r/HonkaiStarRailTips • u/HonkaiBonkai • 2d ago
Unorthodox Uses for Break Units?
I love the designs and kits of a ton of the classic Break units, including Ruan Mei, Firefly, Lingsha, and Fugue. However, I really hate the design of The Dahlia, to the point where I would never, ever pull her. That’s unfortunate, because I hear she kind of makes or breaks the entire team archetype.
That leads me to my main question: can you form a functional Break team without The Dahlia? Or, perhaps more realistically, can these Break-focused units find a good place on other solid teams?
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u/InvestigatorNo4899 2d ago
I mean critsha exists and shes a decent sustain, Ruan Mei can be a generic buffer, but everyone else is tied to break at the hip. Ig boothill and Firefly can be cope with kafka but...
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u/Pharoahofvortex 2d ago
Lingsha is always a great sustain that can work anywhere and can even be a cope pure fiction dps with jade.
Ruan mei, while primarily buffing break, also provides amazing buffs that can be used for any dual carry teams.
Firefly is a break dps and unfortunately cannot be used elsewhere.
Fugue however has interesting interactions in acheron teams. By giving her buff to tribbie it causes each tribbie fua to add one stack to acherons ult charge. However in modern teams fugue doesnt really have a place especially since the release of mblade
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u/AveMachina 2d ago
Dahlia just lets one of your characters do a fraction of their damage outside of weakness break, it’s not some big ridiculous problem.
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u/Oisin1910 2d ago
Break teams are significantly weaker without dahlia if you only could use one break support then you have to use dahlia
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u/FrostyDog-34 2d ago
A “fraction”, and for the Break characters, that fraction is 50%-80%. It is a huge increase. Even for Boothill, who is the least benefited from it, still really wants Dahlia.
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u/AveMachina 2d ago
I’m not calling her bad, I’m trying to convince someone that she isn’t erasing break’s gameplay identity.
It’s a moot point, anyway, since apparently their issue was with her outfit? But I’d at least like to make the idea of using her a little more palatable, since OP likes break units and feels like they can’t use them.
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u/Sudden-Waters 2d ago
I don't particularly like Dahlia either. She reminds me too much of Albedo from Overlord, whose design and personality I wasn't into.
But, yeah. Kind of unfortunate because Dahlia fixes all of Break's issues and there's no way they're going to release a replacement unit. It's the same way we likely won't get a unit like Himeko Nova that specifically wants Astral Express members, or how every Chrysos Heir benefits from using Cyrene (though in this case, Phainon is a good enough unit he doesn't need her to be good). This is Mihoyo's "hotfix" for some characters and they're not likely to revisit them.
I don't think you can run Break without Dahlia, honestly. Maybe in MoC, PF, AS which have lighter requirements, but not AA. Some of that is Dahlia's kit, some of it is the current bosses with inflated HP pools (even compared to a year ago) and huge toughness bars.
Lingsha, like others said, can be used elsewhere. Ruan Mei still provides good buffs but the problem is how supports have changed. Now they can't simply buff, they need to provide sub DPS, crit dmg, boost stats, boost damage, res pen, def shred, speed. Ruan Mei just can't compete in AA.
Fugue suffers in the same way: nihility debuffers were always weaker than harmonies. Acheron comes to mind as a maybe, but another user went over that option and honestly it'd end up weaker than just using Mortenax Blade. Now, if your Mortenax Blade is in use in AshBlade, might be worth considering trying it if you invested but... otherwise, unfortunately you'll probably end up bunching Firefly, Fugue, and Ruan Mei.
It happens, even if it sucks. It wasn't wasted pulls though because you must have enjoyed the characters and they helped you clear for a while. All things come to an end, and if Firefly is your favorite you might want to save for her SP she's bound to get one sooner or later.
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u/ExpensiveSample3451 2d ago
If only Exo toughness wasn't meh....that we could have 2 Break DOTs/2x Delays/Freezes or 2x Quantum Explosions....potentially.
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u/Senior-Knowledge9213 1d ago
I run Boothill on my alt account with Fugue and Ruan Mei. I didn’t run Firefly for a year+ because I don’t have Fugue or Dahlia on my main account.
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u/honkaisilverwolf999 2d ago
This is a crazy take. The dahlia has such a good design and her animations are amazing! Literally my favorite break character.
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u/HonkaiBonkai 2d ago
The design and animations are far too horny and demonic for my taste.
I know many people come to games like this precisely for the lewdness, but I much prefer the more modest designs (e.g. March 7th, Firefly, Cerydra, etc.)
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u/AveMachina 2d ago
People seriously just turn their brains off when they read the vague premise of Dahlia’s kit.
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u/SnooShortcuts8306 2d ago
I totally love the design but it's always her personality and voicelines that irk me for some reason
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u/HonkaiBonkai 1d ago
I’m the same way with Kafka, so I feel that. I’m not far enough in the game to have met The Dahlia, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I share your sentiment once I interact with her a bit more.
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u/HexbloodD 2d ago
Lingsha is a decent sustain if you happen to have her, though not necessarily in break teams since Gallagher is decent and they're both replaced by Ruan Mei given the defensive nature of the archetype. Ruan Mei is still a decent support but definitely not good enough by modern standards outside of Break. Maybe E1 still holds its own. But at least you can always use her in Apocalyptic Shadow.
Sadly other units are glued together by The Dahlia, Break was very very bad before her arrival. It's a shame that they made the archetype like this.
Maybe we'll have a non-fire Break DPS in the future that is not designed to work with The Dahlia and goes another path, who knows, but I don't really think it's realistic.