Constructing a strong workforce in Honkai: Star Rail is rarely a simple job, however the devoted path system breaks down the method to make it simpler. Or, it’s imagined to. This method appears to have been thrown to the aspect with latest updates, and now nothing is smart anymore.
Paths are supposed to be easy and simple
Paths are a simple means for any participant to rapidly perceive what a personality is meant to be able to. Those that be a part of The Hunt, for instance, are supposed to be devoted single-target harm sellers, whereas recruits who align with The Preservation ought to possess sturdy defensive skills to offer safety in battle.
However currently, these paths are nowhere close to as simple as they’re imagined to be, and it form of looks like miHoYo has forgotten how its personal path system works.
Jingliu is an pointless rulebreaker
The most recent character to change into playable was Jingliu, an Ice character who aligns with The Destruction. She ought to have been an immensely tanky harm supplier with excessive survivability. As an alternative, all the things about Jingliu’s skillset screams The Hunt.
Most of Jingliu’s damage-dealing skills are single-target centered, which is the premise of what characters who align with The Hunt are able to. She additionally doesn’t have sturdy survivability to final by way of battles, one in every of my favourite components of different Destruction models like Blade.
Jingliu might swap to The Hunt, and she or he would match much better there than she does on the trail she’s presently aligned with. The selection to make her Destruction appears particularly bizarre since there’s one other current path that matches her skillset significantly better.
If I’m pulling for a Destruction character, I’m anticipating to get a mighty harm supplier with unimaginable survivability, not a single-target harm supplier with pretty low well being and talents that recommend they’re a Hunt character in disguise. Jingliu is one in every of Honkai: Star Rail’s greatest, however I’m holding a grudge in opposition to her as a result of she’s been positioned on the fallacious path.
The devs dedicated to sharing descriptions of every distinctive path from the very starting. It’s fantastic to increase upon what these paths seem like, nevertheless it turns into fairly complicated and contradictory when playable characters align with one path, however operate like one other one solely.
Destruction characters are by far probably the most responsible of this subject, as the entire unique five-star characters on this path have considerably dipped into The Hunt and The Erudition paths. Each Blade and Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae stick sufficient to what Destruction is meant to be that I can overlook their path-crossing, however I firmly consider Jingliu is only a Hunt character with the fallacious path listed.
Fu Xuan is an OP path-crossing mess
If it was simply Destruction models, I would have the ability to look previous this subject. In spite of everything, The Destruction model of the Trailblazer all of us began off with did warn us, with the signature voice line from their brutal bat Final transfer that “Guidelines are made to be damaged.”
However this subject persists throughout different paths, too. Though Jingliu is by far the worst wrongdoer, proper earlier than her got here Fu Xuan, a Quantum Preservation character additionally responsible of path-crossing.
Preservation characters are supposed to concentrate on supplying the workforce with sturdy safety skills. Whereas Fu Xuan definitely does this, she additionally has an AoE-focused Final and randomly buffs the occasion with a vital fee increase by way of her talent.
The usual character, Gepard, traces up much more carefully with what a Preservation character ought to have the ability to do, as a result of all of his skills are devoted to defending his workforce—though I’m not essentially mad about Fu Xuan’s skillset, since she’s an OP all-in-one support unit.
Honkai: Star Rail must rethink and rework paths
Nihility characters are additionally fairly complicated as they need to focus solely on debuffing, but characters like Kafka and Silver Wolf excel at damage-dealing and rank among the many strongest DPS models within the recreation. It looks like most traditional characters keep on with what they’re imagined to do, whereas lots of the unique five-stars stray closely from their paths.
With extra complicated characters set to reach sooner or later—like Hanya on The Concord path, who dips into Nihility, and Huohuo with The Abundance, who crosses into Concord territory—the trail system doesn’t appear to be getting much less complicated and contradictory anytime quickly.
However I do hope the devs determine a repair out, whether or not this implies updating the descriptions of every path or working to higher align characters with their chosen path sooner or later.
Paths are one in every of my favourite facets of Honkai: Star Rail, and so they was a characteristic I actually appreciated for understanding what totally different characters had been imagined to do. I’m holding out hope there’s nonetheless an opportunity they are often mounted.
I’ll proceed to like Honkai: Star Rail it doesn’t matter what—however I’d adore it a bit extra if it might get the trail system again so as.
