The First Descendant – Blair’s Blazing Build Guide

Quick Guide to Blair’s Blazing Build

Everyone’s Favorite Cook-turned-Descendant Blair (or as I call him, Chef Hot Hands), is a Fire-based DoT speader capable of setting everything ablaze and churning out big critical damage to anything that happens to get caught on fire.

So, what’s my role? Cook, or arsonist?

Chef Blair.

Passive

When attacking enemies, inflicted with Burn, increases Firearm and Skill Critical Hit Damage. Increases critical hit rate based on the number of Flame Zones created on the battlefield,[Default: +30% Crit Hit Damage, and Crit Hit Rate increases by +5%/+9%/+14% with 1/2/3 Flame Zones]

Using this, we can give Blair increased Critical Hit Damage whenever enemies are afflicted with any Burn, not just from his Skills, and this extends to any Ultimate Weapons that benefit from or cause Burn.

Your Critical Hit Rate Increase scales off of the amount of Flame Zones you have on the field, so you want to always have the max of 3 out on the field at a time.

Blaze Up

Spews Fire and creates a Flame Zone [lasts 12 seconds] on the ground [Max 3]. Enemies that enter the Flame Zone receive continuous damage and are inflicted with Burn [lasts 5 seconds].

This is how we can keep the maximum amount of Flame Zones out on the field, while also spreading Burn to have the increased Critical Chance/Damage against them.

Extinguish

Retrieves the Flame Zones created on the battlefield and recovers MP [19.0]. On Retrieval, increases DEF [by 50%] for a certain period of time [10 seconds].

This Skill is helpful for whenever you need to quickly shift where your Flame Spots are placed down, or get a temporary boost to your DEF to get out of a situation.

Burn Taste

Emit flames forward. Inflicts continuous damage and Burn upon enemies nearby the fire.

More of a secondary way to burn enemies if you have a lot of MP, this Skill should mainly be used for the off chance you don’t have a Flame Spot active

Deadly Cuisine

Fires a Giant Fireball to the front. On Explosion, the Giant Fireball inflicts AoE damage to nearby enemies and divides into multiple Small Fireballs, which create additional explosions. Small Fireballs deal AoE damage to enemies near the explosion site, inflicting Burn and creating a Flame Zone.

Your best was to get Flame Zones out on the field, while doing great damage and quickly spreading Burn to get the absolute most out of Blair’s Passive Skill.

Skill Rotation

The skill rotation you want to go for is as such:

• With Blaze Up, place your Flame Zones down to get the maximum 14% Increased Critical Hit Rate.
• Apply Burn to the enemies you are fighting for 30% increased Critical Hit Damage.
• Cast Extinguish when your Flame Zones are almost out to regain MP and increased DEF.
• For a stronger enemy or boss, send out Flame Zones with Blaze Up, and Burn the enemy with Burn Taste before using Deadly Cuisine while to deal max damage.

Weapons

With all these in mind, you can start to put together a loadout that benefits form enemies having the Burn affliction appliedd to them, namely three Ultimate Weapons: Enduring Legacy, Greg’s Reversed Fate, and Restored Relic. Each are very good weapons in the own right, and are great additions to Blair’s Kit.

Enduring Legacy – Craftsmanship

[Ammo = General Rounds]

• Base DMG Drop-off Distance decreases by (15%).

Hitting an enemy inflicts the unique ability, Quenching on that enemy. This effect decreases the target’s Fire Resistance by (10%) for a base of (0.4s). This effect stacks up to (30 times), and each stack decreases the target’s Fire Resistance by (1%).

Hitting an enemy inflicted with Burn deals Firearm. ATK + (5%) as damage on the target enemy.

On hit, increases Status Effect Trigger Rate by (10%) based on the attribute (Fire/Chill/Electric/Toxin).

Greg’s Reversed Fate – Shaping Destiny

[Ammo = Special Rounds]

• Base Hit Rate decreases by (20%).

Hitting an enemy with max Shield activates Bombardment with (150%) Firearm ATK in a (6m) area around the enemy’s location (3) times at a (30%) chance.

Hitting the target with Bombardment inflicts Burn with (30%) Firearm ATK damage on the target.

Restored Relic – Ancient Technique

[Ammo = High-Power Rounds]

• Base Fire Rate decreases by (30%).

Fires an Enemy-Seeking Bullet at a (60%) chance.

On hitting an enemy with this bullet, inflicts Burn that deals (10%) Firearm ATK as damage on the target enemy at a (10%) chance.

Modules

Veteran’s Tactics: [Arche Tech] (Socket Type=Malachite): When defeating an enemy, resets skill with the longest cooldown at a 9.5% chance.

Notes

• Only two Descendants have a Passive Skill (Blair and Freya) that benefited directly from weapons dealing a specific damage type (Poison and Fire respectively), and only they gain anything by inflicting enemies with a DoT
• While Freya can deal a flat 17% increase to Poison afflicted enemies, no Ultimate weapons [at the time] have any Poison synergy, or require additional mods to deal the respective damage types.
• The three weapons I chose were the only ones with the Burn status relating to a perk on the weapon, whether the weapon inflicted Burn itself or gained a related Fire-based affect by inflicting it.
• Blair is one of the Descendants that benefits the absolute most from a specific Reactor Type, “Burning Phase” (Fire and Dimension), as his only Skill that has Singular “Extinguish” is not affected by increases to your Singular Skill Power

Update

• No more Defense increase from your second ability, and it is sad to see that certain survivability utility go, but the trade off for Taste of Aggression and being better focused on raw firepower (pun intended) is well worth the loss if the enemies die before you do.
• Burn damage is now cut by about 54% across the board, which means it works better as a de-buff on enemies to assist Blair’s passive more so on being focused on a source of damage.
• The most massive buff of all was that your Skills now have a Range that can be extended by up to twice the original size.
• Cool thing to note though is how Reactors now show if the Skill Power Boost that each provide will actually apply to your Descendant while in the inventory screen. (Burning Phase is the best in the Beta for Blair and easily obtainable from Deslin the merchant in Albion).
• Not being able to send your Flame Zones in front of you and only being able to drop it at your feet is super painful for the ability.