Durin Build and Guide

Durin is a 5-star Pyro Sword user who can be played off-field as both a Main DPS or a Sub-DPS. He achieves this through swapping between two different forms with his Skill, altering his Burst to either use Melt and Vaporize to benefit his own damage or take advantage of the other Pyro reactions to provide debuffs for the team. As a Hexerei unit, he also features important synergies with other characters in the faction.

Thus, while Durin’s Elemental Burst is the centrepiece of his kit, all his abilities are important as they converge to decide his Burst’s effects. This is most prominently seen in his Elemental Skill, which allows for his aforementioned form switching; upon use, Durin can follow it up with another cast of his Skill to enter the “Confirmation of Purity” state or by using an enhanced Normal Attack which puts him in the “Denial of Darkness” state. These will henceforth be referred to as the Light and Dark states, respectively. By default, Durin is in his Light state; however, his Elemental Skill is still worth executing in full, as it has both good particle generation but also a massive Energy refund for Durin himself.

Though his Light and Dark states do influence his Burst itself, their purpose is more clearly seen through his first Ascension Passive, which is activated when his Burst is used: Dark Durin increases his own Melt and Vaporize damage by 40%, while Light Durin interacts provides 20% RES Shred to the elements involved for 6 seconds when any other Pyro reaction is triggered. When keeping in mind that Melt and Vaporize also inherently amplify Durin’s damage when triggered by him, it becomes clear that Dark Durin is focused around maximizing his own damage and that Light Durin is more of a team player. His Hexerei Passive is tied to his first Ascension Passive, increasing its effects by 75% when active; in other words, Dark Durin now gains a 70% DMG Bonus for Melt and Vaporize, and Light Durin provides 35% RES Shred. These are significant bonuses that will often be active as many of Durin’s best synergies are with other Hexerei characters, but are not necessary for Durin to be effective.

With all that out of the way, Durin’s Elemental Burst on its own merits is fairly simple. Using it allows Durin to deal consistent Pyro damage to enemies even from off-field; Light Durin deals a weaker AoE hit every second, while Dark Durin deals a stronger single-target instance of damage every 1.25 seconds. Against the same enemy, Durin can apply Pyro - and thus trigger related reactions - on every other hit of his Burst. Since it only has an 18-second cooldown with a 20-second uptime and Durin himself gains a large Energy refund from his Skill, Durin rarely needs much micromanagement to use his Burst every rotation and access most of his kit's damage and supportive abilities. It’s worth noting that Durin’s Burst is dynamic, meaning its damage is decided based on Durin’s current stats and relevant buffs when the damage is dealt. This means Durin cannot make use of buffs which only affect the active character when off-field, and that he may need buffs on him to be reapplied so that they affect the full duration of his Burst.

His second Ascension Passive is also tied to his Burst, granting him 10 “Primordial Fusion” stacks. He consumes exactly one stack each time his Burst deals damage - regardless of how many enemies are hit - to increase the final damage dealt by his Burst based on his ATK, with an increase of up to 75% at 2500 ATK. While this does not last the full duration of his Burst, it is nonetheless a potent damage increase, and moreover ensures Durin is rewarded for running shorter rotations despite his Burst’s lengthy duration.

Finally, beyond helping Durin enter Dark form after using his Elemental Skill, Durin’s Normal Attacks are generally irrelevant and unspectacular. Nonetheless, they can see occasional use when Durin is used on-field - either due to gaps in rotation time, or to maximize the buffs Durin’s Burst receives.