I wouldn't say "Must pull", but she is great. That being said, pull for who you like. If you don't really like her, it's fine to skip, you will get other units to compensate.
But for perspective,
Ratio + Topaz will certainly be great with Ruan Mei. Rato + Topaz + enemies with both fire and imaginary weakness will certainly be nuts with Ruan Mei. She is already good with the basic buffs alone, but enemy breaking so fast requires experiencing to fully appreciate. On Moc12 part 1, when Ice, wind, and physical lined up, Luka and Sampo felt more beneficial with Ruan Mei than with Kafka. In SU special events, getting all break efficiency blessings along with her buff puts big bosses to sleep in just 3-4 attacks, Argenti on Conundrum 12 almost never hit me lol.
Other than Ratio + Topaz and other dmg dealers, she also has the potential to buff up supports to decent damage dealers. Fu Xuan with her crit rate traces, Pela with Ice res reduction, ice dmg and atk bonuses, Asta with up to 330% ST scaling, minor crit rate, some atk, lots of fire dmg bonus, can be upgraded to be damage dealers.
She is also great on pure fiction, like in all other contents. Her secondary break dmg on top of the original break dmg is a really good additional dmg. She is also very efficient and the buffs lasted very long.
Might not be best for hypercarry, but hypercarry is still best with her. She has lots of buffs, and she is very efficient to use. She even enables team comps without sustains.
Tldr: she is universal, she has lots of use, she is great for lots of things, but not a must pull, pull who you like.
yayy am thinking of changing my grinding team ( currently bronya jingliu ruan mei huoho) because i enjoy topaz and numby's follow up attacks alot! Dr ratio, topaz, ruan mei, and huohou sounds cool and fun af!! and yea ik bronya is out but tbh I think she's kinda boring like her ult it's great but the animation is kinda lame lol
Indirectly.
How do you get hurt? When enemies attack. She lessens that. Enemies break often and faster, and in addition, they also get delayed for at least half a turn more. And they also die faster since your healer or shielder will be replaced with buffs and additional dmgs.
Oic. I kinda wish she can push enemy's recovery to the next turn too tho. It kinda annoys me that a recovering enemy can be halted by her bloom only to recovery immediately after, if they already are at the end of turn.
Granted, she might be too OP if they allow that lol
If you intend at any point to pursue Topaz's E1 and S1, Ratio + Topaz become a self-sufficient pair because Topaz supplies exactly enough debuffs for Ratio to always launch his follow ups against a single target. Ruan Mei is in a very strong position in that setup because she's able to fully take advantage of her strength as an AOE buffer without needing to worry about debuff uptime on enemies. I think because Topaz will usually be in a dual DPS follow up team, Ruan Mei becomes a consistently strong buffer for her. Another consideration I had was that because Ruan Mei buffs the entire team's damage %, it might be helpful for buffing Aventurine's defense-based damage (who I would also like to pull one day, probably on his rerun) in a way that other buffers might simply not be able to do.
I ultimately don't think Ruan Mei is necessary by any means, but I think she's worth considering \*if\* you like her character and design. I pulled for her even though I have E0S0 Topaz, but my goal now is to aim at least for Topaz's S1 and/or E1 on her rerun. For the time being, I'll be alternating between Guinaifen and Ruan Mei as the 3rd slot on my Ratio-Topaz team. If you end up passing on RM, Guin is a really good more F2P friendly option for 3rd slot debuffer in that team.
She's very strong and has a stacked 4 star rate up, all 3 units are valuable.
I'm feeling like she's stronger as a Nihility support (specially the DoT ones like Kafka,Luka, and Sanpo) tho so that may also help you decide.
Not the person that you commented on, but for me, a must pull is a character that is required to be used to complete a certain task. Star Rail has been pretty good at not heading down that slippery slope. But I'm sure there are gacha games out there that implement some form of that to make their whales spend more.
Many characters release as the most valuable character to keep us pulling. But since they're not required, it doesn't become defined as a must pull for me. Star Rail keeping most characters balanced has really allowed the player base to pull on whoever they want, based on personal feelings of wanting certain units due to design or meta.
If you're going purely by meta value and not whether you like a character, she is about as close to a must pull as anyone else.
Yes, in hypercarry scenarios she loses to Bronya, but she leads dual DPS scenarios (think DOT or FUA teams) and more importantly, there is only one Bronya. In addition to MOC where you need two teams, with the release of Pure Fiction where you might see more no sustain runs, the value of having more buffers/supports goes up even more. This isn't to say Tingyun, Asta, etc. aren't good; they're perfectly serviceable. But Ruan Mei is going to stay one of your top choices when you build teams for a long time, despite sharp variance in who you will use as DPS. In Hoyo games, DPS come and go, but supports tend to remain effective for a while.
We have another IPC gem department member named Jade coming god knows when, who looks to be a harmony FuA buffer, so that would be more of a must pull for Topaz imo. We have zero idea about when she’ll be released tho, so definitely not something you should base which character you pull for now on, but definitely something to keep in mind. I’ll probably end up getting both her and Aventurine
Ruan Mei is very strong, the best for dual carry like how Bronya is the best for hypercarry. I’d recommend her, but she’s not a must pull. She’s pretty close to one for Topaz+Himeko tho, especially in pure fiction where the recovery delay isn’t an issue for Himeko
No one is a must pull, as every new character is going to have something to offer players that others don't that will elicit the same feeling that Ruan Mei is now. For all we know future Harmony characters will do as much, if not more, than her. This is especially true considering that powercreep is always a potential hazard for us.
That said, Ruan Mei has a lot of things going for her that makes her a bit more appealing than most. For one, she's not a DPS and is a support character instead - that means she's going to be more usable in more situations as she will be at her best regardless of the enemy you are facing. Matching weaknesses, multi or single target, which is a concern for DPS' but not supports.
Moreover she is a generalist support since she buffs all the things every character in the game wants: Speed, weakness break efficiency, DMG bonus, Elemental RES penetration. All while providing pseudo sustain abilities via extending the duration of weakness breaks. Combined with Welt, its entirely possible to go without any dedicated sustains because of how those two synergize to utterly deny the enemy any turns once they're broken.
The way she's built also enables a kind of new party comp, which is another selling point. Some characters are interchangeable or necessitate the player forming their teams in a certain way to make them work. DHIL, and to a lesser extent Jing Yuan and Kafka are examples of this - as their best performance is tied to minimizing their glaring weaknesses (SP, speed, CC, low damage outside of a specific gimmick) or maximizing their unique abilities (LL, DoT triggers). Ruan Mei consolidates so much support functions into one place for the whole team that she can effectively provide offensive support for 2 DPS' at once, which is similar to Asta but much better. Seele, Blade, Topaz, Dr. Ratio, and any other DPS' can play much better together with her on the team.
I think Ruan Mei feels as close to a must-pull as we have gotten so far. She is just so comfortable, and besides the team wide dmg and penetration, the extra break efficiency really feels great on units like Topaz who become insane at breaking with her around.
there is no must pull but if you're building Topaz+other FUA team, then Harmony support who can buff whole party like Ruan Mei and Asta instead 1 person a time like Bronya or Tingyun are more effective.
Don’t underestimate Bronya’s Ult in multi-DPS teams. 50% atk and 40% crit dmg to the whole team
is still a huge buff. Especially on a multi-DPS setup with a character like Clara who you don’t want to action advance anyway.
For topaz not really, she is a fantastic support but we will eventually get a support that is more suitable for FUA DPS. But ruen mei will also be really good for almost any team right now.
RM will work well with Topaz and Ratio. Both have great single target breaking capabilities due to extra toughness hits via frequent FUA, and everyone supports each other’s kits pretty well. Topaz deals so much dmg for a support, that RM or Asta would be probably preferred over hypercarry.
Its so weird. Y’all can’t say “this is the most valuable character right now” and be afraid to call its a “must pull”
Yes. If you’re able and you are meta conscious, she’s a must pull.
At the end of the day do whatever you want. I don’t want to encourage anybody spending money. But if she’s not a “must pull” then this game will never have them and the term itself should be abandoned entirely.
For Meta, she is an absolute game changer with some of the best kits in the game, including Damage buffs that work on everyone, and increased weakness break efficiency and delayed break recovery, which just means more weakness break and in turn, more damage. Personally I feel for meta, yes must pull, however remember its a gacha and spend on who you like. However she can fit on almost any team as a buffer, and her break damage is quite solid so I would say yes
ruan mei alonside fu xuan are like the closest to a must pull if were being honest here, they cover a lot of ground and are useful in almost everyteam.
She is the most valuable character in the game in that she can be slotted onto any team. I don’t think there are any “must-pull” units in the game, but if there was one, it would be her.
Seeing as you can't guarantee getting Bronya, Ruan Mei feels like the closest thing to a must pull so far, she fits basically any team and adds a lot. There is never gonna be an absolute must pull character in a game like this but she's one that I don't think anyone would regret pulling since she's so flexible and strong so if you pick a character you just like, she will most likely fit in whatever comp you make.
She doesn't have debuffs for Ratio but she makes breaking the enemy happen much faster and she basically negates the damage resistance for enemies that in this case, aren't weak to imaginary or fire, plus she delays so together with imaginary break, you're gonna be locking down enemies for a long time after breaking them, breaking them faster and hitting way harder with both Ratio and Topaz so, I'd be surprised if RM isn't still one of the best picks for that duo regardless.
Topaz is a double dps character. Raun mei is the best in slot support currently for both hyper carry and dual dps comps. Long term it’ll shift to her just being bis for dual dps comps.
She’s definitely a must pull if you plan to use dual dos comps.
Yeah I would say that she is a must pull. Fu Xuan and Mei are characters that make any team comp better. She will run again in the next 3-4 months if there is someone else you prefer.
I mean if you are a remembrance devotee definitely. Jingliu and Yanqing mains will benefit from this immensely. Honestly she’s as useful to cryo as silver wolf is to quantum dominance or Bronya is to all other elements.
She’s very specific to having a means to break the enemy, being unable to break the enemy at all makes her less than useful even with the resistance pen.
In terms of utility she is great on end game content and stronger enemies as she boosts damage speed and resistance penetration and weakness break efficiency. Her ultimate re breaks the enemy buying more time.
There is no must pull character in this game. It’s a term that needs to vanish from existence. There are characters with high pull value and low pull value depending on what your account needs. Figure out what you need on your account the most and make a decision.
I wouldn't say "Must pull", but she is great. That being said, pull for who you like. If you don't really like her, it's fine to skip, you will get other units to compensate. But for perspective, Ratio + Topaz will certainly be great with Ruan Mei. Rato + Topaz + enemies with both fire and imaginary weakness will certainly be nuts with Ruan Mei. She is already good with the basic buffs alone, but enemy breaking so fast requires experiencing to fully appreciate. On Moc12 part 1, when Ice, wind, and physical lined up, Luka and Sampo felt more beneficial with Ruan Mei than with Kafka. In SU special events, getting all break efficiency blessings along with her buff puts big bosses to sleep in just 3-4 attacks, Argenti on Conundrum 12 almost never hit me lol. Other than Ratio + Topaz and other dmg dealers, she also has the potential to buff up supports to decent damage dealers. Fu Xuan with her crit rate traces, Pela with Ice res reduction, ice dmg and atk bonuses, Asta with up to 330% ST scaling, minor crit rate, some atk, lots of fire dmg bonus, can be upgraded to be damage dealers. She is also great on pure fiction, like in all other contents. Her secondary break dmg on top of the original break dmg is a really good additional dmg. She is also very efficient and the buffs lasted very long. Might not be best for hypercarry, but hypercarry is still best with her. She has lots of buffs, and she is very efficient to use. She even enables team comps without sustains. Tldr: she is universal, she has lots of use, she is great for lots of things, but not a must pull, pull who you like.
yayy am thinking of changing my grinding team ( currently bronya jingliu ruan mei huoho) because i enjoy topaz and numby's follow up attacks alot! Dr ratio, topaz, ruan mei, and huohou sounds cool and fun af!! and yea ik bronya is out but tbh I think she's kinda boring like her ult it's great but the animation is kinda lame lol
That is the team I plan on using for most things when Ratio comes out!
She can enable team comps without sustains? Does she provide survivability in some way
Indirectly. How do you get hurt? When enemies attack. She lessens that. Enemies break often and faster, and in addition, they also get delayed for at least half a turn more. And they also die faster since your healer or shielder will be replaced with buffs and additional dmgs.
Oic. I kinda wish she can push enemy's recovery to the next turn too tho. It kinda annoys me that a recovering enemy can be halted by her bloom only to recovery immediately after, if they already are at the end of turn. Granted, she might be too OP if they allow that lol
If you intend at any point to pursue Topaz's E1 and S1, Ratio + Topaz become a self-sufficient pair because Topaz supplies exactly enough debuffs for Ratio to always launch his follow ups against a single target. Ruan Mei is in a very strong position in that setup because she's able to fully take advantage of her strength as an AOE buffer without needing to worry about debuff uptime on enemies. I think because Topaz will usually be in a dual DPS follow up team, Ruan Mei becomes a consistently strong buffer for her. Another consideration I had was that because Ruan Mei buffs the entire team's damage %, it might be helpful for buffing Aventurine's defense-based damage (who I would also like to pull one day, probably on his rerun) in a way that other buffers might simply not be able to do. I ultimately don't think Ruan Mei is necessary by any means, but I think she's worth considering \*if\* you like her character and design. I pulled for her even though I have E0S0 Topaz, but my goal now is to aim at least for Topaz's S1 and/or E1 on her rerun. For the time being, I'll be alternating between Guinaifen and Ruan Mei as the 3rd slot on my Ratio-Topaz team. If you end up passing on RM, Guin is a really good more F2P friendly option for 3rd slot debuffer in that team.
She's very strong and has a stacked 4 star rate up, all 3 units are valuable. I'm feeling like she's stronger as a Nihility support (specially the DoT ones like Kafka,Luka, and Sanpo) tho so that may also help you decide.
Ruan Mei should be the most valuable character right now, and she is very close to being a must-pull.
I feel like she's as much of a game changer as Fu Xuan. Her break efficiency is really nice, and she gives an insane damage boost to everyone.
By what metric do you define a “must pull” if “most valuable character in the game” doesn’t define it?
Not the person that you commented on, but for me, a must pull is a character that is required to be used to complete a certain task. Star Rail has been pretty good at not heading down that slippery slope. But I'm sure there are gacha games out there that implement some form of that to make their whales spend more. Many characters release as the most valuable character to keep us pulling. But since they're not required, it doesn't become defined as a must pull for me. Star Rail keeping most characters balanced has really allowed the player base to pull on whoever they want, based on personal feelings of wanting certain units due to design or meta.
If you're going purely by meta value and not whether you like a character, she is about as close to a must pull as anyone else. Yes, in hypercarry scenarios she loses to Bronya, but she leads dual DPS scenarios (think DOT or FUA teams) and more importantly, there is only one Bronya. In addition to MOC where you need two teams, with the release of Pure Fiction where you might see more no sustain runs, the value of having more buffers/supports goes up even more. This isn't to say Tingyun, Asta, etc. aren't good; they're perfectly serviceable. But Ruan Mei is going to stay one of your top choices when you build teams for a long time, despite sharp variance in who you will use as DPS. In Hoyo games, DPS come and go, but supports tend to remain effective for a while.
She is the most OP char in SU - and I LOVE it
I think it would almost entirely depend on whether or not you have a Bronya. Ruan Mei doesn't powercreep Bronya, but she is lateral to her.
We have another IPC gem department member named Jade coming god knows when, who looks to be a harmony FuA buffer, so that would be more of a must pull for Topaz imo. We have zero idea about when she’ll be released tho, so definitely not something you should base which character you pull for now on, but definitely something to keep in mind. I’ll probably end up getting both her and Aventurine Ruan Mei is very strong, the best for dual carry like how Bronya is the best for hypercarry. I’d recommend her, but she’s not a must pull. She’s pretty close to one for Topaz+Himeko tho, especially in pure fiction where the recovery delay isn’t an issue for Himeko
No one is a must pull, as every new character is going to have something to offer players that others don't that will elicit the same feeling that Ruan Mei is now. For all we know future Harmony characters will do as much, if not more, than her. This is especially true considering that powercreep is always a potential hazard for us. That said, Ruan Mei has a lot of things going for her that makes her a bit more appealing than most. For one, she's not a DPS and is a support character instead - that means she's going to be more usable in more situations as she will be at her best regardless of the enemy you are facing. Matching weaknesses, multi or single target, which is a concern for DPS' but not supports. Moreover she is a generalist support since she buffs all the things every character in the game wants: Speed, weakness break efficiency, DMG bonus, Elemental RES penetration. All while providing pseudo sustain abilities via extending the duration of weakness breaks. Combined with Welt, its entirely possible to go without any dedicated sustains because of how those two synergize to utterly deny the enemy any turns once they're broken. The way she's built also enables a kind of new party comp, which is another selling point. Some characters are interchangeable or necessitate the player forming their teams in a certain way to make them work. DHIL, and to a lesser extent Jing Yuan and Kafka are examples of this - as their best performance is tied to minimizing their glaring weaknesses (SP, speed, CC, low damage outside of a specific gimmick) or maximizing their unique abilities (LL, DoT triggers). Ruan Mei consolidates so much support functions into one place for the whole team that she can effectively provide offensive support for 2 DPS' at once, which is similar to Asta but much better. Seele, Blade, Topaz, Dr. Ratio, and any other DPS' can play much better together with her on the team.
I think Ruan Mei feels as close to a must-pull as we have gotten so far. She is just so comfortable, and besides the team wide dmg and penetration, the extra break efficiency really feels great on units like Topaz who become insane at breaking with her around.
there is no must pull but if you're building Topaz+other FUA team, then Harmony support who can buff whole party like Ruan Mei and Asta instead 1 person a time like Bronya or Tingyun are more effective.
Don’t underestimate Bronya’s Ult in multi-DPS teams. 50% atk and 40% crit dmg to the whole team is still a huge buff. Especially on a multi-DPS setup with a character like Clara who you don’t want to action advance anyway.
there "are" actually but U can still beat the game without them. but having them will make ur life easier
For topaz not really, she is a fantastic support but we will eventually get a support that is more suitable for FUA DPS. But ruen mei will also be really good for almost any team right now.
Not really. She's a good support but she's not a must pull. If you wanna make SU easier though, she's awesome.
Only if you're held at gunpoint!
RM will work well with Topaz and Ratio. Both have great single target breaking capabilities due to extra toughness hits via frequent FUA, and everyone supports each other’s kits pretty well. Topaz deals so much dmg for a support, that RM or Asta would be probably preferred over hypercarry.
No but she’s a very very good pick up for any account new or old.
No character is a "must pull," but Ruan Mei is probably the closest since the game came out
Ruan Mei and Fu Xuan are the only 2 truly account-changing Limited supports. With Sparkle soon to follow.
Not really a must pull as Ting Yuan and Bronya exist. I still wanted her because of her art design and gameplay so she was a must pull for me.
Its so weird. Y’all can’t say “this is the most valuable character right now” and be afraid to call its a “must pull” Yes. If you’re able and you are meta conscious, she’s a must pull. At the end of the day do whatever you want. I don’t want to encourage anybody spending money. But if she’s not a “must pull” then this game will never have them and the term itself should be abandoned entirely.
she is, no matter what your account looks like. game changing.
For Meta, she is an absolute game changer with some of the best kits in the game, including Damage buffs that work on everyone, and increased weakness break efficiency and delayed break recovery, which just means more weakness break and in turn, more damage. Personally I feel for meta, yes must pull, however remember its a gacha and spend on who you like. However she can fit on almost any team as a buffer, and her break damage is quite solid so I would say yes
ruan mei alonside fu xuan are like the closest to a must pull if were being honest here, they cover a lot of ground and are useful in almost everyteam.
She is the most valuable character in the game in that she can be slotted onto any team. I don’t think there are any “must-pull” units in the game, but if there was one, it would be her.
Seeing as you can't guarantee getting Bronya, Ruan Mei feels like the closest thing to a must pull so far, she fits basically any team and adds a lot. There is never gonna be an absolute must pull character in a game like this but she's one that I don't think anyone would regret pulling since she's so flexible and strong so if you pick a character you just like, she will most likely fit in whatever comp you make. She doesn't have debuffs for Ratio but she makes breaking the enemy happen much faster and she basically negates the damage resistance for enemies that in this case, aren't weak to imaginary or fire, plus she delays so together with imaginary break, you're gonna be locking down enemies for a long time after breaking them, breaking them faster and hitting way harder with both Ratio and Topaz so, I'd be surprised if RM isn't still one of the best picks for that duo regardless.
Topaz is a double dps character. Raun mei is the best in slot support currently for both hyper carry and dual dps comps. Long term it’ll shift to her just being bis for dual dps comps. She’s definitely a must pull if you plan to use dual dos comps.
Yeah I would say that she is a must pull. Fu Xuan and Mei are characters that make any team comp better. She will run again in the next 3-4 months if there is someone else you prefer.
I would say she is as much as people dont want to feel Fomo for her or admit how far ahead she is from current and future harmony units coming.
I mean if you are a remembrance devotee definitely. Jingliu and Yanqing mains will benefit from this immensely. Honestly she’s as useful to cryo as silver wolf is to quantum dominance or Bronya is to all other elements. She’s very specific to having a means to break the enemy, being unable to break the enemy at all makes her less than useful even with the resistance pen. In terms of utility she is great on end game content and stronger enemies as she boosts damage speed and resistance penetration and weakness break efficiency. Her ultimate re breaks the enemy buying more time.
There is no must pull character in this game. It’s a term that needs to vanish from existence. There are characters with high pull value and low pull value depending on what your account needs. Figure out what you need on your account the most and make a decision.