In this Honkai Star Rail March 7th Build Guide we’re going to be covering the defensive support March 7th Build. This build focuses on shielding herself and her teammates, to protect them from damage, as well as enabling certain characters that rely on shields to function.

Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build Guide

March 7th is a guaranteed character that everybody gets for free. She’s an Ice Bow user from the Perseverance Path that currently has the strongest single target shield in game. Not only that, but her shield is more accessible, and has an additional taunt. And combined with her ability to freeze enemies, and cleanse debuffs from allies, she is the ultimate defensive support from early to endgame. Not to mention her counter ability, that helps her increase the team’s damage and shield breaking capability.

Overall, March 7th is a stable character in a lot of team compositions, and usually one of best characters to build in game. She has slightly lower stats than her rivals in the Perseverance path, but she makes up for it with her skills. She puts a single target shield on one ally or herself, with every cast of her skill. And after her 4th Ascension, her shield lasts for 4 turns. So you can virtually put shields on all of your team, once per turn.

In practice though, you only need the shield on a couple characters, as long as you manage enemy aggro properly. Fortunately, aggro management comes with the shield in one package. So enemies are more likely to attack the character with the shield on, allowing you better control of combat.

March 7th Build Guide – Active Skills

Skill leveling Priority: Skill >> Ultimate > Talent > Basic Attack

Frigid Cold Arrow – Normal Attack

March 7th will use her normal attack quite often, because we rarely need new shields every single turn. Beside that, we don’t need March 7th to spend a lot of skill points, but rather generate them. We can play her as a natural unit, using her skill once, and her normal attack once. This keeps the overall points she spends and generate equal.

For this Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build, the damage of normal attacks is nothing exceptional if we build her into full defense for shield strength. However, it can still help break Toughness on enemies weak to Ice, though March will hit enemies more often with her counter (from Talent), which can hit hit twice per turn. So we give normal attack the lowest priority in terms of leveling up to save up for more important skills.

The Power of Cuteness – Skill

The shield comes from March 7th’s skill, and she can cast this on any ally, or herself. This shield has highest numerical values with up to 61% of March 7th’s DEF plus 846 flat shield strength at the highest level. It also lasts three turns by default, and 4 turns after 4th Ascension. So it can be very tanky, with high uptime.

The first use on the first turn determines who will get the most aggro, so you control the flow of battle. That’s especially easy if you have high enough Speed, to shield up before any enemies attack. You can use it on March 7th herself, and play a tank. Or use on your main DPS, to grant them more energy, because characters gain energy when they are hit by an enemy.

There’s also a special case for specific characters, such as Clara and Yanqing. Clara needs to be hit to deal more damage, so March 7th’s shield can help her get aggro and protection. On the other hand, Yanqing needs to not get damaged by enemies to maintain his high damage, and March 7th helps him as well. Yanqing can get hit safely, as long as that hit doesn’t deal damage. So again, March 7th’s shield is the solution.

As mentioned before, we don’t use the shield every turn, and we prefer alternating between skills and normal attacks.

Girl Power – Talent

Girl Power is a very simple but effective talent, where March 7th will counter attack any enemy that attacks a shielded ally. And by shielded ally, it means any shielded ally, no matter where that shield comes from. That makes March 7th a decent pick, even if you have another shielder (such as Fire Trailblazer) in some cases. Not only that, but it also triggers on any shield you get from blessings in the Simulated Universe.

The talent can counter attack twice per turn, and deals the same damage as normal damage. It helps her generate more energy, to cast her ultimate more often, as well as breaking Toughness of enemies weak to Ice. So overall, a very nice tool in her kit.

Glacial Cascade – Ultimate

At the cost of 120 energy, March 7th cast an AOE Ice ultimate that covers the entire field. With 50% chance to freeze enemies by default, which rises to 65% chance at 6th Ascension. This chance can rise even more with stats from gear or Light Cones.

Frozen enemies will further receive one instance of damage in the next turn. It’s a very good was way to force enemies to skip a turn, and also break their Toughness. March 7th will need a few turns to regain her full energy, but if she gets enemies to hit shielded characters every turn, it will increase her energy generation. So in a team with Gepard or Fire Trailblazer, March 7th will use her ultimate more often.

Freezing Beauty – Technique

Technique is a skill that a character can use outside combat, mainly to initiate combat with a big advantage. It has  a maximum amount of charges, so you can’t use in every encounter. March 7th’s Technique directly attacks enemies, so it’s used to initiate combat.

Upon start, she will attack all enemies with Ice weakness, doing damage to their Toughness. It also freeze a random enemy, causing it to skip its very first turn. Because of this, I prefer to use the Technique of March 7th over the Technique of DPS characters.

Honkai: Star Rail March 7th – Traces

Traces are passive skills that characters unlock after leveling, and reaching certain ascension levels. You need to farm and spend resources to unlock Traces, but they give powerful enchantments to your character. For a defensive support such as March 7th, you want to prioritize DEF stats from minor Traces, and all major Traces; since major Traces all give very important utility.

Purify – Major – Ascension 2

This Trace is a very decisive part of March 7th’s kit, because it enables the skill to cleanse 1 debuff from an ally. There are a lot of debuffs enemies can inflict in Honkai: Star Rail, such as Freeze, Burn, Shock, Bleed, Wind Shear, Imprisonment, and Entanglement. And while some merely do more damage, like burn and shock, others can cause your characters to skip a turn, such as Imprisonment and Freeze.

So adding a cleanse to your team is a great defensive utility. Note that Natasha has a similar cleanse, which is reactive. Using both March 7th and Natasha in same team is not bad, because they can cleanse each other in case either of them gets Frozen or Imprisoned. That’s especially useful during the Echoes of War weekly bosses, since Doomsday Beast Imprison, and Cocolia Freeze.

Reinforce – Major – Ascension 4

This Trace is very straight forward, increases the shield duration to four turns, instead of three. It’s a great quality of life improvement to reduce the skill points consumed by March 7th. You will now skip using her skill more often.

Ice Spell – Major – Ascension 6

Adding 15% freeze rate to March 7th’s ultimate, on top of the base 50% chance. So you freeze enemies more often, especially if you invest in “Effect hit Rate” on Relics.

Minor Traces

March 7th gets ten minor stats increases, distributed as the following

• Ice damage (Five Nodes)
• Def (Three nodes)
• Max HP (Effect Res Nodes)

We prioritize DEF Traces only, until we reach highest Equilibrium level. Because at the highest Equilibrium level, we get a lot of extra materials from farming Crimson Calyx. Before that, it wastes a lot of time and resources to try raise all Traces on all characters.

Honkai: Star Rail March 7th – Light Cone

For this Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build, gear is a curial part, and usually requires some testing with various teams and setups to get the highest performance. In this section, I’ll go through the recommended Light Cone for March 7th, to fulfill her defensive support role.

Light Cones are similar to weapons in other games, and while you can equip any Light Cone on any character, only Cones matching the character’s Path can provide full benefits. March 7th is of the “Perseverance” Path, which focuses on protecting allies with shields. You can get Light Cones from in-game rewards, or randomly from wishing on various banners, and I’ll go through some of free and gacha options for March 7th.

Amber – Three Stars

The starter Light Cone for Preservation characters, with the highest DEF value among three stars. It also has a passive that increases DEF by a percentage, and then another DEF increase if HP drops below 50%.

It’s a straight forward Light Cone, with no special skills attached. So think of it as just some early shield strength without investment. As a three Stars, you can easily get Amber to maximum Superimpose (Refinement) tier for higher DEF buffs. Don’t Ascend and level it beyond level 20 though, because sooner, you will get a free four star upgrade.

We Are Wildfire – Four Stars

One of the few guaranteed Light Cones in game you get from a shop reward in Boulder Town. This not only helps you get it early game, but also gives you one extra superimposed (refinement) tier after getting more copies from gacha.

Stats-wise, “We are Wildfire” has the highest attack value among four stars. Once you level it, you will see a notable increase in March 7th’s damage. It’s free damage that will help you clear early game content faster. It also has very good DEF values.

The passive gives your team a decrease in damage taken for five turn, and heals any ally whos HP is less than maximum at battle start. This is very good passive in teams that can’t use a healer with March 7th at same time. And even in teams with a healer, as it decreases the necessity of constant healing, and saves your team some skill points.

This Is Me! – Four Stars

Another four star option that can be considered over “We are Wildfire” is “This is me!”. The reason I consider it is the higher than usual DEF base stat, and percentage DEF increase. The DEF on it is equal to some five star Light Cones, and it enables March 7th to grant even bigger shields, and convert her DEF stat into a damage increase to her ultimate as well.

This is not a free Light Cone though, and not even a gacha reward. It’s Battle Pass exclusive, and you get that only by paying real money. A lot of people buy Battle Pass though, for the other resources it gives. So if you are one of these players, consider picking “This Is Me” if you don’t need another offensive weapon.

Texture of Memories – Five Stars

You get the chance to buy this weapon In Herta’s store after clearing enough worlds in the Simulated Universe. So basically it’s a free weapon, minus the opportunity cost of not buying a DPS weapon instead. For this reason, I’d get this weapon for March 7th only if your main team uses two Perseverance Path characters. Such a team lacks a healer, and has a Fire Trailblazer and March 7th together. And has the Trailblazer playing Tank, with March 7th spamming her shield to keep the Trailblazer from getting any damage you can’t heal.

This weapon has high HP, high Attack, and DEF similar to “This is Me!”. But the beauty of it, is that it grants March 7th herself another shield, based on HP. This shield is naturally bigger than her own shields, since the HP stat is much higher than DEF. This way, March 7th can skip shielding herself, and focus on shielding the three other characters, removing the need for a healer altogether. It’s an advanced setup, especially if we give our Fire Trailblazer one of the Light Cones that decrease team damage taken.

March 7th Relics

In this Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build, relics works similar to artifacts in Genshin Impact. You have four slots, Head, Gloves, Body, and Feet. Then two other slots that unlock at higher levels. Head always come with a Flat HP stat, and Gloves comes with Flat Attack. Then Body and Feet come with random stats. So gearing the Head and gloves will lean more towards finding the best sub stats, while Body and Feet need need to also roll a good main stat.

For March 7th, we have few defensive stats we can focus on, depending on the role she plays in your team. In short, if March 7th is the only defensive Support in your team, you need a pure Def build. If you play March 7th with a healer, you can mix offensive stats with defensive stats. And if you play March 7th with another Perseverance character, you can focus on speed and Def.

The standard build for March 7th in early game and in most teams is full DEF though. You should focus on it for an easier time, and to be able to skip March 7th;s skills in some turns, to save more skill points for DPS characters.

You can get DEF as main stat on all of Body, Feet, Planar Sphere, and Link Rope. That’s more slots than any offensive stat, so you can easily get a very high Def value. However, you might consider getting Effect hit Rate on Body, in case you use Remembrance Path blessings in the Simulated Universe. In that case, you would like either Break Effect or Energy regeneration on Rope.

Knight of Purity Palace

You unlock this Relic set fairly early, and you can use it from that point to endgame. The Knight of Purity Palace gives straight up Def, and shield strength multiplier. So it’s the best suited for defensive role, and I see no other option worth investing in for March 7th. Unless you prioritize better sub stats, so you use a hybrid set of two pieces and two pieces. But ultimately, hybrids are only temporary options before you get good artifacts in all slots.

Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build – Eidolons

March 7th Eidolons are a good addition to her strength in this Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Build, if you were lucky to get some of them. She’s a four star, so Eidolons are much easier to get over time.

Her E1 generates more energy, E2 give another shield to the ally with lowest health, and E4 give one more counter, and increases counter damage. These are all great quality of life improvements, making March 7th even stronger as the game progresses and you get more copies of her.

Her E6 adds a heal over time to shielded allies, which opens up a whole new playstyle that relies completely on March 7th and no healer at all.

Honkai: Star Rail March 7th Team Composition

Team consists of four characters in Honkai Star Rail, where you usually seek to fill several roles, such as single target DPS, AOE DPS, shield breakers, and both defensive and offensive supports. The combat system prevents you from using one character to break all shields, since shields break only if you attack it with the elements it’s weak against. Therefore, the game still encourages players to build a very diverse team, with four different elements, or at the very least three elements.

In this section, I’ll go through some of the recommended team members that goes well with March 7th. Note that March 7th is a support, so she has many team options, and one guide is not enough to cover them all. So I’ll focus on one f2p team you can use to beat the Cocolia boss in the Echoes of War weekly encounter. This team stacks defensive characters to tank the insane AOE damage Cocolia does to low level teams, while also covering four different elements to exploit all the weaknesses Cocolia and most enemies have.

Healer from Abundance Path

At early levels, we need a straight up healer for any challenging content. Whether in campaign, Simulated Universe, or Weekly bosses. You can sometimes skip the healer slot in campaign and Simulated Universe, to deal more damage and clear faster. But once you go against a very high health boss, and battle takes more than few turns, you need a healer.

I use Natasha to fill the healer role, because she’s the only free healer, and she’s also a very gooe one. With March 7th’s shield, Natasha can skip her skill on most turns, and rely only on her ultimate to heal. That way, you use her normal attacks more often, generating skill points for your DPS. That’s a subtle increase in team damage, because game doesn’t have a lot of other ways to generate skill points.

Natsha enables the team to start battle with one extra skill point, through her use of the “Passerby of Wandering Cloud” Relic set, which is an absolute advantage on the first few turns. And if you get “Fine Fruit” or “Shared Feeling” Light Cone, you can also generate energy for allies.

Toughness breaker with Lightning element from any Path

Lightning is a very important element in breaking toughness, especially for the Cocolia boss fight. The reason is, lightning inflicts enemies with the Shock debuff, which deals damage over time. In other words, lightning characters hit enemies several times per turn, so they bring down their shields faster.

The choice of a lightning character against bosses is a bit harder though, because the game doesn’t have a lot of single target lightning DPS characters at launch. Jing Yuan will solve this issue later, when he gets released in May, 2023. But he’s still a limited five star character, and not everyone will be able to have him.

That leave us with Arlan, who doesn’t inflict shock, rending him less useful. And on other hand, we have Serval, who’s more focused on AOE, but has an excellent shock application. I highly recommend picking Serval. She’s one of the few characters who will cover all your AOE needs, while still putting in work against bosses. She also has access to some Light Cones with energy regeneration, so she can spam her ultimate for more shield breaking.

The game also recognizes Serval’s importance in the Cocolia fight, by having a special achievement for dealing the killing blow to her by Serval.

Fire or Quantum DPS from Any Path

Fire weakness is another widely spread weakness, that a lot of enemies have. Both weekly bosses Cocolia and Doomsday Beast have fire weakness as well, so it’s a guaranteed good match against most content in early game.

I prefer Fire to play as a DPS because it has more single target damage than lightning, and they come with additional benefits as well. The choice here is among three characters, Asta, Fire Trailblazer, or Hook, with the first two being guaranteed free characters, and Hook being a random pull from gacha.

Hook has 100% base chance to apply Burn, which scales both her DPS and toughness break. But she needs to use a lot of skill points, and energy. On other hand, Fire Trailblazer is excellent at generating skill points, not consuming them. They don’t inflict Burn, but provide the team with extra shields, and can taunt enemies. While Asta provides a team wide Speed buff, has great Toughness breaking capability, and uses skill points. The character of choice is Fire Traileblazer, for the importance of generating skill points while maintaining damage.

On other hand, you can use Quantum dps instead, namely Seele, if you got her from her limited banner. But that’s not a free to play option.

Final Tips

March 7th is the main shielder in Honkai Star Rail, and as mentioned before, she’s not a mutually exclusive character as with other shielders. You can mix and match her with other defensive supports, whether they are healers or shielders. March 7th can perform well under any circumstance, and she adds a bit of crowd control from Freeze. She can fit several teams, and skyrocket a team’s survivability.

Her rotations are also flexible, and you can simply change and adapt to enemies attack patterns. But generally, you want to start your first turn with casting her shield on the most likely ally to get attacked. Usually that’s herself, or the ally who started the fight with his or her Technique. Using March 7th as a tank has the additional benefit of having slightly higher aggro, so I prefer starting all fights by casting her skill on herself.

Afterwards, you might want to skip her skill on the second turn to generate skill points rather than consume more, butut that’s only safe if enemies are already targeting her, and they deal no massive AOE damage. If they deal AOE, then you need to shield the next character who will be most affected by AOE. When any shielded character gets hit, Match 7th will automatically counter attack the enemy. And for her ultimate, use it whenever possible.

If you have Bailou, you can change team composition drastically, and it’s one of the very few teams that doesn’t need March 7th. Otherwise, she’s a stable companion you would like to take anywhere.

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Stay tuned for more Honkai: Star Rail Character Guides and be sure to drop by our Twitch Channel if you have questions about the game. And check out Honkai: Star Rail Seele Guide. For more Honkai: Star Rail content, check out Honkai: Star Rail Guide – F2P Characters Overview, Honkai: Star Rail Beginner Guide, and Honkai: Star Rail Gameplay Overview (F2P Turn-Based RPG).