The update 1.2 of Honkai: StarRail welcomed Blade, a new 5-star character with Destruction class and Wind element, designed specifically for those who love living on the razor's edge. In fact, his abilities all revolve around sacrificing his own HP and suffering as many attacks as possible in exchange for greater power, which means that without the right setup the risk of getting knocked out is very high.
Fortunately you are in the right place: in this article we will give an overview of the characteristics of this character and which Light Cone, Relic and statistics to choose to create the better build per Leaf.
Trace skill and priority overview
NB: whenever we talk about the values and statistics of Skill, Ultimate, Talents and so on we will always refer to those of fully developed Trace without Eidolon bonuses, in order to give an idea of the character's potential at its maximum potential.
Blade is a Wind-type character belonging to the path The Destruction. Unlike other DPS that usually rely on the ATK stat, this unit instead benefits more from a high amount of HP, as all of his attacks scale more heavily on this attribute. As mentioned at the beginning, his kit in fact revolves around taking as many hits as possible and sacrificing his own health points in exchange for enhanced attacks and overall damage bonuses, all mitigated by a series of passives that allow the character to recover health more easily.
La Skill of Blade consumes 30% of the character's HP. In exchange he receives the "Hellscape" status which for the next three turns increases his overall damage by as much as 40% and improves the characteristics of his basic attack. Using the Skill does not end the character's turn, so he can then immediately perform an enhanced basic shot. In practice, despite the description of the ability, the Hellscape effect lasts for four turns, namely the activation one and the three following ones.
L'Enhanced basic attack is Blade's main asset. Consume 10% of the character's HP, to hit a target (with damage equal to 40% of ATK + 100% of Blade's maximum HP) and adjacent enemies (16% of ATK + 40% of maximum HP). Keep in mind that the enhanced basic attack does not regenerate Skill Points, but it does not consume them either. This means that Blade needs to use only one Skill Point every four turns, a positive aspect that should not be overlooked.
La Ultimate it is particularly interesting. In fact, it sets the character's HP to 50% regardless of whether they are higher or lower than this value and inflicts Wind damage to an enemy unit and adjacent units, with a scaling practically identical to that of the enhanced basic attack (based on the level of the Trace), to which further damage is added equal to the amount of HP lost by Blade before executing the Ultimate. This effect is capped at 90% of the character's maximum HP and resets after each use.
Finally the Talent causes the character to gain a stack of "Charge" every time he takes damage or consumes his own HP through his abilities. Once 5 stacks are reached, they are reset and Blade performs a follow-up attack on all enemies deployed on the field (with damage equal to 44% of ATK + 110% of HP), while recovering 25% of maximum health.
As we have seen, Blade's HP tends to drain quickly, but fortunately he has a series of passive bonus which allow us to mitigate this negative aspect. Specifically, "Infinite Life" increases the healing received by 20% if the health bar is equal to or less than half, while "Neverending Deaths" makes Blade recover 5% + 100 of the maximum health points after inflicting a weakness break with the upgraded basic attack. The other bonus skill is "Cyclone of Destruction" which increases the damage of his Talent's follow-up attack by 20%.
With regard to the Trace priority to develop, the advice is to pump the basic attack first, since it is Blade's major source of damage, followed by the Skill, which increases its all-round damage. The advice is also to unlock the bonus passives and nodes that increase statistics, which offer extra HP and CRIT Rate, as soon as possible.
The best Light Cones for Blade
Hands down the best Light Cone for Blade is the five star "The Unreachable Side", which is basically tailor-made for this character. In fact, it increases the bearer's CRIT rate and HP by 18%, both very useful statistics for his kit, and also when he is hit or consumes his own health points, his overall damage increases by 24%, with the effect which is reset every time he attacks.
5 star Light Cones are clearly not within everyone's reach but fortunately there are much more accessible alternatives. Not many unfortunately, given that most of the Light Cones of the The Destruction path tend to offer bonuses to ATK, generally useful but not in the case of Blade, given that it only marginally exploits this statistic. For this reason, in our opinion the best option is the "A Secret Vow". Increases the wearer's overall damage by 20%, with this bonus doubling if the attacking target has a higher HP percentage than theirs. This is an excellent Light Cone for Blade, given that usually his health will always fluctuate between 30% and 50% in optimal situations.
Surprisingly we find a very valid alternative among the three-star Light Cones, namely the "Mutual Demise", which increases the bearer's CRIT rate by 12% (24% once fully upgraded), when their HP is below 80%, an extremely simple prerequisite to meet with Blade.
Less interesting, but still worth mentioning "Under the Blue Sky". This is a 4-star Light Cone that increases the bearer's ATK by 16%, a useful bonus but not too much given what was said previously. The second effect is much more interesting, which increases the CRIT rate by 12% for three turns every time the user eliminates an enemy.
If all the alternatives above are out of your reach or right for you, it might be worth purchasing the "On the Fall of an Aeon" from Herta's Shop with Simulated Universe points. Increases the user's attack by 8% every time they attack (up to a maximum of 32%) and also every time they cause a weakness break they gain an increase in overall damage of 12% for 2 turns.
Best Relics and stats for Blade
Considering the peculiarities of Blade, the best Relic set is undoubtedly the new one "Longevous Disciple" introduced in Honkai: Star Rail with patch 1.2. The two-piece bonus increases HP by 12%, while with the four-piece bonus, every time the character is hit or consumes his own health he gets an 8% bonus to the CRIT Rate for two turns (up to a maximum of 16 %).
The alternatives are much less efficient. Among those worthy of mention, we suggest four pieces of "Eagle of Twilight Line" which increases Wind damage by 10% and advances the character's next turn by 25% after activating their Ultimate. If you want, you can also mix two pieces from this set and "Longevous Discipline" to get a bonus to both damage and maximum HP.
As regards the Ornaments, the set we suggest is the"Inert Salsotto". Increases CRIT Rate by 8% and when this stat exceeds 50% the damage of Blade's Ultimate and follow-up attacks increases by 15%.
Alternatively we can recommend the "Fleet of the Ageless", which increases the bearer's HP by 12% and, if their SPD exceeds 120, increases the entire team's ATK by 8%. The "Rutilant Arena" is also interesting, since it increases the CRIT rate by 8% and when this statistic reaches at least 70% it increases the damage of Skills and basic attacks by 20%. The problem is that the requirement for activating the second effect is quite high and not very easy to achieve.
As regards the main statistics of the Relics, the advice is to pump up the critical and HP%, given that it has the dual utility of increasing Blade's chances of survival and its offensive potential. A bit like all the characters in Honkai: Star Rail, the SPD is also particularly useful, since it allows the character to act more frequently. Having said that main attributes recommended for Relics are:
- Bodysuit: Crit DMG
- Feet: SPD or if you have excellent secondary statics of this attribute you can focus on HP%
- Sphere: Wind DMG o HP%
- Link: HP% or Energy Regen, the latter is not that essential, as Blade generates energy quickly with his attacks
for secondary statistics the same reasoning applies, so pump up your SPD, critical attributes and HP% as much as you want. And if even a few ATK% points escape, it won't hurt, even though it isn't a vital attribute for Blade.
The best teams for Blade
All things considered, Blade is an offensive unit capable of inflicting large quantities of damage, but which necessarily requires various measures to limit the risks of its HP-consuming abilities. In addition to pumping this statistic it is absolutely necessary to pair this character with a Healer. Unfortunately for the moment the options are limited in this sense: Luocha is practically the best option, but alternatively Natasha can also easily fill this role.
While it might be tempting to field a shieldier/tank like the Trailblazer, Gepard or March 7th to increase Blade's chances of survival in battle, unfortunately shields are not efficient for Blade's kit, which needs to take damage to boost its its damages.
Finally, as seen previously, Blade is a DPS that consumes only one Skill Point every 4 turns, you can combine him with somewhat spendthrift characters, such as Bronya, Asta and Yukong, or a second DPS like Sushang.
On our pages you will also find guides for other Honkai: Star Rail characters, including those for Jing Yuan and Sushang.
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