Why NO ONE Plays: Trailblazer (Physical/Destruction) | Honkai: Star Rail 

“Hypothetically speaking you could have a imaginary harmony”, yea real slick bud

I am the bone of my bat Stellaron is my body and trailblazing is my blood I have created over a thousand relics Unknown to CRIT RATE, Nor known to CRIT DMG. Have withstood pain to create many bats But yet, those hands will never hold anything So as I pray, Unlimited Bat Works.

They are stil the only other character with a ultimate opening animation apart from acheron and the ONLY with two different ult attacks, which is quite unique for a mc.

Probably, lorewise, is because the resonance of the stelaron with nanook never was finished. Welt stopped it before it lead to destruction, while the resonance with qlipoth was not only complete, but also our choice. We choose to accept that path, we accepted the weigth of the lance and the destiny of belobog, we had bonds to keep us from falling. And now, we forged bonds with firefly, with acheron, with clockie, and we are going to the harmony, probably with our will accepting it

What they lack in damage, they make up for in ult animation because HOLY HELL IS IT BADASS

Vars a year ago: "i don't look at leaks" Oh, how the leakless have fallen...

Never underestimate the grand Galactic Baseballer

This isn’t directly related but I will give the trailblazer props. Them getting the preservation sword in planet 1 was a pretty amazing cutscene and that flaming sword is badass! Albeit in cutscenes they do seem to default to Destruction bat unless they are like super serious (like against Aventurine)

Fun fact, phys trailblazer is still used in every content that requires physical on my account, because I don't have another good physical damage dealer. And their damage output and multi-target is honestly pretty good. So I don't see a problem with them from a casual standpoint.

"Hypothetically speaking, we could have a harmony imaginary..." Leaks: *Am I a joke to you?*

Physical Trailblazers might be kinda forgotten, but they're still better than anemo, geo, electro and hydro travelers combined.

I kinda want Physical TB to get unique buffs, like with a unique LC unlocked through story missions or something or items to push beyond E6. I feel like they can push that feeling of freedom even further with some kind of custom aspect. Maybe even link it to the MoC / PF mode shop If Physical TB gets a unique LC that increases their Weakness Break Efficiency and boosts their ult. I think being a flexible toughness shredder can still feel reliable without being broken

The Trailblazer's forms getting progressively stronger as we take on more paths would be thematically relevant to the game. One of the main themes of the story from what i can glean is of growth and progression. Moving forward. Our blank slate mc gathering new experiences and powers as we grow and become a fully realized character and powerplayer in this unfamiliar universe.

Aye actually Fire Trailblazer shows up on FTP Acheron teams who can utilize the Taunt from their skill to gain a point of Crimson Knot alongside Trend of the Universal Market to Burn enemies and get another stack for Acheron per enemy that hits the Trailblazer. I myself was actually using this before I got Aventurine, who’s follow up and ult give a stack respectively for Acheron while offering good rebuffs too. The one and only time outside of early game I’ve used my Trailblazer in awhile and honestly it was pretty fun using him again

I'm so glad that Fire MC absolutely slaps in an Acheron team because I really love Stelle's design and I wanna keep her in my team for as long as I possibly can.

The most interesting fit for this series right now would probably be Yukong. With a ceiling higher than most other units, but with so much jank to deal with that no one bothers using her.

I love using Fire Trailblazer for Pure Fiction for their superb fire-breaking ability and decent damage for a tank unit. They don't offer the best tanking ability but it's enough to get by

i do agree they get outshined by there fellow destruction unites, However i do think they have a small niece in like bleed break. Never gonna overtake any meta teams but they still decent which can be enough. I AM HOWEVER super excited for future Trailblazer veriants cause it can only go up from here

I think it's a preference I've seen so many strong trailblazers it's just about if a player is interested in investing in the trail blazers honestly

3:37 after the imaginary harmony, imagine if Vars just called all the path and elements right there

Note for the Trailblazer, gaining modes is in a fixed order connected to the main storyline. You can’t vary what order to use. For players who started Genshin before 3.0, the Traveler’s element access order was strictly controlled by HYV’s release schedule. Since 3.0, after we get free travel, the Anemo Traveler can get the remaining elements in any order they want, albeit this will be more useful in 6.0, when there are Sot7 for all the regular elements. The only wrinkle is that the initial access to Electro is story-gated.

What you said is correct, physical trailblazer is meant to be a starter character to be replaced by the other forms. Its funny because comparing their kit to another starter character like dan heng, dan heng has more in terms of traces andeidelons that help boost his overall dps. But I still use physical trailblazer in the main story quests because they always have a bat in the cutscenes

honestly i think phys trailblazer does have a niche, since shes phys and applies bleed dot on break, i built her with 200% break effect and paired her with kafka to detonate bleed and ruan mei for faster breaks. definitely still not the top pick but is really good when played right, she was doing 100k on break and helped me 3 star moc12

This video appears in my recommended as I am literally playing as my main physical Trailblazer to get more boxer relics cause of the current 300% boost event. He is currently pretty damn stacked but I wanna get even stronger! Subscribed lmao When it comes to genshin I’ve tried too hard to make Traveller good but all other elects except Dendro obviously ended up in failure. I will use Dendro Traveller with upcoming Sethos so I’m actually pretty happy there. It’s not long till Natlan comes up so I’m praying and hoping real hard they give Traveller some variety and make his Pyro element a main dps kit. I personally wouldn’t care if it’s average I just want him to have something that’s not like his other elements so he too can truly be played as a proper main dps for a team.

as a physical Caelus main I i was a bit personally attacked but what you say is completely true and lately I don't play him while doing pure fiction or moc, only when doing damage fast doesn't matter, so thank you, but do know i am wholeheartedly a physical geo traveler main in genshin. basically, last time i checked my name isn't no one, but very cool and very true video.

Now that Harmony MC is out and is practically one of the faces of Break Meta now, you’re theory about Trailblazer evolving with each Path seems more and more plausible

To this day people confuse mute protagonists for self-insert protagonists.

3:37 I really like the idea of getting a lightning hunt blazer, imagine we go back to the luofu (bear with me here), and after Jing Yuan finally recovers from his injury he instead somehow transfers some of the power of Lightning Lord to the trailblazer, so now we get imbued with both the element lighting and the path of the hunt (since hunt is actually what most of luofu characters follow in the story)

12:55 Woah woah woah, just hold on a moment buddy. I could tell you were about to cook up a full course meal there

I do believe that the destruction path MC will eventually be updated at some point in history there’s too many pointers to Nanook as to ignore it… while I doubt it will be best than promotonials because at the end that’s the business, I also doubt they meant for MC to feel this underwhelming in the destruction path but lore wise they needed him to be 😅

interesting idea that they’ll never implement: if TB is “stockpiling” power, one cool way to show that mechanically is to include one small buff/mechanic from their previous forms in new ones. For example, Fire TB could gain extra defense from attacking enemies passively to harken back to that mostly useless trace from their Physical form. An eventual Harmony TB could make those small Attack/Defense buffs team-wide, etc

The next trailblazer gonna change the meta trust

i'm gonna be that guy for a second and say trailblazer does have a brief past before the beginning of the game as told to you by blade and kafka (in kafka's case if you know which is the lie and which isn't) , still enjoyed the video as always, that's just something that bothers me that people keep saying

"imaginary- Harmony" I see what you did there >_>

you were on point especially after trying harmony trailblazer, harmony mc is crazy and fits a really good niche making break units so much better while also making the entire team do some dmg, i cant wait to see what new powers the trailblazer will get in the future

I will admit that the last time I even used Physical MC was 1.6 when taking on the Swarm Boss within the Restricted area. Only reason being I didn't have many good elements to counter. Was tempted to do the same when facing Aventurine, but was able to form a team that still used Fire MC, but it was a grind of chip damage at the time.

Fire trailblazer is extremely useful for me since I use Acheron, you can equip him with topaz lightcone (the one that debuffs enemies when they attack the one wearing it) and you got many charges as oponents hit him in their turn because of his taunt skill, you can get half of Acheron's ult just from that every time enemies attack if they're a bunch, if not, you're still getting two charges one from the taunt and other from the single enemy's attack.

Okcode laughing and crying at the same time. To be honest how stelle does her bat animation is the reason why I play physcial mc

You are going to make me concept a rework: Fully empowered PhysMC

11:59 lore wise aether and lumine actually can use the elements all at once just look at the childe fight we used both geo and anemo in that fight and wtc

My guess is that this is not the true destruction TB (as they got sealed by welt at the start of the game). There may be a time where TB will have to master the power of the destruction while resisting nanook's influence and then we can play the true power of the galactic baseballer as a massively buffed version of themselves. But they filled their role as the newbie's best dps (tho I immediatly replaced them with sushang for my playthrough, rip). Can't wait to try out the new TB form in 2.2 and see if they stand the test of time.

it’s gonna be pretty cool seeing all the new TB path and element combos. judging by each of current splash arts, we’ll get one for each world - meaning that the return to the Lofu will be coming in the near future. i’m thinking it’ll be during the continuation of Ting’s story where we’ll unlock a new combo

could possibly considered as a spoiler but it happens at some point during the Xianzhou main quest line: I just want to remind everyone that Kafka said to MC that at some point she will need to face Nanook in battle (I have no idea why MC didn't bring it up with the rest of the crew, but considering Stelle's characterization in specific it makes sense). So it makes sense that MC becomes stronger over time because if they wouldn't become stronger, there would be quite the plot hole in the long term.

In terms of the gameplay, I have to agree with your points. Since unlocking it, I've been using Fire TB almost exclusively. You get a good amount of Fire toughness break and supplementary damage between the ult and enhanced basics. The taunt and self DR are handy especially with units that care about debuffs such as Dr. Ratio and Acheron. While the shielding itself compared other Preservation units is quite minimal, it is still extra EHP and triggers Blessing effects. On the other hand, the only time I bust out Physical TB when I need the extra toughness break versus Physical weak enemies and I'm slowly working on Luka and Hanya to help remedy that. I understand it is practically inevitable that older units will get outclassed in a gatcha game (unless you're someone like Xiangling), but I like when games provide functional default, freebie, and/or wellfare options. I think future Paths for the Trailblazer will continue to provide niche but very usable options like Preservation. But I do think it is somewhat of a shame that the first option is so hard to make work. This is absolute Hopium, but maybe Physical TB could get an upgrade when they face Nanook?

This video motivates me to improve my MC.

3:37 I also thought of Lightning Hunt and Wind Erudition actually 😆😅

The Legendary Galactic Baseballer! Who can say no to that?

Hey, I for one, until this day, still uses the Physical Trailblazer. Because he is one of my best DPS character in the game along with Serval. Eventhough I have Dan Heng, Sushang, Dr. Ratio, Qingque, Himeko, Xueyi, Misha, and Imbibitor Lunae, Physical Trailblazer (and Serval) is still my most used DPS in the game.

tankblazer's gotten a seriously great new lease on life with the trend of the universal market LC and acheron. the weak sustain potential is completely offset by acheron's ability to delete mobs before they can do much in the way of damage. just make sure tankblazer has enough EHR and make them AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.

I have been using Trailblazer as a debuff boat for Acheron using the taunt and the IPC LC that burns enemies who attack them. Gets Acheron’s Ult back really fast. Best use of Trailblazer I’ve found so far.

You put this out after I started liking them 😅

Im a Trailblazer main.

I agree with this title. I mean I basically only have standard banner characters (besides some harmony buffers from the character banners) and I still stopped using the physical MC in my teams 😥😥😥 I mean I think the MC from the star rail is arguably more well developed then Lumine/Aether from Genshin (or at least have more varied responses) And I stopped using them. Who knows maybe they will get a new path and come back to a degree (they only have two so far)

When I got Jingliu, I was running a double Destruction team of her and TB. It was hard because given that his Ultimate was his only source of chunk damage against bosses, I just used him less and less... PF and GaG were essentially the final nail. _Preservation_ TB on the other hand I'm finding useful for MoC and PF when I need to create two teams, but even then, March 7th or Lynx is a better match for Clara since they can increase her chances of getting attacked. I found my fav merit of Destruction TB to be his self healing. His ability to restore some of his own HP went a long way in the early game. But as enemies got stronger, and said healing couldn't keep up, _and_ I was finding that dealing more damage quickly was more useful than over-sustaining, I built Clara instead, gave her all of his boxing gear. I liked it when you said *"Because he's Destruction and fills no niche, he gets compared to the rest of the roster."* Luka can make Acheron stronger just by being there, Sushang can be a decent replacement if you've already invested in her, Clara's counterattack gives you free off-turn damage up to 11, and Argenti's Ultimate hits like a fleet of trucks. As I was watching this video, I realized Dan Heng (wind) has all these same problems. He can't really do much, his Ultimate is also his only source of chunk damage, and his Slow from his skill, which would've been his 'best' merit, serves the sole purpose of making that Ult deal more damage 😆and in a vacuum isn't really helping the rest of the team. His RES PEN talent is pretty worthless considering the character's damage is rather low without the Cavity System model. But it's like, I don't have Blade or Black Swan, so him and Sampo are the only ones I have to cover Wind weakness. I use him to fight the Guardian Shadow and that's about it I'm looking forward to Harmony TB. The path would suit him well as you don't have to worry about his damage at all

i play the trailblazer, in fact, the year recap, he was my most played character every month lol. I play very casually, so i didnt even try to change him on the team.

*Sees title* I dont think he knows about Okcode

'no one plays trailblazer'. meanwhile Moosashi: 😎

Emanator Destruction MC will be a thing in the future. Nanook and MC had history most likely.

physical mc is the peak "heres an early unit that helps a lot and falls off hard"

Almost every DPS (even in Genshin to some degree) needs to lean into a specific playstyle because put simply, every DPS does damage. So if everyone does the same thing, you need to do something else. And with just one (maybe two for dual carries) slot in a team, that's a lot of competition just to think of who to put there. Most teams in HSR, while having common supports, ultimately specialize in one way to deal damage. Tingyun and Fu Xuan may work for everyone, but Silver Wolf's debuffs (which is her specialization) would mean more to a DPS like Dr. Ratio (follow-up atk and debuff itself including weakness implant) compared to a DPS like Seele (just the debuff including weakness implant). Sampo would be more useful alongside Kafka compared to being alongside Blade. That's what messed with Physical TB's chances and what would happen if you don't specialize in anything. In any case though, it would be interesting how powerful the Trailblazer might be near the end of the story if the theory of power increases once the story progresses is the case. Maybe an UNO Reverse Card on current meta units (copium)?

You should make a video titled why EVERYONE farm’s quantum

Personally it's because I already have fire Stelle set, so I don't feel like equipping phys Stelle with the appropriate LC and relics again. Heard they'd make it more convenient in the next update so maybe I'll get more use out of her again.

i literally only hard built this character just for the bat. even going as far as pulling for jingliu lightcone for the raccoon when i have jingliu herself

tbh i rarely use trailblazer either path but when i do it's fire mc who i use but with how much i love harmony units i know already harmony tb is probably going to become one of my most used characters

I know you're only supposed to get Nat around the beginning to the Jarilo 6 story but every single new account I play on I get Nat within my first 10 pull (not counting the required Asta)

Your voice is relaxing to listen to

I used Preservation MC before I switched back to Destruction MC. I prefer my MC to be DPS instead of sustain.

I used physical trailblazer for a good while because my only other physical units at the time were Hanya and Natasha. Then I got Clara (failed 50/50 ironically for Argenti). Though I still use physical tb from time to them since using on a break team has gotten me more success than just using tb normally.

I dropped physical Caelus as soon as I got fire Caelus. His shield is actually decent, and he does good damage!

I remember when HSR came out, Stelle and whats his name actually were quite good in the early versions, phys8cal that is. The free units starter units, March TB and Dan Heng, while not being the best anymore now, were quite "groundbreaking" compared to Kaeya, Amber and Lisa being... characters (Im a lisa main)

Your videos butter My biscuits thank you

I think the only other Gacha I've seen that gives you a good starting unit that can last into the Endgame would be FGO. Mash is great for extending a team's survival even without the ability to heal, truly fitting of the Shielder class (even though her later "upgrade" kinda sucks and you're forced to use it."). It's funny that the trailblazer is the opposite because even with arguably better tanks I still occasionally use them, and I don't feel like handicapping myself if I want to play as the MC for whatever reason. It's really nice.

Harmony Trailblazer is currently the only one who can grant access to Super Break. They define a team type that deals really good damage

Preservation MC is essential to my team in every fight as he is usually the last man standing and my team wouldn't quite survive without him.

I hope HYV gives Destruction MC a dedicated Lightcone that brings him up. Something that only works with their kit.

Honestly I don't mind Physical Travelblazer falling off because they are basically a tutorial character, but with that said I hope one day with get Physical Trailer TWO, like an end game super powered version. It'd be fun, I think, since I'd very much like to have a super bat some day

Surprisingly, break effect trailblazer works for all paths so far available oncluding soon to come imaginary TB. Physical and fire simply cause they break damage is the highest and given the frequent ults due to relatively low energy requirements and aoe built in the kit and the imaginary TB sicne their whole kit demands break.

I couldn't understand Preservation trailblazer's kit and I didn't have Clara so I used to main Physical trailblazer and still use them as a destruction sub-dps

Destruction Trailblazer is my hardest hitting character rn at 2800 dmg. So.. uh... I still play him. edit: I mean, I still use Preservation when I need a shielder to counter the Dreamjolt monkey and I'm slowly building up the Harmony side, but as of right now the Destruction side is my strongest version of the TB.

I love your interpretation of Trailblazer's progression, that they're stockpiling paths and powers. I wholly hope that's canon, since the mental image of TB's metal bat transforming to the fire lance when they get pissed off amuses me so much.

Still using my Destruction MC to this day 👍

I've only played for 3 months so my roster is very limited so I've had to bring Physical Destruction MC 'cause I literally have no other options. Now, I have found that Fire Preservation MC helps me deal with the higher numbered Worlds of Simulated Universe since I can focus the damage on her instead of guessing who to shield with March 7th. Physical is kill them before they kill you while Fire is take as much punishment as you can and hope the rest of the team is strong enough to kill them before they wear down your defenses. I got a Wuthering Relic with Crit Rate as its main stat and I don't know if that's lucky or unlucky.

Hm, I truly wonder what an Imaginary Harmony trailblazer would look like! I love the speculation, Vars! 😶

I'm still running Physical Trailblazer atm because I just didn't have the relics necessary to make the switch over to Preservation =(

Oh should have waited for Penacony upgrade, for this vid.

Funny thing is Physical trailblazer can be actually pretty cracked if you're willing to build them though there is really not much reason to build them over any other destruction unit.

Physical Destruction Trailblazer is my end-game relic completion project by farming crit rate, crit dmg ,break effect in one relic. Its quite grindy but i take my time to make Trailblazer to become a legit Galactic Baseballer 😅

I use the trailblazer I like having team match the characters appearing in the story

I like using the trailblazer because she just has a fun kit for me. The physical kit is fine but I already have a lot of physical damage dealers. I'm more interested in her pyro kit for that reason. I also just enjoy running around as her because she's the main character lol

i do play physical destruction with clara and luca even the mc, they destroy all the content with ease. its all depend on how you build with the equipment not only the hero.

You say no one uses them in the title yet I almost rarely ever touch the preservation trailblazer while the destruction trailblazer is a mainstay on my main team

Curious as to whether anyone here has managed to clear MoC 12 with Destruction Trailblazer. I managed to do it in Eve of Wanton Feast, but it was 6 cycles on the Yanqing side, so DHIL was doing the heavy lifting on the Sam side. A future goal is to clear their side in 5 cycles or fewer. For what it's worth, that MoC was kind of 👖 for Physical, and for the elements in my Trailblazer team in general. Unfortunately, MoC HP got buffed right after Eve of Wanton Feast, so it might be difficult. Team is Trailblazer/Guinaifen/Ruan Mei/Huohuo or "Ghost-Hunting Squad Lite" btw

3:34 dang That's actually correct, atleast for harmony mc (HMC = hent*i main character)

Another difference between the MCs of genshin and star rail I've noticed, and correct me if I'm wrong here, is that the other paths for star rail mc are story locked but for genshin its exploration locked. Which also makes a lot of sense. Genshin excels in open world so they decided to give traversal, farming and puzzle solving capabilities in the travellers kit. For example the pressure play puzzles in liyue, or collecting regional materials like sakura and dandelions. So your theory of the HSR MC getting better every path might be valid since their progression is tied to their story.

Highkey I think as a character physcial trailblazer is very well designed for their specific role. They have a bit of everything and while it does spread them thin and stops them from being top tier they are amaizing for early players. I also think their ult animations are very flashy and well made which left a big impression on me when i first started playing and got me super invested in hsr. Physcial trailblazer isnt exceptional but they dont need to be

I'm maining PhysCaelus just cuz he's my favourite character with the coolest ult 👍

of all combinations of elements and paths

i do play the physical TB still and it is one of my favorites.

you know like the power five 4 stars in Genshin, is there a group like that for HSR?

I always play two of em Traveler as Dendro support Trailblazer as Destruction