Regarding the effect, I’m assuming that when the hit Crits, it will factor in the added stack immediately for that hit. Anyway, due to the LC buff wearing off after the wearer’s turn, it’s generally better to chain your Ultimate with the current turn to maximize the buff. A lot of these Hunts have 1-hit Ults after all, so they’re not really worth offsetting just to start with 1-stack for the next turn.

I must emphasize the risk-reward though. The CDmg averages look good in perfect conditions but failure to Crit means failure to stack up the buff which *can* impact its performance more than a fixed amount of CDmg.

— Just to give an example: A 4-hit attack with equal distrib comes to an avg of 30% CDmg. However, if you fail to Crit once, that avg sharply drops to 18%. Compare that to Yanqing’s S1 LC which gives 30% CDmg straight up. Failure to Crit once drops it to 22.5% instead.

— It starts getting messier once uneven damage distribution starts factoring in, potentially tanking harder if the stronger hits fail to Crit. Let’s look at Seele’s skill. It has a 2:1:1:6 distrib giving it a 37.2% avg. If your first hit fails to Crit, that drops to 25.2%. If the final hit fails instead, then it plummets to 8.4%. With Yanqing’s S1 LC, those would be 24% and 12% respectively.

Since Yanqing’s S1 LC is the closest comparison, as long as the weighted CDmg avg you can eke out of this LC is equal or better, then it’s a viable alternative. Swordplay at higher superimpositions is better and probably more convenient (just try to account for the high Dmg% and gain more Atk% elsewhere to get the most out of it). As for Stellar Sea, its raw damage is lower so I think it’ll just come down to which one your Hunt of choice needs or can actually utilize more.

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Here’s an overview of the Hunt characters. I must note that I limited the averages mentioned only to their Skills. The overall weighted average will be different if you account for their kit in full gameplay, and as mentioned, failure to Crit can tank the averages:

– Topaz: should be good due to high hit count and off-turn FUAs priming the buff for your next turn.

7-hit FUA has equal distrib (30.86% w.avg), while 8-hit Enhanced FUA adds a 3x damage hit at the end (40.8% w.avg). You can read the end of my following comment to see the Topaz breakdown.

– Seele: should be good due to the nature of her talent, where buffs will persist to her bonus action.

Skill does 4 hits in a 2:1:1:6 distrib giving it a 37.2% w.avg which is high because of the strong final hit. An action order of [Skill (kill) – [extra turn] Skill – Ult (kill) – [extra turn] Skill] can be chained together in “one” turn so you can see how that should raise the overall weighted avg by maintaining the buff.

– Yanqing: should be good since he has ok hit count and good CRate.

Skill does 4 hits with equal distrib (30% w.avg), with A2 (32.16% w.avg), with A2+E1 (35.23% w.avg). A2 and E1 damage are computed after the hits of the attack he used, so they’re bound to benefit from max stacks. Same goes with his FUA (2 hits, 3:4 distrib, shit dmg tho) since they chain to his current turn/action. Skill+FUA (33.33% w.avg), Skill+A2+FUA+A2 (34.86% w.avg), Skill+A2+E1+FUA+A2+E1 (38.6% w.avg).

– Dan Heng: he has consistent hit count, but Crit Rate can be an issue.

Skill does 4 hits (3:1.5:1.5:4 distrib, 31.8% w.avg). Regarding his Talent though, depending on how the turns align, you don’t have to feel forced to chain his Ult for the CDmg if the next ally can target you to activate Talent anyway. The Res Pen is *much* stronger than the LC’s CDmg.

– Sushang: hit counts can be inconsistent, causing LC to underperform. also Crit Rate can be an issue.

Her skill by itself only does 2 hits (3:7 distrib, 20.4% w.avg). With 1x Sword Stance, 25.43% w.avg. With 3x Sword Stance, 32.4% w.avg. Do note that the half-damage SS hits come out first before the regular SS. Also, if you chain your Ult with your current turn, the buff will not persist to the next one since it’s not a bonus action, just a 100% advancement.

– Dr. Ratio: it’s not looking good (best to read below why). It boils down to his weighted average being low due to the 1-hit nature of all his attacks.

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Another incoming wall of text (and numbers) regarding this LC with Dr. Ratio and Topaz in the next comment.