Welcome once again, Captains, to my Equipment Review for v5.8!

And today, we go over the new Physical/Bleed Support Stigmata Set added in the game, which is also the Signature set for Starry Impression: Cézanne

The Depictor's Impression Set: Cézanne

INTRODUCTION:

The Cezanne set is the new Physical/Bleed Support stigmata that is also the Signature Weapon for Griseo / Starry Impression.

This set focuses on buffing the Bleed damage dealt by the Valkyrie and the team and also severely debuffing the enemies on the field, making them take a lot of total damage from the team.

OVERVIEW:

(*All values/skill descriptions are based on lvl. 50 stigmata)

Cézanne (T):

[HP: 367; ATK: 116; DEF: 66]

- Small Physical Damage buff for the host Valkyrie.

- Griseo's ultimate deals AOE physical damage when its duration is down to 8 seconds. Activating the Ultimate of any of the other Valkyries on the team before this will buff this AOE physical damage by 27%. This effect takes place once every 10 seconds and cannot stack.

Cézanne (M):

[HP: 483; DEF: 199; CRT: 8]

- Faster bleed accumulation, which means faster stacks for Griseo.

- Bleed damage bonus when enemies take bleed damage.

Cézanne (B):

[HP: 362; ATK: 73; DEF: 66; CRT: 16]

- This piece inflicts the enemies with the "Structure Outline" Status, when the Valkyries' Combo Attack hits the enemies. The "Structure Outline" status makes enemies take 36% bonus Total Damage for 6 seconds. The team's character will enter Enhanced state, next entry onto field will consume enhancement to extend "Structure Outline" status by 1.5s, for a maximum of 9s (2 stacks max).

- Basically like Newton(B), but can only be activated by combo attacks and for the price of 5% of damage, gives you almost twice the duration if stacked to maximum potential, and that's just talking as a standalone piece.

2-set Effect:

P.S. - There is a translation error here. The 2nd and Third lines should be:

"Upon gaining 10 stacks, clear all stacks and deal 500% ATK of Physical DMG to the current target".

- So it's not a 500% Physical Damage Increase, but rather a one-time attack that deals 500% ATK of Physical Damage to a single target.

- When Griseo has 2 pieces of Cezanne equipped, one of them must be the (B) piece, which will allow Griseo to make full use of this set-effect.

- This effect essentially allows Griseo to activate Structure Outline using her ultimate as well.

- As a bonus effect, when Structure Outline ends, TDM received by enemies increases by 36% again, this time for 12 seconds, and Structure Outline enters a CD of 20s.

Probably the best part about the Cezanne set is this 2-set effect, which increases the buff duration of the B piece almost twofold.

3-set Effect:

- Attack Speed for Griseo is very helpful because she feels really clunky otherwise.

- The other half of this set-effect buffs the Valkyrie's Total Damage (After casting Ultimate) by 2% for every Bleed stack (max 5 stacks) for 20 seconds. This effect cannot be stacked, but it can be refreshed.

ALTERNATE OPTIONS FOR STIGMATA:

I already covered this in my Starry Impression valkyrie Overview, so its pretty much the same deal. Any Physical support stigmata (Except Charge Attack focused ones), will work just fine on Griseo. (Although it is highly recommended to get Cezanne if you can spare the crystals).

1. Holmes:

A good replacement set for Cezanne will be Holmes- if you have it lying around in your inventory. Itbleed-focusedused set and Griseo has tons of Bleed built in her kit.

A lot of people have been spooked by this stigmata for the past few patches, so yeah make use of it, why not.

2. Shuijing(TB) + Avogadro/Gustav/Mei(M):

Shuijing holds up to this day and can be used on Griseo as well, just substitute the (M) piece for any support piece.

Although it is not recommended for longer fights as it cannot be consistently refreshed on Griseo, unlike SA.

3. Gustav + Newton / Beethoven + Newton / Candy + Mei + Newt :

If nothing else, the usuals like Gustav, Beethoven, or Candy Mei Newt can be used.

DAMAGE COMPARISON:

[DISCLAIMER: The following test is just for a simple demonstration in equally similar situations. These results can vary quite a bit depending on enemies/weathers/team comps/playstyle etc. ]

The following will be the team setup that we will be using to test Griseo's support capabilities in the DPS check stage:

Emblem Used:

Dorm Buffs:

(Dorm Squad Lvl. 38)

~[No ELF/Divine Key Buff used]~

Enemy:

Imperator (3810 Physical Defense; 55% Elemetal Resist; Medium resistance to freeze/paralysis/stun)

Rotation:

Switch to HS > Weapon Active > Clone pop using spear combo >

Griseo QTE > Ultimate

> HS switch in (HS QTE is turned off) > HS Ultimate >

PE QTE > Ultimate > Evasion > Horse Charge > Weapon Active > Switch form > Charge Attack > Enhanced Weapon Active

Result:

The Damage value for each set is determined by doing 3-5 rotations and sorting out the average damage observed. Essentially, avoiding the extreme ends of the damage variance and picking up the one that lies in the mid.

The numbers observed are like the following:

- Okay, so a few explanations here, I had to adjust my rotation so that I was able to catch all the Mei and Newt Buffs correctly or the damage would have been trash for all the setups using Mei/Newt.

- So, Cezanne is the best option, obviously, no further comment is needed.

- Shuijing is unplayable with Griseo if you don't enter the field with QTE, plus it runs out very soon, before PE even finishes her attacks.

Griseo doesn't have the Starlit Astrologos Mechanic of re-applying Shui off-field, that's why it's at the last of the list. So my conclusion will be to just avoid Shuijing altogether if possible, it's not good for longer Rotations. For SS bosses in Memorial Arena, it might see more uses but other that, it's not really as good.

- Holmes is a good alternative, we all know by now, because of course Bleed Buffs. You can also use the full set if you are having trouble with the Newton/Mei timings, it works just as well.

- Lastly, if I had to say any one alternative option aside from Holmes, my choice will be just Candy Mei Newt. It is the best general support set you can put on Griseo, will constantly keep refreshing, and overall give you the prettiest results; Just... try to get the timings right.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION

Cezanne is a very strong stigmata set and will no doubt will contribute towards strengthening your account in a pretty big way. It's really hard to not recommend this set to anyone. If you have HoS, then gearing up Griseo is the next best thing now when it comes to physical Teams. So unless you are broke on crystals, try getting this set as long as the special SP supply lasts.

Another point - Do not trash dupes, especially the B part. Dupes of this stigmata will only help you in the future(Except probably the M part, its only really used on Griseo or for the 2 set effect.

Stigmata Priority:

B > T > M

Feel free to ask raise any questions you want in the comment Section. Any Feedback will be greatly appreciated as well!

Thanks for reading through to the end!

Source for the Weapon Images and Banner: https://bbs.mihoyo.com/bh3/accountCenter/postList?id=73565430

- Red Dragon

UID: 200016842

(EU Server)