Honkai: Star Rail is a game that requires you to have some form of a sustain unit in most cases. Now, there are two main categories of sustain: Shield characters, or, typically those on the path of “Preservation,” and healers, those (generally) of “Abundance.” In this tier-list, you’ll find all the best healers.
I would just like to mention that this is merely a comparison of what each healer has to offer. With that being said, let’s take a look at each rank and what it means!
S-Tier
S Tier: S tier healers are those who go above and beyond, providing more than just healing or debuff cleanses for the team. They usually offer some kind of unique effect that makes the game easier, be it energy recharge or superb break effect damage. There are only a few characters worthy of such titles. But who are they?
- Huohuo (100/100)
- Lingsha (95/100)
A-Tier
A Tier: An A tier character might offer something more potent than just healing. Say, Gallagher, who has great scalings, inflicts a debuff, and offers incredible versatility even at low eidolons. A Tier characters stand out from the rest because of how their heals scale or how frequently they heal, or even the fact that they give (admittedly weaker than S rank characters) buffs.
- Gallagher (85/100)
B-Tier
B tier: Some healers are only healers, and that’s okay! B tier is that; healers who are healers and don’t offer much of anything else outside of eidolons or small buffs. They’re average, or at least fall into the “meta,” category. Strong units, but nothing exceptionally overpowered or meta-defining.
- Luocha (75/100)
- Lynx (70/100)
C-Tier
C Tier: C rank is slightly below average, of which there may only really be one or two healers. Keep in mind, though, that all the healers on this list are completely viable to use at any stage of the game, it’s just some may get the job done easier than others and make the game plenty easier for you.
- Bailu (50/100).
- Natasha (45/100)
With all that out of the way, onto the in-depth list!
Huohuo (S Tier)
Huohuo is an exceptional healer in Honkai. Add into that her signature lightcone, and Huohuo becomes even better–so much so that her LC is considered the greatest for all abundance characters to run, or at least an alternative to any 5 star abundance’s signature.
Huohuo’s kit allows her to do all the things you could ever want from a healer and more. Most abundance characters do little more than heal, but Huohuo is truly built different. She provides energy when she ults while also giving allies an ATK buff–sometimes it’s easy to forget she isn’t a harmony unit because her buffs are so good. Now that we know she’s good, what other things make her so good?
What Makes Her S Tier?
- Debuff cleanse. She has a debuff cleanse in her kit, i.e. her skill, Talisman: Protection. This is also built into her talent, which makes it so Huohuo gains something called “Divine Provision,” that, when used to heal an ally, immediately dispels 1 debuff from them. Basically, she has a consistent buff-based heal that heals every turn.
- Heal scaling%. At max rank, Huohuo’s skill heals by an amount equal to 21% of her max HP, plus a flat 560. She heals adjacent targets equal to 16.8% of her max HP plus 448. These percentages are all found at level 10 of Huohuo’s skill. If you couldn’t tell already, these numbers are absolutely absurd.
- Energy regeneration for allies. Huohuo’s ultimate regenerates 20% of each character’s respective maximum energy. Harmony Trailblazer, for example, has an ultimate requiring 140 energy–with Huohuo’s ult, TB would recover 28 energy. Not as much as Tingyun, but considering her other benefits, I don’t think she needs as much energy regen as Tingyun.
- ATK buff on ultimate. Huohuo’s ultimate, Tail: Spiritual Domination gives a 40% increase to ATK for 2 turns. If your main DPS were to have 3000 flat ATK, Huohuo’s ultimate would increase their ATK to 4200 for 2 turns.
- A6 major trace or energy regen. Huohuo’s A6 trace allows her to regenerate 1 energy every single time her talent heals an ally. This means she’s regenerating energy just from having your other characters get their turns.
Lingsha (S Tier)
Lingsha is second to none in the support-DPS department. She’s incredible in all the right teams, though she specializes more-so in follow-up based comps and break effect comps, so you’ll be using her a lot alongside characters like Firefly and Feixiao, especially because she’s the only character in the game right now with a summon that deals damage despite being a healer.
She also has excellent energy income and a buff to break effect. However, that’s not all–her heals are big, chunky, and constant. It’s absurd how much healing and damage you get out of one unit. If you’ve got a Firefly team, this character, alongside Ruan Mei, Harmony Trailblazer, and Firefly, will be functioning as a dual-type character; sustainer and sub-dps. No, seriously–she can deal upwards of a million damage with her AOE abilities if you lead the right ability sequence.
What Makes Her S Tier?
- AoE healing. Lingsha’s kit offers AoE healing with her skill, Smoke and Splendor, and her ultimate, Dripping Mistscape. The healing scales very well, and although it’s not as much healing as Huohuo’s, it’s still quite consistent and good. The scaling at level 10 is 14% of Linghsa’s ATK plus 420 for all allies on her skill, 12% of ATK plus 360 with her ultimate. Her talent, which causes Fuyuan’s follow-up attacks, also heals 12% of Lingsha’s ATK 360.
- Highest toughness DMG healer in the game (higher than Gallagher).This is where most of her damage comes in. Because you’ll be running her in comps that rely on break effect (or FUA), this is where most of her damage will come in. As we’ve all seen with Gallagher + HTB + Ruan Mei comps where Gallagher does hundreds of thousands of damage with Superbreak, Lingsha can do about the same–reaching close to a million when the stars align. Assuming she, and her other supports, are built properly, of course.
- Only healer so far with FUA.This is why she synergizes so well with characters like Feixiao; she and Aventurine are really the only two sustain characters to synergize well with Feixiao, and Lingsha is the first healer to have follow-up attacks via her fuzzy friend, Fuyuan.
- Scales with ATK and Break Effect. This means that she’ll have less HP than other healers, but it doesn’t really matter due to the consistency of her heal and her ult uptime. Although she requires some intense investment, she’s more than worth the wait. And since she scales with break effect, you already know what that means; break, break, break! See her A2 Major Trace: “Increases this unit's ATK or Outgoing Healing by an amount equal to 25%/10% of Break Effect, up to a maximum increase of 50%/20%, respectively.”
- Debuff cleanse. Fuyuan’s follow-up attack cleanses 1 debuff from ALL allies. An AoE debuff cleanse is something you can never underestimate.
Gallagher (A Tier)
Gallagher is a 4 star unit in Honkai: Star Rail and by far the best 4 star abundance character in the game. He is a unit who outshines the vast majority of other 4 stars in terms of utility, functionality, and versatility. Although a break-centered unit, he still wants effect res and HP. Gallagher also applies two debuffs to enemies, which makes him a good addition to an Acheron team.
He’s also superb in other teams, like those consisting of Firefly if you lack Lingsha, and any break effect comps to be released in the future. 2.X has largely been a break effect meta. Even so, Gallagher has a kit that’ll ensure his viability long into the future.
What Makes Him A Tier?
- Best 4-star Healer in the game. Without a doubt, Gallagher outshines both Lynx and Natasha. The problem is that it’s not really a fair comparison for Lynx or Natasha. Especially Nat; although Natasha is the go-to early game healer, Gallagher takes the cake for being the king of 4 stars. His worth on any account shouldn’t be underestimated.
- Competitive + consistent healing output. Although not a 5 star, Gallagher can still get pretty close to 5 star levels of healing. The problem with his skill is that it heals off a flat number, that being 1600 at level 10. HIs ultimate inflicts the besotted state on the enemy, which makes it so they take more break damage and heals units attacking this target for 640 health.
- Very high toughness dmg, thus making him an incredibly useful unit for any break comp. Gallagher’s debuff also makes them take more break damage, so why not, right?
- Team-wide break dmg increase by increasing their break dmg dealt to enemies inflicted with the besotted state by 12%.
- A4 action advance. Gallagher’s A4 major trace, Organic Yeast, makes it so that his action is advanced 100% upon using his ultimate. His A6 also makes it so when he uses Nectar Blitz to attack Besotted enemies, he heals all his teammates.
- 2 debuffs to work with, these being Besotted and Nectar Blitz’s attack.
- Scales with eidolons, but not required to work. Gallagher is one of those units that’s just too good to flop. His eidolons are great, although not a matter of life or death. E6 is great; his eidolons are the perfect eidolons, acting like the cherry on top of a delightful sundae.
Luocha (B Tier)
Luocha is one of those healers that just heals and does his job pretty good. He’s nothing amazing, but he’s nothing terrible, either; and if you have eidolons of him, he’s not too bad, either. Although honestly, I personally wouldn’t recommend getting eidolons for him. At the very least, Luocha will always be a solid healer. However, he falls flat of characters like Lingsha and Huohuo even still.
He’s good, practically immune to CC, and can even remove buffs from the enemy. On top of that, he even has debuff cleanse with his A2 major trace. He’s easy to work with, always good, and never going to go out of style (although he may be outshone by other units in the future).
What Makes Him B Tier?
- Excellent healing output with his skill and passive. His heals scale with his ATK, however. A quick example: After using his skill, Luocha immediately restores the target’s HP equal to 60% of his ATK + 800.
- AoE dispel on his Ultimate to remove enemy buffs. With his ultimate ability, Luocha can remove 1 buff from all enemies.
- Virtually immune to crowd-control due to his A6 major trace, which increases his chance to resist crowd control by 70%.
- Excellent SP economy. Luocha doesn’t always need to use his skill–for example, it has a passive ability that makes it so when any ally's HP percentage drops to 50% or lower, Luocha's Skill will immediately be triggered and applied to this ally for one time (without consuming Skill Points). This effect can be triggered again after 2 turns.
- He’s the OG Goat. While Luocha might not be the best healer, he’s reliable and built to last. His healing uptime is great, he’s able to remove debuffs from allies AND buffs from enemies. While he may not be able to increase the damage of your teammates like Huohuo can, he’s still capable of offering the most heals.
Lynx (B Tier)
Lynx is a staple healer. She’s not as good as Gallagher, but she’s still a wonderful unit that has a niche in Destruction team comps, capable of making characters following the Destruction path more likely to be targeted. She has consistent AoE healing with her ultimate, great synergy with units like Yunli (especially if you don’t have her lightcone) and Clara. She’s also (potentially) SP positive at high eidolons and with her A6 major trace. That out of the way, let’s talk about what makes her so dang good.
What Makes Her B Tier?
- Strong consistent AoE healing with her ultimate. Her healing amount is equal to 13.5% of Lynx’s max HP + 360.
- Great synergy with Yunli that improves performance. Lynx’s skill makes it so that if the target ally is a character on the Path of Destruction or Preservation, the chance of them being attacked by enemies will greatly increase. Similarly to her ultimate, it heals 12% of Lynx’s max HP + 320.
- Potential to be very SP positive with A6 major trace, which extends the duration of the continuous healing effect granted by Talent for 1 turn.
- AoE Cleanse on ultimate that removes a debuff from ALL allies, and an A4 major trace that increase crowd control resistance by 35%.
- Very durable. Because she scales with HP, Lynx is an incredibly durable choice for a healer. She’s a wonderful addition to any team, especially if you’re looking for a partner to run alongside Yunli. Abundance characters generally have lower aggro, which makes them less likely to be targeted; that, with Yunli (if you have her LC, she’s more likely to be targeted) and Lynx’s E bonus, makes it so Yunli is practically guaranteed to take the hit.
- Stronger than Natasha and easier to get E6 than 5 stars. She’s easy to acquire, easy to use, and easy to build. So, what’re you waiting for?
Bailu (C Tier)
Once upon a time, Bailu was the only 5 star abundance in the game. Just for a short while, of course, before Luocha came out and shook things up. These old bones are weary, and Bailu has only gotten worse and worse as time has passed. Generally, standard banner characters aren’t very immune to power-creep. They are, after all, standard banner characters.
What Makes Her C Tier?
- Consistent healing + damage reduction. Bailu’s talent, Gourdful of Elixir, makes it so that after an ally with Invigoration is hit, restores the ally's HP for 5.4% of Bailu's Max HP plus 144. This effect can trigger 2 times. On top of that, her A6 major trace makes it so allies with Invigoration take 10% less damage.
- Has a revive mechanic. Bailu’s talent also enables her to revive an ally, restoring health equal to 18% of Bailu’s max HP + 480 HP.
- Good emergency healing. She has a consistent ultimate uptime, plus healing that heals allies who have taken damage.
- Largely SP positive. Because Invigoration lasts for up to 2 turns and she’s able to get her ultimate consistently, plus her skill bounces to different allies, she’s able to offer healing to the entire team without needing to expend many resources.
- Inconsistent heal bounce mechanic. This one is actually frustrating. Bailu’s bounce is very inconsistent; it bounces to 2 random allies after the first one (which is guaranteed). Actually, you probably won’t be using this incredibly consistently–you’ll want to make more use out of Bailu’s ultimate than skill.
Natasha (C Tier)
There’s not much to be said about Natasha, really. She’s the GOAT of early game (and the GOAT of early HSR, to be quite honest), but beyond that, she falls off late into the game when you’re able to gain access to other healers. As sad as it is, she really isn’t as good as other healers once you’ve unlocked the late game–although her ult uptime is good, she’s really not worth the struggle of using.
What Makes Her C Tier?
- Free healer. She’s good because you get her for free. Moving on, folks.
- Talent allows you to ult like it’s a panic button. Her talent is this: when healing allies with HP percentage at 30% or lower, increases Natasha's Outgoing Healing by 50%. This effect also works on continuous healing..
- Lowest cost Ultimate, which enables players to make use of her low ult requirements by spamming ultimates.
- Carries you through early game. And that’s why she’s the GOAT. You get a healer for free, and she’s able to put the whole team on her back and carry you through the mid-game, from early to late. She really is one of the OGs.
- Exceptionally low healing output. Unfortunately, Natasha’s scalings are absurdly low, and she’s just…not great. Her skill restores a single ally for 10.5% of Natasha's Max HP plus 280. Restores the ally for another 7.2% of Natasha's Max HP plus 192 at the beginning of each turn for 2 turn(s).
- Worst healer in the game. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s harsh, but it’s true. As of right now, Natasha is the worst healer in the game; her scalings just don’t match up to the others, and she’s nowhere near as viable as her 4 star counterparts, Lynx and Gallagher.
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