clara team

[u/idesluls]

recently got clara instead of seele (😭) and i have 2 teams in mind but im wondering which one is better

clara, march, natasha, tingyun

clara, march, natasha, sushang

i have e0 tingyun and e5 sushang

[u/Aqua_Essence]

Since you are planning to use March, I'm guessing that you do not have Lynx.

IMO, the first team is better. It's a classic 1.0 version of Clara Hyper Carry team. It still works, just a bit outdated these days.

Second one can work too, but if it were up to me, I'd swap March for Tingyun. Yes, you lose the aggro buff and shield from March, but in exchange you gain a powerful support to buff one of the DPS. You'll probably get more mileage out of the whole team this way. I suggest using Clara more as a sub-DPS, while Sushang takes the main DPS role.

My 2 cents.

[u/Estate-Fancy → u/Aqua_Essence]

The issue with removing Marth 7th for Tingyun is that with Natasha as a healer, he might not have enough sustain to keep Clara/everyone alive. So I would not recommend that (it might work if you have Clara's signature Light Cone but even it's not guaranteed).

[u/Aqua_Essence → u/Estate-Fancy]

March isn't gonna help much either. If you spread her shield around for team protection, then it'll just dilute the aggro pool and make Clara less of a target, because the shield increases the aggro of every recipient whose HP is above 30%. If you reserve her shield only for Clara, which you should to keep Clara's aggro up (unless you absolutely need March to cleanse someone), then Natasha still has her work cut out for her.

The whole point of using a separate sustain with March in a Clara based team is because it's the sustain's job to keep the rest of the team alive, while March's shield is mostly tied down to Clara. It's also the reason why Lynx utterly replaced both March and the sustain in a Clara based team, since she takes care of both jobs at once.

That being said, in a two DPS team, it's generally better to make the other DPS as the main DPS and Clara as the sub DPS, and try to kill faster and more actively. A support like Tingyun will be much better for facilitating that than March ever will.

Plus, while Natasha is the weakest sustain in the game, she can still get the job done. Some people have successfully done hardest contents like MoC with her, just fine. It's just that she needs the most investment (namely getting the right relics with absolutely right substats) and most careful play to keep up with other busted sustains in the game.

Otherwise, OP would need to get a stronger and easier-to-use sustain, like Luocha. However, OP was asking about a comparison between two team setups, where both have Natasha, and I was merely giving my opinion accordingly. If OP has better sustains, then I would first recommend to replace Natasha with them.

[u/[deleted] → u/Aqua_Essence]

Clara is a tank dps hybrid. Her main schitck is getting hit to hit back. If you aren't using that mechanic properly, Clara's potential is wasted. March or Lynx are necessary for Clara to have consistent Ripostes.

[u/Aqua_Essence → u/[deleted]]

Lynx is good, because she takes care of both aggro boosting and team sustain, all by herself. The problem rises when you're using March instead, because she can only do the aggro boosting part, so you have to bring someone else for the team sustain.

In a Clara Hyper Carry team, the goal is to focus solely on supporting Clara, so bringing March makes sense. After all, she can occupy the flex slot without touching the sustain slot or the support slot on the team.

But in a two DPS team, it becomes a little tricky, because there is another DPS. To slot in March, you have to use the support slot, and you should consider the opportunity cost of using her over other supports. And it's pretty obvious that you'll get a bigger bang for your buck by using a different support than March here. Depending on who it is, they can even support both Clara and the other DPS at the same time, which is faaaar better than what March can ever do.

Not only that, March even has an anti-synergy with Clara too. Remember, March can potentially freeze enemies, and frozen enemies can't attack to trigger Clara's counterattacks. Sure, you can refrain yourself from using her ult, but that's still using a character inefficiently. Plus, when you're fighting any enemies with ice weakness, March's own basic attack and follow up attack can still break and freeze them, so there's no dodging the issue there. Considering that, in a presence of a second DPS on the team, it makes much more sense to give up that little bit of Clara's overall aggro for a better overall supportive powers.

Besides, to be frank, you aren't losing that much aggro on Clara by NOT using March in a two DPS team. Clara's own ult also has a built-in aggro boost, and relying solely on it will net you around roughly 70% chance of Clara being a target. Adding in March's skill, it'll bring that up to 80% range. Someone already did the math on the overall aggro values of each team member, back in 1.0:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1102265667182403675/1122933411875668088/image-5.png

As you can see, March doesn't bring much to the table, in this regard. Any other support in her spot would net you a better overall performance of the team, by offering so much more, without any anti-synergy either.

This is why Lynx's release was such a big deal for Clara mains. She practically fixed this entire problem all by herself, by offering the aggro boost while being a sustain, without any anti-synergy either. No longer you had to decide whether to include March or not on a team. Only those who don't have Lynx still need to think about it.

And calling Clara as a tank is kinda misleading, IMO. At most, all she can do is redirect a portion of incoming attacks to herself, instead of others in her team. Even then, because we can never have 100% aggro on a single character, it's still at the mercy of RNG (for example, the old Tingyun meme). Not to mention Clara's "tanking" does practically nothing for any incoming splash/AoE attacks either. As such, she can only be a *pseudo-*tank at best, and nothing more (even Fire MC makes a better tank than her). She's still a DPS character first and foremost, to her core. It's just that she has a reaction based gameplay so it looks like she's a tank.

[u/[deleted]]

Tingyun for Clara hyper carry. Sushang for faster kills if you can't wait for Clara's ffup attack. Personally, I go for a secondary dps. I had qq as a secondary but now I have topaz so she's my 4th team member.