The Light of Foliar Incision is Alhaihtam’s signature and BIS weapon in Genshin Impact Version 3.4. It’s currently on the weapon banner, featured alongside the tried and tested Primordial Jade Winged-Spear which is Xiao’s signature weapon. Both of them are excellent 5-star DPS weapons but how does Light of Foliar Incision compare to the other DPS swords like the Primordial Jade Cutter, Mistsplitter Reforged or Haran Geppaku Futsu- read on to find out.
Value of Light of Foliar Incision as a DPS Sword in Genshin Impact 3.4
Light of Foliar Incision (or LoFI) has a Base ATK of 542 at level 90 which is lower than the average Base ATK of other 5-star swords. But it makes up for it through its massive 88.2% CRIT DMG secondary stat. Stat-wise, this sword is comparable to the Primordial Jade Cutter which also has a Base ATK of 542 and a secondary CRIT Rate stat of 44.1%. Here, the 44.1% CRIT Rate is equivalent to 88.2% CRIT DMG.
While we have already established that this weapon is a great stat stick for any DPS character to balance out your CRIT ratios, we have yet to look at LoFI’s passive. Here’s where things get interesting. LoFI’s passive only procs on sword users that can infuse their weapon with elemental damage. By that virtue alone, half of the sword candidates are pulled from its ideal pool of characters to use it on.
Without considering external infusions through Candace, C6 Bennett or Chongyun, the only sword users that can infuse their own normal, charged or plunging attacks with elemental damage are as follows:
Of these, we also have to consider the characters that actually have any use of Elemental Mastery in their kits. Since Ayaka can do without it owing to her being a Cryo character who already does great with Freeze, we have only 4 sword characters left- one of them being a C6 Kazuha which only whales can afford.
The weapon could thus be best used on Alhaitham (of course, since this is his BIS signature weapon). It can also be good on Keqing and decent on Ayato. Ayato with considerable EM could use this weapon in Bloom teams. This weapon could also be good on an Aggravate Keqing build though she will need more on-field time to do her autos and normals. If you have a C6 Kazuha, this would also be good on an Anemo DPS Kazuha build.
Thus, at the end of the day, the weapon isn’t as flexible as the Primordial Jade Cutter or the Mistsplitter Reforged which have more universal passive effects. If you already have either of those weapons, you don’t need to get this for anyone- not for Alhaitham either as the 5-star alternatives come pretty close in terms of his DPS ceiling. Then again, there’s a high chance that more characters will come who will better be able to use LoFI’s passive in which case getting it now would be a good investment- but no guarantees.
