Genshin Impact | 5.2 Special Program

[Dragon Lord]

I don't have C4 Ayaka yet. I'm going to wait until the last day of the banner before spending any more money, hoping that I can pull her with what I can get in-game first. If I have to though, I will be spending for C4. Being one Ayaka away from it, there's really no point in stopping now.

I do have to consider Sayu coming up though. I want to get her too, so I need some Primos left over for that. So I'll likely be spending regardless. Either I spend on getting one more Ayaka for C4, or I'll have to spend to be able to pull for Yoimiya/Sayu.

As for why I've heard Yoimiya is bad, it's apparently because she lacks any AoE capabilities (generally bad for a DPS unit in the Abyss, Hu Tao being an exception -- though even Hu Tao's charged attacks can hit multiple enemies, so there's that), and because there doesn't seem to really be any synergy between her elemental skill and her burst. Though we won't know her capabilities for sure until she releases and people figure out what the best artifact setup for her will be, and also which weapons will be the best for her. Apparently her trial version during her story quest has full Noblesse Oblige on, which only gives her 20% more Burst damage. But because she's going to mostly be a normal attack spammer, she's probably going to want something like Gladiator's 2-piece (18% ATK), the 2-piece of the new artifact set that also gives +18% ATK, or Crimson Witch of Flame for the Pryo damage bonus.

So yeah, we'll see for sure by the end of next week when a lot of the Genshin streamers who spend time figuring out all of the numbers narrow down what's going to be the best for her.

Sayu is still the MVP of that banner though. That passive to make it so wildlife won't run away is going to be epic.

[Mr EliteL]

I take it you're doing the last pulling today then, hope you get the C4. I decided not to go for Ayaka anymore, I was nowhere pity for either PS4 or PC so I'll save for another upcoming character. I'll pull for Sayu at least, I'm at 50 Intertwined Fates and can add a bit more with 1900 sitting as Genesis Crystals if I really want to, but might not. 50 probably isn't enough to even reach soft Pity, might be at 15 or so, so 65 is still off. I also would prefer not to use everything I have though, ah!...choices. I'll just cross my fingers for an early Yoimiya.

Done some more in Inazuma although I haven't unlocked Reputation level 2 yet to really get the reputation moving with Requests and Bounty. I keep failing and giving up the puzzles with the Relay Stones, I try connecting them but the last current doesn't reach or connect to my character to finish it, since I assume connecting everything is what completes the puzzle. It's annoying but I'll try again.

[Dragon Lord]

Yes, I got C4 Ayaka a couple of days ago... then last night before work I misbehaved and did something I said I wouldn't do again... I spent even more money and C6'd Ayaka. I said I would never C6 a limited 5* again after what I went through and spent with Ganyu, but Ayaka broke me and I couldn't resist going all-out for her. Oops.

So Sayu's passive isn't as good as first reported, apparently. Only certain wildlife will not run away from her (apparently Aloy will have a passive that makes it so boars and other wildlife that drop meat won't run). It also only works until you interact with something. So if you have a group of Crystalflies, the moment you snatch one of them, the rest will scatter like normal. This can be helpful to collect them a little faster, but makes the passive not quite as good as it originally sounded. It'll mostly help mobile players and players with bad lag who struggle to catch Crystalflies.

I finally did Yoimiya's story quest as well, and I can see why people have some doubts about her. She's like Childe/Hu Tao in that when her elemental skill ends, she's kind of just left sitting there doing meh damage until its cooldown is done. I'm not sure how her Burst will actually be when properly geared, but it seemed pretty weak in her trial version. I think the biggest issue that I saw with her is that she doesn't get reactions very well. I figured pairing her up with Xinqui would be great for her damage, but I rarely saw Vaporize being set off. She might attack too fast and instead of her triggering Vaporize, she's applying Pyro before Xinqui's Burst hits, making it so that Hydro is setting off Vaporize instead. Though obviously people will test who she pairs up well with, so in the end I'm sure someone is a great partner for her. Perhaps Rosaria for the crit rate boost + Melt? Either way I'll likely get Yoimiya just to play around with her at times (though I definitely am not interested in any constellation levels on her, haha). I plan to still go for Sayu at least, so maybe the game will be kind enough to grant me an early Yoimiya alongside Sayu.

Speaking of Rosaria, I did pull two copies of her during my chase of the last two Ayaka dupes I needed for C6, and I previously did not have her at all, so yay, I guess? I hate Rosaria, but her ability to support might be worth building up eventually.

[Moonface]

I saw a post on social media this morning where someone created a mini mountain with a wishing cave in their "teapot", and I don't quite get what it means entirely except that I assume this game has some form of creative tools? I didn't think this game had anything like that.

[Dragon Lord]

There's a housing system where you get to decorate your house and the land around it (unlocking more of the land as you level up your abode). You get materials to build items by hitting trees to obtain wood, combined with normal items found through out the game.

The system doesn't really offer anything though. I only touched it for the Primogems you get for leveling up your Teapot, and for the weekly Transient Resin you get from the shop in the Teapot (along with the Mora and exp books, now that I got mine to max level and bought all the furniture blueprints). It doesn't offer anything useful like being able to store weapons/artifacts. The best thing you can do with it is put characters you have in there and they'll passively gain friendship exp, making the grind to Level 10 Friendship a little easier.

I suppose it's fun for people who just like to design their Teapots in interesting ways, but for me, a housing system needs to actually offer me something practical (such as storage), or I'm not going to waste my time with it.

[Moonface]

I guess the fact it doesn't serve a lot of purpose might be why I've never seen it come up before, and I also assume it has rarely seen any updates (or any of worth) since I've never seen anyone talk about the feature on any update posts. I'd probably mess with it just because I like creative stuff, but if I wasn't into that I'd really wish to see it have some decent long term functionality, since right now it sounds very one and done to me.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah, you went and got the full C6 for Ayaka, dang. I decided I didn't want her in the end as I have 5 Cryo characters in some kind of use, I didn't want a 6th, well I do but only leveling up Chongyun for Aquaint Fates when I can be bothered. I pulled all 50 of my Intertwined Fates on Yoimiya banner and got to 69 towards soft Pity, only got C2 Sayu, annoyed maxed out Xingqiu took one of the spots away from the three featured 4* characters as I wanted any of them. Don't think I even got one Diona out of the 50 pulls, and no lucky early Yoimiya. Slowly building Primos again as I'm not putting any money in for Crystals yet, except for maybe Welkin sometime, currently don't have it for this month. I am enjoying Sayu though, fun rolling around spreading elemental reactions on to all the enemies. Although she does need a shield preferably when flames are on the ground, as my Sayu was underleveled I almost let her die doing that. She's Lv 59 now I think, need to farm them Crystal Marrows again.

For the Teapot I was into at first, I wasn't going mad with my designs like that person did, although does look cool. They used the large terrain boulders (forgot what they're called in-game) to make it, I might try that out some time. Or not, since I stopped caring after I unlocked the second area (have all three), but now I use it for the Primos you can get for gathering the furnishings sets for what the characters like. Place that in, then put the character somewhere in the map and they'll show up there, talk to them to make the settled in, then boom some lovely Primos. Although I am missing furnishings thanks to restriction of visiting someone else's teapot to unlock them. Oh and also for the new gardening feature for growing plants that you can find out in the main game, but saves taking the time to do that, er well if you can wait 2-3 days for them to grow.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I went all-in and got C6 Ayaka. While her C6 isn't a huge game changer, it is pretty nice. My charged attacks with her do 20,000+ x 3 (for 60,000+), so it definitely adds some damage to her every 10 seconds. Not as game-changing as her C4 (enemies hit by her Burst receive a massive -30% DEF debuff), but it's still pretty nice.

I wasn't sure about going for Ayaka either since I already had C6 Ganyu, but Ayaka is a beast herself. Her burst absolutely shreds HP bars. The only downside to it is that you need the enemies to be staying still so they get hit by the entirety of her Burst. That's where running her on a perma-freeze team like the MORGNA comp (Ganyu+Mona+Venti/Sucrose+Diono is where the name originates from). I just wish I had Kazuha instead of Venti for the comp, because I feel like Ayaka + Diona + Mona + Kazuha would run much better. Not pulling Kazuha is going to be my biggest regret until his re-run, only beaten by how much I regretted not pulling for Zhongli the first time, and having to wait until his re-run to get him. Kazuha has proven to be a huge benefit to basically any team comp, and I was stupid for passing on him.

I decided I didn't want her in the end as I have 5 Cryo characters in some kind of use, I didn't want a 6th, well I do but only leveling up Chongyun for Aquaint Fates when I can be bothered.

While I also have plenty of Cryo characters, you have to think about what each one does. Until now, Ganyu has been the only actual Cryo main DPS character, and while she's obviously amazing and has remained the top character in the game, I felt that Ayaka was different enough to make her worth pulling for. Especially since there are some occasions in the Abyss where I'd like to have a Cryo DPS on both sides, and obviously Ganyu can't be in two places at once.

Other than that, we haven't really had any Cryo DPS. Eula is Cryo, but 99.9% of her damage comes from Physical (including her Burst). The only time Cryo actually comes into play with her is when you use her skill, which isn't really enough to consider her a Cryo DPS. Rosaria can be built as a DPS, but she's not very optimal in that situation and she's better as support, throwing down her Burst to apply Cryo + give your main DPS a crit rate buff. Diona is obviously support (and one of the best in the game at that). Kaeya can be good for applying Cryo if you don't have a better option (his Burst applies Cryo very quickly, making him good for Melt comps with the likes of Diluc and Hu Tao). Then you have Chongyun who... just isn't very good. Due to his burst infusing the attacks of whoever is in it with Cryo if they use a Sword, Claymore or Polearm, which 99.9999999% of the main DPS units do, it makes him only good in very, very niche situations. I think the only time when Chongyun actually shines and is worth using is when you have to face one of the Abyss Herald: Torrents in the Abyss, since you need Cryo to break their shield when they enter their second phase. Throwing down Chongyun's burst there and then having your weapon infused with Cryo actually helps in taking that shield down extremely fast. Though even then, using Chong for that purpose is only really good if you like any other method of hitting with Cryo.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sit here and tell you that you're wrong for not pulling for Ayaka. I'm not gonna try and dictate what you do with your Primos. I just wanted to point out that even though it seems like you have enough characters of an element, you should always consider what kind of roll those characters fill. However, you do have Ganyu if I remember correctly, so skipping Ayaka isn't a big deal since you're not lacking in the Cryo DPS department. Now if you didn't have Ganyu and you skipped Ayaka, I would have be like, "BAKA!!!!" Like say you didn't have a Pryo DPS right now and you were going to skip Yoimiya, with no sign of another Pyro DPS coming up any time soon (unless we get a Hu Tao re-run in 2.2), then I'd be telling you that you need to go pull for that girl right his moment, haha.

I guess what I'm trying to say is don't make the same mistake I did. I skipped Kazuha because I was like, "eh, I already have Venti built up and can build up Sucrose if I need her, I don't need another CC Anemo character." But now I'm regretting it big time, because Kazuha brings a lot to a team and his ability to Swirl elements in a much wider area would be really amazing with Ayaka right now. Like I said, you have Ganyu, so it's not like you skipped something you desperately needed, but just watch out in the future, because you never know when a character you think you don't need ends up having the potential to give a huge upgrade to your entire team.

annoyed maxed out Xingqiu took one of the spots away from the three featured 4* characters as I wanted any of them.

On the plus side, pulling a 4* you already have at C6 gives you the pull back in the form of 5 Starglitter, allowing you to buy another Fate from the Starglitter shop. I mean, yeah it still sucks compared to getting Sayu or Diona if you need constellations for her, but it's still better than losing that pull entirely, haha.

I am enjoying Sayu though, fun rolling around spreading elemental reactions on to all the enemies

Yeah, her ability to spread elements around with her roll seems really good. The game hasn't deemed me worthy of getting her yet, but at the same time I don't exactly have a lot of Primos to pull with right now, haha. I might spend a bit more towards the end of the banner if I don't get Sayu, but I'm going to leave that as an absolute last resort for right now, as this banner isn't one I really care to heavily invest in. Getting Yoimiya to play around with would be nice, but I don't really need her. I already have Hu Tao, who remains the top Pryo DPS in the game, and Klee and a C6 Diluc to fall back on if I really need more Pyro DPS. It doesn't help that Yoimiya is kind of middling in terms of being a DPS. I'd use her for playing around with on the overworld, but I'd have no reason to bring her into the Abyss over Hu Tao.

And ah yeah, I forgot about the ability to plant things in the Teapot now. Haven't done the quest to unlock that yet. Not really sure if I'll ever use it. Maybe just to grow Sweetflowers, since they are used in a lot of food recipes and you can never have too many of them.

Also, if you've completed the Lost Riches re-run event yet, what color Seelie did you pick this time? I was intending to take Pink, but that was before we discovered there was a new color (Purple), so then I was torn on it (I picked the blue one the first time the event happened). So I asked some friends and only got a response from Monocle that I should take Purple. So then I asked my mother what color (she was confused why I was asking 'pink or purple?', so I got on Genshin on my phone to show her what the Seelie was, haha), and she said Purple too. So I made that my choice. It looks nice. Hopefully next time we get the event, there will be no new colors so I can get the pink one. Though if they introduce a red one next time, I won't be able to resist that.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah I get your point on not pulling for Ayaka. A small part of me is regretting it, I just wasn't completely down on losing out and knew of the possibility of having another major Cryo DPS to use. She's bound to get a rerun down the line, although with the more character coming out they'll add on to rerun time for past characters getting delayed like we got Zhongli and Tartaglia again before Klee's rerun. I think of her as one I'd like to get if there's indeed a rerun for her kinda like Hu Tao maybe, but not interested in an Albedo or Xiao rerun even when I see people praising Xiao at times.

On the subject of pulling, I...ended up using everything since I still didn't get any 5* in the pull I did at 70, so had to use my Genesis Crystals in the end and finally got Yoimiya, I got C3 Sayu too. In contrast for my PC account I 10 pulled at 35, just to try and get Diona but to my utter amazement the gold trail appeared! What?! I don't play on it daily and have read people get a 5* in pulls after not playing for a while, although that was like weeks/months. Perhaps an accumulation of the days I've missed or just pure luck. Although, ha ha, maybe not as I lost the 50/50 and Qiqi appeared! Normally everyone or mostly everyone would've been disappointed but I am not since it's my very first Qiqi, and another reason to play on that account for a character I don't have on my main.   

I wasn't playing when the first Lost Riches event happened and missed out on the Seelie gadget, but I did complete the recent one. I was torn between all four really, blue less so as I have Endora that's blue. I settled on the purple mini seelie too, can't remember why exactly, but happy with it.

I'm pleased the Theater Mechanicus event has returned, haven't done much in it but already found it's harder than the previous, although I think my set up has been bad in the second stage both times I tried it, specifically when the Bezerker/Pyro Hilichurls and Mitachurls came running out, they messed me up.  I shall try again.

[Dragon Lord]

Xiao gets praised because you can see big numbers with his plunging attacks during his Burst, but outside of that he's nothing special. It's mainly that Xiao fans have to try and shove him in your face whenever they can because they can't cope with the fact that Hu Tao came right after him and made him completely irrelevant (as a fellow spear user). Of course there was also Ganyu who released right before him, and we all know how Ganyu has made characters before and after her look, haha.

Speaking of Hu Tao re-run though, rumors are floating around that she might not be too far off. A leak came out that claims that the order of the next six banners are going to be:

Baal --> Kokomi --> Yae --> Ganyu --> Hu Tao --> Albedo

If this proves to be true, I might just save up everything between now and Hu Tao's re-run and go hard in possibly getting Hu Tao to C6, or even chasing R5 Staff of Homa instead. Hu Tao has remained my favorite DPS to use in the game, even with Ayaka coming out, so I'd love to get her to her absolute strongest in the form of C6 and/or R5 Homa.

I am interested in Kokomi, but only if she proves to be a great Hydro applier. I'm not interested in her healing (basically just being a 5*, stronger Barbara), so if she can't apply Hydro in a large are and fast enough to keep up with characters like Klee, or to replace Mona in a Permafreeze comp and make it much better, then I'll likely skip out on her. Not sure if I'll have any interest in Yae yet, so that'll remain to be seen. Baal is an easy skip for me though. Not interested much in her at all. Maybe if I used Eula more (Baal's whole thing is apparently going to be providing mega ER to the entire team), who apparently will benefit greatly from teaming up with Baal. But as it is right now, the DPS characters I mainly use don't need her. Hu Tao just needs Xinqui for Vaporizing, and Ganyu and Ayaka want to both be running in Permafreeze comps to benefit from the huge crit rate boost from the 4pc Blizzard Strayer set, allowing them to achieve 100% crit rate without needing much crit rate% on artifacts.

So yeah, if Kokomi ends up being meh in hydro application, and Yae ends up being something I don't really care about, I can see myself saving up everything (plus plenty of funds for whaling it) to go hard on C6 Hu Tao with R5 Homa.

Speaking of whaling, I did end up breaking down and spending $200 more on getting Yoimiya, haha. Probably not a smart move, because as I've mentioned before, I have every other Pyro DPS in the game already, and mainly use Hu Tao. But I just love Yoimiya's character and I wanted her for really nothing more than that (I'll use her on the Overworld and whatnot probably, once I build her up). I'll probably spend a bit more to get the Bow for her, since she's really not that great with any other bow than that one. She can be decent with Rust or Skyward Harp, but from what I've seen, her damage will fall off quite a bit compared to Thundering Pulse.

As for the return of Theater Mechanicus... it'd be a lot better if MiHoYo weren't absolute garbage at doing events and decided to completely ruin this run of it by changing how it works to pure, absolute garbage RNG. But MiHoYo has proven over the course of Genshin that they cannot come up with any good events, so I can't be surprised at this point.

[Moonface]

I don't know how her gameplay compares to what Genshin characters normally do to say how good it is, but for those who know better than me or are just curious to watch it like I was, here's some footage of Aloy was released today:

[Dragon Lord]

From what we can see of her kit in that video, it looks like she's going to be a Cryo version of Yoimiya, which doesn't bode well for her. We already could guess that she's going to be no where near as good as the likes of Ganyu or Ayaka (other Cryo DPS characters), and not be able to touch numbers that the likes of Hu Tao can hit, but the fact that she's basically going to be a clone of a Limited 5* we just got, doesn't look good for Aloy.

Her main playstyle looks to be auto attacks, which she can infuse with Cryo, just like Yoimiya who infuses her auto attacks with Pyro. Her burst seems to be one big bang of Cryo damage, same as Yoimiya's just being a huge explosion of Pyro (though it looks like Aloy will have some range on her Burst, where as Yoimiya's is pretty bad in terms of how close you have to be to enemies to actually hit them with it).

Her skill looks like it's just gone Cryo explosion as well, and doesn't linger at all, which means she won't be able to apply Cryo to be able to fill in a support role for a Pyro DPS who wants to proc Melt.

Overall her kit looks pretty unremarkable, which isn't a surprise. There's no way that MiHoYo is going to give away a 5* character for free who can compete with the Limited 5* characters that people may have spent money on. She's going to be like Yoimiya, where people who like her will use her, but compared to the other 5* characters, she's going to fall short and leave a lot to be desired in terms of her kit and damage potential. The only advantage she seems to have on Yoimiya is that she has some AoE capabilities with her Elemental Skill and Burst, but I don't expect her damage to be spectacular.

[Mr EliteL]

Just want to put this here for the sake of it, also that I enjoyed watching what is to come story-wise.



As well as the 2.1 Special Program that happened today. Didn't realise it was on so missed most of it live but watched parts I was interested in. I take it the Liyue event will happen before the Archon Chapter part comes out like how Klee's event happened before the intro to it. Not that bothered about it or the fishing, well in that I'll no invest too much time in them, just get them Primos. Just really looking forward to the finale of the Archon Chapter and the battle events coming up.
Also sweet we have the Log-In Event happening to celebrate the 1 year anniversary and resetting the double points for Genesis Crystals?! Ooh yes please! I'll dip into the big one at least once more then.

Ah man, Hu Tao possibly coming right after Ganyu's rerun? Can Hu Tao still be pretty powerful at C0? I'm not going to spend too much, I might try and get Yae if she's interesting, possibly Sara just to get a new character on the way towards my next soft Pity. Baal maybe later unless people discover she's really good for an Electro user, although Yae is another 5* Electro, ah dang it.

I've been disappointed in the change to Theatre Mechanicus too, didn't realise it at first since I got through Stage 1 like last time. The RNG on whether or not buffs appear in the stage and scrolling through the sticks is tedious when I want to get in and help with my characters' elemental reactions and skills/knock down moves instead. Had to use tutorials to get through Stage 2 and now up to Stage 6, can't be bothered to do much more now. Might still continue for Hero's Wits or not.

Aloy, yeah looks to play similar to Yoimiya. Might be OK for those who don't have Ganyu still and if anyone has Yoimiya and enjoys her/uses her as DPS, they can make a sub Cryo archer team with Aloy too for Abyss or whatever. I'll try her out, perhaps use her in a team on my PC account too.

Oh and just in case you haven't got today's Redemption Codes yet DL, here: 
1: DSPVUN2BKH5M
2: CB7UU6KT2H59
3: NTPVU7JTJYPD

[Dragon Lord]

Hu Tao is amazing at C0, the only issue you'll run into her is running out of stamina. I highly recommend chasing at least C1, because C1 makes it so that her charged attacks no longer consume stamina when her Elemental Skill is active, and that's her bread and butter. Use Elemental Skill > Charged Attack spam (dash/jump cancel out of charged attack to be able to spam the next one faster for optimal play).

But even at C0, she's still going to pump out huge damage with Xinqui allowing her to Vape on every single one of her charged attacks. One more important thing to note is that you really want to get your hands on the Staff of Homa with Hu Tao. While she can be decent with some 4* weapons and other 5* spears, the difference in power between those and the Staff of Homa on her is massive. Every 5* usually benefits from having "their" 5* weapon, but Hu Tao gains more from her's than any other 5* in the game does.

So yeah, if you're really interested in Hu Tao, I'd plan on saving up to get both C1 Hu Tao and the Staff of Homa. It's a bit of an investment for her, but she's very much worth it. Watching HP bars melt with her is super satisfying. To give an example of how fast she can kill, I can defeat all three phases of Childe in 2-4 charged attacks each, depending on whether or not crits go off. My Hu Tao's crit rate isn't nearly as good as it should be, so I could be consistently ending each phase of that fight in 2-3 if I had better CR and CD. Her Burst is also capable of 200K+ damage if her stats are built up right. Unfortunately I've had a hell of a time getting better artifacts for her, so mine is stuck in a mediocre position sub-stat wise, but she's still able to melt everything in the game minus the Pyro Hypostatis and the Pyro Regisvine (though she can still one-cycle the Regisvine despite being same element, haha).

A lot of people complain about Hu Tao's HP gimmick (she needs to stay below 50% HP to get the most damage out of her abilities), but it's honestly not that bad. Pair her up with Zhongli if you have him and you'll never have to worry about her HP again. Hu Tao's Burst also heals her, so it's basically an emergency button for when she's about to die and you can use it to save her.

And yes, I did claim the codes before I went to bed today. Wasn't gonna lose out on those 300 Primos.

[Mr EliteL]

No no no, don't go convincing me to get all that stuff now, because it's going to work. Agh geez, I think it has . At very least I'll try to get to C1 Hu Tao, and I would like a new 5* weapon so if Staff of Homa really does benefit her that much, that's the one to get then. Although did the past reruns also include the weapon that's supposed to be that character's own appeared at the same time or not? I can't remember exactly but thought I swear I noticed the weapon that appeared for Venti to Klee's reruns might not have been, or I just did not pay attention enough because I rarely pull on that banner.

I do have a C0 Zhongli, so yeah he would be a help for her, and as you suggested I'll finally get Xingqiu built up to join the team for her. Haven't had a decent Vaporize team yet, just Melt or reverse Melt (Cryo on Pyro) and Freeze. It's funny, I have 3/5 4* C6 characters not getting used at the moment, and a bit by extension C5 Xinyan and Noelle too. Just feels like a waste with them sitting there, but I do prefer the ones I do use. Also takes a really long time farming to get them all up but got to limit myself. He'll at least make his way out of that group of my characters anyway. XD
Perhaps I'll try and make ritual or find special wishing spot when I do pull for Hu Tao to get at least one early drop.