Why NO ONE Plays: Yanqing | Honkai: Star Rail 

Imagine the hotel service boy with a mop and some luggage hits harder than your ultimate big sword attack

Yanqing also kinda became the punching bag and meme of HSR where he's being beaten left and right by Blade, Dan Heng, Jingliu, Trailblazer and Kafka

The reason I'm so happy Misha exists is because I finally have a proper ice damage dealer I can take without worrying about conditions being met. He just works.

Yanqing was already- effectively- a meme when he was deigned as the punching bag during the Xianzhou Luofu storyline as well. He was bested by Blade and Dan Heng IL, got scolded by Kafka and Jing Yuan, defeated in terms of sword prowess by Jingliu, then later have to be beaten up by the Trailblazer should one accept Kafka's request. Funnily enough, as a boss, he is weak to Wind (Blade), Lightning (Kafka and Jing Yuan), and Imaginary (Dan Heng IL) elements. And furthering this is the special achievement players can get if Sushang, Luocha, or Jing Yuan dealt the final blow on him. I kinda feel bad for him, especially since I'm already looking forward to a levelled up Misha whose damage isn't hindered by, well, whatever talent Yanqing has.

oh i knew this was coming imminently when i saw you post your 50/50 loss to him 😭😂

Honestly with how Yanqing got shafted in meta parallels with how he gets constantly beat up in the story. He's brought up as this untouchable talented prodigy his whole life by everyone around him only to get his worldview shattered when Jingliu nearly kills him and his self esteem is further destroyed by Blade and Dan Heng because there is just no way for a kid to beat warriors who are hundreds of years older than him, just like how he has the potential to be this amazing dps with the self crit buffs he gives to himself but since he is a standard unit he can never be better than limited 5* such as Seele or Jingliu so he has all these disadvantages. Anyways alt 5* form Yanqing will be true in the future (coping)

There is another problem: His follow-up attack from the passive. While the damage itself is not high, it not very bad to deal extra more damage and toughness damage. And techically at the moment he's the only Hunt character to have a hard cc onto the enemy beside breaking toughness (freezing from his follow-up attack). The problem is that it's very random without a guarantee. Dr.Ratio can have a 100% chance by his ultimate or the number of debuff of the enemy, Qing Que can spam her skill or using her ultimate to active her empowerd attack, but Yanqing at best only has around 60% chance to trigger the following-up attack, and only 65% base chance of freezing. Well, while his following-up attack isn't the most important, having a way to 100% trigger it (and also 100% base chance of freezing) can improve Yanqing a lot, because he can have a way to protect himself and his team (freezing the enemy or dealing enough attack to break toughness), thus allowing him to have easier time to fight back without losting his passive. Back to the "pairing with March 7th", another big problem is that March's shield also increases the chance of getting hit (above 30% HP), and against some powerful attack (and some anoying debuff as well), giving shield to Yanqing can actuallly hurt him more than not giving the shield.

As someone with both ice standard 5 stars built, I enjoy using them a lot. In fact, I have e3 Yanqing and I adore him as a character, but I do know he has gameplay issues. Gepard on the other hand, he's consistently on my teams. I really need another preservation 5 star tbh.

The "why no one plays" are always the characters I use. 😂 Though I have been phasing him out of my team as I get new units so I can see where you're coming from.

As a Yanqing main, I'll never stop using him

This is the meaning of "Perfect kit executed wrong".

I started playing just before 2.0 dropped and was one of those players that got Yanqing through my first pull and to be honest... despite all his faults, I still really enjoy playing with him because of his buff centred playstyle. For me, it adds more of a strategic element to building around him and ensuring I can keep that buff for as long as possible. Like an endurance challenge. Because when Yanqing reqlly gets going and you keep getting your additionals and your ults, it just feels really satisfying. Though I will say, I am surprised Preservation Stelle (or MC I'm just used to using the female name because that was what I went with) was never brought up once. Sure she doesn't have the ability to freeze like March but she can taunt which in my opinion is very good for a unit who relies on tanking. Especially if you already have a good lc for her like Gepard's. If you bring a healer with her, you can actually make a somewhat decent Gepard substitute considering she's a completely free unit. Obviously Gepard is still leagues better but that combo worked pretty well for me for a while to be honest.

I feel like Yanqing has potential with the right design. Like if we created a preservation / harmony character that created a shield that protects from INSTANCES of hits instead of damaged prevention, and lowers their chance of being hit (like thematically a shroud or shadow obscuring them). We also could use just a simple preservation character that places a shield that *doesn’t* increase their chance of being targeted. Preservation in HSR still has a lot of design space to explore that I think can make him hit just right. I can also see a future of mono-ice that focuses on freezing and nuking frozen foes. Lastly, one advantage speed buff can have over action forward is the way it can interact with light cone or relics. Like, glimmoth boost requiring a threshold of speed means he hits HARD against a single target if the stars align. But yeah jingliu makes things harder to compare *edit, one more idea for design space inspired by swarm disaster buff, if we get new characters, relics, or light cones that only trigger if HP is full, or enemies that “crit” against characters who are currently missing HP, suddenly Jingliu is less overwhelmingly dominant.

I have something to say: Yanqing should've been a Erudition Unit. Edit: I think I caused a war between two people in this reply section.

When I started playing I found Welt in the welcome Banner I said "Who's this stupid guy with the cane I want the one skating on swords" I didn't know how lucky I was

I do still enjoy using Yanqing, and he performs pretty well for me. Honestly, the biggest buff to him lately is probably Misha and Ruan Mei, but it’s conditional on Yanqing having E1 and the enemy being freeze-able lol That said, against ice-weak enemies, a mono ice team of Yanqing, Misha, Ruan Mei, and Gepard can be very strong. I’ve been using that team and it’s pretty fun. Enemies just don’t get to move, as long as they’re weak to ice.

Since Yanqing needs Gepard I guess it's good both are on Standard Banner. Imagine if we had to wait for a Gepard banner for Yanqing. All we need is a Harmony/Preservation unit that can give a shield while making said target less likely to be attacked and he is golden

yall leave my child alone, he's trying 😭

As a yanqing user, i think the problem is that follow-up attack not always trigger only sometimes but i very happy to have him for me to clear many event game.

I agree in every way, I love him because it was the firt unit that i pulled, but theres too many downsides, plus theres a bug where he doesn't even get the crit dmg boost with the ult. Cool video! Love this series pls keep it going :)

Aventurine might save yanqing, only time can tell

my glorious king yanking

I use Yanqing a lot since I don't have other ice dps options rn but I've never looked up his skills before. This helped me a lot since I have Gepard as well but not yet built. Thank you so much for the infos!!

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that if Yanqing was in genshin he'd be fine. HSR just doesn't work for this type of unit, especially when big ticket content is either AoE damage from you or against you. It's worse when we really don't have anything like a substitute effect or full damage absorption. honestly the only thing that'd fix him imo is a set that works to increase dodge chance. Allowing him to just fully dodge hits occasionally would be great for his buff's ability to remain.

Yanqing has been my favourite character since I saw him for the first time, i'm angry at mihoyo for not making him as good as he could've been >:( I'm in need of limited 5* Yanqing alongside other Yanqing mains, in story he's amazing, kind, his design is amazing, i love my boy, and yanqing mains community loves him too small reminder - play whoever you want, it's just a game, meta is not everything, and having fun is important!! Also probably not many people know about Abundance Yanqing theory, there are small hints that he may be related to the Abundance (Abundance looking symbols on his outfiit, unknown past, being blonde while being blonde is rare on the loufu (if im correct) and so on) so we yanqing mains still have a hope for him getting a limited 5* version!

I'm a Yanqing main just because I love his design and I never actually read his talent, so I was always wondering why his damage was so inconsistent, turns out I just didn't read 💀But anyways I've been maining Yanqing since 1.1 and he has been carrying me through everything pretty well, but I did notice a lot of these problems you mentioned in the video. My team has Yanqing and Gepard as well as Luocha and Bronya, sp has always been a problem and lately his lack of aoe has been a problem especially for pure fiction, so much so I started building Herta and started to fix my IL Dan Heng. But yk I love Yanqing the moment I saw his design and followed his story so I don't think I'll be dropping him soon, I'll just build my Gepard until he can support Yanqing well enough that I can brute force through content lol

He was my second 5* (first was clara con standard) when I lost my 50/50 in Luocha's banner, and honestly I was quite happy with him! I don't pull for just anyone because I am f2p and don't have a lot of time to do the,, uh,, many many events and endless content. So I still use him! I love him very dearly and he'll always have the biggest place in my heart. I also know, however, I can't use him forever. Eventually I'll have to find a Main DPS that I like enough to fill his spot, because despite pouring all my love into building him, he will inevitably fall behind the meta to a point where he won't be sustainable anymore. So yeah, you're right! I can recognise he has his faults, despite maining him myself, so honestly you only spoke the truth in the video, even if it hurts

2 months later, we now have Aventurine, a character who does everything for Yanqing. Big consistent shields, CRIT DMG buff on ult (technically), synergy with follow up attacks. Will Yanqing finally find a home? Definitely won’t be better than Ratio + Aventurine, but maybe he’ll finally work.

a character who can give a shield to a single ally but with buffs and without an aggro bonus would be perfect for yanqing and arlan right now. could also be a full team shield but with one ally getting a significantly larger shield so the whole team can be decently sustained while one character gets some extra protection.

"I think it's safe to assume that day 1 players have at least 1 copy of Diluc, Jean, Mona, Qiqi and Keqing." Me, the day 6 player without Jean. (I have Tighnari though.) Meanwhile in Star Rail, as a day 1 player and not even a year later, I only lack Bailu.

Been here since Day 1. Yanqing was my third 5-star, right after Gepard and Welt. I honestly still use him to this day. Helps that I got Gepard before him! Haha

early on yanqing helped me clear a bunch of difficult content. i got him around the same time i got jing yuan and i didn't have any good single target characters. can attest that not getting gepard and gradually getting other, stronger units (like I got blade, topaz... and then everyone got dr. ratio, etc) immediately makes him pale in comparison. its even to the point where even if i finally got gepard, im already thinking about how he'd mesh with my other units instead of him. poor guy.

This moment when Gepard was my first 5* star from the beginner banner and I got Yanqing just a few weeks later. His signature weapon also dropped pretty fast, so it was like a fate, perfect conditions to make him great. Even though it was almost a year since the release of the game, I still use him in my mono cryo team (him + Gepard + Pela/March/Silver Wolf) and he is more than capable efficiently clearing the content even though his build still needs some improvement. It makes me sad seeing him so low in the tier list because he is one of my favourite characters, who is bullied hard both in the game and in the community. I will stick with him probably forever, in the same way I did with my Keqing in Genshin who also was my first 5* characters. Still love them both even though they are not meta characters

Yanqing, my 2nd 5 stars, first one being bailu, I used him a lot in the early game, so I have a not so negative view on him. It became obvious how weak he was compared to other characters when time passed. Also I never got gepard until recently. Carried my early tho, respect to him for that LOL

I love the Diamond Ice Starforce Music. Very fitting..

He was my first 5star character on my first account and I loved him dearly But once I switched to a more lucky account I never looked back Just pulled him from standard a few days ago, if I build him it will be purely for nostalgia later on

I started playing this game for him exclusively and i didnt get him for the first 2 months, after spending all my cristals in the standard banner to get that guarenteed 5 star of your choosing i never looked back... He might be weak, but he has my heart, and that's all i care for 😊 Love u boy

One thing i dont like about yanqing is his passive because when ever yanqing get hit or losing his hp (except some character like jingliu that need consuming your ally hp) he will lose his passive immediately it mean he lose his passive buff. Yanqing is a type of character that need together with character that applying shield like gepard, march and fire mc.

I was not expecting that Yu-Gi-Oh reference with the Blue Eyes comparisons. Though a technicality, Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon saw more competitive play that all other Blue Eyes fusions (even the retains) because of several factors that arent because of the card itself, but the circumstances of the format of the time. Which might be the case for Yanqing in the future (copium).

I got yanqing early on when I started playing the game when jingyuan was the featured banner. I wasn't really pulling on any limited banners back then because I really wanted gepard, got yanqing earlier than gepard and he did carry me through the early game but now he really does get overshadowed by the other units especially being a hunt character where most content lately has bosses having summons or where we need to clear mobs of enemies in a short amount of time. I do hope he gets to shine in the future but I highly doubt it since he is the punching bag now xD

A little tip for who plays Yanqing. If you have 100% energy in your turn, and do a basic attack then ult before the turn ends, your soulsteel link buff will still be active, so thats a way you can afford to save some skill points without losing your buff.

yanqing’s only problem is that preservation units are scarce as of now. he’s not the only one bound by the rule of depending on a specific unit. blade prefers abundance units over preservation as he can get more stacks for his talent and build up his hp lost for ult faster that way. yes he can use fu xuan but its not very ideal. when preservation becomes more accesable and shielding becomes a common team achetype in star rail thats when i can see yanqing pop off. i cant wait to pull for adventurine so that my yanqing can finally fight in moc again.

I was part of the small crowd of people who got Yanqing as their first5* and he was really good for what he was back then. Sure after I got Seele and he got benched, but for the brief time he was my main dps through the first 3/4's of belobog he did a great job. I hope to see him get a resurgence soon

congratulations for putting an amazing megaman starforce soundrack as a background music

I just hope he gets an ater version like Dan Heng did. If alters are actually something they will do and not just a one time thing for DH, he's a very good contender to get one

As i heard, March's shield also increase enemy agro on shielded character

Oh my goodness gracious I was not expecting MMSF music in the background, YOU ARE CULTURED ❤‍🔥

Yanqing was my first 5 star,and first character I fully built It’s sad seeing him rot on my bench while I have with with my two imaginary dps.really hope he gets better supports so I have a reason to play him again

Everytime you say "No one plays _____" It's destined to be someone i play

Day1 Yanqing main here! You also forgot to mention how his turn 1 basically deals no damage at all. They could make his technique like Ruan Mei's where it lets you start the fight with your buff on, but no. Yanqing deals almost no damage during the first turn of the fight. When you wanna clear things as fast as possible, the first turn may as well be one of the most important turns. I main him just because I love the concept of shooting flying swords and sword skating. I literally didn't pull Jing Liu during her banner cause the moment I had her, I would just be knowingly nerfing myself whenever I used Yanqing instead of her. Its rough out there for us sword lovers...

I love Yanqing and have been trying to get him since the game started. Can't wait until I do so I can use him regardless of what people say!!

Damn I used to and still do use my well built Yanqing. He is my only reliable ice damage dealer so far (I have a E3 misha but haven’t built him yet). Plus Yanqing was my first 5 star

Tbf the story doesn’t respect him so why should we

I just lost my 50/50 to him😭

As a person who pulled Gepard from the guaranteed 5* wrap and lost the 50/50 to Yanqing on my first limited banner he helped me a lot early game, however now that I have somewhat more stronger units I don’t really use him anymore if at all since he pales in comparison to my other characters

I remember my little boy Yanqing, on the release of HSr I pulled him on my first 10 pull. I instantly fell in love with him and he has been my main ever since. I have stopped playing hsr for 7 months and then came back and have had so much fun playing him after I came back. Unfortunately, all things do come to an end, and I've recently been completly smitten with Jingliu's gameplay, and decided I am going to become her main on her next rerun. It will be the first time I'm switching my main in any of the gacha games I've played, and while I will become a main of a different ice character, Yaqing will always have a special place in my heart as my first hsr main

Aventurine is going to be a game changer for Yanqing. Couple him with Sparkle, and tingyun, and that would make a pretty solid team.

Yanqing might need jing yuan/kafka treatment: release a relic set that synergizes with him. Maybe something that gives a character dmg boost if they don't get hit/lose hp ?

Just because I think it's funny when you said it, I'm a F2P player with every standard banner 5-star in star rail; but a day 1 player in genshin with only 3 of the standard banner 5-stars (and tighnari)

you're so real for using the ice diamond stage ost from starforce 3

I have been playing Genshin impact since the first month and I have AT LEAST 20 five star characters… but somehow I’ve never gotten a qiqi in my life. She’s the only five star that eludes me to this day

The even sadder thing is that HSR just released misha a high dps destruction 4star, which is more consistent and higher dps.

I got Yanqing E1 and Gepard E1 but I refuse to Level Gepard. Yanqing was my first 5 star in HSR and I love him with or without buff :) Love your video 🤗

Yanqing was good at moc for the first month of honkai starail as players only had level 60 characters at the time, so the chance to freeze was highly valued.

If you follow leak, Aventurine might help Yanqing gain a spot on a team.

Solution: Aventurine. And fire mc taunt 🗿

Agreed, now that Aventurine is coming out as the first team-wide shielder on a skill. Yanqing might peek past the curtains a little more

5:00 hahaha yanqing was my first 5*, now with almost 1 year into the game i already have almost everything from the standard banner except by gepard. Just this week i got welt's light cone and lost the 50/50 to e1 Bailu. Himeko and yanqing are also e1 each aaaaaaaaaa im going insane

I think my biggest highlight with yanqing was someone showing off his single targey damage and then me asking the conditions and immediately doing the very same with with an underbuilt seele.

I was on board until you made the genshin connection. I find that genshin's combat homogenizes gameplay to a large extent. If 2 characters fill the same niche in genshin, there is almost no reason to play one over the other. You may say that characters have different playstyles, but in practice, almost all characters of the same niche play similarly. Every pyro dps other than lyney plays the same, same with most electro dps, sae with cryo dps. The only differences between the characters in genshin are minute. On the other hand, the restrictive turn based nature of Star Rail's combat makes each character stand out more. Almost every sustain character plays differently and has different reasons to be played (except Natasha). Every dps has unique mechanics that insentivise playing one over the other. To be honest, the only reason people don't play yanqing is because of jingliu, but that's only because jingliu is overtuned as a dps. It often feels like whenever you talk about Star Rail, you are just complaining about it being a turn based game and not acknowledging the benefits that turn based games have over action games.

Yanqing was my first 5 star and i quickly pulled bronya afterwards. It was such a strong duo at first and i still run it when i need that ice damage

his buffs both requiring to not be hit but also having turn limits is so terrible

Been waiting for this video lmao

His BiS sustain partner is coming soon who don't just shield him but will also give him CC resistance and more crit dmg buffs (in a way). With the right numbers, those shields has the potential to permanently hold up as it gets refreshed quite often without using sp/ulti. I doubt he will be on par with JL as he is after all, a standard character and usually standard character will lose out to the limited ones one way or another. I recently picked him from my standard banner pulls and is looking forward to building him as I am planning to pull his BiS sustain anyway.

Yanqing in story: Super talented protege, a young master of the sword, respected and praised. Yanqing in gameplay: fuck i stubbed my toe and dropped 80% of my DPS on the floor

"deluc got power crept." yeah until we got Xianyun who gives him xiao jumps to maximize his high plunge attack damage.

There's no way this dude made this video cz he lost 50/50

I got Yang Qing (still unbuilt) from a free 40 pull banner. But since I started late into Fu Xuan banner and Jingliu was next...pretty obvious who I prioritized. Even got her sig lc as well. And even to this day, Jingliu is still the top of the dps roster.

Got him in the 50warp beginner banner. And back then he's been the character I wanted the most even! I used him a lot in early game, but he's been benched for ages now. I like his character tho.

Stand proud Yanqing, you are strong.

I got Yanqing on the beginner banner, he will always have my heart as my first 5 star and he carried me through a lot of the game, since I also got his lc and e1, but he did become rather useless after I got better units

Yanqing was my 3rd standard banner character i used him for a bit cause i didn't have a Ice DPS besides Herta but forgot she existed so i just used march 7 as my second character

5:37 Hi, just wanted to say I'm a day one player without a Qiqi, I got the other 4 though, oh and Tighnari.

yanqing was my first 5* so I have him fairly well invested, and he is an early game god. His also really good in SU rememberence runs.

I’ve been a Yanqing main since the day after launch. Though I am drifting away from him, I don’t regret playing him for almost a year constantly❤

I got Yanqing as my second 5 star immediately after Gepard, so from the getgo i had an insane combo, especially when silverwolf came out so i could combo with my e6 pela for mono ice. While ive since stopped using yanqing in favor of stronger units, im always gonna have hella respect for him carrying me through the game and MoC. One of his biggest benefits is that due to all his free crit stats hes super easy to build and beginner friendly so I was using him over my e1 seele due to just how much stronger he was at no investment while i built up my seele and future dps

apperently aventurine is the best pair yanqing

I got yanqing in the first 2 days that I had played hsr. He has been my boy ever since then. While I have yet to reach the end of xhanzou or even start penacony story he is one my favorite units that i have ever gotten so far. Personally imo HSR's standard units are > newer units in design/personality while in genshin, standard units are < newer units in design/personality but that doesn't mean they're bad designs, every character in genshin and hsr have awesome and unique designs/personalties

With Aventurine coming out later in the current patch (2.1), there is some possibility of using him with Yanqing, especially since Yanqing has a Follow-up that can further help proct Aven's Followup that reapplies the Shield. But like you mentioned in the video, what's stopping others from using Aven with the better DPS units. Heck, Blade has a Followup attack as well! And Topaz synurgizes a lot more with Aven since her attacks are treated as Followup attacks. And for the F2P player, we have a free unit with Dr. Ratio who has a followup as part of his kit, making him the F2P friendly DPS with Aven. So yeah

Yanqing was the second dps i ever got and it hurt quite a bit but i love him to bits. He is difficult to play around so i just use him in SU with elation buffs along with Jing Yuan and he performs okay but at the end of the day he is just holding relics for my Jingliu who i will get on her rerun.

People had already said this, but Yanqing being underwelming actually makes him an amazingly designed character. In the story he fought 4 remaining members of high cloud quintet and loses every fight, but has a promicing future, but as of now he's strong, but unexperienced. I think there will be units in the future that will bring out his power/potential as a unit, and/or a new limited version of him years from now.

3rd 5 star i got (after double himeko) i have his LC and currently he is E2, and being the luofu's genius swordsmaster at level 20 because jingliu is QUEEN

yanqing was so good early game because he was a good dps with a semi-decent build, i dont use him anymore but i might once aventurine comes out 😓

I just realized you posted this right after I got E2 Yanqing instead of Black Swan at 80 pity… 😔

So I got yanxing when I failed 50/50 on jingliu. Immediately put money and got her after. I have not once looked at him since

Inb4 Aventurine comes out and YanKing becomes top tier.

As an early Yanqing and Gepard haver, the problem after having both of these characters for Yanqing lies in his absurd Ultimate cost and Stat deficiency and overflow. you need only 20% max crit rate for Yanqing to hit 100 with his ult, the problem is in his downtime,

I have both Yanqing and Gepard, but because of his reputation I never built him and never learned how his kit works. If his primary issue is getting hit, I might try to build him and see if I can use him. Then again, I also need to finish building Jingliu so I might just do that first/instead

Short answer, he's inconsistent

Yanqing really was disrespected. Hes the punching bag to showcase all the strong characters strength, and hes just been powercrept to a disgusting degree, mainly due to jingliu. I think a pure fiction for hunt characters could work, but orient it around different types and playstyles.