My thoughts on the problems with SW
After seeing all the discussion on the day the doomposting started and everyone started hating on SW and Sparxie, making senseless performance comparisons against Aven and Robin (where in that same comparison video we can see that Sparxie was the one who generated the most Punchlines for SW even while running an ER rope, for some reason, and clearing it in less AV), I started thinking about SW's possible issues. I was never too worried about this because mine is E6S1 and doesn't reach 200 spd, but I did some runs on the King of AS/AA using the only thing I learned that day (Sparxie needs 147+ spd, mine was on a 0 spd build) and noticed a few problems. I would like to bring them up for discussion to see if you guys agree, disagree, or have anything to add.
1st Problem: Capping SPD
Even though I can't reach 200 spd on my SW, isn't it kind of absurd that to hit 260 spd you need Yao E2, Huo E1, an S5 cone, and a crazy good build? She is the only Elation unit so far who isn't able to cap her Elation. Sparxie easily reaches 3600 atk, Yao with her cone hits her 200 spd, and Aven gets spd on his ultimate to manage reaching his 200 spd. SW is the only one who can't reach the cap, which is 260 spd.
This is so bizarre and results in so many wasted stats that a SW with 200 spd will gain 50% + 2*40% = 130% Elation. One with 260 gets 250% Elation, meaning that's 120% "wasted" Elation.
With the recent leaks, we know that Pearl will offer spd to Elation units, but I can't guarantee she'll be able to make SW reach 260.
2nd Problem: Team Composition
I think we all agree that SW's team isn't complete, but we don't know who Nihilux will replace in the current comp. The replacement debate can be biased, but it's still possible to argue about who stays or goes.
During my runs, I got the feeling that Yao was dead weight on the team. Her Punchline generation depends heavily on her ult, which takes 3 to 4 turns to get (mine doesn't have her sig cone), and there were moments where she couldn't get enough Punchlines to hit the 40 Punchlines before Aha. Sparxie generated 24 Punchlines (ult + 14 skill), and SW generated 6 (2 Pac-Man), leaving us 10 Punchlines short, which without Yao's ult just wouldn't hit 40 to take advantage of SW's trace and gain more MMR.
And even with this feeling of mine that Yao is dead weight on the team, somehow with EMC I managed to 0-cycle, whereas with Sparxie I struggled to achieve it (probably a build issue, but I've seen many people report that EMC yields better results than Sparxie).
Obviously, this is more because we don't have a 4th Elation unit on the team rather than it being Yao's fault, but personally, I believe she's the one leaving the team. Sparxie keeps her spot for being an insane Punchline battery, and Pearl, most likely, for being the team's sustain. Since the team was released incomplete—and unlike 3.X where the anniversary team got its pieces gradually—with SW's team we got 1 at the start and the remaining two at the very end, thanks to Pearl being delayed so many times (She was supposed to come out in 4.3 and is now dropping 3 patches later).
3rd Problem: Aha Instant
This is something I thought about and haven't really seen anyone talk about (might be my fault for not interacting with the community that much), but SW needs each Aha Instant to have at least 20/40 Punchlines to abuse her trace that gives 20/40 MMR if the Aha Instant triggers with 20/40 Punchlines. And what's recurrent in runs? Either the team fails to generate the 40 Punchlines, or the Punchlines overflow way too much, causing a lot of waste.
This waste happens mostly when Yao and Sparxie ult on the same turn; I've even hit 80 Punchlines in a single Aha Instant. Having so many Punchlines in one Aha, while another barely hits 20, makes SW's trace inconsistent and leaves her with less MMR than she could have. If you trigger AHA with 19, she misses out on 20 MMR because of 1 Punchline; if you trigger AHA with 39, she misses out on 20 extra MMR because of 1 Punchline. And if you trigger Aha with 60 Punchlines, you miss out on 20 MMR for having generated too many Punchlines before Aha even acts.
If there is a character that controls this MMR generation so each Aha always has around 20/40 Punchlines, I believe we won't even need a character to summon Aha or to double the generated Punchlines.
And as a piece of personal opinion: I believe that if SW actually manages to reach 260, with Aha hitting 161 spd to act 3 times in cycle 0, it will make the creation of Aha Instants less valuable for the team than it currently is. Maybe EMC will be on par with Yao in SW's team because they can generate more Punchlines than Yao since they need less energy to ult.
Extra: Replacing Yao.
To better explain the point about Sparxie being insane at generating Punchlines, let's do a mental exercise and compare Yao and Sparxie. To be fair, let's compare both with a 1-ult-per-4-turns rotation and consider an Aha Instant at every character action.
Sparxie (12 skills per turn, which is the average I got in my runs):
1st turn - 12 + 10 (Ult) = 22 Punchlines = 42 MMR (20 MMR from trace)
2nd turn - 12
3rd turn - 12
4th turn - 12
Total - 78 MMR
Yao:
1st turn - 6 (BA/Skill + Elation Skill) + 5 (Ult) = 11 Punchlines = 31 MMR (20 MMR from Yao's ult)
2nd turn - 6
3rd turn - 6
4th turn - 6
Total - 49 MMR
In long battles, Sparxie will always generate more Punchlines than any Elation unit. And because of this, I believe Nihilux will take Yao's place. Not because Yao is weak, but because Nihilux is the 2nd main Elation pusher (leaked as the Cyrene of Elation). Nihilux will most likely be the 3rd path support that will replace EMC in the teams they're currently in and will be stronger than Yao in terms of buffs. For her to take Sparxie's place, her kit would have to generate more Punchlines than Sparxie; not even Aven, who generates a lot of Punchlines, beats Sparxie in long battles.
What do you guys think? Am I right? Am I wrong?
P.S.: English is not my first language and I can't really write it properly, so I used AI for the translation (Google Translate sucks). If something is written incorrectly or sounds weird, that might be why.