which means if you don't plan to invest into 3* [Blade Durandal] it is not necessary to pull for the new ELF. However if you just want the utility of gathering and switch CD reduction it is indeed worth to pull for her.

4* [Tesla Zero]

4* [Tesla Zero] has a higher DMG performance than 2* [Blade Durandal] so pulling the new ELF without the intend to rank her up at least to 3* is not recommended if you have limited resources. However pulling for her utility is worth it just like I mentioned before.

What about [Tesla Zero] higher Hit Count/Bleeding/Shieldbreak?

[Tesla Zero]'s first stage of Ultimate inflicts a lot of hits and helps to break hit shields of some enemies, for example SSS Jizo Mitama in Memorial Arena. I tested both ELF's against the shield of this Boss. I had no trouble breaking the shield with either of the ELF's. I did notice that [Tesla Zero] deals a significant higher amount of hits than [Blade Durandal] at least during their Ultimates. However [Blade Durandal] does quite a lot of hits too and there are weapons like [Hekate's Sombre] that make it easier to break these shields. So my conclusion is that if you have the mentioned weapon you shouldn't have much trouble to break these shields even when using [Blade Durandal] instead of [Tesla Zero].

[Tesla Zero]'s first stage of Ultimate also inflicts a 10s long bleeding debuff which can come in handy against certain Bosses like Houdou or Dark Jixuanyuan so she might have and edge over [Blade Durandal] against those specific Bosses. However there are also weapons that can inflict bleeding so it is not necessary to use [Tesla Zero] for this.

I tested the Shieldbreak capabilities of both ELF's and [Tesla Zero] had a higher result. But how important is this?

Not too long ago the battlesuit [Sweet 'n' Spicy] got released who helps dealing with shielded enemies, so I'd say the shieldbreak capabilities of [Tesla Zero] aren't as important anymore as they used to be.

If you want to bring your fully built Physical teams even higher and don't have a high ranked [Tesla Zero], I'd recommend to get [Blade Durandal] because she is the best Physical supoort ELF now.

Note!

Building a proper team first is more important than pulling for an ELF. The priority should be: DMG dealer -> Support 1 -> Support 2 -> ELF

If you want the best results I'd recommend to follow this order.

ELF's are just the cherry on top of a team.

That's it~ [emoji]

Thanks to every captain who will read my guide and I hope it will be useful to you! [emoji]

As always I wish every captain lots of fun in Honkai and good luck for every future pulls! [emoji]

May Ai-chan bless us all! [emoji]