Well, that didn’t take very long. Within just two patches of Honkai: Star Rail’s release, there’s a new character that deals SO MUCH DAMAGE that everyone’s wondering if he’s powercreep. While I’m pretty confident he’s not a better character than Seele, he sure does hit harder than a truck in an Isekai.
Blade is a new AoE Wind damage dealer in Honkai: Star Rail, and though he is RIGHT before Kafka, he’s still got quite a few fans who saved for him. If you’re one of them, congratulations and I hope you won your 50/50! If not, I commend you for your strength in resisting the edgiest hot man Hoyoverse has released.
So what makes Blade so good?
Blade is an HP scaling character who sacrifices his own HP to deal higher damage. He uses his Skill to Enhance his Basic Attack for 3 turns, meaning he only uses 1 Skill Point every 3 turns. His Enhanced Basic Attack deals damage based off his ATK and HP stat to one main enemy and 2 adjacent targets, meaning he can handle bosses AND smaller adds too! His Talent is a charge stack counter that increases the more he gets hit or loses HP, and when it reaches 5 stacks, he deals high AoE Wind damage to ALL enemies, and restores HP. His Ultimate is along the same vein where Blade sets his HP to 50%, regardless of where it’s currently at. If it’s below 50%, its a heal, and if it’s above 50%, it gives him a charge stack for his Talent. The Ultimate itself is an AoE Wind Damage hit that scales off of Blade’s Max HP AND the amount of HP he’s lost before using it.
Blade outputs some CRAZY damage and doesn’t even need ATK buffs to do it. As a top tier wind DPS that can dish out high damage in single target AND AoE, he’s definitely a meta pick, and will help you BLAST through memory of chaos with ease. With the right relics and Light Cone Blade is an absolute machine.
Best Blade Build:
Usually I take time to math out character’s best builds, and in Blade’s case, it was SUPER easy. Blade’s best build was basically handed to us on a silver-platter! In version 1.2, we got the new Longevous Disciple relic set. The 2-piece set gives you 12% HP%, and the 4-piece gives you up to 16% Crit Rate from taking damage. If you didn’t already know, Blade’s damage is mostly based on his HP, so it’s a great stat to have on him, and Crit Rate is great for all damage dealers. Blade’s entire kit is about him dealing damage to himself to buff his damage, so the 4-piece set will always be activated, and he will basically ALWAYS have 12% HP and 16% Crit Rate.
Your Headpiece and Hands relics will always be HP and ATK respectively, so you don’t have to worry about those. But when it comes to your Chestpiece and Boots, you’ll want specific stats. On your Chestpiece, aim for Crit Damage or Crit Rate. Most of the time, Blade will want Crit Damage because he gains so much Crit Rate from his Traces and the 4-piece Longevous Disciple set, but if you get unlucky on your substats, Crit Rate is fine too! For his Boots, you’ll want to use either SPD or HP% boots. I had the most success with SPD boots since Blade got to attack more frequently, but HP% will exchange higher damage per hit for frequency of attacks.
As for Planar Ornament sets, you have a few options, but I recommend either Inert Salsotto or the brand-new Rutilant Arena. Inert Salsotto will give you some Crit Rate, and also increase your Ultimate and Follow-up Attack damage. Blade deals a lot of damage with his Ultimate and Follow-up attacks, and the requirement to activate this set is only 50% Crit Rate, which is easily attainable for the average player on Blade.
Rutilant Arena has a higher requirement of 70% Crit Rate, which is still achievable, and gives you 8% Crit Rate as well as Skill and Basic Attack damage. Blade’s skill doesn’t deal any damage, but his Enhanced Basic Attack does, and this set can help you increase that damage by a fair bit.
For stats, you’ll want to give Blade a Wind Damage Sphere, and an HP% Rope to maximize his damage output.
Relic Sets: 4-piece Longevous Disciple
Planar Sets: 2-piece Inert Salsotto / 2-piece Rutilant Arena
Chest: Crit Damage / Crit Rate
Boots: SPD / HP%
Sphere: Wind DMG
Rope: HP%
Alternative Relic Sets: 2-piece Eagle of Twilight Line (10% Wind DMG), 2-piece Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (6% SPD), 2-piece
Alternative Planar Sets: 2-piece Fleet of the Ageless
Best Light Cone for Blade:
Blade’s biggest downside as a Destruction unit is that he doesn’t have access to many great Light Cones. There are a few solid, free to play friendly Destruction Light Cones, but they mostly give ATK% bonuses. The main problem is that Blade barely gains any value from ATK% at all, so most of the passives from Destruction Light Cones aren’t very useful.
With that said, his signature Light Cone The Unreachable Side is tailor-made for Blade, and it’s obviously the top pick, with an HP% bonus, Damage bonus, and Crit Rate. The next best Light Cone may surprise you though, because it’s a 4-star Gacha cone.
A Secret Vow is his next best Light Cone, as it gives a ton of damage bonus for free, which drastically improves Blade’s damage. The only thing holding back this Light Cone is it’s stats, but even those are pretty solid!
Something Irreplaceable is another great choice for Blade if you have it, since it can grant you a damage bonus after being hit or defeating an enemy. It also has a high HP stat, meaning Blade will have more to scale with.
If you don’t have those 3 Light Cones though, On The Fall of an Aeon is the next best option for it’s damage bonus on weakness break, and raw stats. Without any of these 4 Light Cones, you’re out of luck, as many of the remaining Light Cones are within a close margin of damage.
If you’re planning on spending on Blade, I’d recommend going for his Light Cone before Eidolons, just because it’s incredibly powerful on him, and can be used on other destruction units in the future for Crit Rate.
Who to Play with Blade:
Though there is no perfect team for Blade, there are some characters that synergize well with him. While most of your carry characters want to use characters like Tingyun for the massive ATK% bonus, Blade actually doesn’t. Giving an ATK% buff to Blade doesn’t do much for his damage, so using him with characters that give Damage Bonuses or shred enemy resistances and defenses will be better.
Best Partner: Bronya
Bronya DOES give an ATK% and Crit Damage buff with her ultimate ability, but the important part of Bronya’s kit is that she gives a massive damage buff with her skill. Blade can take full advantage of that damage buff to dish out TONS of damage in just one hit. Bronya also moves Blade forward in the action priority and allows him to take his own HP more frequently, which helps trigger his follow-up attack more, and overall Bronya is an impossible utility to beat for Blade.
My favorite blade team
Other Synergy: Silver Wolf, Pela & Luocha
It’s no secret that Silver Wolf is a top pick for Blade, since she’s a top pick for most other characters in the game. She allows you to run Blade into enemies that aren’t weak to wind, and can implant a wind weakness on those enemies to empower Blade further. On top of that, she shreds a TON of enemy defense. Pela is also similar in that she shreds enemy defense, further increasing Blade’s damage.
Luocha is one of my favorite synergies with Blade. Since Blade is constantly draining his HP to attack, Luocha can proc his free heal on Blade, resulting in more frequent use of his Abyss Flower Field that gives your team a ton of passive healing. Luocha is a top synergy for Blade, and if you have both of them, give them a try!
There’s no way to say if Blade will be powercrept in the future, since the game is so early on in it’s lifespan. However, it’s safe to say for now that Blade is a top pick for DPS in the current game landscape, and he’ll make your Memory of Chaos progression much easier.
Now, the only thing left is to decide if you’re down bad enough to keep saving for Kafka!
Featured Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7bFsC1XAAs
