453 responses to “Cygne noir”

1. I’m late to the party, but how do you guys feel about Kafka + BS as a pair? Is it something special or is it closer to Sampo upgrade?
   I lost 50/50 on her banner and currently wondering if I should prioritized Kafka’s lightcone or Blackswan on their reruns.
   I do have Sampo, Guinaien and Luka damage traces maxed out, all E6 and have “decent” DoT sets sharing between them.

   I’m not a meta player so I’m happy enough as long as I can clear MoC 12 in adequate rounds.

   Should I try for Kafka’s lightcone to hit the last quota for the last 6% DEF ignore for the team, which seems like it will open an option to go attack boots on Kafka as well?
   I only got to try BS a little bit as trial unit in an event so I don’t have a good grasp on her capabilities. My impression is that BS is a more comfortable version of Sampo and that she might be viable in PF.

   Sorry if it sounds confusing. But yeah; what do you guys think between Kafka’s S1 and Blackswan if I can pick only one?

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   • To be honest with you, if your goal is to get both S1 Kafka and Black Swan, you have quite a lot of time. Black Swan will rerun first then Kafka will rerun much later. And from now till then we might get better DoT units who knows.

     As an E0S0 Kafkaswan enjoyer, their damage is just ridiculous. However I do have Ruan Mei slotted in and my sustain is Luocha who while recently is starting to get hated on a lot I refuse to use the disgusting green child. He does funnel a lot of SP tho for my two dps.

     Having said all of that, S1 Kafka is actually quite good to have in general. Lets you get max value of Prisoner set. Even with Swan, S1 Kafka allows you to always trigger the max amount of Arcana stacks per Kafka dotonation as it provides you with the third dot without needing breaks or sacrificing a harmony for a 3rd DoT. I only skipped it as I really wanted Swan as a character and did not have jades to spare. I don’t know if having it lets you skip speed boots tho as realistically you want her to have as high speed as possible. But besides the point.

     Black Swan boasts the strongest DoT in the game. Her Arcana can stack to insane damage and while she is technically 5 Star Sampo, she is if you took Sampo and dialed the damage to insane levels. Like, she is just in a league of her own in terms of dot. And ya, her 3 stack Arcana makes her a monster in PF as you basically have it be like an infection spreading. There’s a reason the DoT duo became very strong and popular. Even now, it’s still pretty high up in clear speeds and usage. Although, again, Ruan Mei is a big part of that cuz that hoe is just insane and I dunno if you have her or not.

     Ultimately, since you already have E6 maxed out 4 star DoTs and you don’t care for 0 cycle shit (as you should it makes no difference on the rewards), S1 Kafka is a lot more value if you can only choose one. Do consider Ruan Mei or Robin though. A 5 star teamwide harmony is very good for the DoT squad.

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     • Thank you for answering.

       I do have Ruan Mei on E1S0. Though I don’t feel like going for Robin however, she seems like a character designed for advanced players who have their entire roster and relics planned out. And from the annual report, I’ve spent a grand total of 7% of total Trailblaze Power on relic farming since launch, so most my relics are not great. I’m also worried about skill point since DoT teams usually eat them and Robin seems to speed up that process.

       But frankly, I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with team action advancement from Robin as DoT team.
       I will keep looking out for Robin in DoT teams showcase, I guess.

       For now my idea is: When the time comes for Ruan Mei to move to break effect teams, My Kafka team will probably go back to generic options like Pela or Asta.

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       • I think you should research her more as Robin is not really as complicated as that. All you need to think about realistically is the timing of using her ult to maximize the action advance. And action advance benefits everyone and DoT squads are no exception. It’s basically a free turn. Your Kafka can dotonate more. Black Swan can stack some more Arcana. Your sustain can heal/protect or generate SP as needed. And her buffs work really well with DoT too. Robin is quite strong and flexible and your relics aren’t really something that affects what she can do for you as even subpar relics can 10 cycle.

         But ya if you have E1 Ruan Mei, then for now you’re gold but replacing her with Asta or Pela will feel like a huge downgrade so just be prepared for it xD

         Goodluck tho :3 With some luck, I hope you get all you want.

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       • You’re thinking too much. She’s the opposite, actually.
         Robin is actually very casual friendly as long as you view her as team wide stat buffer; her offensive stats buff are even higher than RM (ATK, DMG%, Crit)
         which is why she is often mentioned as good for DoT teams even though the crit buffs are wasted.

         Don’t worry about maximising Robin kits, those stuffs are for 0 cycle mfs with their decked out 5 stars

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   • What you can expect from Black Swan:
     1. You want your DoT assigners to move before Kafka, or she is left with no DoT to detonate with. However with Black Swan, this is non-issue because the enemy always enters the battlefield with a stack of Arcana. Thus in turns allows you to allocate your high-speed pieces preferentially to Kafka, which is a net boost to the combat power of your whole team.
     2. Kafka consumes SP rather quickly and you don’t have much left for your teammates to use. However Black Swan consumes reasonably small amount of SP and she can do the basic attack rather often to feed herself because she doesn’t need to skill every turn. You also get little in return even if you intentionally feed Black Swan with more than enough SP for her.
     3. Last but not least, Black Swan has notably higher damage output than any 4-star DoT. However due to the nature of DoT, you shouldn’t expect the enemies to die 3x faster than before. That’s not how DoT works. Patience is all you need.

     What you can expect from Kafka’s light cone:
     1. Kafka gains about 6 substats worth of speed boost, which isn’t a small number.
     2. Kafka is now able to apply another instance of DoT, meaning with only Kafka and Black Swan in your team you are now able to fully activate the Prisoner set. Also, you can now gain 3 stacks of Arcana by every cast of Kafka’s skill and ultimate. Without this light cone however, you can still achieve this by slotting a third DoT into the team. Guinaifen is very ideal for the purpose. Sampo is viable, too, if the enemy had Wind-weakness.

     My suggestion:
     Black Swan is an upgrade over the DoT team while Kafka’s signature light cone is an upgrade over the Kafka & Black Swan pair. Without Black Swan, Kafka’s signature light cone does not come with high pull value unless you are devoid of Nihility light cones.

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     • If you are not going to abandon your already-built 4-star DoT, you may pull for Black Swan and build a triple DoT team. The third DoT member is according to the enemy weakness type. You spare Ruan Mei for the other team to use. In this case Kafka’s signature light cone isn’t required, however it is still a boost to the combat power. Replacing the third DoT with Ruan Mei is a side-grade at best, and also puts Kafka’s signature light cone to a must-have level. So don’t worry.

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2. Should I use ATK% or Wind dmg boost link rope?????

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3. I use [pan-cosmic], [it’s showtime] on her, so should i use ATK% orb ? i kinda want to use it on sw, maybe welt too.

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   • Setting aside how you’re gonna deal with hitting 120% EHR… Wind orb would be slightly better in this case, even more so if you have Atk% buffers (like Asta) in the team.

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     • Thanks, right now my bs has around 112% EHR & 136 SPD (exclude orb). I got lucky with sub stats.

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       • Nicely done! Just 8 more to go 😀

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4. Here’s some very specific details I’ve confirmed through testing which may or may not be relevant to you:

   – As we know, DoTs triggering at the start of enemy turns adds Arcana stacks. Arcana itself also adds 1 stack just before it triggers. Looking at this another way, just by an enemy *spawning and existing*, Arcana is already a 264% DoT by itself.

   – The amount of stacks Arcana has *before* Arcana adds its own stack and triggers determines if it benefits from the 3 or 7 stack effect. To give you a scenario, an enemy that currently has 2 Arcana stacks with only Arcana as the DoT present will not trigger a Blast when they start their turn, despite Arcana having a 3rd stack when it deals its damage.

   – Epiphany’s Dmg Amp specifically works on the current enemy taking their turn. Arcana’s Blast effect never benefits from Epiphany’s Amp since it only hits targets Adjacent to the current enemy. Unfortunate, considering her Blast accounts for a good chunk of her damage (easily over 30%).

   – It’s a very niche interaction, but Epiphany’s Dmg Amp does work with Clara’s Counters. Again, this will only work against the current enemy taking action. The blast damage from Clara’s Enhanced Counters (Ult) won’t benefit.

   – Arcana “as a DoT” is counted as Wind Shear even without her Ultimate (you can see this when inspecting enemies during combat). However, Arcana “as an effect” is *not* Wind Shear. I can confirm the beta info: Arcana isn’t affected by Wind Shear resistance, and thus can actually be applied onto Wind Shear immune enemies (like the lil’ flying Windspawn mobs).

   – Sampo E4 can DoTonate Arcana as long as Arcana (or any other Wind Shear effect present) has 5 stacks. And yes, while Sampo may not be able to apply WShear against the aforementioned WShear immune enemies, he can still DoTonate Arcana applied on them.

   – – –

   Other than those… I think you can just refer to reputable guides/testers regarding her base kit.

   If there’s anything else I’ll say… If Kafka is a DoT enabler, other DoTs enable BS instead. Also, you can look at BS as though she’s a pseudo-Erudition unit. She can’t perform optimally in single target, but absolutely pops off in Blast and AoE. Enemies taking turn is her crux, which can potentially affect performance in AV-limited combat if enemies lose turns due to excessive Slows/Delays, or if enemies die before Arcana can even trigger.

   As for her Ultimate, I personally think it’s not worth sacrificing offense just for the sake of gaining more Energy (intentionally swapping to ER Rope, Tutorial Mission LC if you have other offensive options, etc). It’s not worth the damage you lose and attempting to maintain her Ultimate permanently (which is the only way this *somehow* pays off) is incredibly unrealistic.

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