Hi guys I'm planning to pull for Nicole Cons (c6) but I'm not sure if I can get Durin since they're both in the same phase also since I'm pulling for higher cons, I also hope I can get Prune copies

Will this be good without Durin

Is anyone else thrilled to have all their anemo dpses (along with varka ofc) to do great once nicole drops? Saw calcs of wanderer and xiao using durcole core and coming close to 130k+ dps. And prune for varka just means everything will just go uphill from now on. The bricked nicole, shafted varka talk has been ruining my perception of leaks talk lately, since I can see for myself in multiple calcs that shill aside, varka is the best bruteforce you can have right now, and is doing damage equal to lunar c0r0 teams with prune and nicole now (zibai is an exception, and everyone seems to forget that lunar carries have one overlapping Member in their teams, they literally have ONE best team, while varka can use so many)

https://preview.redd.it/jy9nxt8v5iwg1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=986eadfc76359352107dec403b5089fb42993a3b

I guess that it is pretty similar to Lunar Charge at least? Depending on artifacts he may reach over 210k, though realistically Prune C6 would be hard to get. At least she is now a little better than Venti even in C2.

Heya,

I've seen a lot of discussion about C6 Prune beating out C0R1 Venti, but would C2 Venti pull ahead? His C1 doesn't provide much but his C2 provides 24% anemo RES reduction and a big damage increase with an EQE combo.

I'm guessing it's not enough to dethrone prune? At what point would that happen with venti cons, if at all?

Thanks!

Hi,

Quick TC post about the V3 changes to Prune and Nicole.

https://preview.redd.it/xx2hjgk66dwg1.png?width=1665&format=png&auto=webp&s=c74ef137ceb850c665a73d23ebf76f943bf6d563

Prune's changes give Varka an overall 5% increase to his DPS. These are nice.

With these changes though, Prune becomes uncontested BIS at C0R0 over anything other than C0R1 Venti, and C6R0 Prune is better than even C0R1 Venti.

Also, TTDS now becomes worse for Prune and Fav becomes better. Skyward and Lost Prayer become EVEN better.

https://preview.redd.it/8ovq2m3zzcwg1.png?width=1665&format=png&auto=webp&s=062ba56187ba3857f9a49a698d08e20ac6daa1d2

Yeaaaaaaaaa. So it's technically not a nerf? Sadly, its a pointless buff. At the current time Nicole needs more. Her value is entirely subjective. She is a DPS increase, though she is also a cost.

https://preview.redd.it/6tjmulu00dwg1.png?width=1664&format=png&auto=webp&s=4f988be5f4d5be61044b242f4d8faa2b2079480c

Because her DMG% buff is now 0.02% when above 2k ATK instead 0.01% above 1k, it becomes more concentrated, and as a result, each point of ATK when above 2k becomes much more valuable (twice as valuable, to be obviously exact). She now really wants ATK (and thus devalues TTDS even more). Nicoles flat ATK buff is nice for Prune (and Durin), but even Bennett on Nobless helps Prune a nice bit.

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https://preview.redd.it/xb3yc2qa0dwg1.png?width=810&format=png&auto=webp&s=469c7a0032c3121de45cf3165794707f56fb400d

These are pre v3 Prune and Nicole.

https://preview.redd.it/ecv2xv240dwg1.png?width=813&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd8d47e42e4633e2a2ed21f0e8e260267d9dbc5f

This is post v3. Because of how strong the extra 10% ATK and ~15% damage is from the Prune v3 changes, Varka can reach 160k at 3 cost with her.

Because Durin was so starved of DMG%, and Prune gives a lot of it (and Bounty), Durin considerably takes the lead over Nicole in terms of "who to pull", for now.

https://preview.redd.it/hl787y4s0dwg1.png?width=812&format=png&auto=webp&s=50ed7c151f5084911833d9e657d50693ea0b96b4

Nicole is still an increase over Bennett, by about 10k, or the aforementioned 5% overall increase. It is up to you to decide if that is currently worth it.

I'm still making my teams megalist (I was waiting for V3 changes because I suspected it would invalidate all of my calcs anyway, which it did lol). Closer to 6.6 I will have the list and/or the Varka guide which includes all the teams.

TLDR

Prune got a lot better. C0R0 Prune is BIS over everything but C0R1 Venti, and C6R0 Prune is unexceptional BIS over everything else for Varka.

Nicole got a minor, unnoticeable buff. Currently Durin is a more valuable pull over Nicole from a "cost" perspective.

it's a 30% atk buff to the on field character who triggers swirl, the english text is correct and NOT a mistranslation

I'm seeing people so disappointed because of Nicole not being the dedicated support we all Varka mains wanted, but wasn't it obvious that this was going to happen?

​Varka didn't need a pyro dedicated support; that'd mostly "ruin" his versatility of being able to play with any PHEC element. I mostly see Nicole as a QoL upgrade and also as the teamwide buffer that the pyro team needed. That's totally fine, even knowing that the theoretical DPS didn't get too high. However, the good thing from Nicole is her shield that prevents us to end up flying around when literally any anemy attacks (talking from experience here).

​However, the new character Varka always needed was not PHEC, it was Anemo, and I'm most happy that Prune is here for that. Venti was not that good in Varka's team, and yeah, I know that the actual upgrade is behind Prune's C6, but again, it was obvious as all the dedicated 4-star supports have this in common.

A good thing that we got because of Prune was an upgrade for non-pyro teams and maybe a possibility to dream of a stellar-swirl team in Snezhnaya.

​Maybe it would have been better to get a 5-star dedicated Anemo support, but it is what it is and we can only pray for getting her C2 on Nicole's banner. I mean, at least the dedicated support exists and can get Varka really high (147k at 3 cost as I have seen).

​And don't get me wrong, I am a Varcole lover and since I saw them in the story I always wanted her to be his BiS support. I would be grateful if she were that dedicated support, but I'm happy with her being the BiS at least.

The only way to buff both Varka's anemo + phec damage using new hex scroll set (Gift) is *put it on 1 phec hex support*. With each element, we have:

- Pyro: Durin, Nicole

- Cryo: no one

- Hydro: Mona

- Electro: Fischl (but she prefers hydro/pyro)

This, plus the weird 6.6 beta diona buff that got deleted gives me hope that there will be new hex upgrades coming soon.

Now don't get me wrong, Varka's sig is still the single best upgrade you can get for his own team dps, it's just that you don't need to get it anymore.

Here's one of the new v3 Varka calcs, if you check Varka's C0R0 premium team, it's currently sitting at 147k dps, while the same team with Varka's sig is sitting at 168k dps.

Now 21k increase sounds like a lot, but going from 147k to 168k dps is only a 14% increase for your team's damage.

Considering that before all of the new stuff Varka's sig was like a 30% improvement for the team, it seems that it's value has been cut in half.

Is it still good? Of course and it's even the next best upgrade for his teams, it's just that a 14% upgrade is really not that notable anymore, and if you are someone who doesn't pull weapons generally, you can skip it a lot more comfortably

This is also not something unique to Varka, same thing happened with Flins cons/weapons once Columbina arrived