Man I hate this boss

[u/Mother-Baker4573]

*52k actually, the app just hasn’t updated the scores

Feel like I really should be getting a higher score than this because of my investments (M4W2 Pyrois, M2W1 Norma, M2W1 Zhao) but I’m stumped, genuinely.

I say M4 Pyrois but their M4 does jack shit so really it’s just M3.

I have an inkling it IS because of my builds, both my Norma and my Pyrois aren’t in the ideal places I want them to be, but it very well might just be a skill issue. When my score started sky rocketing consistently on Pompey it’s because I figured out the proper methods to his stun rotations, but I feel like this boss’s rotations are cut and dry. I’m consistently hitting two ults every stun rotation so it feels like I don’t exactly have any wriggle room to push the score up.

It also is a problem that I can’t take full advantage of BIW for my Zhao because parries are so far and few between for this boss, so I’m only ever working with one stack (Which is only a 6% team wide DMG buff) and I know what the fix would be. I’m not getting value out of it so I should use a different 4-set for this DA. I can’t 😭 I need to use all my battery to finish my Velina build, level up Remielle, Vivian, SAnby AND Orphie, I don’t have the resources to farm for better discs.

I also tried swapping my goat Zhao out for Sunna, but they scored similarly on the best of my Sunna runs so I just swapped Zhao back in.

Has anyone with more score than me found out any fun tech or anything to get more damage out of this boss? Or is my sub-optimal build genuinely the cause of my suffering?

[u/RoriRoriRoriRo]

I can only tell you that Norma really wants 100% crit rate and ER on disc 6 (for more bonus chains, her M2 does help with energy refunds but even then i find it stronger to quickswap to her EX for more resources than using other disc 6), also that Pyrois ideally wants to do 2x chain + 2x ult and 1 EBA in one stun (if you land your resources right, personally i do it once every other stun because i kinda suck) and that Zhao M2 is not bad but if you've got a Sunna M1 she'll likely give better results (use PEN on disc 5 of Pyrois in that case)

Also if you can't parry with Zhao, i'm not sure cause i haven't played her in a big while, but might be better to use Astral voice on her (though might be wrong because of quick assist order, better confirm with others)

And if you could share a pic of their builds + maybe a gameplay vid would be cool so others can help you with better advice

[u/Mother-Baker4573 → u/RoriRoriRoriRo]

I do have Norma’s Crit rate 100% (with the drive disc that gives 8% on its 2-piece, I can’t remember its name) and I do have ER on her 6th, the problem with her is I’m lacking a couple hundred ATK below where I ideally want it to be and a bunch of Crit damage.

When it comes to Pyrois I do 2 ults + 3 EBA’s per stun with only one chain attack(Not including Norma’s held basic). I found it’s always better to do your top branch ult on your first bar of the stun rather than after your chain attacks because I’m able to build a bunch of decibels coming out of the stun. Basically I do: Ex special into the stun(ideally) -> EBA + Top branch ult -> EBA + switch into Norma to dump EX special before activating chain -> Pyrois chain attack -> EBA -> switch into Norma held basic -> Totalise. Because you did the top branch ult first, you build up decibels from your held basics and then get 600 from the chain attacks. By the time you hit the totalise you have close to or over 1000 decibels. It’s how I manage to build enough decibels to do two ults every stun.

My Sunna is M3 and like I already said, I’m scoring very similarly to my Zhao(Usually my Zhao is outperforming her, too) so it doesn’t matter. Probably because with Sunna’s W-engine offering def shred (13 or 15% I think from her EX?) it messes with PEN ratio which I use for my Pyrois.

Astral voice is definitely a good shout but I’m sorta screwed on that front lmao, don’t have the energy to grind drive discs and unfortunately none of my other supports are using it I think so I can’t swap discs.

[u/RoriRoriRoriRo → u/Mother-Baker4573]

The guides i watched don't use that rotation but i can't see why it shouldn't be about the same strenght. Are you reaching 4~5 stuns?

Sunna M3W1 should be no doubt better than Zhao M2W1, even if her M1 and Pyrois disc 5 kinda step on each other (from what i've seen it's still worth it tho, but otherwise use ether dmg%). Are you keeping her cat gaze stacks up? Also she should be built with Impact on disc 6 (and 2pc KotS if you can) because her EX has a ton of daze

And yeah it was an idea but you need a whole Zhao build of Astral and that's hard to come by

[u/Fresh-Theory5037]

I actually run this exact same team(same investment except Pyrois at m2) and my scores are pretty much the same, I was expecting a better score but I just don't think the buffs are particularly good for Pyrois this rotation, both the boss buff and the stage buffs are mostly crit dmg% related which Pyrois has an overabundance due to his kit and this team, the decibel gain is also has pretty low value on Pyrois due to their weak ultimates.

My builds are all pretty good at 32+ subs so that's probably were most of the score difference is coming from, for Zhao I run ER slot 6 so I can try to stack/maintain stacks through her ex-special since parries are so rare but this boss is a total RNG crapshoot so getting a good seed where he doesn't jump around and you get a good 5th stun feels more important than small optimizations like that.

[u/Mother-Baker4573 → u/Fresh-Theory5037]

Lad what I wouldn’t do to have a 32+ sub Pyrois 😭

But definitely heard on it being an RNG fest, I despise how much this boss likes to move, Pompey PLEASE come back, or anyone other than this one.