There’s always something enticing about heroes and characters that deliver pure, unfiltered aggression, especially if they have self-sustaining tools to continue the onslaught. Fortunately,The First Descendantincludes that archetype by introducing Blair, a DPS descendant who controls the flames unlike anyone else. Almost all of his abilities center around one mechanic, Burn, an incredibly useful damage-over-time (or DoT) element that lets you handle several enemies at once.
With the correct positioning, Blair can often ignite multiple targets thanks to his AoE attacks, resulting in effortless arena-clearing. Of course, being a damage-heavy character means several underlying requirements, which is why knowing the right build and playstyle can save you from being stranded in dangerous circumstances.
How To Unlock Blair
Blair is on the easier side when it comes to unlocking descendants.You don’t need to unlock Hard Mode or a specific descendantbeforehand to access the required missions and materials.
Furthermore, aside from the Blair Code, none of the requirements involveresearch time, gold, crafting costs, or getting Amorphous Materials, removing the need to loot Resource Boxes and similar side quests. The drop rates aren’t too bad either, witheach item having a 20 percent drop chance.
However, you’re limited to farming a single mission for each item, which may only drop at the end. Thus,it’s better to wait until you reach the maximum leveland complete the main story so you can breeze through the missions.
16 hours
[Normal] White-night Gulch - Mystery’s End [20% chance]
[Normal] White-night Gulch - Bio-Lab [20% chance]
[Normal] Hagios - The Haven [20% chance]
Blair Abilities Explained
Pitmaster
When attacking enemies inflicted with Burn, increases Skill Critical Hit Damage. Increases Skill Critical Hit Rate based on the number of Flame Zones created on the battlefield.
Pitmaster is arguablyone of the most rewarding passive abilities for someone like Blair, triggering a decent follow-up buff with any skill. It grants a ten percent damage boost to Skill Crit Hits on enemies affected by Burn and increases Crit Hit Rate against all enemies,reaching up to 25 percent if you’ve set five or more Zones.
This ability isthe sole reason Blair is so lethal against elite enemies and bosses. It pairs wonderfully with Burn Taste and Deadly Cuisine to deal massive damage output, usuallyexceeding meta-DPS descendants like Gley.
Using Extinguish to recover MP will snuff out all the active Flame Zones, removing your Crit Hit Rate stacks completely!
Blaze Up
Spews fire and creates a Flame Zone on the ground. Enemies standing in the Flame Zone receive continuous damage and are inflicted with Burn.
19.0
12 seconds
3
15 seconds
5 seconds (Burn)
Skill Power x 30.3%
Skill Power x 25.3% (Burn)
1 second
3.5 meters
250%
Affects range
N/A
Affects stacks
Blaze Up is going to be your go-to ability for most combos, including the MP recovery with Extinguish and crit bonuses with Pitmaster. You cancreate up to three static Flame Zones around you, each lasting 15 seconds and inflicting continuous damage alongside Burn on all enemies within its radius. Moreover,the Burn effect lasts five seconds when inflicted enemies move out of the Zone.
Each Flame Zone’s cooldown is shorter than its duration, soyou’ll typically have all three Zones active at once. You can even increase their effective range with Expansion Mods, but the real challenge is knowing where to place them sinceyou can’t cancel them when spawned.
You can increase the maximum stacks with a Transcendent Mod.
Extinguish
Recovers MP based on the number of Flame Zones created on the battlefield, and grants Taste of Aggression on recovery. Flame Zones summoned earlier are retrieved first.
28 seconds
5
6.0%
On top of lengthy cooldowns,Blair consumes a ton of MP to use his skills, so Extinguish serves as a way to mitigate that fact. You can recover up to 40 percent of your maximum MP if you’ve placed at least five Flame Zones, and thepercentage-based rebound is another reason you should invest in MP when curating a build.
You’ll also receivea buff on your Skill Power when using this ability. Similar to MP recovery, it stacks with how many Flame Zones you actively have in the field, going up to a 30 percent increase with five Zones or more.Youshould always trigger Extinguish after using Deadly Cuisine and Blaze Up.
Burn Taste
Fires a flame forward. Enemies hit by the flame take continuous damage and are inflicted with Burn.
35.0
30 seconds
4.5 seconds
Skill Power x 146.4%
0.3 seconds
1 second (Burn)
3 meters
Burn Tasteacts as Blair’s escape tool during clutch scenarios. Although it’s his only offense-based ability that doesn’t create Flame Zones, it has enough vertical range to target multiple enemies. Additionally, the follow-up continuous damage is four times more than a Zone, so it’s greatas a close-range attack against tankier foes.
Deadly Cuisine
Fires a Giant Fireball forward. On explosion, the Giant Fireball deals Burst damage to nearby enemies and divides into multiple Small Fireballs, which create additional explosions.
Small Fireballs deal Burst damage and inflict Burn on nearby enemies, and create Flame Zones.
60.0
120 seconds
15 seconds (Flame Zone)
Skill Power x 386.0% (Giant Fireball)
Skill Power x 584.9% (Small Fireball)
Skill Power x 30.3% (Flame Zone)
6 meters (Giant Fireball)
3.5 meters (Small Fireball)
3.5 meters (Flame Zone)
Affects damage output
While all of Blair’s offensive abilities have decent AoE,Deadly Cuisine takes it a step further by adding tremendous damage output. As the text states, it launches a giant fireball onto enemies; when it directly hits them or touches the ground,it deals Burst DMG and splits into three smaller fireballs, which bounce off the original point of impact and cause more Burst DMG.
Each smaller fireballinflicts Burn and creates one Flame Zone, delivering the same continuous damage as Blaze Up. You can alsochain this with said ability to spawn up to six Flame Zones, letting you gain the maximum possible buffs with Pitmaster and recover the maximum possible MP with Extinguish.
If you’re willing to sacrifice Flame Zones for significantly higher damage output, you can equip the Truly Deadly Cuisine Mod. It immensely raises the Giant Fireball’s damage, but completely removes the follow-up smaller fireballs.
How To Play Blair
There’s no denying that Blair isan obvious frontliner descendant, using his wide AoE attacks to control the field and apply equal pressure across the encounter.He’s essentially a mob clearer whose DoT is effective enoughto handle larger threats, and you may use that to your advantage and assist support-based teammates when needed.
The best way to use him is to lure in enemies, group them, and then trigger your skills.Try to spam your attacks and spawn in as many Flame Zones as you canto get the highest possible crit rate while having the option to recover a boatload of MP.
However, the main restriction here is Blair’s cooldowns, so play around those and save your Burn Taste for clutch scenarios.
Ideal Stats
HP, Max MP
This build targets Blair’s core weakness, cooldown, and goes all-in with Backdraft to encourage MP recovery. Every time you absorb a Flame Zone,you gain a colossal boost to your Weakspot DMG and Firearm ATKinstead of Skill Power. Combined with Short Focus, this trade-off is more than fair since itsynergizes extraordinarily well with guns that have a poor base crit rate.
Beyond that, you have mods like Nimble Fingers, Multitalented, Skill Extension, Maximize Duration, and MP Conversion, to cover Blair’s skill cooldowns,especially the primary skill in this build, Extinguish.
The game plan is simple:lower your dependency on skill for damage output, and instead use them as power-ups for your guns via Extinguish. This does meanyou’ll have to farm top-tier weapons to dump Backdraft’s buffs into, but compared to the alternative,you have a lot more options and flexibilitywhen the game enters a gun meta.
You will require a high maximum MP to viably use the MP Conversion module.
