Character buff review

Post will be cut in 2 parts

First I'll sum up the news on the character buffs

Secondly small talk on Everyone's buff

Characters buff

In case you don't know or forgot in 3.4 several characters are gonna get buffed due to getting extremely irrelevant (which was literally intentional to sell other characters)

• Buffed character are : Silver Wolf, Blade, Kafka and Jingliu
• Current infos on buffs doesn't include all infos (some informations have been intentionally kept unrevealed)
• No mention of lightcone being changed, safe to say they will remain the same
• Buffs will be toggleable ON/OFF in case you need to

I'll do my usual reminder, while buffs are extremely nice and will most likely put these units back into the meta they are still not fixing the issue of powercreep if new units keep scaling higher it's only a matter of time before buffed unit become irrelevant again forcing the new of new buffs

So don't expect too much, just to not get disappointed meta wise in case the buffs are bad or age poorly

That being said the good point of buffs is they seem to focus on fixing inherent issues or flaws the characters had which will still increase their lifespan by allowing them to work with more teams in the future, at least for supports, for dps it's less likely

Another note is they will rerun all the buffed characters as many of them didn't get a banner in a long time

Silver Wolf

List of buffs

• Ultimate become AoE (Apply AoE def shred)
• Skill weakness implant is based on element of first character in the lineup instead of being random
• More chance to apply her debuffs (negligible)
• Regain 5 energy at the start of the turn and 20 energy at fight start with technique

There are other changes that have no been revealed

In my opinion this buff is absolutely spot on, it's exactly the issues she had

I would still not recommend to pull her unless you really have teams that need her

Pros

• Now relevant in AoE and single target
• Can enable any dps to use Genius set (SW on the team first slot)
• No more rng on weakness implant
• Reduced energy issue
• Less issue switching target in her single target teams

Cons

• Lose the capability to adapt and apply different elemental weakness but it's not a huge loss
• Still not on par with Harmony units, but exist as a good alternative/downgrade

Blade

List of buffs

• Scaling is now pure HP (no more Hp + Atk scaling)
• Ultimate "HP tally" now count part of healing received (instead of just counting HP lost)
• Talent follow up restore 15 more energy
• Blade's enhancement from skill now increase his aggro value (a lot more chances to be targeted)

There are other changes that have no been revealed

These changes will help Blade to be a better damage dealer with better scaling and more uses of his FuA and ultimate, but more importantly these actions will provide more trigger for all of Blade teammate who have good personal damage and use his attacks to trigger their own damages, such as Tribbie Jade and Hyacine

I would not really recommend pulling on Blade, not because he's bad but because he's in the permanent banner, which make his rater up very weird, he could be worth getting if you are heavily invested in HP meta but Mydei may remain a stronger option

Pros

• Scaling is more consistent
• More actions which result in more triggers for the rest of the team damage
• Now closer to a "counter" dps with his aggro increase to boost his stack generation and HP loss
• Should perform better in pure fiction

Cons

• His teammates still play a big role in the team damage because in HP meta everyone do damage

Kafka

List of buffs

• Skill now trigger Dot on all 3 targets (instead of the central one only)
• Follow up now trigger after any ally attack (no longer restricted to normal attacks)
• Follow up now have 2 maximum charges
• Follow up now trigger DoT
• One follow up charge is restored at the end of the turn and after ultimate
• Can now provide a massive 100% atk buff on any ally that have at least 75% effect hit rate

There are other changes that have no been revealed

Kafka definitely got the best buff out there because it's the most "future proof" in my opinion

It further reinforce her role of Dot triggered while allowing her to buff allies attack if they are using effect hit rate, which such a great rate that it's worth on most pure atk scaling characters even if they have no debuffs, like Robin

I would recommend building Kafka if you want to get into DoT she's an absolute must have especially with Hysilens who's releasing soon and rumored to be DoT unit, it's very likely that DoT is making a comeback in the meta

Pros

• More DoT trigger maintain her as the core of Dot team
• Very good damage output increase
• Massive atk buff that is very easy to reach with an effect hit rate body piece (provide more attack than the effect hit rate you need to gain, which give you more stat without any downside at all)

Cons

• Still waiting for stronger DoT applicators for the team to grow
• DoT is further locked behind Kafka, which is both a blessing and a curse depending if you own her or not

Jingliu

List of buffs

• Scaling is now pure HP (instead of atk)
• Now gain stacking crit dmg (instead of atk) when she's consuming allies HP via her enhanced skill
• Can now store up to 4 Syzygy stack in enhanced mode
• When entering enhanced mode gain one additional Syzygy stack (making her start enhanced mode at 3 stacks)
• After allies lose HP a certain amount of time Jingliu regain one Syzygy stack
• When Jingliu obtain one Syzygy stack her next attack ignore 25% def

There are other changes that have no been revealed

Jingliu is the character who got the most amount of changes, not necessarily for the best

Going HP scaling will make her easier to build and will definitely buff her damage but it doesn't come without some downsides, She will lose most of her lightcone options and several supports who worked particularly well with her

This force her to use the latest released support who synergize perfectly with her new kit, she should go back to being a powerhouse under the right conditions

Wherever you should pull for Jingliu or not is complicated, if you don't have Hyacine/Tribbie I think you should avoid it unless you plan to get them because you are into HP meta, if you have them you can unleash Jingliu's full potential which should make her a very solid main dps to use, keep in mind she have a lightcone issue Sound hunt being one of her only F2P options

Pros

• Scaling is more consistent
• Can stay longer in enhanced mode
• Gain a massive damage increase within the right team with her new synergies

Cons

• Loses nearly all her F2P lightcone options that were atk based aside two 4* LC
• "Sound hunt" 4*LC gives HP but require self HP consumption for full benefits which she doesn't have
• "Secret Vow" 4* LC is dependant of HP being low for full benefits which she cannot access reliably
• Signatures are unaffected because most use buff independent of HP/ATK
• Loses some teammates such as Robin and Tingyun who had a good synergy with her despite not being Best in slot
• Players who had perfect build with ATK rolls will need to redo their builds
• The passive to gain Syzygy stacks after all allies lost HP a certain amount of time push Hyacine + her signature lightcone as the only way to get more teamwide HP drain (Jingliu's own drain who doesn't affect herself)
• It's also one of the only option to fully benefit from Sound Hunt LC which is very regrettable

My opinion on the buffs

Overall I'm gladly surprised because they took the better path of fixing the character issues rather than just increasing their damage ratios, now I don't think this will be enough because I know as a fact, from experience, that if they keep releasing stronger characters and increasing the game difficulty accordingly more chars will need to be buffed in the future but also those who got buffed will need more buffs

An other point that particularly bother me is how they twisted the kits to fit with upcoming/current metas in order to resell the characters, it's not all negative because it double as a buff but it shows that as usual there is a financial goal behind it all, not just fixing the units for the players, but because they can sell more units through them

The perfect example being Jingliu, instead of keeping her original atk scaling and making her more coherent within her current teams they moved her to HP meta, which is a huge buff, but is dependant on you having several keys units to buff her HP and drain her team which not everyone can afford so it leaves a very bittersweet taste

While that sound negative I just try to be as fair as possible, that's all

As for the rerun I'm recommending to be careful and wait players who own the units to test and provide feedback on the buffs, to know where the units will stand meta wise, unless you just want them for design in which case just pull them

Feel free to leave your opinion on the buffs