March 7th Guide

Updated for Version 1.5

Note that the information given may change if new discoveries are made. More extensive testing is in progress.

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Introduction

March 7th is a 4★ character obtained for free at the beginning of Honkai: Star Rail. She is an Ice Preservation unit that focuses on single-target Shields and AoE Freeze. She is capable of providing team utility by directing enemy aggression, and contributing to Toughness damage with her Ultimate and follow-up attacks.

Infographic

Character Overview

March’s kit revolves around shielding a party member, activating follow-up attacks, and providing Crowd Control using her Ultimate as it comes up or when trying to delay the enemies’ action.

March’s Shields increase the aggro level of any character that currently has the Shield while their HP is at or above 30%. The aggro increase of the shield is determined on cast, and will not be removed if the ally drops below 30% HP while shielded. This remains true even if the Shield’s durability is about to run out, so be careful of imminent powerful attacks.

March’s Ultimate has a chance to Freeze each enemy hit. When fighting Elites or Bosses that take consecutive turns, March is able to use her Ultimate between those turns to Freeze the enemy.

Playstyles

Single-Target Tank

The default March 7th playstyle where she Shields herself to draw enemy attacks towards herself. Doing this lets March focus on building DEF, which both increases her Shield strength and mitigates some damage that the Shield takes. In scenarios where an ally is at low HP and your healer’s next turn is after an enemy, March can use her Shield to stall. You will need to judge the best time to apply or refresh March’s Skill. 

With March’s E6 and an aggro-increasing Light Cone such as Landau’s Choice, it’s possible for her to solo sustain against high level MoC enemies that have mostly single-target attacks.

This playstyle mainly focuses on building DEF% over Effect Hit Rate and Energy Regeneration Rate, and as such March’s Ultimate is much less likely to Freeze enemies and will have lower uptime. Her Ultimate is best used whenever available for extra Toughness damage, and is generally negligible.

Freeze Crowd Controller

This playstyle focuses on maintaining a fast Ultimate rotation to Freeze enemies often, opting for Effect Hit Rate and Energy Regeneration Rate over DEF. Freezing enemies with a barrage of Ultimates will delay their turns and give your team more room to breathe. 

March is able to get her Ultimate back relatively quickly, often in around 3 turns with some enemy hits. For further details, linked below are some Energy requirements needed for March to get her Ultimate up quickly. As of Version 1.5, none of these requirements require the Sprightly Vonwacq or Penacony, Land of Dreams Planar sets.

March’s Energy Requirement

The Freeze playstyle works extremely well with the Path of Remembrance in the Simulated Universe, and is able to activate Remembrance Blessings on multiple enemies at once. March unfortunately requires 120% EHR to guarantee Freeze on most non-Boss enemies, so every little bit from Relic substats can count. With this playstyle, there are two different objectives to play towards as the scenario calls for.

Sniping Elite/Boss Turns

Playing towards this goal requires careful thought on when to use March’s Ultimate.

This objective aims to Freeze Elite and Boss enemies directly after they perform their first action, but before they start their second or third action, to prevent hard hitting attacks from occurring at all. Doing this can potentially cancel dangerous enemy attacks that can save several Skill Points worth of healing and shielding for your entire party.

Using March’s Ultimate ASAP

When focusing on this objective, March should always use her Ultimate as soon as it’s available.

Using her Ultimate as soon as possible allows for March’s next Ultimate to begin charging sooner. This subgoal is ideal for dealing with large amounts of enemies and provides more time for your team to whittle the enemy down. Alternatively, this subgoal also works well in the Simulated Universe with the Path of Remembrance to improve Blessing uptime.

Hybrid

A mixture of both the above playstyles requires heavy stat investment for March. She needs both DEF% and Effect Hit Rate in order to make this build effective, and will require finding a balance between having a bulky Shield and consistently triggering her Ultimate’s Freeze so she can act as both a tank and a debuffer. 

If she can achieve the stat requirements needed to act as both a tank and debuffer, March can provide extra utility by batterying SP for her team. 

Traces

Note: Trace levels shown are 1/10/12 (Basic ATK 1/6/7).

Trace Priority

March’s main value comes from her Shields, Toughness damage, and ability to Freeze enemies. 

The base chance to Freeze on March’s Ultimate unfortunately does not scale with Trace level, so there is little incentive to level it outside of a small damage increase.

If you want to increase her personal damage, it’s recommended to level March’s Talent and Ultimate first, the latter of which can hit several enemies in one turn.

Eidolons

Build

Light Cones

Moment of Victory	Provides the largest base DEF and DEF% bonus of all the current Preservation Light Cones and an EHR bonus to boost March’s Freeze chance on her Ultimate. The increased aggro pulls even more pressure off her team.
Day One of My New Life	Provides 16–24% bonus DEF% as well as 8–12% Elemental DMG RES for her entire team. A solid Light Cone that increases the entire team’s survivability in fights with a lot of AoE, and mitigates some damage from any attacks that don’t target March’s Shield.
Landau’s Choice	While this Light Cone does not give much DEF, the large amount of DMG Reduction and increased aggro pair well with March’s Shield, significantly increasing the damage it can take.
Amber	A competitive option that provides 16-32% DEF with an additional 16-32% when March’s HP is lower than 50%. Although its second passive will be difficult to trigger for March as she wants to stay above 50% HP, it is still a good Light Cone to use that enhances her Shields.
Defense	While offering the least DEF of any Preservation Light Cone, Defense offers access to potent self healing whenever March uses her Ultimate. As March’s Shield loses its aggro increase when the recipient of the Shield drops below 30% HP, Defense can help to keep the aggro active on March in longer fights.

Relics

Relic Sets

4-Pc Knight of Purity Palace	March’s best general purpose set for flexible Shield usage. The set provides additional DEF% and amplifies her Shield strength, allowing anyone on her team to benefit from the additional Shield durability.
4-Pc Guard of Wuthering Snow	A secondary option that is not as optimal for shield strength as 4-Pc Knight of Purity Palace, losing out valuable DEF and Shield strength in exchange for DMG Reduction. Guard of Wuthering Snow will heal March 7th once she drops below 50% HP. When shielding herself, her increased aggro from the Shield will stop functioning should she drop below 30% HP. Guard of Wuthering Snow allows her to recover from dipping below the aggro threshold and continue functioning as a tank. This set encourages March to refresh her Shield on herself only after it completely drains to fully utilize the 4-Pc Set Effect.
2-Pc Knight / 2-Pc Messenger	The SPD bonus from 2-Pc Messenger is a viable alternative to her 4-Pc recommended sets, but not worth losing the additional 20% Shield strength from 4-Pc Knight of Purity Palace if possible.

Planar Ornaments

Belobog of the Architects	A standard Planar set that is usable in all of her playstyles. However, the Freeze build will be more likely to have enough EHR to reach the threshold for the bonus DEF%.
Broken Keel	A good set for the Single-Target Tank playstyle. March generally Shields herself and will draw enemy aggro, which makes her more prone to receiving debuffs. This means she can benefit from the bonus Effect RES while her team benefits from the bonus CRIT DMG. With upgraded Traces, March needs about three Effect RES substats to activate the CRIT DMG effect of Broken Keel.
Fleet of the Ageless	Similar to Broken Keel, this set increases March’s survivability, while also providing a small ATK% buff for her team.
Penacony, Land of Dreams	Gives March a little bit of ERR% along with a DMG% buff to all allies who are the same Type as her.

Stats

Body	Boots	Sphere	Rope
DEF% / EHR	SPD > DEF%	DEF%	DEF% / ERR%

Substats

SPD > Effect Hit Rate (above 50% with Belobog) = DEF% > Flat DEF

Tank vs. Freeze vs. Hybrid Build

A Tank build would solely focus on DEF% for its main stats, as its only goal is to make March’s Shield bulky enough to withstand heavy attacks. 

For a Freeze build, prioritize Effect Hit Rate and Energy Regeneration Rate main stats. This would allow March to cast her Ultimate more often and with a higher chance to trigger Freeze. 

A Hybrid build would want March on an Effect Hit Rate Body along with a DEF% Sphere and Rope, making her Shield moderately tanky while still maintaining a good chance to Freeze. Optimally, a Hybrid build would want a large amount of DEF with above 50% Effect Hit Rate, which would need a large amount of investment to achieve.

Why SPD?

When entering battle, March wants to act before the enemies to get her Shield up, hence why she needs a good amount of SPD. For March, there is a misconception on building SPD as it makes her Shield’s turn limit deplete much faster if she Shields herself. However, with enough DEF, her Shield can withstand enough damage that the faster depletion does not matter. In addition, March can refresh her follow-up attack more often and will get her Ultimate much faster since she gets more turns in general.

How much Effect Hit Rate for consistent Freezes?

March requires an infeasible 120% EHR to guarantee her Ultimate’s Freeze on enemies with 30% Effect RES. This would require all Relic substats to have rolled into Effect Hit Rate, which would hinder the opportunity to invest in other, more usable stats. Simply getting her Effect Hit Rate as high as possible would be better, and if equipped with the Belobog of the Architects Planar set, she needs at least 50% to trigger its passive.

Character Comparisons

Gepard

Gepard and March are both Ice Preservation units who provide Shields and can Freeze enemies, but have enough differences to fulfill different roles in a team. March uses her Skill to apply a stronger Shield that also increases the aggro for a single ally, while Gepard’s comparatively weaker shields come from his Ultimate and are applied to all allies. Gepard’s Freeze is tied to his Skill on a single target, while March’s Freeze is AoE and on her Ultimate. Taking into account March’s A6, they share the same Freeze base chance of 65% at E0. March is also capable of dealing more Toughness damage than Gepard, with her able to deal up to 6 instances of Toughness damage per turn through her Basic ATK, Talent, and Ultimate. However, Gepard is generally much stronger in terms of providing sustain for the entire party.

Fire Trailblazer

March and Fire Trailblazer both fulfill the role of drawing enemy aggro for their team. They can also both provide Shields for their team, although Fire Trailblazer’s Shield is much smaller compared to March’s. Fire Trailblazer’s Taunt and self-damage mitigation Skill serves a similar role to March shielding herself, even to the extent of boosting their Toughness damage from getting hit. The main difference between these two units are their Types, and Fire Trailblazer’s reliance on their Taunt debuff not getting resisted.

Notable Synergies

Damage Dealers

Arlan	Arlan benefits from being low HP while not dying outright, but doesn’t have the same level of self-sustain that Blade does. To offset this, March’s Shield can protect Arlan fairly comfortably while he does damage.
Yanqing	March’s Shield can protect Yanqing from losing Soulsteel Sync, but only if March’s Skill and DEF are properly invested into. It’s important to remember that March’s Shield increases the ally’s aggro. If March’s Shield is too weak, she may end up needing to consume SP every turn to ensure Yanqing doesn’t take damage.
Clara	Through The Power of Cuteness, March is able to increase Clara’s aggro to increase the chance of activating Clara’s Counters. This synergy works noticeably well with Simulated Universe Elation Blessings, with both March and Clara able to get multiple activations of Elation Blessings in one turn. However, March can find it difficult to solo sustain Clara when dealing with high damaging enemies.

Secondary Sustain

Gepard	Running two Ice Preservation units seems redundant, but as covered in the Character Comparisons section, the two have enough differences in their kits to have surprisingly good synergy and cover each others’ weak points. Gepard provides teamwide Shields without using Skill Points, and March is able to activate her Talent for free and Freeze enemies with her Ultimate more often.
Fire Trailblazer	Fire Trailblazer can also be used with March, since the two can cover each others’ weak points. Fire Trailblazer can provide teamwide Shields without using Skill Points, which results in March being able to activate her Talent and Freeze enemies with her Ultimate more often. Moreover, the additional aggro from March’s Shield allows Fire Trailblazer to be targeted more often, making it easy to get stacks for their enhanced Basic ATK.
Abundance Units	March can provide Shields, delay enemies with Freeze, or generate SP, all of which gives the Abundance unit more freedom to heal. March’s added utility can be vital against enemies with AoE attacks since she helps cover for the single-target nature that some healers have on their Skill.

Notable Anti-Synergies

Blade

Unlike Clara, Blade benefits from direct changes in his HP instead of simply getting hit by enemies. Because of this, March’s Shield actually slows down Blade’s Talent stacks since enemies can’t damage his HP through March’s Shield.

Dan Heng • Imbibitor Lunae

Imbibitor Lunae paired with March can either be SP positive or SP negative depending on the scenario. If March is the only sustain unit, the team would be SP negative; Imbibitor Lunae needs to use up to 3 SP to cast Fulgurant Leap, and March needs to cast her Skill on herself or a unit who needs either cleansing from a debuff or Energy from enemy hits. If March is paired with another sustain unit, the team would be SP positive, as March’s role can include being a dedicated SP battery. However, running two sustain units can hinder Imbibitor Lunae’s damage output.

Teams

Dual Sustain

March can be paired with an Abundance unit or another shielder in a dual sustain team.

As covered in Character Comparisons and Notable Synergies, Fire Trailblazer and Gepard have synergies with March because they cover each others’ weak points, while having an Abundance unit allows for precautionary healing as March’s aggro increase is not always guaranteed to work.

March can be more SP positive in the Dual Sustain team than in the Solo Defense team.

Example Teams

F2P

A simple team that consists of units that you can acquire for free. This starting team offers sufficient damage that can clear content with the proper investment.

Freeze to Play

Consists of three 5★ units. March can act as the SP battery or provide utility depending on the amount of SP needed for Bronya and Seele. March paired with Gepard allows them to setup consistent Freeze triggers since Gepard’s Freeze is in line with his Skill while March’s Freeze is from her Ultimate. On top of this, March can place her Skill on Gepard so he can tank damage, mitigating Seele’s quicker Shield depletion when she is Advanced Forward by Bronya.

SP Battery

March can cast one Skill on either herself or on Imbibitor Lunae and use her Basic ATK until the Shield is gone. This SP-positive team provides the SP needed for Imbibitor Lunae to cast Fulgurant Leap with Tingyun, Luocha, and March using their Basic ATKs until Tingyun and March cast their Skills again.

Solo Defense

If sustainability is not a problem and more damage is needed, March can be used as the solo sustain unit in the team. However, the Single-Target Tank or Freeze Crowd Controller builds for March are usually preferred compared to the Hybrid build. Keep in mind that March as Solo Defense will likely be SP negative.

Example Teams

Hypercarry

Tingyun and Pela are SP-positive units and are needed to support Seele and March’s SP usage.

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This team focuses on providing enormous amounts of delays on the enemy with Welt and Yukong being able to trigger Imprisonment while Pela and March can trigger Freeze. However, triggering Freeze tends to deplete debuff duration much faster, so care should be taken with the timing of Welt and March’s Ultimates so one does not interfere with the other.

Dual Damage Dealer

This team is SP efficient as both Pela and Arlan’s SP positivity helps to support March and Qingque’s frequent Skill usage.

DoT Team

March’s Shield and ability to Freeze will increase team survivability while Kafka triggers Sampo and Guinaifen’s DoTs to deal significant damage. March also increases the frequency of DoT procs with her Freeze.

Credits

References

March’s Energy Requirement by Akane

Changelog

• 19th December 2023 – Published for v1.5