PSA: How to select which light cone to put on which character
So I've seen a lot of people asking which light cone to use on which character or telling me to use a setup that would be worse than what I already have, so I've decided to make a PSA analyzing all the important factors in choosing which light cone to use. I'll mostly be analyzing S1 Reforged Remembrance (RR) and S1 Why Does the Ocean Sing (WDtOS), but S5 Eyes of the Prey (EotP) will also be mentioned. I don't own Those Many Springs, so I can't speak on it.
#Important Assumptions
- This analysis regards a Triple DoT team using Hysilens and Black Swan. 4th slot is assumed to be some sustain or another.
- E1+ Black Swan is owned. If Black Swan is E0, always put Why Does the Ocean Sing on Hysilens if you own it.
Note: I'm of the opinion that unless you have E0 Black Swan or E6 Hysilens, there's no objective right answer to who should carry what light cone. It varies greatly depending on the situation. My real recommendation is to try things out both ways and see what feels better in a given scenario. This is just to give a general idea of what will most likely work out best.
With all that being said, onto some notable factors to consider.
RR and EotP are selfish light cones. WDtOS is a team-oriented light cone. At a glance, you usually want a selfish light cone on whoever deals more damage, although you should still consider everything else. Do not rely on this as the only factor. People seemingly relying on this as the only factor is a large part of the reason I'm making this post. Just don't, please.
Between EotP and WDtOS, EotP offers better (as in any) self-buffing, but WDtOS offers higher base ATK. So it might be worth it to put WDtOS on the character dealing more damage just for the higher ATK, though I'm not sure how the math works out.
Between EotP and RR, RR is obviously better. Really you want to have WDtOS if possible, but if you only have EotP and RR, just put RR on whoever does more damage with no further questions asked.
At E0 Hysilens, Black Swan tends to deal more damage. At E1 Hysilens, they're about even. At E2 Hysilens, Black Swan tends to deal more damage again. This only applies in a vacuum and ignores factors like weakness, matchup, or builds, but works as a rule of thumb.
Obviously, weakness is important to consider. If a boss has 40% Wind RES (not naming names here), unless you have E6 Black Swan, Hysilens is probably gonna deal more damage.
Black Swan overcaps on DEF Ignore with RR. Everyone knows this, but to reiterate, Black Swan won't be able to get the full benefit out of the DEF Ignore from RR, so it'll tend to lean towards Hysilens.
RR offers ATK%, but WDtOS has a higher base ATK. The more ATK% you have on a character, the smaller the difference will be between RR and WDtOS for their personal damage. As an example, my Black Swan only has 24 more ATK on RR than with WDtOS. With Huohuo, the difference drops to 3. So if your Black Swan has a lot of ATK%, the difference in benefit from DEF Ignore could become a more important factor.
Black Swan is able to instantly max out the buffs from WDtOS while Hysilens needs 2-5 hits to do so. Usually this won't matter much, but if you're in a really low attack count situation (say, Sparxicon without DHPT), this can be worth considering.
In general, Black Swan is usually stronger against low-HP fast-respawning mobs (think PF or Lygus), but against tankier enemies, they'll even out more. This is especially true if you have E2 Black Swan.
Black Swan is better at dealing with AoE while Hysilens is better at ST. This is because Black Swan fully scales off of her applied DoT while Hysilens scales a lot off of her zone procs, so Black Swan is at her best when the 120% detonation from Kafka's ult is at full strength, but over 60% of Hysilens' damage is unaffected by it. Conversely, when Kafka's follow-ups are a significant portion of the detonations against one enemy, Hysilens cares a lot less about the weaker detonations than Black Swan.
If you test things out and the results go against what you'd assume, trust the results. Results in practice are always more reliable than results on paper because they can fully account for differences in build, matchup, or other factors. Just be sure to do multiple runs to make sure the results are consistent and not just a one-off.
Again, I really think that the best way to find the best lc setup is to go out and test things out yourself. But if you're short on time or if you're deciding what to test first, hopefully this guide can help you out.