[Drifting Blade of Hongyuan] Ryōshū NEW!

First things first, to address the elephant in the room, is she be… No, she is way worse than Mao Ryoshu: a significantly worse Rupture application and poorer team synergy for practically the same amount of damage output. Aside from the obvious comparison with her better alternative, she is quite average. She is somewhat tanky, does mediocre damage by Poise unit standards, and has barely working Poise generation without her unique effect. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the new Ryoshu kit. 

First, let’s look into her always active Passive:

• Her entire gimmick revolves around hitting twice per turn with additional Skill 1. When the first ally hits the enemy, she follows up with her generic count neutral single Coin Skill 1 that barely does any damage. 

• Whenever she is substituted into the battlefield, she will gain 2 stacks of her “Protector’s stance” unique effect. 

• She will be treated as if she has Heishou Pack or Jia Family trait keywords, meaning Xichun Ish’s and Lord Hong Lu’s Passive can apply to her. This allows her to use her Skill 3 upon entering the battlefield and provides Ish with an Offense Level (one of the two units that actually can do that, alongside Wu Sang). Essentially, treat it as a band-aid for not taking Mao Ryoshu.

Her second Passive, which requires 3 Pride Owned, allows her to use her Skill 3 whenever an ally drops below 25% HP or is killed by an enemy attack ONCE PER ENCOUNTER, twice if triggered on Lord Hong Lu. And her first Passive’s Skill 1 activation deals a bit more damage and regens 2-4 SP for another ally, as if it couldn't already be included in her first Passive. Realistically, this unit may be treated as if it doesn't have this Passive because Assist attack Skill 3 of Heishou Ryoshu does not require 3 Pride resources, unlike Drifter Ryoshu. 

Support Passive gives 10 Shield for 1st deployed ally with 10 Poise, which is quite something.

Next is her unique status called “Protector’s Stance”. It is an essential effect for her kit, because without it, she loses all of her Poise Generation and becomes less tanky. It caps at 2, compared to 3 for Heishou, making her rotation of skills significantly worse, as she now needs to use her Defensive Skill twice instead of once per 6 skill rotation cycle. 

Lastly, we will go over her skills:

• Skill 1 - Hey, Back off - Base roll 13 - Max roll 15 - Quite a bad Skill 1 because of 1 Coin (Mao Ryoshu has 3 and also Neutral for comparison), which you will see quite often because of her Passive. At least it’s neutral on Rupture count.

• Skill 2 - Engraved in flesh and bone - Base roll 16 - Max roll 22 - Very average Skill 2 that is NEGATIVE on BOTH Poise AND Rupture for the cost of AVERAGE damage. Mao Ryoshu’s Skill 2 is worse damage-wise, but not -1 on Rupture Count. 

• Skill 3 - Aiding Strike [加斥我援] - Base roll 20 - Max roll 25 - Another average skill that is also very negative on BOTH Rupture AND Poise, even with her “Protector’s Stance”. Mao Ryoshu’s skill is way better than this.

• Clashable Guard - Sentinel - base roll 13 - Gives her “Protector’s Stance” and makes her a bit tankier.

Notable ID/Team Synergies:

• Rupture Teams: Can be slotted if you don’t have Mao Ryoshu.

• Poise Teams: Can be slotted if you don’t need AoE from Butler Ryoshu. 

Notable E.G.O. Synergy:

• Thoracalgia - Without it, her Poise generation is unironically worse than Xichun ish’s, unless you use useless counter every 2 turns, and it’s not really funny.

• Blind Obsession - Passive may save you from Poise count depletion after Skill 3, but only Skill 3. (Doesn’t work with clashable guard)