Developer HoYoverse has announced a new set of the Novaflare buffs! After Version 4.0 update, limited 5-stars Sparke (Quantum Harmony), not to be mistaken for Sparxie, and Black Swan (Wind Nihility) will receive character enhancements. The previous round of buffs landed around V3.4, targeting Blade & Jingliu as well as Kafka and Silver Wolf.
At the moment, we don’t know the details of the upcoming buffs, but that doesn’t stop us from speculating! Now, you might consider Black Swan and Sparkle to be in a much better position compared to some of the 1.x characters: Seele, Fu Xuan, Dan Heng: Imbibitor Lunae, Argenti, and, of course, Topaz. And that much is definitely true, but their kits still have some pretty glaring issues, so let’s go over that instead of starting the buff PvP since Jiaoqiu/Acheron mains are watching, and their collective madness is enough to win this enhancement war anyhow.
Sparkle
Sparkle’s release was quite the sensation – not only did her buffs almost bury Bronya, the undisputed best hypercarry buffer until then, but she also jumped right into the heavy SP-consumption niche, occupied by still-powerful DHIL. At the time, the future seemed bright, but the shadow of Charmony Dove already loomed overhead.
50% Action Advance, low buff uptime, quickly eclipsed in the buff potential by the Halovian siblings, and quite weak Traces brought the Masked Fool Down. For example, Nocturne – “Increases all allies’ ATK by 15%. When there are 1/2/3 Quantum-type allies in the team, additionally increases Quantum-Type allies’ ATK by 5%/15%/30%”. Yes, back then I was also among the frauds huffing copium about Mono-Quantum, but let’s face it, it aged as badly as Acheron’s Eidolons.
She’s had a bit of the resurgence with the release of Archer, a free unit given during the Fate crossover event. However, not having her restore a small portion of her energy when allies use Skill Points is quite the crime, especially with Archer gobbling up Skill Points like there’s no tomorrow.
All in all, her kit is perfectly functional, but having a more or less generalist SP + Crit support be tied at the hip to a single Hypercarry feels bad, man. Some tweaks and tuning, and Sparkle can become the queen of the heavy SP-consumption meta again, while also being a powerful second choice for your usual Crit carry. Who knows, perhaps that is what the Path of Elation will be all about?
Black Swan
Black Swan, especially E1 Black Swan, can still bring the pain in the triple DoT scenario, but she is working despite her kit, not thanks to it. Some of the problems come with simply being a DoT/debuff archetype unit: such as all DoTs resetting when the boss switches stages, including the painfully acquired 50 stacks of Arcana – which also just wait for the moment to drop and crash the team’s damage for a bit in the process, and stacking all your debuffs anew.
Sure, with Kafka Novaflare and Hysilens it is now quite a bit easier to stack it back again compared to the 2.x times – but it still feels bad. Additionally, Black Swan’s Ult basically does nothing but look pretty and let you keep Arcana up for a little while. Not to mention, the 25% increased damage taken by enemies during their turn. Add in how long it takes to charge it back up unless you throw all your party’s SP at Black Swan… which you can’t because Kafka has already gobbled it all up, using her Skill at every turn. Is it any wonder that the poor woman got pushed out of her only niche by Cyrene, unless you invest vertically?
Even then, her E1 is quite powerful, especially in the triple DoT scenario. But E2? A Pure Fiction padding for the most part. All in all, Black Swan has many powerful amps in her kit – but they’re all conditional, and those conditions suck. Hopefully, the Novaflare will see her reclaim her position as the main DPS in the DoT comp and introduce more ways to detonate her own Arcanas. Until then, toxic yuri dancing it is!
HSR – System Requirements Adjustment Preview
In other HSR news, the developers have shared the system requirements adjustment preview and instructions. To support future version content updates and game performance, the system requirements for Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.0 will be increased. At that time, both the supported and recommended system requirements for the game will be raised accordingly.
Below, you can find the recommended specs for PC, Android and iOS. For the full list of devices, including the supported specifications, visit the official site.
PC:
- Intel® Core™ i7 Processor, 16 GB of RAM, discrete graphics card (Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or higher).
- System: Windows 10 with 64-bit processor or higher
- DirectX Version: 11
Android:
- Android devices with SoC performance equivalent to or better than Snapdragon 870 (Adreno 650), Dimensity 1300 (Mali-G77 MC9), or Kirin 9000 (Mali-G78 MP24)
- RAM: 6 GB or more
- System: Android 9 or higher
iOS:
- iPhone 11 or later,
- iPad (9th generation, 2021, A13 chip) or later,
- iPad mini (6th generation, 2021, A15 chip) or later,
- iPad Pro 11‑inch (3rd generation, 2021, M1 chip) or later
- System: iOS 13.0 or higher
