#AK posting will continue. I just wanted to comment a lil on Star Rail's current state of affairs.

[heretichromia]

I'm pretty happy with where the Star Rail metagame has landed, all things considered. Ruan Mei has changed the landscape just enough to be interesting and competitive, and I'm happy with where she's landed.

It's...still rather clear that the two best units in the game are DHIL and Jingliu, and the new units haven't exactly done much to unseat those tyrants. Still, I honestly don't hate where we're sitting. At least, MoC stats-wise, there's a lot of team comps that have proven themselves pretty competitive with those teams under specific circumstances.

Ruan Mei has given a massive boost to Kafka comps, to the point where I wouldn't be overly surprised if Black Swan comes out of the gate swinging for the top spots. Topaz is the other major beneficiary of Ruan Mei's nonsense, as expected, and her performance hasn't been half-bad either.

Topaz is clearly the most flexible DPS unit in the game, and should probably at least be an immediate thought the moment you see the color red. All of her comps have performed pretty admirably since Ruan Mei's release, and while there isn't a single one of them that's horrendously strong by itself (yet), she's more than proven her worth. I personally just think she's fun, too.

Both Kafka and Topaz have been surprisingly flexible, and...even more surprisingly, they work pretty well with each other. Like, really well, according to the (very limited sample size) data that we have. Like, "if we trust these stats at all, they're each other's best partners" well. Now, I don't know if I do. Kafka hypercarry has also put up continually good stats, and my personal experience with it has been...unimpressive. Maybe there's a broken setup I'm not privy to, or something—but it's something I'll be investigating more now that Ruan Mei is out. A third viable Fire/Lightning team is a funny thing to have in the game.

Every support unit (except for arguably Asta) is BIS or near BIS in some relatively strong comp, and the strongest team currently per stats, Jingliu hypercarry, is very flexible and can be built with a good number of units while still performing admirably. Choosing teams for MoC feels like it's an actual decision again, since there are legitimate options now.

Anyone who was huffing copium that Ruan Mei would make Jingliu Blade a top-tier team is undoubtedly a little disappointed with where she landed, but I'm pretty damn pleased.

Physical and Wind feel like they're the elements in the toughest spots right now. Clara and Argenti are units who aren't unconditionally strong in every circumstance, and have the same weakness in single-target fights. Blade, meanwhile, is just okay. Topaz revitalized Fire, and over time it's gone from feeling like Fire-weak enemies had one fewer weakness to something that legitimately matters—so I'm hoping the same happens to Wind and Physical, and ideally that the something isn't just "if you see Green, bring this exact lineup of four units that includes Black Swan."