Honglan (Peerless)Build and Guide

Honglan (Peerless) is a DEX Defender Variant Beast Soul (the first of its kind) released on 6 March 2025. Unlike her sleepy original backline counterpart, Honglan (Peerless) charges to the forefront with an arsenal of debuffs, disruption, and buffs.

• Ultimate - Hidden Dragon’s Ascent: The core of her kit. This one-time use ultimate grants her a whopping 80% Attack and 25% speed, further empowering all of her skills for a limited duration (35 seconds at base). Her next action is changed to Sub 2 – Peerless Valor.

• Passive - Indestructible Ice Scales: Honglan permanently gains "Regenerating Scales" – a 10% HP shield that regenerates immediately on destruction. While Honglan is on the field, allies also take 50% less Critical damage. While her Ultimate is active, all allies gain “Blue Dragon’s Scale Armor” - granting them a regenerating 15% HP shield and +40% Crit Damage.

• Main - Frost Wheel Slash - Deals 305% 3m AOE Damage to the nearest enemies while both increasing Damage Taken and decreasing Damage Dealt by the enemy by 20% each (15 seconds). While her Ultimate is active, that damage is doubled, and the debuff values are increased by x 1.5.

• Sub 1 – Cloud-Riding Dragon - Deals 170% 2.5m AOE Damage to the nearest enemies while inflicting Stun (2 seconds). She also gains “Trigger Scale” (10% HP Shield, - 50% Damage Reduction, 5 seconds), which, if destroyed or dispelled prior to her finishing the skill animation, will double the damage dealt, landing as a guaranteed critical hit. If “Trigger Scale” expires normally, she regains 2000 mana instead. While her Ultimate is active, All allies gain “Blue Dragon’s Breath” - 20% Dmg Reduction and 15% speed for 12 seconds.

• Sub 2 - Peerless Valor - Honglan charges to the nearest enemy before following up with a 3m AOE swing. Enemies hit are marked with “Harsh Cold”, dealing Freeze damage over time and reducing Accuracy while disabling any mana recovery triggered by hits. The target of her Charge also loses 400 mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds. While her Ultimate is active, she steals 15% mana from each enemy hit by her follow up swing.

• Artifact - Prominent Honglan - Increases the duration of her ultimate (5 seconds per level, 60 seconds at Origin). Just like her original, Honglan’s artifact gains bonus effects at set milestones: While her Ultimate is active, Honglan’s main skill will inflict 10% to 15% Resistance reduction, while her Normal Attacks deal bonus damage and land as guaranteed Critical Hits (Legendary+ onwards). All allies also gain a Speed and Damage taken reduction buff (Eternal onwards) for the duration of her Ultimate.

Players might see her Defender status or her powerful ultimate and think to use her as a Tank or a DPS, but Honglan is neither. Her battlefield performance is akin to Catherine (Radiance), who also has a one-time use ultimate. However, unlike Catherine, whose ultimate converts her into a pure DPS, Honglan’s ultimate also further improves her utility, amplifying her party’s damage while mitigating incoming damage for the duration of her ultimate. Honglan’s kit is overloaded post-ultimate and promises a very comfortable and powerful burst phase.

Honglan’s kit henceforth cements her firmly into the debuffer role in raids. Her versatile kit allows her to easily fit into a variety of comps. Her shields post-ultimate mitigate a good amount of incoming damage, allowing her teams to comfortably survive the end phases of the raid, where incoming damage is sky high. Honglan is poised to make a splash across most, if not all, guild raids.

With that being said, a lot of her power is locked behind her Ultimate and Artifact. Players must invest a good deal on her ascensions (for the bulk) and the artifact (for the skills) if they want to maximise her potential. Similar to Catherine (Radiance), Honglan functions more like a melee support prior to her ultimate. With no HP recovery available to her outside of lifesteal, she also struggles to some degree to fulfil her role as a tank. 

Investment

In Raids, Honglan can technically function at full capacity at lower ascensions. Her artifact is, however, a crucial (if not mandatory) upgrade, granting a larger Ultimate window while unlocking 2 of her core utilities. Ascensions on Honglan will crucially also increase the scaling of her shields, in turn buffing team survivability during her Ultimate.

For those looking to use her as a defensive core for 5v5 scenarios, she naturally needs stats to have enough bulk to survive hits. Players opting to go for her should aim for at least Origin ascension.

Team Composition and Synergies

Honglan is very versatile and will fit into a variety of comps. On the other hand, good defensive cores are a must to utilise her in 5v5 situations, and she appreciates a 2nd tank to back her up while she charges into a fight.

Conclusion

Honglan (Peerless) is shaping up to be a very powerful addition to any veteran’s roster. However, new and F2P players might be deterred by her complex kit and the upcoming Angel banner (the first one since Yuria almost 1.5 years ago.), which may run after Honglan’s banner ends on 27 March 2025. Players on the fence should wait for details of the Q2 Roadmap on 24 March 2025  before committing.