Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoverse’s turn-based sci-fi RPG, gives players a wide selection of characters when it comes to team building. Supports, sustains, main and sub damage dealers come in abundance… unless you have decided to invest into the DoT (Damage over Time) archetype that is currently suffering from neglect.
Unlike many other archetype teams, be it Break, Follow-Up Attacks, typical hypercarries (marked by HoYoverse as Ultimate in the Divergent Universe), DoT teams don’t have much wiggle room when it comes to team building. There are only 2 limited 5-star characters – Kafka (Lightning) and Black Swan (Wind) – in addition to a couple of 4-stars (Sampo and Guinaifen) and no dedicated supports or sustains to choose from.
While, admittedly, there are other characters that have aged poorly such as Seele, Silver Wolf or Blade, this is an example of an entire archetype or damage concept being severely neglected (unless you count HP-scaling units, that would make two, but that’s another story). So, let’s talk about DoT a bit.
The principle of HSR DoT play is simple: apply and stack debuffs and DoT-effects on the enemy, and during the enemy’s turn it will deal a certain amount of damage. But therein also lies the problem: the instance of damage occurs during the enemy’s turn, which already puts DoT comps at a disadvantage compared to, say, Follow-Up Attack parties with Feixiao or The Herta hypercarry that can dish out a significant amount of pain before a single turn is over.
Sure, Kafka can detonate the effects on enemies during her turn with her Skill and Ultimate, but is it really enough? Well… yes, but also no. To be clear, if your DoT comp is well invested into in terms of gear, Eidolons, Signature Light Cones and characters themselves, then you can still finish endgame content and receive your rewards just fine. Especially since there are still DoT-based buffs appearing in Memory of Chaos, Apocalyptic Shadow and Pure Fiction from time to time.
I still use either the so-called premium DoT comp (Kafka, Black Swan, Ruan Mei, Huohuo) or Dotcheron (Acheron, Kafka, Black Swan, Aventurine with the Trend LC for extra stack generation on Acheron) all the time, and will continue to invest in DoT as my favorite archetype, but it is clear that it is only going to fall further behind unless HoYoverse does something. Preferably, something big, on the level of Acheron, Feixiao, Firefly or The Herta, but without powercreeping either Kafka or Black Swan.
Kafka was initially released during Version 1.2, with her only companion back then being Sampo and the best buffer likely being Asta, providing both Attack and Speed buffs, appreciated by both damage-dealing characters. Shortly after, the archetype was also joined by another 4-star, Guinaifen, and left to its own devices all the way until Penacony.
Version 2.0 saw the DoT revival with the addition of the enchanting Memokeeper Black Swan, the new gear set and planar relics. Together with Kafka, Black Swan is quite the match made in Nihility. A heavy nuke that takes a while to ramp up and a detonator that can bring the pain on demand. With the Pure Fiction and Memory of Chaos heavily focused on DoT’s and Lightning/Wind shared Weaknesses, it seemed like the archetype had finally found its place.
The release of Acheron in the following patch didn’t stop the joy just yet, many players simply started playing the Emanator of Nihility together with the DoT Core, Kafka and Black Swan, forming the Dotcheron comp, but it didn’t last too long either.
For pure interest’s sake, let’s take a look at the Break and Follow-Up characters released since Black Swan’s first banner in the first patch of Penacony and until now, the first patch of Amphoreus. Note that Ruan Mei, Dr. Ratio and Topaz were released during the 1.x cycle and are not included, but do keep them in mind:
BREAK:
- Damage dealers: Boothill (Physical Hunt), Firefly (Fire Destruction), Rappa (Imaginary Erudition);
- Supports: Harmony Trailblazer (Free, Imaginary Harmony), Fugue (Fire Nihility);
- Sustains: Gallagher (Fire Abundance), Lingsha (Fire Abundance).
FOLLOW-UP:
- Damage dealers: Jade (Quantum Erudition), Feixiao (Wind Hunt), Moze (Lightning Hunt);
- Supports: Robin (Physical Harmony), March 7th (Free, Imaginary Hunt);
- Sustains: Aventurine (Imaginary Preservation), Lingsha can also be used here just as well due to her frequent attacks.
Looking at the list above, just over the last year, the game released enough characters for the Break and FUA (Follow-Up Attack) playstyles to form two full comps for each. Yes, one of them might not be as good as the other, but the point stands.
Moreover, they span over a much bigger set of Weakness Types than the DoT comp – or take advantage of ignoring Weakness Types one way or another. Additionally, Acheron has since received her dedicated support, Jiaoqiu, and broke away from the DoT-comp to form her own Ultimate-centered party, especially if you got her second Eidolon.
Just think of it: two sets of FUA and Break characters each just since the release of Black Swan, while DoTs got 2 characters total in 1.x cycle (Kafka and Guinaifen), and Black Swan only in 2.x. Now, with the release of Amphoreus, we’re in for a whole new Path and the Remembrance summon meta, not to mention the sheer hilarity brought by The Herta who didn’t get her own dedicated support just yet. But even that is not enough to bring the DoT archetype to the knees!.. it would need to get off the floor for that first.
But what about the comp’s best sustain (Huohuo) and support (Ruan Mei and E2 Jiaoqiu if you are coping really hard)? Their synergy with the DoT comes as a byproduct of what they need to provide to their main comps: the usual hypercarry for Huohuo and Break/Super Break for Ruan Mei.
Sure, Kafka and Black Swan can take advantage of Huhuo’s attack and speed increase and the provided energy. But so can Jing Yuan, Jingliu, Imbibitor Lunae, Argenti, and The Herta, to name a few.
Ruan Mei’s focus on Damage buff, Speed, DEF shred and RES PEN is likewise explained by her tie to the Break teams that don’t care for crits just like the DoT comp, which makes her the perfect stand-in until there is a proper dedicated DoT support. Just to prove the point, you can use Robin here instead, with her Attack, DMG% and Action Advance – but she is so obviously FUA-buffer that it isn’t even funny, both her and Ruan Mei are simply busted enough to work in pretty much any circumstances.
Finally, what do I mean by a “dedicated” support or a sustain? Let’s take a look at Fugue and Lingsha respectively as an example of such.
Fugue increases the target’s Break Effect and allows them to reduce Toughness even when enemies don’t have a corresponding Weakness Type. Just her being on the field provides her allies with Super Break damage. Additionally, she creates the EXO-Toughness bar that can be broken anew even when the enemies already are broken. E1 further increases the buffed target’s Weakness Break Efficiency.
Sure, you can use her with, say, Himeko or even with Acheron in addition to Jiaoqiu to abuse the EXO-Toughness, Weakness type ignore and debuff spam, but by and large only the Break teams will unlock her true potential.
Lingsha provides consistent damage and party-wide healing while also enhancing the team’s Break Damage: her Ultimate makes enemies receive 25% increased Break Damage while her summon, Fuyuan, deals an impressive amount of Break damage itself. In fact, in the Lingsha, Ruan Mei, Harmony MC and Fugue comp, Lingsha can act as the Break damage dealer herself. Her E1 further increases Lingsha’s own Weakness Break Efficiency, bringing even more damage to the table.
What can a potential DoT support offer?
Let’s take a look at the Simulated Universe Nihility Blessings. They revolve around three concepts:
- Suspicion – Increases DoT taken by 1%. Stacks up to 99 times, but loses 2 stacks at the end of the turn.
- Confusion – When enemies are Weakness Broken, every stack of Confusion will cause all DoTs currently on the enemy to immediately deal DMG equal to 30% of their original DoT. Consumes 1 stack of Confusion. Confusion can stack up to 5 times.
- Devoid – Each stack reduces Toughness regeneration by 10% stacking up to 5 times.
Additionally, there is a blessing in Divergent Universe that allows DoTs to crit at a limited capacity, which in and of itself might sound nice, but without some further mechanical adjustments and buffs, it is simply a band-aid that will fall off with the next powercreep round. The more general blessings also provide energy and a percent of healing on DoTs dealing damage.
We could also potentially have more characters that detonate DoTs on their turn or advance forward enemies’ actions (without them actually taking action, just like EXO-Toughness is not actually Toughness that reduces damage to enemies’ HP bar) to receive the pain, or force the DoT effects to activate to a percent of damage on the affected enemy being hit.
I have full belief that HoYo is capable of designing characterS (plural, one a year considering the frequency of release for other archetypes is absurd) with more involved kits and abilities that aren’t purely “percent increase for being on field”. The real question is why the developers aren’t keen on players engaging with the archetype unless there are massive buffs going on due to SU/DU Blessings/Equations/Scepters or endgame buffs, and if we are getting that one yearly DoT unit in Amphoreus yet.
To reiterate: by no means is the DoT comp unplayable or done for, but it is certainly neglected in terms of characters, especially when you compare it with the Follow-Up Attack and the Break archetypes that were extremely abundant in Penacony. If you are not trying to 0-cycle MoC/AS/PF, Black Swan + Kafka combo can still serve to close any endgame content. However, it is falling behind and is in dire need of developers’ attention, and soon.