With limited resources for Stellar Jades, you’d want to spend them on someone worthy in Honkai Star Rail. That goes even for those who use the power of plastic, as they have to pay up eventually. You might still be on the fence about pulling for Jing Yuan, so here’s an overview of his abilities and where he excels.
Jing Yuan is an Erudition Path Lightning character specializing in large-scale AoE attacks. He has a Basic Attack where he slashes one enemy. His Skill lets him attack all enemies, and his Ultimate summons a construct that sweeps its spear, targeting all opponents.
His unique talent is the Lightning-Lord, a summon of sorts. Jing Yuan calls it at the beginning of the battle. It has its own turn icon in the action sequence bar. It will not move if Jing Yuan is incapacitated (Frozen, Entangled, etc.). Also, it disappears when JY gets knocked down.
When its turn comes, it targets a single enemy hitting them based on how many Action Points it gained. Opponents adjacent to the target also get hit for 25% of its damage. The Lightning-Lord has a base SPD of 60 and defaults to 3 Action Points. It gains 10 SPD per AP, and the maximum amount it can hold of the latter is 10. When it takes a turn, SPD and AP return to default values.
Using Jing Yuan’s Skill and Ultimate increases the Lightning-Lord’s AP by 2 and 3, respectively. His Technique adds 3 AP, which can only be triggered before the battle. The Lightning-Lord’s attack is considered a follow-up attack.
Directly buffing Jing Yuan’s DMG shouldn’t affect Lightning-Lord’s DMG. The latter calculates damage from JY’s ATK, meaning that’s what you should increase instead. The Lord’s attack being considered a follow-up attack means that all Blessings of Elation and others that involve the mechanic will affect it directly.
While it isn’t said outright, the Lord’s CRIT stats should also come from JY’s own. Building him with a high ratio should be a priority. As a Lightning character, he can cause the Shock status effect. He can benefit from some Nihility Blessings in the Simulated Universe. Using him with Sampo can be powerful, but only if you build up Jing Yuan’s Effect Hit.
Jing Yuan is a superb AoE damager who can break toughness bars or defeat enemies in a few turns. He’s most useful against the robots in Belobog, most of which are weak to Lightning. Of course, other enemies that have a similar weakness will also easily fall prey to him. Those that don’t will eventually succumb to his might.
Being a DPS, the Relic set he needs is the Band of Sizzling Thunder. Aside from bonus Lightning Damage, using Skills will buff his ATK, increasing the damage of the Lightning-Lord. As a decent alternative, half that and the Musketeer of Wild Wheat will do. The latter is more forgiving if Jing Yuan misses an opportunity to use his Skill.
For Planar Ornaments, Inert Salsotto and Space Sealing Station are the most recommended sets. However, better substats sometimes matter more, so you can choose a different combination.
As for Light Cones, of course, his 5-star signature one, Before Dawn, is the best. It increases Crit DMG by 36% and Skill and Ultimate DMG by 18%. It also provides an extra effect when using his Skill, which increases follow-up attack DMG by 48%.
Other alternatives are:
- Night on the Milky Way
- Today Is Another Peaceful Day
- The Birth of the Self
- The Seriousness of Breakfast
- Geniuses’ Repose
- Passkey
- Sagacity
As a character on the Erudition Path, Jing Yuan needs the Keys of Inspiration (and its higher-leveled forms). He also uses the Immortal Scionette (and Aeroblossom and Lumintwig) for Traces and Ascension.
His Stagnant Shadow is The Shape of Doom, found in Stargazer Navalia. This drops the Shape Shifter’s Lightning Staff, the material he needs for Ascension. As for Traces, he uses Tracks of Destiny and the Destroyer’s Final Road. The latter can be obtained from the Echo of War in the Herta Space Station.
If you need a high-damage AoE DPS, Jing Yuan is your guy. He works well even without an Eidolon upgrade and is reasonably easy to gear up. As mentioned, he’s helpful in defeating hordes of Lightning-weak enemies or defeating multiple targets in one go.
While Serval is a decent replacement, Jing Yuan hits stronger and more frequently than her. He also doesn’t need to hurt himself like Arlan, though using HP instead of Skill Points can be handy. He can’t be compared with Tingyun, who is a support character and therefore has different priorities.
Among the Erudition characters, he has the most consistent damage. He doesn’t need any conditions for his follow-up attack (Herta, Himeko), nor does it rely on RNG (Qingque). Unlike Serval, he doesn’t need to rely on DoTs, which can be resisted by the enemy.
So yes, pull for Jing Yuan. If Seele is the game’s best single-target DPS, JY is the best AoE DPS.
Now that you’ve read why you should pull for him, here are some reasons to skip this banner.
If you don’t care for the ‘meta’ and don’t like his looks, abilities, or character, don’t bother. You shouldn’t give in to peer pressure and spend on a character you don’t like and won’t even use. Similarly, you can skip him if you’re satisfied with your current teams and don’t particularly need a strong AoE DPS.
If you prefer to get a different character, especially when you’re F2P, keep your savings. You can risk it all to get a guarantee when you lose 50/50. However, there’s also the possibility that you’ll lack Jades for that future banner.
You can skip him if you don’t want to add to your farming load. After all, it means gathering more materials and resources to build him up. That cuts in your Trailblaze Power budget and time. You can always get him on a rerun, though it will be long before that happens.
You’ve heard both sides of the argument, but only you can decide. Hopefully, this helped you escape the fence and go to one side. Whether you pull for Jing Yuan or not, continue enjoying Honkai: Star Rail!