Tier list revamp and DPS Ranking changes
With the release of the 1.3 Honkai: Star Rail patch we have decided to make a few important changes on the website – and they will impact the Tier List, the DPS Ranking, and the character profile the most.
Tier list revamp
We’ve listened to a lot of feedback from various communities and we have decided to improve a few things about the Tier List. The biggest change will affect the three categories by which we rate the characters. Previously, those categories were General, Single Target and 3-Target. The categories were picked because they felt like the best split back when the game launched, but with our current knowledge – especially about how MoC works – they no longer are valid.
With the way the waves are set up in the MoC, you always start with a wave that contains 3-5 enemies who are on the weaker side and you need to quickly deal with them. The second wave type consists of 1 elite-type enemy who is accompanied by 1-2 weaker enemies. The third wave type consists of 2 elite-type enemies that you have to fight at the same time – here you usually focus on killing one of them fast, to make the fight easier as dealing with both elite-tier mechanics is usually annoying and hard.
When it comes to the current teambuilding meta, you usually run a single DPS who you pair with 2 offensive supports and 1 defensive support. This means that the DPS character you choose matters a lot and there’s a very small number of DPS characters who are good at dealing with all 3 of the above scenarios AND also match the elements the monsters are weak too (usually it only matters for the last wave, so double elite).
This is why the tier list has been reworked and now we rate each of the characters by how they perform in those 3 exact scenarios:
- Single target – how a character performs when fighting against a single enemy, but also when you need to focus a target to kill it fast (so priority killing),
- Blast – how a character performs when fighting against 3 enemies (so main target + two smaller ones),
- AoE – how a character performs when fighting against 4 and 5 enemies. This measures their potential to quickly deal with large groups of weaker enemies.
With the way the Paths in the game split the damage dealers, we feel that the new split will be able to better showcase the strengths of each of the characters so you can pick the best one to deal with the MoC stages. Also, we’ve made a new addition above the tier list that is more visual and can be used to quickly switch between the tier list categories:
The second change we are introducing revolves around expanding the criteria we use to rate the characters and we’re hoping this will players better understand our ratings:
- Manual play,
- Using optimal team composition/support characters,
- Character level 80,
- All Major Traces unlocked and skills upgraded to level 8,
- Character equipped with level 80 Light Cone (4★ and 5★, but only those available to F2P players),
- Character equipped with 5★ upgraded gear with optimal Main Stats and Sub Stats (24 out of 54),
- Eidolon level 0 for 5★ characters,
- Eidolon level 4 for 4★ characters (Eidolon level 6 will be introduced with patch 1.4),
- Support characters while receiving ratings in all 3 categories (Single target, Blast, AoE) are rated according to how much they help the team and they receive one unified rating.
We could also add a feature to enable the Signature Light Cone to showcase how the tier list would change by including it. If you like the idea, leave a comment here!
Considering the adjustments made, most of the DPS characters’ ratings have changed while the supports (defensive and offensive) remained mostly the same as they don’t really care about the enemies that much.
You can find the tier list by going here.
DPS Ranking
The DPS Ranking won’t be updated with Imbibitor Lunae and we are suspending any updates on it indefinitely – it will also be removed in the future. Here are the reasons behind this:
Misusage of the graph
This is the first reason. A lot of players are screenshotting the DPS comparison graph available on the page and then sharing it with others. While we actually don’t have anything against people sharing the information found on the website in any possible way – since our aim is to spread knowledge about the game – the graph itself, without the Rules and Disclaimers available on the page causes more harm than good. Why is that?
Honkai: Star Rail combat system is very complicated and it takes a few days per character to actually calculate their damage output for all Eidolons and Light Cones – because we need to do that to find what’s the best. That’s why our simulations are governed by a set of rules and restrictions and they should be used only to supplement the player’s knowledge – the numbers found on this page are only the first layer that showcases the ‘floor’ of the character which then you can scale using proper supports and better gear. Basically, extrapolate from our data to fulfill your needs.
Sadly, some players used it instead to spread hate.
Powercreep
This is the second reason. With the current trajectory of character releases each seems to be increasing in power – to some extent – creating a scenario in which the damage ranking’s top position is constantly changing (Kafka was an exception as she expands the current roster horizontally by introducing some alternative playstyles and kudos to Mihoyo – please continue releasing more characters like her). Because of this, the characters players pulled for (and invested in) are moving down in positions on the ranking, stirring community concerns – and in some cases anger despite the characters in the game’s power level not changing and the difficulty of the game not increasing.
As mentioned above some community members also take the opportunity for characters being overtaken on the damage ranking to spread hate, making others feel bad about a character they have invested in and or enjoy. Prydwen does not support the use of the damage ranking to bash characters and in the current state of endgame, even entirely 4-star teams are completely viable in the endgame.
Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae
Imbibitor Lunae was the primary catalyst for what’s happening with the DPS Ranking and is the culmination of the issues with comparing units without full teams as a definitive resource. Lunae is most accurately calculated using many more Skill Points than other characters as that’s exactly how you play him in the game. Calculating him without this feature would be wildly inaccurate and unhelpful as it would go against his realistic playstyle.
This is an issue as Lunae’s solo calculations are much higher than other characters.
The reason for this is his solo calculations consume – compared to other characters – far more of the team’s resources, putting our team in an impossible situation. We either could misrepresent the character with a rotation no one will use to put him on the level of other characters or add him with his full rotation that consumes most of the teams’ resources which is unfair in a separate way.
Unfortunately, this issue is not exclusive to Lunae and has popped up a few times which our team has done its best to listen to feedback on, but Lunae unfortunately has no solution we can spot, being the final push behind this decision.
That’s why we were worried that some players would just look at the graph, pull for him, and then regret it. Why? He requires a very specific team built around him combined with a very specific playstyle which is caused by his massive Skill Points consumption. Furthermore, he is more challenging to play on auto due to the AI stealing his much desired SP and granting them to other characters e.g. Pela a character a player would use the basic on might use the skill. This can lead to underwhelming DHIL auto results.
Basically, playing Imbibitor Lunae looks like this:
If you want to learn more about this character, check our Should you pull guide for Imbibitor Lunae.
Moving forward
While the DPS Ranking will be removed in some time, our calculations aren’t going anywhere!
We are currently working on a massive overhaul of our character profile that will make it easier to navigate and contain way more information – the calculations for each character will actually be moved there, so you can still check how they’re performing. We’re simply removing the easy way to screenshot the graph and spread it without the necessary explanations.
Here’s a list of new features/changes that will be added to each character profile within the next 6 weeks:
- Making a visual overhaul to improve readability,
- Adding a slider to the skills, so you can easily check values for each level (this is probably the most requested feature),
- Adding the damage number graphs for each Eidolon – both in Single Target and Blast scenarios,
- Adding an introduction section that gives an overview of the character, their pros and cons etc,
- Incorporating the MoC Analytics data into the profile so you can not only browse the most popular teams used there, but also check the cycle clear time, relics, and all the plethora of information we have on the MoC Analytics page!
Also, we will be investigating the ability to add team-based simulation information to the website, but they will never be directly compared like we were comparing the Solo simulations.
Nightknight4
The Signature Light Cone thing sounds interesting please add if it’s not too much work!
Arakito
I like the idea of a button to see how the ratings will be affected with the signature Lc and kudos to all of you for the hard work is greatly appreciated
Lucky Shinei
Love the idea of having a button to enable rankings with signature lightcone. Are the character in the tier arranged in order or no? Like the one most on the left is better than ones on the right? But apart from that continue the good work!
Precursor
Please add signature lightcones, it would provide a clearer picture for more people. No downside to adding it as far as I can tell from a data presentation lense, only upsides.
Chaosrune
Sad to see the DPS graph going away, because while some people might misuse it, it was very helpful, specially in a gacha game like this, where unless you are a whale you are not going to get every character in the game, and being able to see how characters stand vs each other is very helpful when deciding for whom to pull.
This feels like a one step forward, 2 steps back situation
Antillar
You can still manually compare the new character to old ones. We’re not stopping the calcs, we’re just preventing people from being able to easily screenshot the ranking and spread it without the explanations needed.
You can find IL single/AoE numbers here: https://www.prydwen.gg/star-rail/guides/should-you-pull-imbibitor-lunae
anon
Yes, please don’t stop the damage calculations! I’m sad that the graph is going away because a minority abused it to spread hate & sadness. You’ve always included SP usage in the graphs and I always took that into account personally. Certain characters like DH:IL, Clara, Qingque really need their own table because they’re outliers outside the normal rules. Anyway thanks for all that you do.
Someonebob
That’s literally one of the reasons they removed it. You shouldn’t use that graph as a way to decide who to pull. It’s a very small piece of the puzzle of a character’s strength and not representative of how they stack up with a full team.
Ayumi
The idea with enabling the Signature LC is something I support. I am just assuming you have been wanting to do this to also be able to cater to light spenders. If that’s the case – and if it won’t add too much to your workload – maybe include at least E1 and E2 as well?
Sol
Please add Signature light cone feature. This could be too much work but I would love an AI auto tier list since majority of the game is completed in this way. I also think it’d be interesting to see where people rate certain characters, like Bronya being crazy good in manual but will sap all you skill points on auto.
Emre
i really wanna see the signature light cone effect in the tier list, thank you for noticing that i hope you will add it.
Fytlox
Great work guys, appreciate the hard work for community, PRYDWEN is the gold standard for me.
Best of luck
Bogzy
While i think its fine to rate characters on manual play, the absolute VAST majority of the playerbase plays this game on auto, even in moc. So autoplay should be considered and mentioned in the characters pros/cons. For example silver wolf is almost unplayable on auto because she targets random ads instead of boss and spams her skill eating up all SP, but shes rated as S+ with no mention of this major downside.
Also characters should be rated with their signature cones by default. Thats how they are designed, sometimes even part of their kit is in their lc, and some characters have vastly better f2p lc options than others (jing yuan vs seele).
Anon
Your whale bias is reeking. People definitely do not overwhelmingly play MoC on auto if they’re trying for stars. The only people that have the luxury for that are whales that breeze through it. And majority of people definitely don’t have signature lightcones. It makes sense to have a toggle for it but suggesting that as the default is absurd.
Klaphood
Regarding the Signature Light Cone inclusion question: I think it would be an interesting addition, but should you do it, I would prefer to see it made in a rather subtle way, so that getting the signature weapons doesn’t seem like a neccessity to anyone, because it hardly ever is in the end. Also, a general weapon comparison list, just the one that’s already included in most character profiles, might be the better solution anyways. Thank you for your work!
Ossirian
When should we expect calculations for a new cone from the Hertha store?
Anon
I don’t think my previous comment went through, so I’ll just send this part again — I really hope you guys put the damage breakdown part on the character pages, as they’re invaluable! I was honestly hoping to see Imbibitor Lunae’s damage breakdown on his character page too, hopefully it can be added soon ^^
Anon
Can you please consider updating the Character pages so that recommended Light Cones either have a link to the Light Cone’s page or list the effects in the table? Thanks, love the site.
Zweifell
The only thing i would like to sugest is that the ranking shouldn’t work by best-worst but for breaching a treachhold. Like, if you got 3 characthers that do very well in a same spot, but one is better than the other, dropping the weaker one to a rank bellow is a little misleading, cause people would just thinking they arent fit for that role(as when blade release and all the other rank s dps were dropped to rank a, and the a to b). A had some friends who stoped using their characther to hard try getting blade cause they thought their characther werent fit anymore because they saw this.
Anon
Hard agree. Adding a new in-between ranking (like A+ and A-, SS for most OP, then S+ S S-) would be a good solution to this. I think the Prydwen group wants to make it so that, at a glance, the incredibly powerful in their roles are clearly separated from those a step lower, but it’s not good to just drop the other characters’ rankings by a whole level just because someone else is way too strong. The other characters’ power didn’t get lower – it’s just overshadowed by someone else who, by all means, should be at a higher level. So it would be something like DHIL at SS for Blast, Blade at S+, and Kafka Clara Jing Yuan Seele at S. Something like that.
Gunsmoke Grey
I’m grateful for both the changes and all the work you guys do. Selective interpretation of DPS rankings led to a lot of destructive impressions about the strengths of certain characters (Himeko and Jing Yuan, notably), and a lot of the nuance went ignored, so while less information readily being available is a lamentable thing, the old saying does go “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing”.
Unrelated, would you guys have any interest in adding ideal energy recharge value targets for characters, for them to have stable rotations and consistent ult usage after so many turns? Having to tear around Reddit, KQM and here trying to find out what planar sets to use, whether or not to have an ERR rope or to use Meshing Cogs/Shared Feeling/et al to achieve something like consistent 3-turn ults for Asta/Tingyun/SW is rather cumbersome.
Anon
The new change that makes all 4 stars ranked at E6 only is a terrible change, which people all over diff social media sites have been saying. It’s because this essentially makes the tier list useless for a majority of players. Consider adding rankings for 4 stars at E0 then E6. Or better yet, at E0 – their most notable pre-E6 constellation – then E6.
rizzy
they already did that currently
Anon
Edisonsmathclub has a comprehensive sheet for nearly every characters’ Energy Requirements 🙂 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Oz_d9cDAFe0Jz0XZmFHKgCdIRsWpfrsP69cjpBshQGM/edit
Very useful, though I’d say it’s a safe bet that every support would want an ERR rope.
rizzy
Prydwen, I have a few things i would like to say about the current tier list (after the updates of this tier list). I really like the current tier list with the ST, Blast, and AoE. However, about the current rankings, I think some things could be fixed. I’ll use the S tier vs. S+ (imbitor lunae) to compare. In the current tier list where qingque is S tier, why are blade and kafka in S+ tier for AoE if imbibitor lunae completely outclasses them? With his signature light cone, according to the calculations, E0 imbibitor lunae is able to do over 900,000 damage in blast scenarios and possibly even more in AoE. However, blade and kafka are only able to reach 550,000+. If they’re still in S+ tier, why is Seele, not in S+ for single target? Although dan heng outclasses her dps, she still does quite well to be considered in S+ tier. I think that is blade and kafka are going to be in S+ tier for AoE, then I think Seele should be in S+ tier for single target as she is debatably still the best singe target dps. Also, i know the tier list is in alphabet order but i think it should be ordered by best in each section. For example, I saw a video that said Qingue was better than Seele because she was placed ahead. It also doesn’t look right that blade is higher than seele in single target even though that is not true. I think that the characters should be ordered correctly but I understand if that just makes your job a lot harder so you don’t.
No
The AoE you mean on the tierlist means 3 target scenario.
Dan Heng is limited to 3 targets as per his kit.
Blade and Kafka both have full aoe (5 targets) attacks.
Dan heng is locked to Blast, he cannot go higher than it.
Naturally, Blade and Kafka will have higher scaling against those than Blast
Do you understand?
Rizzy
The thing is tho, if he’s completley overpowering blade and kafka, shoudln’t they be dropped? Like I understand that they’re in AoE but isn’t imbibtor still better even it’s only Blast, he still does better than them. I think it’s kind of like Seele’s AoE but better
No
Again, you misunderstand.
Blade and Kafka are out damaging or at least matching his damage in 5 target scenarios with much less skill points or set up (seriously you can output a 200k nuke with Blade in 5 targets each turn), which puts them in S+ with him.
IL Dan is dominating in Blast/Single Target and deserves S+ in those scenarios by himself, which is why Blade and Kafka were demoted.
I don’t get what you mean by “demoting blade and Kafka” because they still are better than him in 5 Target Scenarios.
Do you get it? IL Dan is dominate in Blast + Single, not AoE.
Rizzy
True but I still think my point stands to an extent.