CAN GRAND DUKE FIX JING YUAN? | Honkai: Star Rail

Yes I have skill issue. Yes Jing Yuan can 0-cycle. Yes I don't have the correct supports. Please let me have fun. Rather than complaining get me a Bronya :3
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Sadly Memory of Xianzhou 6-1 is the only Lightning-weak stage this patch. The new MoC 10 first half has Lightning weakness but also Quantum weak if you know what I mean.

You can 0 cycle things with Jing Yuan but you need to greatly buff him up: Bronya+LC, Yukong and probably Tingyun. The main issue is that he needs to defeat lesser mobs using his Skill and Ult, hoping the Boss doesn't summon more adds that interfere with LL targeting. Then you need to WAIT for LL's turn to deal actual damage to that boss.

If your supports are not built well, LL might fail to defeat bosses, meaning you need to wait for the next cycle or rely on Jing Yuan's Skill or Ult to do damage. This is where the Grand Duke relic set comes to play -- making his Skill and Ult do around 20% more damage. In a minimal cycle attempt, Grand Duke's buff will be active AFTER LL strikes. Therefore you need Jing Yuan to move at least twice in the first cycle, which would be easy if his base speed were not 99.
-If you use SPD boots, you lose ATK% equivalent to Grand Duke's buff. LL may consistently deal 10 hits however Jing Yuan's Skill and Ult will suffer a bit and might not be able to defeat side mobs.
-If you use ATK boots, you will need some sort of SPD buff (e.g. Hanya) or advance forward (Bronya). I don't have any of them so I cannot use Jing Yuan to his fullest potential. Yes I will eventually get Bronya or similar Harmony character in the future but you can't deny the fact that Jing Yuan's gameplay is locked behind these supports.
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Jing Yuan vs Argenti
Their kits actually have a BIG difference

Jing Yuan's damage is spread out between his Skill, Ult, and FuA. While LL deals the most damage, around 25% of his damage comes from Skill and Ult, more if you use Bronya. It is relatively hard to buff LL damage. Characters who give significant buffs to LL are Tingyun, Yukong, Bronya E6, or Topaz E1S1. Debuffers like Pela also help a lot. You know how much brain is needed to play Yukong, and the fact that she is SP neutral at best. For contents you cannot one-shot, SP management with Yukong and Bronya might be difficult, and still you need to wait another cycle for LL. If Pure Fiction resets your queue each wave (and LL can move again in the same cycle) Jing Yuan will be A+ or S tier. If not, you might as well use Herta instead.

Argenti is far easier to play. 4-pc physical set + inert salsotto buff his whole kit. All supports, including Bronya, will buff his Ult. Yes he need Bronya and/or batteries to Ult once per cycle, but his one-shot potential is higher than Jing Yuan.
Furthermore when you use Argenti's Ult, he instantly clears lesser mobs, so his extra hits are guaranteed to target bosses. Meanwhile LL needs to defeat those mobs first before focusing on the boss so a lot of hits are wasted. This new MoC is one such example.
One way Jing Yuan might be better is if lesser mobs debuffs the boss on death. For example, those robot fish who debuff defense.
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About Argenti
I'll still call him Averagenti because it's funny, but I admit his energy regeneration makes him a good character.
You probably will only use him for Physical-weak stages, but overall he is fun and easy to use despite having such a simple kit.
Most supports can buff him. Without batteries he's just slower but you can plan out when to stack all those buffs on him before nuking the enemies; unlike the general who needs high-uptime buffs.
If you want to use Argenti comfortably, you want E0S1 at least. His LC is very strong.
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So can Grand Duke fix Jing Yuan?
Partially yes. It makes his Skill and Ult do something. I won't forgive HSR devs for not making the ATK buff permanent.
He is still slow but doesn't matter if you are not trying to min-cycle.
Again, you can be disappointed with a character's performance but never regret pulling.

Congratulations Jing Yuan mains, he is now promoted to Mid Tier.
Before 1.5, the term Mid Yuan is actually a compliment so there's no need to be mad.
I still hope for a future support that can advance forward summoned entities, because that is the only true way to fix Jing Yuan.
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