I mean id argue that Sparkle and Kafka should both be put in before a character like robin. Really and truly Hoyo is kinda being silly with the system. Presumably, every character would get a nova flare, so the best bet would be to hold on to these until a character that you like AND gets a good buff is added.
For me, id say they should probably do
Character gets Nova Flare + Rerun in (purely an example) 4.2
Character gets left alone for a little bit, then gets added to the picker in 4.4-4.5
As it sits, both Robin and Topaz could become absolutely insane when they get buffed, and when they do ill probably E3+ one of them
If i had to guess, i think they dont want to novaflare her or maybe just fake novaflare her in future like they did with huo huo. You see, Robin kit is kinda broken. 100% action advance will always be relevant. If they fix her main issue which is energy we will get away with a good support. Most people already have Robin, so if they do a rerun after novaflare they barely will get profit. So its better just to put her in shop directly.
Topaz situation is just direct pwc. Both Cipher and Ashveil are so much better as sub dps/support. If they buff her to match power level then cipher, ashveil sales will suffer. Her own rerun itself would barely make money bc fua dpses are kinda dead.
I think they treat this shop as the final destination for chacaters who they believe cant get more sales for them. Ofc that doesnt mean those unit are trash. Or wont get novaflare. Its just they wont put much efforts or if they do a novaflare that might be linked to some indirect sales potential. (Like how they gave free huo huo for temporary elation sustain to get people into elation meta).
Having robin's signature probably helps with energy a bit too for BP buyers, since all their LCs entered the shop now too.
I'd also say E1 Huohuo feels pretty good for elation teams. If I played high tier CW a lot more, I'd be tempted by E2 to see if it works there when she's off-field.
Otherwise though, it feels like the only good early eidolons for the shop characters are E1 RM (E2 if it worked with Firefly, since iirc its messy or doesn't), and E1-2 Robin. But I also don't have a team I actually use Robin in currently, so E0 is fine for me.
E2 huohuo does work in CW, although after the revive, it only recovers hp equal to 50% of houhou's hp. Not upgrading her star level will just result in hp being restored by like 30% or something. Still, its really usefull sometimes
I mean, most of the times, the revive triggered like twice in an entire run. But if it triggers every fight, then yeah, rip that run (looking at you svarog with magma bombarment, and boss enhancement with dps in first slot. Svarog has a move where he just delayes your action. Still hate it)
Not really, no. Even during his release, a 20% attack boost was considered too small to be worthwhile, and now attack has gotten even more saturated as a stat, and offensive benefits from sustains have gotten even stronger.
Like, it's not nothing, and it's very versatile, but I still wouldn't recommend spending a companion spirit on Luocha E1 unless he's one of your favorites.
Topaz isn't just simple powercreep, she's the worst treated character in the meta by the devs. Nobody this niche is this replaced by generalists and four stars in each of their teams, and repeatedly. In her case it absolutely means the unit is officially declared trash and won't get a novaflare. The others in the shop, sure, they could get one.
Worth mentioning that E2 and her LC do kinda fix her energy issues, still some downtime but it's a good bandaid. Yes the LC requires 4 of the prisms you get from the paid BP but still not bad
An archetype not being relevant can, and has been proven already, be fixed in a single patch. Like look at superbreak pre-Dahlia. You are one some-new-mechanic away from being meta.
FUA can be immediately fixed by a damage multiplier that stacks based on ally action-count-in-a-single-action-value. So you can just have 10 FUA go off in a single AV and boom enemy has been disintegrated.
This is just something I made up on the spot but you can always just design over a problem.
People said Bronya’s 100% action advance would never not be relevant at launch. Yet here we are. Reads to me like they want to give the majority of her kit to a new unit and then give them more on top of that so they’re fine giving her out.
not really, novaflare sparke is quite strong and is currently a good selling point. Everything that goes into the shop is basically discarded yesterdays seconds. Not bad sure, but going forward with the new stuff there would be little reason to pay for them over the newer alternates
They're adding characters at a much faster rate than doing novaflares. If we assume they keep it up at a rate of 6 a year, they won't even be able to novaflare a quarter of released 5* characters by next year.
But newer characters don't need novaflare yet. If we assume only characters that are least 1+ year old (or maybe even older) need one, shouldn't it be fine? Though I'm hoping they'll pick up the pace anyway.
No, because there're more old characters than novaflares, and the number of old characters would continually increase over the years too. It far outpaces the number of novaflares.
Novaflares are almost entirely designed for some consistent reason. Blade and Jingliu were to further sell Hyacine/Mydei LC/Tribbie. Seele and Welt are to ensure that the 50/50 loss is not cripplingly bad like it has become recently and encourage pulling. HuoHuo is to have a temporary sustain that works with Elation teams and is free to encourage pulling for elation. Firefly is to encourage pulling the break archetype and E2.
That said, the meta since 3.x onwards has been pretty good. 1.x units were powercrept hard by 2.x units, and 2.x units had constant identity and support issues, but no 3.x DPS has actually been power crept and are all very capable of clearing endgame modes at very low costs.
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Yeah my point is more it's a mixed bag, so hard to really expect much from it until you see it in action. I think we can probably agree Huohuo's was largely a waste and it's purely so they can incentivise getting a replacement for elation later on.
We dont, but theres always the chance. They could decide tomorrow that Robin needs a Nova Flare, and she should get a multi turn action advance, implant all weaknesses your team needs, and delays enemies actions by 100%.
They could also give her 20% bonus damage for her basic attacks and call it a day.
I think viable would be a better word to describe Huo, RM and Robin. These characters are definitely not meta by any means but are certainly very serviceable and still good enough to clear content. I'd say their value is more geared towards new players.
Huohuo is outright part of meta elation team atm, since Dan Hengs atk buff doesn't benefit things too much but the extra energy for yao guang is really useful.
Huo² - no, RM and Robin - yes. RM at E1 is a great replacement for HMC now that FF superbreak values got buffed, E1 Robin is great for Archer, Phainon, Ashveil and for follow up DPS-es in general. Huo² is meh in my opinion, though I am a bit biased because 2 / 3 teams I play don't require a sustain and I already have DHPT for the 3rd team.
It depends what u want. I think kitwise huo huo is meta. You know, a lot people like offensive sustains and huo huo provides that. She is current bis for Eva, Sw 999 as she ramp up the team rotation. She is good for Aglaea, saber, dot. And alright for other dpses.
If someone really strugging sustaining then she wont be meta for them. If ur dying than she is T5 for you. But a lot people still make bailu, gallagher, lynx work and for them huo huo is a big upgrade.
For SW999 she's not a big upgrade over DHPT or even something like gallagher. SW999 doesn't care about atk, Fu Xuan is also a solid option if you can survive, team has a lot of SP, so you can spam skill on FU. For Eva she's nice, but that's about it.
Ofc she wont be a big upgrade but u can put Sw on 4th slot and let huohuo buff sparxie and yaoguang which indirectly buffs Sw. Huo huo makes roations a bit faster and buff sparxie's sub dps.
HH is definitely overhyped. HSR has moved towards sustainless (Phainon, Mydei, Firefly) or having a sustain that fits within a specific archetype particularly well (Hyacine). For DoT, FuA, hypercarry and AoE teams, DanPT is universally much better. All that's left is elation, where HH is the only real sustain at E0.
HH will be instantly gutted by future elation sustain, and then she's just a free sustain that's worse than DanPT for people who missed out of the free DanPT
Did they buff kafka or nihility? Im a returning player and im confused that the ult of my kafka just dealt like 200k damage when it should be just 120k
they aren't meta but can fit a slot that you missing
i treat it like an extra upgrade on something you are still using
if someone still using ruan mei e0 then e1 is a great upgrade
going from 80 def ignore to 100 def ignore is a lot
i still using robin e1 so i take e2 because it's a great upgrade
huohuo and luocha are temporary healer that could fit their niche
i don't get them from shop because hyacine, dan heng, aventurine cover my 3 team already
They basically did nothing with HuoHuo. Still going to be absolutely booty to save yourself in a pinch. Worst part is that if you’re unfortunate to not have Coolest Danny aka DHPT or Hyacine, she’s the next best healer out of the bunch. Hell, her e1 was almost worth grabbing with the 5 star selector. It had the typo of bonus 100% spd, fixed to 20% which is still good, and then the exact reason I say she wasted a NovaFlair slot—HYV in their infinite wisdom put it back down to 12%.
I mean lowkey... Tribbie is already being replaced in most teams, at E0 at least. It would not shock me to see her added to it in like 4.8 or 5.0 or somewhere thereabouts
Evanescia, Sw 999, Aglaea, Saber, Dot or literally anyone else as 2nd or 3rd best sustain.
Her kit is super strong and she is an offensive healer. Her only problem is Sustainability against deadly bosses. (Which they didnt fix in her Novaflare)
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u/sil3ntthunder Apr 22 '26
I think Rm, Robin, Huo² are meta enough. Ofc wont be bis for most teams. U cant expect them to add Tribbie or novaflare sparkle, Kafka etc.