Jingliu has recently slashed into Honkai Star Rail with her icy blade and one of her strongest builds is apparently with the 4-piece Quantum Relic set, Genius of Brilliant Stars.

Since her release, players have been experimenting with various builds on Jingliu and the 4-piece Quantum Relic set has risen up to the meta, confusing a large part of the community. This is because Jingliu is a 5★ Ice damage dealer and has no abilities that inflict Quantum elemental damage, thus the Relic set should not be viable at her.

However, since Honkai Star Rail is an intricate game with many mechanic interactions that often result in surprise team compositions and viable strategies, here is an explanation of how the 4-piece Quantum set became Jingliu’s best build.

Note that this guide only focuses on the explanation behind such an unorthodox yet powerful set for Jingliu and not her full kit breakdown. For a more general guide, you can read it here.

A New Blindfold for Jingliu

To understand clearly why the Genius of Brilliant Stars, the Quantum-focused Relic set, is a viable option for Jingliu, we must first understand its effects and they are as follows:

• 2-Piece Bonus – Increases Quantum DMG by 10%.
• 4-Piece Bonus – When the wearer deals DMG to the target enemy, ignores 10% DEF. If the target enemy has Quantum Weakness, the wearer additionally ignores 10% DEF.

Based on the description, the 2-piece effect will be completely null on Jingliu since she is an Ice damage dealer, however, she can still take full advantage of the 4-piece bonus, and this is where the Relic’s viability comes into play.

When equipped with 4 pieces of Genius of the Brilliant Stars, Jingliu effectively bypasses 10% of an enemy’s defenses, and 20% if the enemies are weak to Quantum. In other words, the sole reason why the Quantum relic set is a viable option for the Xianzhou swordmaster is because of the defense ignore effect, ensuring her damage is not lost especially against high DEF enemies.

That said, it is important to note that despite many praises going around for the Genius of the Brilliant Stars built for Jingliu, you are still losing a significant damage boost without the proper setup. As such, the Ice-damage Hunter of Glacial Forest set will still be the preferred option for Jingliu.

Pull My Light Cone Please

In other words, the Genius of the Brilliant Stars Relic is only viable for Jingliu if you have ticked a checklist of things that allow the set to shine, namely specific allies and Light Cone, all focusing on shredding enemy defenses to maximize the effect.

In order for the Quantum build to work, you would have already pulled for Jingliu’s signature Light Cone, I Shall Be My Own Sword, which has the following effect:

• Increases the wearer’s CRIT DMG by 20%. When an ally gets attacked or loses HP, the wearer gains 1 stack of Eclipse, up to a max of 3 stacks. Each stack of Eclipse increases the DMG of the wearer’s next attack by 14%. When 3 stacks are reached, additionally enables the attack to ignore 12% of the enemy’s DEF. This effect will be removed after the wearer uses an attack.

At its base effect, the Light Cone enables Jingliu to ignore 12% of an enemy’s defenses, but if you manage to pull for more duplicates, the Superimposed Level 5 version of I Shall Be My Own Sword grants up to 20% defense ignore.

The base value combined with the 4-piece Genius of the Brilliant Stars effectively allows Jingliu to ignore 22% of enemy defenses. However, the defense-shredding playstyle does not stop there.

Hacker Girl & Miss Pelageya Sergeyevna

To further maximize Jingliu’s damage output with the Quantum set, she would have to also work with a few allies who can support her with defense shredding.

One such ally is Pela, who can help inflict significant defense reduction debuffs on enemies through regular use of her Ultimate, Zone Suppression.

Given the prevalence of enemies weak to Quantum in the game, the Genius of the Brilliant Stars 4-piece effect can easily be further maximized. However, there may come times when Jingliu will be facing enemies who are not weak to Quantum.

This is where Silver Wolf joins the fray, utilizing her abilities to manipulate enemy weakness and keep them weak to Quantum for the maximum effect of Genius of the Brilliant Stars. Of course, Silver Wolf herself can also significantly reduce enemies’ defenses, allowing Jingliu to make full use of her high damage output.

Simply put, by having Pela and Silver Wolf in the team with Jingliu, enemies’ defenses are going to be reduced by a huge percentage, thus allowing Jingliu to unleash massive damage.

Quantum or Ice? 

In summary, the 4-piece Genius of the Brilliant Stars set is only good for Jingliu if you own her signature Light Cone, I Shall Be My Own Sword, as well as both Pela and Silver Wolf to regularly shred defenses.

To put it simply, the build revolves around the combination of both the defense ignore effect from the Relic and the Light Cone, while Pela regularly reduces enemy defenses and boosts team damage. Meanwhile, Silver Wolf serves to continuously apply Quantum weakness on enemies to maximize the Relic effect.

All in all, through calculations, this setup should net around a 1% to 2% increase in damage against enemies who are not weak to Quantum, but approximately 17% more damage output if against Quantum weak enemies.

Else, the Hunter of Glacial Forest, Ice Relic set, would still be the recommended option for Jingliu in terms of consistent damage output. Think of it as a choice, if you have all the specific pieces in check to enable the Quantum build, then go for it.

However, note that at the end of the day, your Relic sub-stats matter, and without good stats, the build will still underperform. That said since such an unconventional build can suddenly become meta, perhaps more unique team compositions and strategies can be birthed, creating more unique fun ways to play rather than following the books when it comes to Relic building.

So, what do you think of the Quantum build for the former sword champion of the Luofu? Join the discussion on the GamerBraves Discord server and share your thoughts on Jingliu built with a new fancy pair of glasses.

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Honkai Star Rail

Publisher: miHoYo

Developer: miHoYo

Release Date TBC

Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows

Honkai: Star Rail is an all-new strategy-RPG title in the Honkai series that takes players on a cosmic adventure across the stars.