The summer pool party has finally come to an end. It definitely had its memorable moments, but I found myself a little disappointed overall. From frustrating "bugfixes" to design issues with the new characters that were released, the first update produced with the help of Seasun's new hires leaves more than a bit to be desired. Let's talk about it.

Clipped Wings

When the preview of Marian - Riptide's logistics set Aileron Squad was first made available, I noted elsewhere that its 3-piece effect didn't specify that it would only work when equipped to Marian and could potentially be used by other characters. But surely Seasun would never make such a silly mistake when implementing it, right?

Wrong.

Aileron Squad's 30% teamwide skill damage buff worked on anyone you equipped it to, and it was amazing. It also would have been very poetic: last year's summer event gave us a universal support logistics set for ballistic DPS characters, and this year's would give us a universal support logistics set for skill DPS characters. But unfortunately, we aren't allowed to have nice things. Seasun found out pretty quickly, and it was patched out within a few weeks.

Was a nerf necessary? Probably. Having 30% skill damage for free that also stacked with multiple sets equipped is admittedly a little too silly. But at the same time, completely locking it away for everyone except Marian is definitely unnecessary. If there ever was an opportunity for Seasun to start walking back the new normal of logistics set releases being strictly restricted to specific operatives, this would have been it. Maybe let it work at full power for Marian, but still keep it usable in a weaker form for other operatives.

But Seasun knows they can't do that. Marian - Riptide's sub-DPS utility is extremely limited in competitive gameplay, and a major portion of her supporting power comes from having Aileron Squad be exclusive to her. She's already never anyone's first choice for a skill damage support as long as Enya - Exuvia is available, and losing one of the few aces up her sleeve results in even 4★ operatives like Chenxing - The Observer having an upper hand at lower weapon investment levels.

I think the worst part of all this is just how completely unnecessary it is. Casual players are generally more than happy to overlook a performance difference (if they even know about it to begin with) as long as a character is attractive or fun to use. Meanwhile, a universal skill damage support logistics set would be a major boon for competitive players looking for another team building option. It would lead to extra time and stamina spent on farming good stat rolls, which is most certainly a desirable outcome for game developers looking to increase player engagement and even make some extra revenue from selling stamina refills.

When character-specific logistics first started getting added, a common justification was that they would allow for more creative gameplay design and provide unique effects. But several releases in, this clearly isn't the case. Scarab, Nova, Reverie, Chaya, Vector, and now Aileron - all they do is make the damage numbers bigger for their respective operative with little if any restrictions or drawbacks. There are no positive externalities from these logistics sets being released. They exist only for the benefit of a singular operative, the one that Seasun graciously grants you permission to use that logistics set with. And because of how strong the effects of those logistics sets are, operatives released alongside them have no choice but to use them or face a massive performance loss. The operative and the logistics set exist in a toxic co-existence, forced together by Seasun. It reeks of lazy game design, and I'm tired of pretending that it's anything but.

Maybe I'm expecting too much from the developers of a game that generates millions of dollars in revenue every month. But personally, I don't think it's too unreasonable of a complaint.

Stolen Sands

A few weeks ago in Neural Simulation, an interesting phenomenon occurred. Chenxing - Ethereal Cloud was shredding through Hela Ragethorn's health bar as usual, but not with the weapon you'd expect. Because instead of her event weapon Wild Leer or her signature gacha weapon Anti-Evil Ward, she instead wielded Aurora Sands, Katya - Dawnwing's firearm of choice. It was the better gun for the job, and it wasn't exactly close, either.

A 0.9s timesave might not sound like much, but that's almost 10% faster! And that's with only T1 of Aurora Sands vs the T2 of Anti-Evil Ward, too. You can imagine how much larger the gap would be if the two weapons were at an equal investment level.

So why does this work?

Chenxing's standard skill normally requires you to press and hold the skill button to scan and mark targets, and cancels if you instantly release the skill without marking anything, going on a much shorter cooldown. As it turns out, cancelling your skill in this way and then normally casting it counts as using it twice and can be done within two seconds, fast enough to satisfy the activation condition for Aurora Sands' weapon skill. You lose out on raw shooting performance, but you're also doing more damage on the eight mark detonations per shot due to Aurora Sands' skill damage-focused weapon effect. Add in the 30% Frost damage bonus that Neural Sim week had, and your damage per shot catches up enough for Aurora Sands to pull ahead.

There aren't any real takeaways from this case study of sorts aside from "weapons designed now are stronger than weapons designed in the past," which should be obvious to anyone who understands the concept of power creep. But it goes to show that every now and then, the situation allows for some good old fashioned tomfoolery, which is a breath of fresh air in a game where build theorycrafting is becoming a dying art.

Sunburned

While both new operatives released with Azure Paradise range are serviceable characters, I can't help but have some concerns about their implications about future releases to come.

In isolation, Katya - Dawnwing is actually perfectly fine. She's a strong DPS with a clear gameplay flow. But that playstyle of preparing an initial setup to then do large bursts of skill damage is a gameplay design trope that's getting just a bit stale. Basically every DPS released since Cherno - Enigma functions like this, and I can't help but wonder if Seasun is running out of ideas. I know you can only innovate on "press button to do damage" so many times, but surely there are still unique gameplay concepts that could be explored.

The other problem with Katya is, to put it bluntly, that she's whale bait. She really needs investment to be competitive, and her manifests will keep pumping out meaningful damage increases with each one you unlock, as if to tempt you to get "just one more manifest." This is notably not the case with most other operatives, which typically have one or more "dead" manifests that provide an easy stopping point, and with whom M5s were almost universally known to be not worth the investment. It's true that gacha games are inherently pay-to-win almost by definition, but Katya takes it to a level never seen before in this game. Let's hope she's the exception, and not the rule going forward.

Surprisingly, Marian - Riptide is probably the less problematic of the two. Yes, her value lives on borrowed time in competitive usage, as her worth comes more from a relative lack of competition than her own merits. She's the weakest operative I've rated at Tier 0 in a long time, and by far the weakest support to ever make it up there. In the vast majority of cases, she's not an operative that I'd want to use in Neural Sim if I can avoid it.

But for casual players, she's a blast to use and a resounding success. When she gets to actually put her damage to use, it's genuinely a lot of fun. So overall, I've made my peace with Marian as an operative. Not every character has to be a Neural Sim monster, and it's fine if we get a for-fun character every now and then. I mean, I still have issues with the way parts of her kit were designed - see the 600-word rant about Aileron Squad above - but she does tick one of the most important boxes, which is to say, being enjoyable to play. After the relative disappointment last event, I can only hope that Seasun is actually learning from their mistakes in that regard. Or it could be a fluke. Only time will tell.

Meta Updates

Winners

Cherno - Enigma: While Marian - Riptide probably won't be her first pick, Cherno can still make good use of her supporting power if better alternatives are occupied elsewhere, giving her extra teambuilding flexibility.

Haru - Absconditus: The synergy with Marian is easy to see, and having her swap in every now and then gives Haru some time on the bench to stock up on standard skill charges.

Vidya - Agave: Vidya largely enjoys the same benefits that Haru does, complete with getting a chance to recover S-Energy when Marian takes the stage.

Chenxing - The Observer (DPS): I mean, it does help her turrets do more damage, and the ability to spam them out helps charge up Marian's ammo in a timely manner.

Losers

Siris - Ksana: Having all the other top-tier skill DPS characters get a new support that you can't make good use of does mean your teambuilding options are comparatively more limited.

Chenxing - The Observer (Support): Sometimes your best friend is also your worst enemy, and Marian cleanly takes the advantage over Chenxing for supportive use.

My Personal Files Queue: I'm really looking forward to having Katya - Dawnwing eat one of my Personal Files farming slots every day for the next few months so I can get her damage to a level that I'm satisfied with.

Tier List Changes

You can find the full tier list here.

While Katya has some truly impressive potential, not a lot of it is available unless you really invest in her. Regardless, she sees dividends soon enough to be a cut above even at lower investment levels. And once you really pour your resources into her...

Yeah. I guess she's just a late bloomer, because the top end of her investment curve is strong enough to duke it out with other top meta DPS picks.

While more deserving of a T0.5 placement based on her own merits, Marian sneaks into the top ratings bracket due to the lack of better skill damage support options available.