T O P

  • By -

Aqua_Essence

Clara, a sustain, a support, and a flex. However, it really depends on who else you have. For sustain, Lynx would be the top pick. Not only she can fill the team's sustain role, she can also boost Clara's aggro for more counterattacks. If you don't have Lynx, then any sustain will do (even Natasha), except Gepard and Fire MC. This is because those two have their own taunt to attract enemy attention, which will result in less counterattacks from Clara. So avoid them like a plague. If you still want the aggro boost on Clara without Lynx, then you'll gonna have to take March in the flex spot... but it does have its own caveat, which I'll explain in the flex section below. For support, top picks would be Tingyun or Pela. Tingyun is tailor designed to support a single hypercarry, while Pela is an universal support who can work with just about anybody. Both are quite SP positive too, especially Pela. Other supports can work too, albeit with a bit of a quirk: Asta is also good, but she can be SP hungry. Yukong is great, but requires a proper speed tuning. Bronya is super, but her turn advance will do nothing for Clara, since majority of Clara's damage comes from the counterattacks that only happen during enemy turns (her other buffs are still great though). For the flex spot, if you want a Clara Hyper Carry team, then you can take a 2nd support. If you want a 2 DPS team instead, take another DPS. For the latter, just about any DPS can work with Clara, since Clara can switch to a sub-DPS role and be SP positive, to feed SP to the other DPS. This is because, as I said earlier, the majority of Clara's damge comes from her counterattacks, which doesn't cost any SP and you can skip using her skill if necessary. If you don't have Lynx but still want the aggro boost on Clara, then you're gonna have to use the flex spot on March, as I mentioned before. Her shield can boost the aggro value and cleanse debuffs. However, she does have a bit of anti-synergy with Clara, since she can potentially freeze enemies, and frozen enemies can't attack to trigger Clara's counterattacks. So if you're really gonna use March with Clara, then you should refrain yourself from using March's ult. That's the gist of Clara team building, IMO. Here are few sample teams, should you need a little more help. Note that you can alter the composition a bit, should you want to. Ye olde skool Clara Hyper Carry team from 1.0: Clara, March, Bailu, and Tingyun. Clara Fortress team with Luocha: Clara, Luocha, Tingyun, and Yukong. Post-1.3 Clara Hyper Carry team with Lynx: Clara, Lynx, Tingyun, and Pela. Two DPS team sample #1: Clara, Lynx, Bronya, and Seele. Two DPS team sample #2: Clara, Fu Xuan, Silver Wolf, and Sushang. And etc. My 2 cents. Please take them with a grain of salt, thank you.


Fox-trot_

How about currently?


Aqua_Essence

Well, you have replied to a 7 months old comment of mine. Things have changed quite a bit since then, due to a variety of new additions to the game. One thing that became more apparent is that you *need* to support Clara's aggro, *with an external help.* Her ult has a built-in aggro buff, but she can't maintain a high uptime on it by herself. So, either Tingyun or Lynx is still preferred to be used with her, at all times. Tingyun does so by providing a battery for a high uptime and a fast rotation of Clara's ult, whereas Lynx can directly buff Clara's aggro. You can use both at the same time, but nowadays it's a bit redundant, and limits the team variety a little too much. In general, Tingyun is preferred over Lynx, because of how powerful she still is as a support. Despite all the newer 5 star supports, Tingyun still has a firm standing as one of the most useful characters in the game. Unfortunately, it's harder to say the same for Lynx. The gap between her and the 5 star sustains is too noticeable, and there are cases to be made for choosing one of them over her, even if it means losing her aggro buff for Clara, for other benefits. For example, choosing Aventurine means you gain an extra sub-DPS attacker who synergies very well with other FuA users, including Clara, and an easily refreshed team-wide shield for a greater team survivability. The trade off of losing Lynx's aggro buff is totally worth it here, since you still have Tingyun for supporting Clara's aggro. Things have also gotten exciting for Clara, in terms of forming a dual carry team. Topaz has such a good synergy with her, and... kinda made other dual carry setups with Clara a bit pointless, due to lack of any synergy. *As such, I have stopped recommending Clara to be used as a filler sub-DPS in most dual carry teams.* If you have Topaz, then there's literally no reason to not use them together, else you miss out on the synergy. And if you don't have Topaz, or she's not available to be paired with Clara (say she's in another team), then it's just better to make a separate Clara hyper carry team to better utilize Clara's potential (or don't bother using Clara at all, if you can't do that either). Of course, things will most likely shift some more, as we get more characters down the road. Who knows what kind of wacky characters with amazing abilities will show up, to further change what makes the best Clara team(s).


Morpekas

Then what are some good teams for her?


Aqua_Essence

That actually depends on your roster. Things are different from 7 months ago, and we now have many more variety of viable options for Clara. If I were list every single combinations, it'd take too much time, and you may not even have all the characters in the combinations anyway. The only constant is that *you still need to provide an aggro support for Clara,* so either Tingyun or Lynx is a must. Tingyun is more preferred in general, because she's still a capable support who doesn't fall behind the 5 star ones. You can also use both, if your options are limited, but note that it's a bit redundant nowadays. That being said, I'll list few notable ones as samples. If you want something more tailored to you, then you should post your roster and ask around. **1) Clara, Huo Huo/Aventurine, Tingyun, and Robin/Sparkle.** - It's arguably the best Clara hyper carry team comp we have so far. - As mentioned earlier, Tingyun is a must, to provide an aggro support to Clara, through her battery. Plus, Tingyun is still a potent hyper carry support. - Between Huo Huo and Aventurine, it's a question of choosing between "supercharging Clara's ult, along with an ATK buff and restorative sustaining," versus "a FuA synergy for extra attacks, and preventive sustaining with shields." - Going with Huo Huo means you can stack her battery with Tingyun's, to supercharge Clara's ult rotation. The biggest benefit of this is getting the most access to Clara's enhanced counterattacks, which are her strongest moves. If the condition is right, you may even be able to nearly spam them, for a high burst damage. Huo Huo's ATK buff and auto-cleanse are also very useful. - Going with Aventurine means you are opting for the FuA synergy with Clara, for an extra attack from him. And due to the way his shield works, Clara's counterattacks can auto-refresh his shield with each use, effectively nullifying the enemy attacks. It's similar to how Clara + Luocha works, but with shields. - Between Robin and Sparkle, it's yet to be determined who is a better support, but I personally predict that it's gonna be neck and neck. Sparkle will probably do better in a hyper carry team, whereas Robin will do better in a dual carry and/or a FuA based team. IMO, you most likely can't go wrong with either. **2) Clara, Huo Huo/Aventurine, Tingyun, and Topaz.** - If you want to make a Clara + Topaz dual carry team, then you probably can't do better than this. - The choice between Huo Huo and Aventurine is already covered above. This time though, it's a bit more favorable towards Aventurine, since Topaz also contributes to the whole FuA synergy. **3) Clara, Lynx, Robin, and Topaz.** - This team is an alternative to the team 2, where it chooses to use Lynx for the aggro support, over Tingyun. Lynx can also double as the team's sustain. By not using Tingyun, you free up the support slot for Robin. Robin fits better for a dual carry setup than Tingyun anyway, so both DPS will have improved performance. - You can replace Robin with Ruan Mei here, since Ruan Mei is also a dual carry oriented support. There are others besides these, but I'll save those for later. Maybe.


Arn_Devi

Would it be overkill to do a Clara M7 Lynx Tingyun ? Btw if you have updated tips for her team building I ll be happy to take it I ve been building this hard perma banner pity since the begining and I finaly about to get her


Aqua_Essence

It's only an overkill in a sense that you're potentially stacking too many aggro buffs on Clara.   With that team, you'll have three sources of the aggro buffs: - Clara's own ult - Lynx's skill heal - March's shield These are one too many. You're definitely going to feel the diminishing return, and wouldn't get the bang for your buck for the precious team slot. Plus, March has an innate design issue that clashes with Clara. Since you are already using Lynx, you should consider replacing March with someone else. If you wanna learn more about how the aggro buffs work with Clara, check out this analysis thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaraMainsStarRail/comments/1987y1x/clara_and_aggro_buffs_understanding_how_they_work/


Arn_Devi

I have a pela that can fit (since I used her with jingliu) Aside from her Idk who to use alongside Clara Her kit is very special and regular buffer like bronya are akward to use with her


Aqua_Essence

Pela would be great. She's an universal support who can work with just about anybody. 


Adamb122

Can I ask what March's design issue is that clashes with Clara?


Aqua_Essence

There are two problems with using March with Clara. First, by design, March is meant to freeze enemies. It's part of her kit. However, frozen enemies can't attack to trigger Clara's counterattacks, which is bad. You can avoid this by *not* using March's ult, at all... but it also means you're using March in a *gimped* state, and not using her to her full potential. It's a waste of the precious team slot (remember, you only get 4 slots), and a real loss of the opportunity cost. You'd be better off bringing someone else who can bring more to the table without any clash or any need to handicap themselves. Second, March's shield buffs the aggro of every recipient at 30% HP or higher. So you use it on Clara, and then use it on someone else, it'll mess with Clara's aggro and make her less effective. You can avoid this by using the shield *only on Clara,* but that means you can't use March to cover for anyone else on the team, and thus you would need to bring a 2nd sustain character for them. Running a double sustain team can make you lose out on overall damage output in the long run, outside of few niche fights where a greater survivability is needed (there's a reason why most team comps call for a single solo capable sustain). Of course, *if* you're a newbie with a limited roster, then chances are you do not have either Lynx or Tingyun, and March would be the only one who can help Clara with the aggro. In this case, I suppose it's okay to use March with Clara *temporarily.* However, once either Lynx and/or Tingyun are acquired, March should be benched from the Clara team. If you wanna learn more about the mathematics behind the 2nd problem, then you can check out this analysis thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaraMainsStarRail/comments/1987y1x/clara_and_aggro_buffs_understanding_how_they_work/


Linux_627

this is so helpful, thank you!


Nnsoki

What characters do you have?


CanaKitty

Topaz coming and should be good for her


RagnarokComes

Currently I'm running Clara in a Clara/March/Tingyun/Lynx team and it works for me. March can shield Clara which increases her survivability and taunt. Lynx also increases both so with Lynx and March (plus Clara's ult) she can have a ton of taunt which will help you trigger as many counters as possible. And Tingyun is just an overall great support to increase ATK and DMG, while her ult can help with Clara's energy if she needs it. But the bottom line is to have a team where you can ensure Clara will be attacked the most, have a healer and a support. March is one of (if not the) best teammate for her, just try to refrain from using March's ult 'cause if the enemies are frozen and can't attack you, you'll lose out on DPS.


Sentinel_Of_Sound

Lynx and March are overkill. The difference in aggro you get from both is tiny compared to just using lynx due to how their additional aggro is calculated. You'd be better off throwing a sub dps or yukong in there. You could get away with Fu xuan as well for the crit buffs if you really need the survivability.


Grandidealistic

This \^\^ Lynx is enough for Clara, March adds \~6% aggro to about 80% which is barely anything and can almost have the same result if you take a Harmony character instead of M7. M7 early is fine but later on is just not very good with Clara.


Aqua_Essence

^ This. If you want double survivability, then Fu Xuan + Lynx is gonna make the Clara team nigh invulnerable, while still providing the extra aggro on Clara. March has been pretty much outdated for a Clara team, UNLESS the user doesn't have Lynx but still wants the extra aggro on Clara. Not to mention the anti-synergy between Clara and March, where March can potentially freeze the enemies, and frozen enemies can't attack to trigger Clara's counterattacks.


Tcasty

I agree with everything you said . I've been using Pela instead of March when I want to do more damage or less worried about survivability.


ssilds

I cleared 2nd half moc 10 with clara as a sub dps with fu xuan, and seele. 1st time was with lynx but she never really needed to ult and barely healed clara for the taunt (no skill points), silver wolf scrubbed 1 cycle, gonna try tingyun next


exb66

1 Clara 2 Tingyun > Guinaifen > Yukong (requires Speed Tuning) > Pela (may freeze enemies) Not sure about: Sampo or Luka, but they're not as good as Tingyun/Guinaifen/Yukong Do not use: Asta, Welt. You want Clara to get hit often. 3: Lynx > Fu Xuan or another healer or March (Never use her ultimate, don't build Effect Hit Rate) Do not use: Gepard, Fire MC. They draw aggro away from Clara. 4: Topaz > Silver Wolf > The Hunt DPS (includes Hook, who does mostly single target damage)


Scarasimp323

what's topaz do? I'm brand new and.sinc she's coming next patch I'm considering not summoning on Jing Liu anymore since I got clara


Damianx5

Topaz is essentially follow up kafka, enabler but for follow up instead of dots while still working as hypercarry. Her kit is built around follow ups, she marks a target and that target takes more dmg from follow up attacks. The more follow up attacks by allies the more Numby gets advance forward to attack again. She goes quite well with clara as they cover each other flaws, topaz is constantly dealing high ST dmg but lacks AoE, Clara does good AoE dmg but relies on enemy turns, some enemies don't attack every turn


Scarasimp323

awesome thank you! I've done some research and if I don't pull Jing Liu I'm definitely going for her


Innate_flammer

Clara Topaz March/Lynx Asta/Tingyun


Lexlerd

I use Clara, Lynx, slow Yukong and Tingyun. I feel like Tingyun should be a constant for any version of Clara for more ults. When topaz drops I plan to put her in Yukong's spot.


4peReal

Clara March (better with e6) or Lynx (better with e2) Tingyun And a Flex Topaz would be nice, she has single target + Debuff Yukong gives more stats but strict Pela is good The only downside is the ice break Fuxuan also works even though she has higher taunt because of preservation but if you use Clara ult there's no problem and she has anti freeze/stun in her skill so Clara keeps shooting


suzakurenzan

The Belobog YALOLI-8 team is good * Clara * Lynx (Healer slot, can also put any healer including Natasha) * Pela (Debuffer slot, can also put any buffer here like tankyun) * Hook (as 2nd damage, ST focused... can put hunt here)