[Heishou Pack - Mao Branch Adept] Faust

Heishou Faust is similar to the Mao Branch IDs in that she gains a lot of haste and is a very stable applicator of Rupture through Deathrite.

First things first, alongside Deathrite [Haste], Heishou Faust has Deathrite [Fissure], which is inflicted on her Skill 3-1. What it does is that when Rupture is triggered while the target has Deathrite, it inflicts Bind next turn. 

When the effect activates, if the target is to gain 3 or more Bind next turn, 2 Stacks of Deathrite [Fissure] will be lost instead of gaining Bind. When the stack reaches 0, the target will take Gluttony damage equal to Rupture Potency on self. Additionally, thanks to Heishou Faust’s passive, when the Deathrite [Fissure] Stack drops to 0 and expires, the target will gain Mark of Decay, which will be removed at Turn End. This status makes the target take +10% more damage from Gluttony Skills and +10% more damage from Deathrite.

Just a tip, if you’re running multiple Heishou Mao Branch IDs, do not use Skill 3 twice in a row as it will waste Deathrite [Haste] stacks.

Secondly, Heishou Faust has a unique status named Tianjiu Star’s Blade (abbreviated to TSB), which comes from her passive. She gains 1 TSB every time an ally triggers a Deathrite effect, and can only trigger 5 times per turn. If Heishou Faust herself triggers a Deathrite effect, she’ll gain an additional 1 TSB. Finally, when activating the Assist Defense effect, she’ll gain 5 TSB.

Finally, the last unique effect in Heishou Faust’s kit is Assist Defense, which is on Heishou Faust’s Skill 3 and Defense Skill and can stack to a maximum of 3. When an ally is about to take an Unopposed Attack from an enemy, 1 Stack of Assist Defense will be consumed to redirect the enemy’s targeting to self; then, it will use the unique Skill that activates on Assist Defense. What this means is that Assist Defense has an exclusive skill for when it is used, and in this case it’ll redirect the enemy’s Unopposed Attack to Heishou Faust and clash with it using the Clashable Guard Swiftfeet Protection or her Skill 3-1, Ascendant Heishou - Mao Technique: Cloudsplitting Manifestation, depending on the amount of TSB she has.

With all of this covered, let’s go over her skills:

• Skill 1 - Blinkstep - 2 Coin Skill - Base Roll 11 - Max Roll 15 - Max Roll with Reuse 17 - Pretty decent Skill 1 with neutral Rupture Count. The second Coin on this skill can be reused if Faust is at 10+ Speed.

• Skill 2 - Clearing the Path, My Lord - 2 Coin Skill - Base Roll 16 - Max Roll 20  - Solid Skill 2 with neutral Rupture Count and can guarantee 10+ Speed when combined with Strider [Mao].

• Skill 3 - Traceless to Sight and Sound Alike. - 3 Coin Skill - Base Roll 17 - Max Roll 26 - Max Roll with Reuse 33  - The same Skill 3 as Mao Ryoshu and Mao Outis being able to exhaust and at the same time refresh Deathrite [Haste]. This skill at 10+ Speed is also completely Rupture Positive like the other 2 Heishou Mao Branch, otherwise it is just neutral.

• Skill 3-1 - Ascendant Heishou - Mao Technique: Cloudsplitting Manifestation. - 3 Coin Skill - Base Roll 17 - Max Roll 29 - Max Roll with Reuse 37  - When Faust uses this skill at 10+ Speed, she’ll gain 20 Poise which equates to a 100% chance to land a Critical Hit, and if she has less than 4 Poise Count, her Poise Count will be raised up to 4 which is the maximum amount of Coins this skill can have. The only difference with this skill compared to Skill 3 is that Faust now inflicts Deathrite[Fissure] and Deathrite[Haste] at the same time with her first and final Coins. Remember that this skill is accessible through the defensive skill at 10+ TSB.

• Defensive Skill - It Shall be Done. - Clashable Counter - 2 Coin Skill - Base Roll 13 - Max Roll 15 - This Counter gives Faust 1 Assist Defense, and is a quick way to gain both Strider[Mao] and Tianjiu Star’s Blade. 

• Assist Defense Skill - Swiftfeet Protection - Clashable Guard - Base Roll 14 - At 10+ Tianjiu Star’s Blade, this skill will activate Faust’s Skill 3-1 instead. Faust cannot be staggered by damage until the Skill ends, and she gains 2 Protection from this skill once per turn. A nice skill, as even if Faust loses the clash, she will not take too much damage and is stagger immune.

Overall, this is a pretty solid Rupture DPS that can both help maintain and add to Rupture stacks, as well as serve as a great Tank that keeps allies safe from unopposed attacks. The main drawback from this ID would be Teambuilding, as the quickest way to stack up her Tianjiu Star’s Blade effect is to place her on a team full of Heishou IDs, two of which, Mao Branch Ryoshu and Outis, are Season 5 Event IDs. Not to mention, Faust’s only source of Deathrite comes from her S3. 

Notable Team/ID Synergies:

All the different flavors of Deathrite that come from a Heishou Pack team make Heishou Faust ramp up rather quickly, to a point where you could always have Faust’s S3-1 active.

• Heishou Mao Branch IDs: An easy way to maintain a high Rupture stack because of Deathrite[Haste]. And at full speed, they all play off of each other well.

• Lobotomy E.G.O::Red Sheet Sinclair: This goes as a no-brainer, but Faust has a high health pool, which helps her get targeted by Talisman Sinclair’s Support Passive. With how Rupture Count Neutral/Positive Heishou Faust is with her skills, you can inflict at least 32 Rupture Potency with any of Faust’s Skill 3 variants, or even 24 Rupture Potency with Faust’s Skill 1, both being Neutral in Count.

Notable E.G.O Synergies: None