Choosing Among Honkai: Star Rail's Jingliu, Topaz, and Seele

Honkai: Star Rail version 1.4, set to release next week, introduces a rare occurrence with three 5-star characters. Alongside the newcomers Jingliu and Topaz, Seele makes a comeback. Seele, a former DPS who once carried all team compositions and made enemies vanish, faces a tough choice for players as all three characters are DPS. This article delves into the strengths and weaknesses of each, helping you make an informed decision.

Join the S-Games gamer community on Discord, a new playground for gamers to discuss hot games, share gaming experiences, team up for ranking, and chat enthusiastically. At Discord S-Games, you'll also receive exclusive codes for the latest and most exciting games. What are you waiting for? JOIN DISCORD S-GAMES NOW!

Jingliu

Jingliu is a traditional DPS requiring the stats a classic DPS needs - speed, damage, critical rate - but also has the ability to increase her own damage by... sacrificing teammates' health. Although it only drains 4% health each time, this adds a new requirement that the team must have a reliable healer. The best choice currently is undoubtedly Luocha. Fu Xuan, Bailu, and Lynx are also decent, while Natasha might struggle in high-difficulty content.

In return for her demands, Jingliu brings the ability to deal extremely high Ice damage to multiple enemies simultaneously and may be the strongest DPS among the 3 5-star characters in Honkai: Star Rail 1.4. She plays differently from the current top DPS, Ẩm Nguyệt, but stands in the same hypercarry role. If you already have Ẩm Nguyệt (or Blade), Jingliu's appeal is somewhat diminished as they compete for the team carry position and require similar support.

Another strength of Jingliu is her ease of build compared to other DPS. This is thanks to the Spirit Shift effect providing a 50% critical rate and the marks providing 9 speed, 37.3% critical damage. You can easily reach 100% critical rate and 200% critical damage with these effects. She is much easier to use than Yanqing and has better stats than Herta, so if you need an Ice DPS, Jingliu is the number one choice.

Topaz (and Numby)

Topaz stands out as the most unique DPS in the 5-star character lineup of Honkai: Star Rail 1.4. Paired with the adorable pig companion Numby, they are designed for follow-up attacks, surpassing even Clara or Himeko, with some similarities to Jing Yuan. However, being a Sniper character, Topaz's damage is purely single-target and lacks any AOE effects.

Topaz's strength lies in the ability to inflict Endless Evidence of Debt status on enemies, causing them to take additional damage from subsequent attacks. When an enemy with Evidence of Debt is attacked with a follow-up strike, Numby also gains a 50% action priority. If they are defeated, this debuff automatically jumps to another enemy.

Additionally, Topaz can unleash a large number of follow-up attacks from skills, talents, and basic attacks, allowing Numby to act many times in a single turn. The small marks deliver significant Fire damage, a bit of critical rate, and energy. Furthermore, she also provides a 'bonus' of up to 10,000 credits daily if you use Topaz in the monster farming team, though this is a negligible amount.

With these advantages, Topaz becomes an excellent choice when seeking a teammate for characters capable of follow-up attacks (including Yanqing, March 7th, Jing Yuan, Kafka, Blade, Herta, Qingque (E4), Clara, Himeko). However, it's worth noting that the Clara and Topaz duo may be redundant, while Himeko also gains strength thanks to Evidence of Debt.

, Jing Yuan, Kafka, Blade, Herta, Qingque (E4), Clara, Himeko).  However, the most notable synergy is between Clara and Topaz, while Himeko also sees a significant boost thanks to Evidence of Debt.

Seele

As the first 5-star DPS introduced in Honkai: Star Rail, Seele once dominated as the top DPS for several months until overshadowed by the powerhouse Dan Heng Ẩm Nguyệt. This highlights the game balance issues in the Honkai: Star Rail team, where a Destroyer DPS like Seele can be outshone by a Sniper in single-target scenarios. Nevertheless, Seele remains a reliable DPS for those unwilling to take risks with new characters yet to prove their strength.

Seele's strength lies in her high speed (further buffed by her skills) and the additional turns mechanic (not action priority) from the talent Reenactment. She can also prioritize her actions after each normal attack. Not needing speed boots to reach the 120 threshold allows Seele to equip attack boots, providing a very high attack stat compared to other DPS. The effect of bypassing 20% quantum resistance of enemies also makes Seele powerful in any situation.

The Sniper archetype in Honkai: Star Rail is described as specializing in single-target damage (as seen with Topaz). However, players need to note that, thanks to her unique additional turns mechanism, Seele can effectively deal with a large number of enemies. Cleverly utilizing this effect by defeating enemies with normal attacks or skills and then continuing to take down other enemies with her ultimate, Seele can attack up to 4 times and defeat 2 enemies in one turn.

With Bronya added to the mix, Seele becomes even more potent, capable of striking... 6 times in a battle. It can be said that Seele is the only Sniper character who gains strength when facing multiple enemies, though the cost is a considerable expenditure of skill points. This drawback is once again remedied if you have Bronya E1 or E0S1, so it can be stated that if you have Bronya, then Seele is a must-have.

Conclusion

The information shared by Mytour about Jingliu and Topaz is based on their skills and stats in the test version. With almost a week left until the release of Honkai: Star Rail 1.4, miHoYo may still make adjustments to these two characters. Mytour will provide a detailed build guide once the final stats are confirmed, so stay tuned!