In this Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – AOE DPS article, we’ll be going over the wide roster of Honkai: Star Rail characters and how they match up compared to one another. Version 1.0 has 24 characters and a Character Tier list is a good way to determine which to build. Resources are not endless in this game, so players will need to pick and choose. In this Honkai: Star Rail Tier List for AOE DPS, we will recommend who you should be investing your resources into.

Honkai Star Rail Tier List – AOE DPS

To properly weigh up each Character, I’ve decided to split characters into their specified team roles. Characters in Honkai: Star Rail can be categorized into the following: Single Target DPS, AOE DPS, Offensive Support, and Defensive Support. These are the main roles, with some characters showing up in two roles, while others might only fit one niche role in their category.

In this Honkai Star Rail Tier List – AOE DPS article, I’ll be ranking characters from the Erudition, Destruction, and Nihility Paths. Erudition is the true DPS archetype for an AOE, with the ability to hit a lot of enemies in the same attack. But some characters from the other two paths have unique kits that enable them to fulfil the same role.

I’ll be taking into account mainly how much damage they provide, and how many enemies they can hit. As damage dealers, these characters tend to consume Skill Points (SP), but some are more efficient than others and can be SP-positive. I’ll also look at how much utility they add as this could make or break a team.

As for Five Star characters, I’ll judge them on their base kit, without any Eidolons. Five-star characters that require more Eidolons to function will be considered lower than characters that have their whole kit at E0. Finally, four-star characters will be ranked based on what they can achieve with higher Eidolons, up to E6. This is because they have a chance to have an increased rate up in several banners, and getting high Eidolons is much easier.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – Clara – SS

In our Honkai Star Rail Tier List for AOE DPS, Clara claims the coveted top spot. Hailing from the Destruction Path, she excels in the art of taunting adversaries, fearlessly enduring their assaults, and retaliating alongside her trusty robot companion, Svarog. Clara has no cap on how many times she can counter per turn, allowing her to respond to every enemy strike without fail.

Clara is very tanky. She can take a lot of hits before going down, thanks to her damage reduction, crowd control resistance, and debuff dispel. She’s able to withstand most of what’s thrown at her, while her ultimate move empowers her to launch two counters whenever any of her allies are hit.

Damage Dealing

With the combination of accumulated counter damage and the influence of counter damage modifiers, Clara achieves remarkably high AOE DPS. She executes these counters during the enemy’s turn while also inflicting AOE damage on her own turn as per usual. Moreover, if enemies have been previously marked by counter attacks, Clara deals additional hits against them.

Overall, Clara can deal a lot of damage in a short window. With the amount of enemy attacks she gets, her ultimate can charge pretty fast, for even more deadly damage.

Utility

While Clara is fairly sufficient in taking on tasks such as taunting enemies, reducing the amount of damage taken and can resist debuffs, she will need a shielder in order to survive. However, this exceptional ability allows her to fulfil the dual role of taking on this amount of damage as well as playing her DPS role. The combination of tanking and DPS prowess sets her apart from all other characters in this tier list, showcasing her remarkable power.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

To fully unleash her damage potential, Clara has the option to spam her skills every turn. However, it is worth noting that a significant portion of her damage is passive, meaning she can also choose to play as a SP-neutral character. In this playstyle, she alternates between normal attacks and her skill. Alternatively, Clara can even play as a SP-positive character, using her skill once every three turns instead.

The skill spamming suits her more when she’s the hyper carry of the team. Meanwhile, a neutral playstyle is better if the team has another single target DPS, and Clara plays as a sub-DPS. This strategic choice aims to conserve SP, and is a very solid quality, not a lot of other DPS characters entertain.

Energy Generation

Clara can generate more energy than any other character in the entire game, whether they are on the AOE DPS tier list or not. The reason is that she generates a substantial amount of energy when she gets hit, and she generates additional energy when she counters. In less than two turns, Clara can fully replenish her ultimate without needing to invest in energy generation stats.

This capability is perfect for maintaining her taunt and executing more counters, even if an enemy occasionally targets another ally. Even March 7th and Seele cannot generate energy as quickly as Clara. She excels in this aspect and stands as the best in this regard.

Team Flexibility

To ensure Clara remains protected from all damage she takes, she requires the assistance of a shielder. However, among shielders, both Gepard and Fire MC are less than ideal choices since they taunt enemies. Clara needs enemies to continue targeting her to launch counters, making March 7th a preferable option instead. March not only provides a shield for Clara but also increases her aggro. Therefore, Clara and March are a perfect fit for each other. That’s not a limitation though, since March is a free character.

Furthermore, Clara showcases great flexibility and can be used as a tank for characters who prefer to avoid being targeted, such as Yanqing. Alternatively, she can serve as the sole DPS with offensive buffers, or even in a team composition featuring two AOE DPS characters like Serval. Clara’s versatility allows her to fit into various archetypes, as long as she has March 7th to support her.

Honkai: Star Rail Tier List – Serval – S

Serval is a free and guaranteed Erudition character, making her the standard choice for AOE content that is accessible to everyone. As a four-star character, obtaining Eidolons for Serval is much easier through the standard and rate-up banners. With Eidolons, especially at E6, Serval’s AOE damage ranks even higher in this Star Rail AOE Tier List, surpassing most E0 AOE DPS five-star characters. Therefore, Serval can fulfil most of your AOE DPS needs, eliminating the necessity to rely on wishing for a limited five-star character from the Erudition Path.

She sets the benchmark for Erudition Path characters, against whom every other character here is measured. Moreover, when Kafka is introduced, Serval will undoubtedly rise in the AOE tier list, competing with the highest DPS characters in the game.

Damage Dealing

At E0, Serval competes with Jing Yuan and Himeko, but at E6, she surpasses both of them. The only true contender against Serval is Clara with proper supports and setup, as Clara can passively inflict potent damage.

Serval’s primary DPS tool is the application of shock to enemies. While her AOE shock damage may not be exceptionally remarkable, Serval deals an additional hit to every shocked enemy when she attacks. If she can use her ultimate once every two turns, she attacks at least three times within that duration. Consequently, she strikes all enemies an additional three times, totaling six hits. This is in addition to the shock damage that occurs at the start of the enemy’s turn. Furthermore, after reaching E1, her normal attacks hit two enemies instead of one, enhancing her AOE DPS.

If Serval breaks enemy shields, she adds another layer of shock that scales with Break Effect. This shock can inflict significant damage, in contrast to the standard shock from her skill. Therefore, investing in Break Effect stats for Serval yields substantial rewards. It’s worth noting that she can also extend this shock for two turns with her ultimate, further increasing damage over time.

With Ascension 6 Trace, Serval buffs her own attack, and at E6, she gains a 30% damage multiplier. Additionally, at E3 and E5, she gains additional levels to her abilities, granting more damage modifiers that are not easily accessible to five-star characters. Overall, Serval proves to be a highly potent damage dealer against any content with more than one enemy, earning her a top rank in the DPS Tier List.

Utility

The repeated hits and the low energy cost ultimate helps serval break shields effectively in AOE DPS scenarios. Her shield breaking is not as insane as Jing Yuan, but Serval comes close behind. shield breaking is good at delaying and interrupting enemies and dealing extra damage.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

Serval is a highly flexible character in the DPS tier list. She can switch from an aggressive playstyle, casting her skill every turn, to a neutral style of using her skill once and relying on normal attacks as long as the shock effect remains on enemies. She can accomplish this without sacrificing much of her damage potential while reducing her SP consumption.

The offensive playstyle is utilized when Serval is the prominent damage dealer in the team. However, if there is a hyper carry present on the team, Serval can adopt a neutral style and conserve SP for the hyper carry and buffers.

Energy Generation

With a low 100 energy cost for her ultimate, Serval can use it frequently. Her E2 introduces an incredible energy refund mechanic each time her talent is triggered. In a typical scenario, Serval activates her talent every time she attacks, whether it’s a normal attack, skill, or ultimate. Compared to Jing Yuan, who struggles with energy management, Serval can unleash her nuke on enemies more often.

If Serval is frequently hit or manages to secure kills, she can use her ultimate every two turns. Serval can even score kills outside of her turn, thanks to the shock damage she inflicts during the enemy’s turn. Breaking an enemy’s shield also applies a second shock effect, resulting in enemies experiencing two instances of shock damage during their turn. This enhances Serval’s overall performance when paired with a single-target DPS character who focuses on the main target, while Serval focuses on the adds.

Team Flexibility

Serval can be inserted into any team, and she will fulfil her role effectively. She particularly excels in content where enemies are weak against lightning and there are multiple enemies present. However, she cannot single-handedly carry a team against high HP bosses, so it is advisable to pair her with another damage dealer.

Nevertheless, Serval is compatible with any character as her duo. She can form a DoT team with Kafka and Sampo, or she can create a standard dual DPS team with a character from the Hunt Path. Alternatively, she can assemble a pure lightning team with Silverwolf and Jing Yuan. Overall, she proves to be the most versatile character in this AOE Tier list.

Jing Yuan – S

While Serval has the potential to deal substantial damage, Jing Yuan still excels when played optimally. Both Jing Yuan and Serval have the ability to be upgraded to SS-tier characters. In the case of Jing Yuan, he requires complete optimization with Tingyun and a significant investment. He is the second limited character after Seele, and his power is immense, particularly in scenarios involving two or more bosses.

Damage Dealing

Jing Yuan deals higher single-target damage compared to all other AOE characters. His single-target DPS can even rival that of some characters specialized in single-target damage, which is astonishing considering he is also an excellent AOE DPS. While it’s important to note that Jing Yuan is not a free character and comes with several caveats, he still sits at the top of the DPS tier list.

Jing Yuan summons a companion who takes action on his behalf during the standard turn. The more actions Jing Yuan takes himself, the more hits his companion inflicts. However, the companion’s speed is slower, and they can skip turns if Jing Yuan is affected by crowd control debuffs. Nonetheless, once the companion lands a fully charged hit, it deals significant damage.

Utility

The most valuable utility Jing Yuan brings to the team is his ability to break shields through the repeated hits from his companion. Shield breaking is an excellent tool for increasing damage, delaying enemy turns, and disrupting their strategies. Aside from that, Jing Yuan primarily serves as a pure damage-dealing character.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

In terms of Skill Points, Jing Yuan consumes a significant amount. He wants to use his skill every turn to continually charge the stacks on his companion, making him an SP-negative character. This is similar to most damage dealers unless compared to Serval.

Energy Generation

Jing Yuan has a massive energy cost of 130 energy. Among the AOE DPS characters in the Honkai Star Rail Tier List, Jing Yuan has one of the poorest energy generation capabilities. Investing in energy generation for him is not easy, as it would result in a loss of offensive stats. Charging his ultimate in two turns, three turns, or even four turns is not achievable.

Meanwhile, using his ultimate is crucial for charging Jing Yuan’s companion. This compels him to rely on specific support characters that provide energy refunds for himself, particularly Tingyun. While Tingyun typically allows characters to spam their ultimate, in Jing Yuan’s case, she barely makes him functional.

Team Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the reasons why I prefer Serval over Jing Yuan. With Serval on the team, you can have two damage dealers without being limited to specific support characters. On the other hand, Jing Yuan requires Tingyun and struggles significantly without her. Additionally, since Tingyun’s buffs only apply to Jing Yuan himself, there is less room for sub-DPS characters in his teams.

Overall, Jing Yuan is more restrictive and less friendly to free-to-play players. However, he rewards heavy investments and has a higher potential ceiling after months of upgrading the team.

Himeko – A

Himeko holds a favorable position in the AOE DPS Tier List, boasting the fire element and belonging to the Erudition Path. She possesses all AOE skills, ultimate, and Talent. However, unlike other Erudition characters, her Talent relies on breaking the enemy’s toughness, which is a condition that occurs less frequently. Himeko requires all three enemies to have their toughness broken in order to trigger her Talent once. This inconsistency in triggering her Talent hinders its activation against bosses and elite enemies, preventing it from proccing every turn.

Damage Dealing

Compared to Jing Yuan, whose talent activates independently, Serval triggers her talent against every shocked enemy. Clara on the other hand triggers her talent every time an enemy attacks. This leaves Himeko lagging behind, her drawback results in many skipped turns without triggering her talent. This reduction in damage and energy generation brings her down a tier, despite being a five-star character.

Himeko gains slightly more damage from inflicting burn on enemies, both through burn damage and increased damage against burning enemies. However, this occurs less frequently than Serval’s shocks, and Himeko lacks methods to extend the duration of the burn. As a result, she is forced to use her skill every turn, making her SP consumption negative.

With the release of Silverwolf in version 1.1, you can pair Himeko with Asta and Silverwolf to exploit fire weakness in enemies. This will help break shields more often and slightly increase Himeko’s efficiency. However, before testing this theory with Silverwolf, it is often more effective to choose other AOE DPS options.

Utility

Shield breaking is a valuable utility to build around, but at the game’s launch, the archetype still lacks a few components to work properly. The potential is there, but it has not been fully realized yet.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

Himeko generally wants to use her skill in most turns to deal damage and break shields effectively. As a result, she consumes a significant amount of SP that could be used by a better DPS character.

Energy Generation

Himeko has moderate energy generation compared to the standard, and it improves if she is able to trigger her talent more often. She falls somewhere between Serval and Jing Yuan in terms of energy generation.

Team Flexibility

The nature of her talent forces Himeko to play with shield-breaking teams and match the enemy’s weakness. Switching teams for each content can be a hassle, and using the same team in every encounter may leave something to be desired. However, as a general AOE DPS character, Himeko can still effortlessly fit into any team that needs a bit of AOE damage.

There are situations where a boss has special mechanics that involve summons. In these encounters, having any AOE damage dealer to clear the summons is appreciated. There is a particular boss in the game, the Deer boss, that summons new plants every turn, which requires massive AOE damage to keep clearing. The adds are normal enemies rather than elites, making it relatively easy to break their shields. With a large number of them, Himeko can chain her talent between them. She is essentially the best DPS character in this Star Rail AOE Tier List for dealing with this specific boss.

Sampo – A

Sampo, hailing from the Nihility Path, stands out as an oddball in this Star Rail AOE Tier List. He excels as a true Damage over Time (DoT) DPS character, with his skill, ultimate, talent, traces, and Eidolons all revolving around DoTs. Not only does Sampo increase his own DoTs, but he also causes enemies to take more DoT damage from all sources. As a result, he serves as a valuable support for characters who specialize in DoT damage, similar to himself.

However, what holds Sampo back is the lack of purely DoT-focused characters at the game’s launch. As a result, it is often challenging to build a full DoT team, at least until Kafka is released.

Damage Dealing

Sampo’s position as a damage dealer is compromised by the lack of other DoT buffers in the game. DoT damage occurs on the enemy’s turn instead of the player’s turn, making it challenging to hasten the rate at which this damage occurs. Sampo can stack the Wind Shear effect up to five times on an enemy, each with a duration of four turns. With E4, he can deal an additional 8% of Wind Shear damage.

All of these are nice, but wind shear doesn’t cause critical hits, cause critical hits and scales only with attack. Attack values suffer from diminishing returns when stacked excessively, so while Sampo’s damage is good, it still has a lower ceiling compared to other DPS characters in this AOE tier list. Sampo simply requires the release of more DoT-specialized characters to fully realize his potential.

Utility

The repeated hits from Sampo’s skill enable him to effectively break shields. Additionally, his ultimate increases the damage dealt by DoT effects from all sources. However, in version 1.0, only Serval and Hook can partially benefit from this debuff. They still perform better with a critical build rather than a full DoT build, resulting in Sampo lacking the ideal teammate to fully utilize his debuff.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

After inflicting the maximum five stacks of Wind Shear, Sampo is free to rely on his normal attacks and stop using his skill. This allows him to be SP neutral or even SP positive in certain single-target scenarios. However, in typical AOE scenarios, Sampo’s skill is spread among all enemies, requiring him to spam his skill to apply all the Wind Shear stacks. This results in a balanced SP consumption on average.

Energy Generation

Sampo refunds 15 energy after using his ultimate, instead of a mere 5. This helps him generate a decent amount of energy, and with an optimal rotation, he can comfortably use his ultimate every three turns. Additionally, Sampo takes less damage from enemies inflicted with wind shear, allowing him to function as a tank with the March 7th shield. In this case, he gets hit more often, generating even more energy, which enables him to sometimes use his ultimate every two turns.

Team Flexibility

There isn’t a fixed team composition that can fully capitalize on Sampo’s debuff. However, Sampo serves as a general Wind Breaker and can fulfil the role of an AOE sub-DPS in certain teams. In fact, he is the only Wind Shield Breaker available at the game’s launch.

Qingque – B

Qingque is an RNG-based DPS character who can go several turns without dealing significant damage, but then occasionally proc amazing damage. Her lack of consistency places her at a low tier, but she can occasionally have very high damage spikes. If you have immense patience and unlimited time to retry stages in every game mode, you might have the chance to experience an amazing run with Qingque.

The alternative way to play Qingque is to use her skill more frequently, but this can end up consuming a significant amount of SP with no guaranteed benefit if RNG doesn’t favor her. Using her skill is generally considered the worst way to play her and is not worth doing.

Damage Dealing

Qingque possesses a very good enchanted attack, that deals massive AOE damage. If she were able to use this attack every turn, she would surpass the top AOE DPS characters in the tier list. However, the main issue lies in her inability to access this enchanted attack frequently due to the nature of RNG. It’s not uncommon to go through four turns without casting a single enchanted attack, significantly diminishing her DPS potential compared to any other character.

Furthermore, the high cost of her ultimate ability and poor energy generation further hinder her performance. Additionally, the fact that she doesn’t generate SP with her enchanted attack creates a lack of synergy within her kit. Unless RNG favors her and she manages to execute two consecutive rounds of enchanted attacks, her overall effectiveness remains subpar, offering only temporary moments of greatness.

Utility

Qingque lacks any utility, such as shield breaking, buffs, debuffs, or any other supportive abilities. She is purely a DPS character with average damage output.

Skill Point Generation/Consumption

If you try to maximize Qingque’s damage output, she consumes more than 1 SP per turn. However, the return on investment is not significant enough to justify the high SP cost. Furthermore, enchanted attacks do not refund SP, further exacerbating Qingque’s SP consumption issue.

If you want to play Qingque as SP neutral, you have to use two normal attacks followed up by one skill. However, even this rotation does not guarantee the charging of an enchanted attack. It is more efficient to save SP for other supporting characters.

Energy Generation

For some reason, Qingque ultimate costs 140 energy, which is the highest cost in game. She also lacks proper energy refund mechanics until she reaches E4, where she gains some energy through follow-up attacks after using a skill.

It is possible to go several turns without regaining the ultimate, and even when it is obtained, its impact is not particularly impressive as it only grants one charge of enchanted attacks.

Team Flexibility

As you would have guessed, Qingque relies on another DPS character to carry the team. RNG can be brutal at times. While at other times, it can give high damage, so it’s harder to build around.

You also can get stuck with no SP, no energy, and no AOE. Or alternatively, wiping out enemies effortlessly. The only redeeming quality of Qingque is her Quantum element, which is unique to her and Seele only. When mono Quantum teams become a thing, Qingque will be seen rising in her rank in this Star Rail AOE tier list.

Herta – C

Herta is positioned at the bottom of the Star Rail Tier List – AOE DPS, primarily due to her terrible, low damage modifiers. She’s like Qingque, but has no RNG to proc high damage, so she has no chance to really perform well. Her skill has low modifiers, that even Serval’s normal attacks outmatch. Additionally, her ultimate deals minimal damage, and her talent only triggers a follow-up attack once when the enemy’s HP drops below 50%.

While Herta does receive a damage boost against frozen enemies and enemies below 50% HP, these enhancements are insufficient to elevate her ranking. Even defensive support characters like Fire Trailblazer can outperform her in terms of damage.

Herta lacks any utility, and even her E6 doesn’t improve her that much. My honest advice is to not waste resources leveling or building her.

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Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check our Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Defensive Supports, Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Offensive Supports, and Honkai Star Rail Tier List – Single Target DPS As well as, the full list of our characters Build guides.