Count me in

Didn't like to use Ganyu for this reason, but you gotta do what you gotta do to achieve decent Abyss performance.

I will say though that most bow characters in this game are used for other purposes:

• Sara: Just use her skill then fire charged shot nearby, no need to hit anything. At C2 you don't even need to shoot
• Ganyu: Use her as support by using her burst.
• Childe: Melee form, so a non-issue
• Diona: used for skill/burst, never attack using her.
• Fischl: used for skill
• Venti: used for skill/burst

Well, you'll need to switch often then cause the bleed applies to all characters

Shield won't save you from it btw.

Damn that would be a straight Barbara/Qiqi buff

The point is to save as many resources as possible. It's called meta (Most Effecruve Tactics Available) for a reason.

Yes, all characters can clear abyss, but the investment required to raise them is different for each character. When you see Amber clearing it you'll most often also see her at lv90, using a 5* bow, god roll artifacts and lv10 talents, and they also need to play perfectly. Also her 5* teammates probably have constellations.

Ganyu could do all that Amber can do using a 4* bow, lv8 talent, at level 80, solo or with one support, without the need to play perfectly. Ganyu can even do way better given the same investment you give Amber. By going this route, you will save a lot of resources that you can use on other characters. That's what meta is.

You have answered your own question. If you like Yanfei's playstyle go Yanfei then. In terms of Damage and Impact though, Klee wins hands down.

I tried them both using the same artifact and weapon, but not the same talent level. After interpolating, Klee's damage can be up to 25% more than Yanfei, and this is practically with minimal animation cancel. Doing heavy animation cancel can yield up to 50% damage difference.

Impact is also important, since Klee can practically stagger a lot of enemies that aren't straight immune to stagger. You will be surprised at what kinds of enemies can be stunlocked by her (Lawachurls are an example...). Very useful to stunlock Kairagis if you mess up and kill one of them too early. Yanfei, of course, doesn't have any impact. Klee's attacks are also explosive so you can gather ores effectively.

Also, PS: Klee's Charged is the only Catalyst Charged in game that you can leave behind without cancelling it by dashing, as long as the flower appears already. This is why animation canceling is important.

Where Yanfei has an edge over Klee is on range, ease of use, and attack speed. Yanfei can hit pretty far if not for the auto targeting, and of course she can hit enemies from way back than Klee, who would be at near-melee range. Yanfei's also way easier to use: Every 3 seals, do Charged, else spam Normals. Klee though? You need good positioning, animation cancel, watch for the clover, etc. That is generally cumbersome to do but rewards you with a bigger oomph. Attack speed is a personal one, so you do you.

So, on the same investment, Klee is better than Yanfei due to superior base stats and multipliers. If you're looking for more oomph, go Klee. If you just want to enjoy it, just go Yanfei.

Not particularly great. I can't play without a healer nowadays

Qiqi was probably my most used character. I've changed mains more often than healers. I never really found others satisfactory for healing:

• Bennett is just one element away from Overloaded. Also heals in a circle, which is also Diona's downside, and add to that enemies that like to either zip around the battlefield or are far away, well...
• Diona has slow heal ticks, and didn't heal well enough.
• Barbara's E didn't heal well enough, and the whole thing with freezing yourself. Honestly, why the hell does her and Diona has a low base HP... Q and C6 is good tho, so I usually put her in a team that do not need a heal... just in case of emergency
• I don't have Jean

One good thing about Qiqi? You don't even need her Q most of the time. Her E + Ascension 1 is usually enough. Her energy charge is usually a non-issue. Usually. I can mention about 2 cases in which you need her Q: 1. Azdaha co-op, or for the no-shield achievement 2. Geovishap in the Spiral Abyss

Agreed on most of your points.

I think Albedo was in that state because the next banner after him was Ganyu, and most people skip Albedo for Ganyu. Maybe some of them regretted their decision, but I'm not one of them.

Childe was on point. He's only "good" now because he's basically the only choice we have; Hydro got only 4 choices, 2 of which are supports. If you need a Hydro Main DPS that's easy to play, Childe is basically your only choice. Kokomi won't change that.

Raiden's controversy is not so much as her damage, but the inconsistent wording on her skill, equating damage and hit together without mentioning it in her skill.

Honestly, some of this shitshow can be attributed to Mihoyo releasing most of its content on a timer, making DPS the king in this game. There are many things they can do: Endless and Survival modes being the prime examples.

Wanting Hu Tao

Apart from that, even with all its problems, can't deny that the world can look absolutely gorgeous.

A real slippery slope, I know.

It's speculation at this point.

No, that's not how it works.

For the longest time, there are 3 phases to an attack:

1. Attack Performed - when you press the attack button and the character launched their attack animation
2. Attack Hit - when the attack you performed hits the enemy (marked by the impact sound)
3. Attack Damage - when the attack that hit the enemy deals damage (marked by thr damage number)

Each phase has its own type: Normal, Charged, Plunge, Skill and Burst. Types are assigned to a phase based on the key you pressed, and by default all phases use the same type unless overriden by the attack used or passives.

For example, pressing the left mouse button on the PC with default controls will cause your character to

• Perform a Normal Attack
• Hit the enemy as a Normal Attack
• Deal Normal Attack Damage

Pressing Q will cause your character to

• Perform an Elemental Burst
• Hit the enemy as an Elemental Burst
• Deal Elemental Burst Damage

How do we know this? Well, from skills that we already have:

Xingqiu's Burst works at the Attack Performed phase - the swords appear on any Normal Attack, regardless of it hitting or not. That's why they trigger even if you just clicked the mouse without actually hitting anything.

Beidou's Burst works at the Attack Hit phase - the lightning proc when the attack connects with the enemy. This is why it still procs when attacking the Abyss mages, they only required the attack to hit the enemy, regardless of damage.

Sacrificial Sword works at the Attack Damage phase - the Skill reset only triggers when you deal damage to the enemy, marked by the damage number appearing.

So, usually, when the skill does not mention hitting or DMG (Xingqiu's Burst), or mentioned about performing an attack, it works on the Attack Performed phase. When the skill mentions hit (Beidou's Burst), it works on the Attack Hit phase. When the skill mentions DMG (Sacrificial Sword), it works on the Attack Damage phase. This is how the game work.

Then comes Baal.

While Musou Isshin is active, the Raiden Shogun's Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attack DMG will be considered Elemental Burst DMG.

After using her Burst, the damage dealt by Baal's Normal Attack is considered to be of the Elemental Burst type. Beidou's Q make no mention of damage, only hit. With these 2 premises, we can conclude that Beidou's Burst will work with Raiden regardless of Raiden's Burst status because her Burst didn't affect the type of the attack itself (thus the type of hit), only the damage type of the attack.

In short, when you click the mouse button, Raiden should, when in Burst mode:

• Perform a Normal Attack
• Hit the enemy as a Normal Attack
• Deal Elemental Burst Damage

Yet she didn't work, because for some reason, by setting the damage type to Elemental Burst, it also set the hit type to Elemental Burst as well, so when you click the mouse, Raiden:

• Perform a Normal Attack
• Hit the enemy as an Elemental Burst
• Deal Elemental Burst Damage

This is not mentioned it in the skill description, highlighting Mihoyo's inconsistent skill descriptions. All of this could've been avoided with a simple change if this was intended:

While Musou Isshin is active, the Raiden Shogun's Normal, Charged, and Plunging Attack will be considered part of the Raiden Shogun's Elemental Burst, dealing Elemental Burst DMG when they hit.

And that's it. By mentioning those attacks as part of her Elemental Burst, it leaves no doubt that Beidou's burst won't work with her, since those attacks are technically considered Elemental Burst.

Yet we're stuck with this description, thus this conundrum...

This does not fix the inconsistent descriptions of other skills though.

1. I honestly would like to see this implemented tbh. Probably in a different way than just straight up buffs like in Honkai.

2. Idk, having more buttons to press isn't really great, might as well import those with minimal changes like Ultimate evasion and QTE instead of this.

3. Ah, ML characters. I don't think it's a good idea since it's basically character padding at that point, unless they ran double banners. Epic 7 gets a pass only because the non-ML banners are still going, whereas in Genshin we would need to spend a banner cycle with these characters. Good idea for Mihoyo, not for us.

I mean, the Traveler is designed to be a silent protagonist, with the no-talk-in-quest and dialogue choices, but we all know they failed at this and instead going with this strange mix between silent style and observer style storytelling.

In my opinion

Mondstadt arc started out 5/10. Maybe due to the tutorial aspect of it

From there it becomes better until the climax of the Liyue arc, peaking at 7.5/10 (dragged down by the lengthy Rite of Descension)

After the Liyue arc, it goes back down to 5/10 for the lore dump in We Will Be Reunited. Didn't like that the Traveler's goal is basically done in 2 chapters.

The prologue of Chapter 2 is a big 0, which really foreshadow the rest of the Inazuma arc now isn't it?

Chapter 2 Act 1 is a 6/10. The start of the arc is honestly good, only brought down by them not showing the journey to Inazuma (missed opportunity). It goes downhill from there however... Salvaged by the story being more coherent than Mondstadt did, but that's a low bar.

Act 2 is a 5/10. The story started to become incoherent. Loose plot points never explained like Thoma's capture. Baal walking too slowly to eliminate the Traveler. Too short of an act that didn't do much but set us up with the Resistance.

Act 3 is where things come crashing down, at 2/10. The conflict is basically told to you 90% of the time instead of shown. Hell, make that 100%; Inazuma just looks too peaceful for a country embroiled in a civil war. And then Yae basically sidelines the whole Resistance, making the whole Resistance kinda irrelevant.

Can still be shortened to

Teleports away. The next fully charged Aimed Shot within 18 seconds will leave a mark at the target location which will explode after a short time, dealing AoE Electro DMG and granting the active character within its AoE an ATK Bonus based on Base ATK.

All ATK bonuses from Kujou Sara do not stack; Only the last applied ATK bonus' effect and duration take effect

It's a very big caveat too

Especially when she's hogging the 3 best supports in the game just to be recognized.

It's just their thing at this point

I mean look at the Banner details. Every time they mention a character, they must mention it with their title and their element all the time like it's worth repeating, like instead of saying Raiden Shogun, they must say "Plane of Euthymia" Raiden Shogun (Electro)

Changing things now would probably break consistency.

P.S people complained Ayaka's skill is too simple at one point so... maybe tbat kinda contributes to Raiden's complexity.

I agree, but I have one caveat.

Before that, I want to respond to some things:

No PVP, no official competitive element

Note that this by no means make it a casual-friendly game. Some games have a chill PvP that's just pressing buttons and let it fight, and have low rewards. Some games also do not have true PvP but compete in numbers all the same.

optional endgame difficult content and a small amount of reward changes when it comes to difficulty. This game was intended that way. A lot of people don't care about 36 starring the abyss let alone clearing it in record time.

While the small amount of rewards difference part is true in Genshin, the optional endgame difficult content part is true in most games I can think of.

Epic 7: You don't actually need to clear Abyss. A lot of people don't care about clearing this godawful mode, even with its rewards.

Arknights: You don't need to clear harder Contingency Contract if you don't want to, the easy ones are okay enough. You spend more time raising your characters in this game anyway.

Alchemy Stars: Similar to Arknights, but here it's the Spire.

GBF: You can forget the harder raids ever existing. No need to do it when the payoff will be very small. Game also drops enough freebies that you can still enjoy some of the contents of these raids. The more important content are also done every 1-3 months (Unite and Fight, ROTB, etc)

Okay, so what is the caveat then? Well, it's the fact that:

Genshin lacks grinding anti-frustration measures

These includes:

1. Artifact Guarantee

Artifacts are basically tens of layers of RNG, none of which is guaranteed. The chances are even skewed to the favor of Def/HP, making this a grinding frustration measure... except for those who use Noelle/Albedo/Hu Tao, I guess.

Epic 7 is notorious for this but at least you can straight up buy the equipments, which comes with guaranteed set, rarity, main stat and substat, and the only RNG remaining was the substat upgrade.

1. Autoplay

The game lacks any kind of autoplay, which includes actual Auto Play, Auto Repeat, Skips or Stack (only in CounterSide). This is a godsend for casuals since they can do things in game while doing other stuff.

1. Lack of Passive Income

The game lacks income from doing other things. You gain miniscule XP in the overworld, you get trash artifacts in the overworld, materials are boss-specific, etc. The pot does give some passive income but you have to specifically work on it to even be able to reap those income. Other games allow you to gain a respectable amount of XP and ascension/promotion material just by playing it.

This also apply to drops on quest enemies, which does not drop anything.

Ascension 6 characters should be at Level 81 or above

My condolences

At least if you need healing, you're covered...

I dunno if you missed a lot of the nuance of the first 2 chapters

Well, can you explain these nuances?

Barbatos as a god demands freedom of the people of Mondstadt

I'm curious where did you get this from. Is it from the aristocracy that he helped overthrow?

I mean, I kinda get your point. Barbatos wants freedom for everyone, that's why he helped the rebellion, but that act in of itself trampled on the freedom of the aristocrats, creating a paradox.

But... what can he do then to not be a hypocrite? He's going to have these moments one way or another anyway. In the aristocrats' case, it's not like they're exiled or something.

Zhongli's contract at the end of Liyue chapter is "the contract to end all contracts"

Isn't this meant that since he's no longer looking for the people of Liyue (like Venti), contracts wouldn't have the same power as it is before, therefore "ending all contracts" that was once looked for by Zhongli?

I mean, at the start of the Liyue arc of the quest, we were told that contracts in Liyue are "special" in that it must be fulfilled, and breaking the contract would cause them to "suffer the wrath of rock". These special contracts are what Zhongli ends.

Or, by the leaks, Tsaritsa's goal to overthrow Celestia and liberate everyone from the gods would mean the same thing, leading to the hypothetical

What is Liyue, the land of contracts, once the Tsaritsa's goal is achieved then?

EDIT: Since spoiler tags doesn't work on mobile... welp

Yes, so Raiden is now even with Beidou since yours are at C2

They're usually assuming a C0 Raiden.

Yes, at C0. But at C2 the DEF penetration makes a difference.

My ideas:

Reaction damage is based on ATK as well, so now it's based on ATK, EM and Level.

Overloaded: Deal 400% AoE Electro DMG that staggers enemies. Animation should be like the shockwave at Thunder Sojourn event.

Electro-Charged: Deal 250% Electro DMG. For each enemy afflicted by Electro-charged in the area, deals an additional 25% Electro DMG. Generate 2 Energy (CD 2 sec)

Superconduct: Deal 100% Electro DMG. Reduce Electro RES by 25% for 10s. Stacks once, reapplication refreshes duration.

Resonance: Reduce hydro time by 40%. Increase Energy Recharge by 25%. Electro reactions generate 1 extra Energy

Well, skipping the weird flex...

How would I build an electro-charged Mona DPS?

I guess you can use the standard Mona setup (Burst DPS) but change a few ER to ATK. You got C1 Mona and C2 Raiden so things are going to be easy for you. You also need to raise her Normal Attack talent instead of her skill.

What do you mean?

Venti embodies freedom. Mondstadt today is free to do anything it wants with themself without Venti batting an eye. Freedom brings with itself a number of problems (like the aristocracy) but they are technically free to do so. Venti intervenes because while the aristocracy is free, the people under it are not free. Therefore, Venti successfuly embodies freedom in Mondstadt.

Zhongli embodies contracts. Liyue today is a trading hub, and trades are a form of contract between the buyer and the seller. Contract brings with itself a number of problems (as we see in Yanfei's story i.e forgery) but it is technically a contract. This is why rules are in place in Liyue about contracts. Therefore, Zhongli successfully embodies contracts in Liyue.

Baal embodies eternity. Inazuma today, however, is not eternal. Achieving Eternity itself is impossible, because time itself is changing, and as you said, Baal herself is changing. The people of Inazuma changes; they are born, grow up, get old and die, and the cycle repeats. The same people roaming Inazuma hundreds of years ago no longer exists today. Therefore, Baal failed to embody eternity in Inazuma.

This is why the Traveler offers a compromise: while achieving eternity in Inazuma is impossible, Inazuma still existing today, after hundreds of years, is in itself a form of eternity. Seen from this angle, Baal successfuly embodies eternity in Inazuma, since Inazuma still exists.

So Baal is a hypocrite, but Venti and Zhongli is not.