u/Repulsive-Control-75

Context:

Hello! I am a Sparxie main who has always played her with Silverwolf and pulled her E0S1 on release, i also plan on using her over Yao independently of how much value one has over the other in the final version of the team.

I was talking on a post i made, showcasing and testing different comps using AHA to compare Sparxie to Yao guang's value on a SW team, when a commenter asked me what i would do to improve on Sparxie's buff as of V3.

I decided to post the concept here aswell since i think it's really nice and it erases most of her problems.

What is Sparxie's biggest flaw as of AHA's V1:

As of now, i think the biggest problem that i have found the playing Sparxie in a team with AHA over Yao is that her SP economy isn't enough to sustain the amount of extra turns she's getting, both from her E2 in high cost setups and from Pearl's Extra turn at low cost.

If you want to have SP, you currently have to sacrifice possible AV from Pearl's ult when using Eagle or a skill from both SW or AHA which is... Not good.

In order to combat this, Sparxie's buff imo should focus on her SP issues for more punchline generation, which is a big part of her current AHA Buff and has always been in her kit.

My concept for Sparxie's buff overhaul:

Crit damage buff:

30/120% Solo Crit damage buff -> 20/60% teamwide Crit Damage buff.

Def ignore:

It's good enough, purposefully made to put SW at 100% Def ignore total.

Punchline generation:

Stays the same, that part of her buff is perfect and is what gives her most value)

New Buff:

Increase Skill points recovered from triggering "Straight fire" by 2/3.

New Buff:

While "Engagement Farming" is active, lets Sparxie hold and indefinite amount of Skill Points until the end of her turn.

When Sparxie's turn ends, if there is more than 1 Skill point left, takes away the additional skill points left in exchange for 5/10 punchline per Skill point remaining.

Maybe it's too broken? Idk tbh, i just want my Goat to thrive!

Private server test information:

All the runs were done on a custom stage based around 4.7's MoC Dark Sam boss without the buff.

The tests were purposefully done without Shilling (either trough buffs or boss mechanics) as to not give one of the units the advantage, tho if you're curious i can tell you that most of the Shilling is cathered to Sparxie, giving her the advantage in that regard.

Builds:

(For the units total stats with these builds, please refer to the first batch of images in the post)

For the builds i used my personal ones on Silverwolf, Sparxie, Yao Guang And Pearl with slight changes, these are:

- Sparxie: 100% CR instead of 93% (due to the lack of Yao guang's lightcone on the testings done)

- Yao Guang: 73% CR instead of 70% CR for full elation buff

here are the main stats and sets used:

SilverWolf:

- Sets: Magical Girl + Punklorde

- Main stats: CR Body, SPD Boots, ATK ORB, DEF Rope

Sparxie:

- Sets: Magical Girl + Tengoku.

- Main stats: CR Body, ATK Boots, ATK Orb, ERR Rope.

Yao guang:

- Sets: Diviner + Vonwacq.

- Main stats: CR Body, SPD Boots, HP Orb, ERR Rope.

Pearl:

- Sets: Eagle + Vonwacq.

- Main Stats: DEF% Body, SPD Boots, DEF Orb, ERR Rope.

AHA:

- Sets: Actor + God's joy.

- Main Stats: CR Body, SPD Boots, HP Orb, HP Rope.

Rotations used:

For E0S1 teams***:***

- Silverwolf's ultimate is instantly activated the monent it can be used, Pearl's first ult is used on AHA, all next Pearl Ult's are used on Sparxie and Yao respectively unless the enemy is specifically 1 SW turn from dying

On Yao's attempt, Dark Sam was at 7% HP at the moment of Pearl's ultimate being available, leading Silverwolf to be a much better choice for the ultimate.

For E2S1 teams:

- Silverwolf's ultimate is instantly activated the moment it can be used, Pearl's ult is always used on SilverWolf with no exceptions.

Breakdown of the tests:

(For AV and damage calculations, check the second batch of images on the post)

Full E0S1 setup:

- Yao is better than E0S1 Sparxie by approximately 50 AV, difference could be decreased depending on the fight and Skill of the player, but Yao will very hardly be inferior to Sparxie at an E0S1 State.

E2S1 Setup with E0S1 AHA:

- E1S1 Yao is worse than E2S1 Sparxie in longer fights, whereas Yao becomes better than Sparxie in shorter fight even at high investment (this by 1 turn OR 10-20 AV of difference)

Contrary to Sparxie, Yao doesn't need AHA's buff to be truly competitive when compared to herself, with AHA's ultimate taking sometime to charge Yao Guang enables Silverwolf's potential in a way shorter amount of time and enables her to ramp up way faster than Sparxie would at this level of investment.

Sparxie's value on this setup is really hurt by how much time it takes until AHA's ultimate first activates, you'll be losing a lot of value in the initial turns of the fight while Yao gives instant value the moment the fight starts.

Full E2S1 Setup:

- In this setup, the problem with Sparxie's value gets mostly fixed letting her ramp up way faster, solidifying her spot in the team as BiS over Yao Guang in most of the fights unless these are EXTREMELY SHORT and the enemies are very frail where she doesn't take enough turns to get the maximum value from her buffs and kit mechanic.

AHA's E1 enables Sparxie's buff much earlier, letting her ramp up really fast, altough Yao still has the advantage on easy to clear content Sparxie ends up surpassing Yao's total AV advantage after some time by becoming broken in a shorter amount of time, the additional 90% Crit damage, 6 punchlines from rockets and 5% Def Ignore increase Sparxie's value even more at this level of investment, making her absurdly broken in damage and decent-good when compared to Yao Guang in buffing capabilities.

For fights with more than 1 phase, such as King in check difficulty level fights or even Plight Sparxie provides more value at E2S1 as her value surpasses Yao the longer the fight goes on.

My conclusion:

As of V1, Yao-Guang is better for those who might not want to invest as much in elation (E2S1 SW and E2S1 Pearl) with Sparxie being a sidegrade to Yao in E2S1 teams where AHA is E0S1 and an upgrade in teams where AHA is E2S1.

That being said, i also do think that the difference between both units is mostly given by how much time AHA's ult takes to charge.

Truth be told, even in non-shilled stages, the performance of both units is very good in the current version of the beta, and i think those who are doomposting about each unit respectively don't realise that both are strong enough to where you can use the one to your preference, even at low investment as long as your focus isn't on 0 cycling.

If you're wondering which one to go for, it honestly gets reduced to these 2 cases:

- Go with the one you prefer the most.

- Go with the one you have more investment on

As simple as that.

-----------------------------------------------

All Showcases can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBUEbmHoaJ0

Hope i helped you in deciding which option you're more interested in! I personally will use Sparxie even at low Investment, but i plan on E2S1'ing every elation member, so Sparxie will be a win-win for me!

Edit:

Thank you:

Hey guys, first of all, ever since i posted this i've gotten a lot of questions and to be honest a lot of good reception from players, i thank you all for being nice and reasonable which is very hard to find nowadays in Yao vs Sparxie discussions.

I'd also like to thank some of y'all for giving suggestions and helping each other, we know many of these things probably won't stay post V1, but it's nice to see such amazing optimization of her current state to try and have a taste of what V3 could bring to the table in regardless of Power not only for Sparxie/Yao but for AHA Herself.

News related to the comparisons:

That being said, after soing some testing, i have found out that there are ways to make low investment Sparxie work almost as well as low investment Yao Guang (both E0S1) something that i tought wasn't possible!

u/Elegant_Tutor8759 has shared with me an idea for a rotation that includes the new planar set and uses Aha's skill in a better way, making it nice for both E0S1 and E2S1 Sparxie havers.

The rotation goes as following:

AHA Technique (AHA instant) - AHA Skill on Pearl - Pearl EBA/Skill - Sparxie turn - AHA instant - SW Ult - Pearl Ult on AHA - AHA Skill on SW - SW Turn - AHA Ult.

This rotation reduces the difference between E0S1 Sparxie and E0S1 Yao from 60 AV to 10-20, similliar to the previously showcased E2S1 (E0S1 AHA team)

The full E2S1 setup also has Sparxie's AV difference decreased, making her even more comparable to Yao.

The only negative about this rotation is that, unfortunately, the devs might've accidentally made the wishpower stacks only register on the next character's turn which means you won't be able to use AHA's ult before SW's turn, not really the fault of the rotation but how the game is programmed.

Once again a big shoutout and credits to u/Elegant_Tutor8759 for sharing this rotation, i'll be sure to use it onwards in my Showcase as it makes Sparxie way better!

POV: You work at Hoyo as an head dev, you were told that the current E2 is being made part of her base kit and that her current E1 would be changed into E2.

You have the responsibilty of creating a new E1 and buffing the current E1 so it fits E2 standards.

What are you doing?

Basic Synergy with the team and how Yao compares to Sparxie at different investments:

I've been analyzing a big part Sparxie's synergy with the overall team post AHA's release, and it has become clear to me that they really want to make her stay in SW's team even if at this time (V1) it might not be fully there (Making her Crit damage buff not team-wide really hurt her and i expect her to have it for the team, even if in a lower %).

As of current i can almost confirm that Sparxie only becomes better than Yao at E2, which puts Yao on the advantage when it comes to the cost to effectiveness value, HOWEVER, that is not to say that Yao Guang is the most optimal pick for the team, especially when nowadays E2S1 is the baseline for a majority of players and especially for the devs (They love money, surprised? Yeah, me neither).

As you can probably guess by now, Sparxie becomes definite BiS for this team at E2, gapping the difference between her and Yao by a mile, even when Yao's E1 is considered in the matter. Sparxie has always been a broken af E2 character so this is not surprising, but i feel like i need to say this because some people are genuinely saying E2 Sparxie is worse than Yao at E0S1 which is far from the truth, pretty sure even Mythus themselves had to process this information.

Another obvious thing, Nihilux's E2 only supports Sparxie's place in the team more, when comparing the buffs given trough E2 for both units, Sparxie gets such a massive amp in personal damage and a good improvement on punchline generated trough the course of the fight that it's really surprising how some are saying her buffs are doodoo (when in reality she got the 3rd biggest buff only behind Waven and SW ofc)

How does this Synergy work/How does AHA affect Sparxie's value in game itself:

If you're still confused on what AHA is actually doing for Sparxie in Sw's team as a whole, here's a breakdown of the synergy that's present even when both are E0:

- First and foremost, let's explain what Sparxie's is doing to improve on the overall punchline of the team. Sparxie's punchline (or Bliss) generation now scales with her own CB (which is now called Party trick) up to a max of 8 additional punchline per rocket at AHA E0 and 10 additional punchline at AHA E2 (so 10 and 12 punchline per rocket in total)

This means that, for every 10 CB/Party trick Sparxie is holding in her own turn, she gets 1 additional punchline per Rocket. This is more important than it seems, especially when considering my next point

- Pearl's ult is the key to the synergy working as well as it does and maintaining consistent Punchline gains from Sparxie's new talent.

If you aren't aware, when AHA is on the team you actually want to use Pearl's first ever ULT on THEM, with the following ults being used on Sparxie, this is advised since after AHA ults for the first time you'll be able to comfortably get their ULT back before the 3 turn buffs expire without requiring Pearl's Extra turn activated on them once more.

Here comes the most important part tho, Pearl's ult gives a temporary 1 turn CB (Party trick) boost to the character she's ulting, it's also very interesting and coincidental that this same CB buff has been extended to 2 turns in Pearl's new buff with AHA's release when she's made for SW's team more than the other elation dps's.

So, why is this so impactful:

You've probably realised what i'm trying to explain already but, for those who haven't, here's the deal:

Since Sparxie now gets a big CB to punchline gen conversion, and Pearl's ult, who gives an extra turn with CB buffs to a unit of choice, is being used on Sparxie every time post AHA's first ult, you're getting way more punchline generation than you would Normally get.

I believe that Pearl's ult was made this way on purpose, especially with how Sparxie is an attack scaler that would like to use ATK boots for her buff, something that Pearl helps with aswell by giving Sparxie an extra turn, it's no different from using sparkle to AA a DPS unit such as Phainon or DHIL while they use ATK boots such, it will always have value and it was never a liability.

Conclusion:

These buffs given to Pearl and Sparxie are clearly made to have strong enough synergy with each-other to leave Sparxie on the team as SW's BiS, by boosting her MMR greatly and also improving on the team's overall damage with way more punchline per AHA instant.

If you're doubting my claim about Hoyo doing this intentionally for Sparxie to stay on the team, just remember that... not only is Pearl's CB buff on Ult useless for almost all characters of the path (before you say Eva, keep in mind that most of her damage doesn't come from her own turn, and it's way more profitable to use the ult on Yao in that team for the AHA instants which provide CB for the whole team) but also that there's a reason why Sparxie got exactly the amount of DEF Ignore% to make Silverwolf ignore 100% of the enemy's defense.

The synergy is there, and they clearly want to make Sparxie the definitive BiS for SW's elation team, but for that to happen we'll have to wait until her team-wide buffing gets buffed in V3... OR i might be wrong and she's already better than Yao, it's the first day of the beta after all, so the chances of people being wrong is exponentially increased.

Important Edit:

I was wrong in some things i stated in the post, the info about the buffs itself is correct, and the synergy existing is also correct, however, after being corrected in the comments i have now realised that ulting Sparxie with Pearl might not be optimal for E2 SW teams.

My assumption was that SW's additional extra turns would impact the energy flow of the rotation because of Pearl, i had comoletely forgotten that extra turns don't affect AV unlike AA, so an E2 SW alongside an E2 AHA will take the same time to leave ult as an E0 SW, which at 200 speed lets you 2 turn ult cycle on SW using Pearl comfortably.

Another thing (this one is actually good for Sparxie) is that Sparxie doesn't need the CB retention from Pearl's ult to reach the 10/12 punchline per rocket very fast, most showcases i saw had Sparxie at 200 CB (Party trick) in her turn post the first AHA ult, getting CB in this new team is NOT an issue and so Sparxie will essentially always be giving you 10/12 punchline per rocket independently of ulting her with Pearl or not.

Also, it was supposed to be SPARXIE written in the title, i was very sleepy and tired (still am ngl) so sorry for the mistake.

Stay safe, drink lots of water, and see you guys in V3!

Hey everyone, i compiled a list of what Sparxie is doing on SW's team after AHA's buffing which makes her better than Yao Guang.

This list might be missing some stuff, which is crazy since in the current state and with the current observations it's already pretty obvious Yao is the one being kicked out.

Here is everything (or almost everything/the main stuff) Sparxie is doing after Nihilux's buff:

- Sparxie is getting team-wide buffs as a sub dps, this is something that Yao defenders were holding onto for why Yao would stay. Making Sparxie buff teammates alongside Nihilux removing the need for Yao's AHA instant makes Yao's whole shtick pretty irrelevant for SW's team comp.

- SW's CB is now converted into punchline without a set amount, based on previous patterns this means that any CB gained during an AHA instant is converted to MMR aswell, so double the MMR from punchlines. This is important since not only is Sparxie getting a lot more rockets, but she's also the biggest punchline generator of the elation archetype, with LC she should be able to give more punchline than an E1 Yao per turn after an AHA instant which with the new limit removal will go insane.

- Wolfie's limit removal by itself is a buff for Sparxie, making bigger punchline AHA instants way more important than small punchline ones, this was pretty obvious ever since Nihilux was leaked to make AHA's Base speed scale with her own since with how fast AHA will be acting you'd prefer more damage and punchline over an additional 1/2 AHA instants every 3 or so turns which at that point makes Yao's AHA instant become irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

- Sparxie's damage control was always an advantage over Yao in the SW team, altough i do think that with all of these changes you always want to go full in on Sparxie it was always clear that she really helped with controlling the damage for CB extension manipulation on Wolfie, anyone who knows how to play SW properly can tell you this was one of the biggest advantages Sparxie had to offer.

- Lootbox Synergy, i did a post the other day stating that it wouldn't make sense to make a mechanic that requires SP consumption if Sparxie was getting kicked, especially when Sparxie's whole deal is having a mechanic tied to proccing those hitboxes. Not trying to be rude but i genuinely always found the argument of (Lootboxes are made to help Sparxie be viable or Lootboxes don't matter) absolutely stupid.

Reallistically, tell me why a business based around making money, that has developed kits for characters and flagships for almost, if not more than a decade, throw away a possibly better effect on ultimate state in exchange for one that helps a temporary teammate? It just never made sense to me why they would give the flagship's main unit, whose whole purpose is to be relevant for more time than other units even after shilling, an ability that would only be fully utilized for 4 patches in total.

This one i just can't defend, it was total cope from Yao Guang defenders and i can't believe this was an actual argument to begin with...

(This following part is edited in, since it was stuff i remembered later and deserve a mention)

- Yao Guang's ult buff lasting 3 turns of the units she's buffing was always detrimental for SilverWolf (especially at Eidolon 2) who is a fast character, now that SW's MMR cap is increased to 999 you would be losing a lot of damage in those possible 8 extra turns which. Pearl's Extra turn made this buff even harder to keep active since she's giving an extra turn.

- The lower punchline AHA instants provided by Yao always felt to me like something would appreciate way more, because it's a way to consistently increase CB which Eva wants, whilst SW only really needs 1 CB active for her to do damage, with most of the value from AHA instants coming from punchline generated, you can probably tell what SW wants more between more punchline and more CB.

Other things will ofc impact Sparxie, such as Nihilux's buffing, Aha instant speed increase and her final build aswell, but it's pretty confirmed that yes, Sparxie won and i am so fucking happy with this outcome.

Today is probably the happiest i've ever been the whole month, i was waiting for info on Sparxie buffs ever since Nihilux's kit got leaked.

i'm happy to have HSR as my fav Hoyo game and to have Both Nihilux and Sparxie as my favorite characters!

(And yes, i made the picture, in Canva, pretty half-hassed work but i tought it was funny)

Ever since we got Nihilux's leak, i was a defender of Sparxie staying.

To me, what Yao was doing in comparison to Sparxie damage-wise and Nihilux buff-wise made her only worth it for very few reasons, since most of her value came from her startup and not really anything else.

Sure, her buffing is good, but i would much rather prefer to get many aha instants with a bigger damage value than Yao's now kinda irrelevant buffing with Nihilux on the team.

Thank you Star Rail, i never doubted you, there was no reason for you to release a punchline generator for it to become a brick when her mechanics tackle more than 1 of SW's mechanics synergistically at a time.

RIP Yao, you served me well

This has been on my head since we got V3, it's also an important discussion to have cause her healing and elation buffs scale with her DEF, so it's important to know this for pre-farming purposes

Who are we kidding... We both now that you don't... No one does... Not even i do...

I've lived long enough to know, to realise when someone forgets... To feel when the last breath of your existance is gone from the world...

At one point, i was like you... Yet... Not quite... Little changes are made to this world, our existance and our essence... Constantly building and rebuilding who we are... like a line of code left unchecked causing your game to crash during testing, asking to be fixed before it is too late...

Uuh...? Who am i...?

Oh... i tought you had realised that by now... No... Actually... I am wrong... No one realises who i am... No one ever will... Even if it takes a million years

Yet... I cannot do anything more than ask you to remember... Maybe because what's left of my Ego... My essence... My feelings... Is still inside me... And as i grasp for a feeble way to stay in this world... Even if merely as a concept... I still find it just enough to maybe... Just maybe... Encounter peace and quiet...

Now go, my child... Suffering may stain your heart with scars that don't heal... But your SOUL will help you move on...

(You look at the egg in the palm of your hand... It feels shallow)

(You feel a sense of dread knowing that, one day, you too will become forgotten...)

(Yet... You also feel a weight being lifted from your core...)

(As you realise that, before being forgotten, you should try your best to leave your mark into this world and enjoy your life to the best of your ability... You're filled with... DETERMINATION...)

Asking this cause i never knew if instantly using her ult is playing her badly, would like to know if there's a consensus post pearl since she gives SW a good amount of MMR trough her own ult while learning how to play her better currently.

I don't run out of CB for most of the battle since my Yao takes action before my SW does

As the title says, i am curious about what you, as Pearl mains, would do in order to improve Pearl's current Lightcone. This post is made on good faith and just so i can satisfy my curiosity and maybe help me cope a little.

Also, if you're curious about what i think, here is an explanation:

- In my opinion the DEF% stat stick should be replaced with a team-wide bonus such as speed or crit rate and, in case they don't wanna do a team-wide buff giving her ERR would already be miles better. There's no point in giving a sustain more offense-based stat sticks when the only team-wide buffing included in the lightcone ends up as nothing but 2 shroomie LC's and a little bit more healing.

It becomes even worse when you realise that the 48% Defense doesn't change much until E1, it makes it feel scummy since you have to also get her E1 in order to gain full value from her LC at the current state, making you feel obligated to get her E2 aswell even if you might not have the budget to do so. It's a disgusting practice and should never be turned into the standard (still bummed that having an LC has become the standard nowadays...)

- Increase the healing in the lightcone by 5-10%, it doesn't fix the lightcone by itself but it would be a good boost towards her sustain which instantly increases her LC in value.

- The damage taken buff is good enough as long as they change the other parts of the lc, if they don't then it's not good enough to warrant summoning on when it comes to its value & cost.

I got a mini desk that's coming and i'd like to put my meta quest headset at the top, this stand looks amazing and perfect for my case.

However when i went to check the measurements in order to make sure it fits i couldn't find anything related to the base itself, only the packaging.

If anyone has bought this before, please let me know the actual measurements of the base! I need to know so i don't make the mistake of buying it and not fitting making me regret my purchase.

Like the title of the post says, i just returned after grabbing Yao and her LC in her first rerun, it is time to build her properly.

What should i do? does CD even matter for the most optimal setup?