Who Is Genshin and How Did It Impact You: The Power of Water

"The power of water is its ability to take any shape." If you thought I was gonna talk about the Hydro element in general, I regret to tell you that you are sorely mistaken. Today's topic of contention are Hydro enemies. These guys assault your sanity with infuriating, unnecessarily annoying attacks. Whether it be a goddamn bubble that immobilizes your active character for way longer than it has any right to, or a moveset that's dead-set on pinning you down with rapid melee attacks, let us divert our attention to our hazing target of the day: the Oceanid.

Stunning image of a local adventurer team moments before being struck by completely balanced attack courtesy of eldritch elemental creature in Qingce Village, colorized

Hydro element is great. When it's on your side, mostly. Frankly, it's such a shame how wildly underrepresented the Water gang is in this game, because while Pyro's only two players short of a whole-ass football team, MiHoYo developed a mysterious allergy to Hydro characters wielding anything that isn't a bloody book sometime after the release of Tartaglia. Seriously, out of the five playable water-flingers in the game, we're counting THREE mother-flipping Hydro Catalyst users since the KoKopium banner, because apparently the concept of water being associated to anything other than healers and support roles is blasphemous now. Don't get me wrong, Nilou's moveset is creative and all, but why a second sword-user? And just to drive the point home, WHY three Catalyst users? I get the impression that the conceptualization of Childe and his wacky moveset may have burnt out the creative team's brainstorming department, which would certainly explain why Hydro playable PCs have been slowly boiling down to "hold book and throw splashy-splashy at bad guy" lately. Heck, you ever noticed how Hydro is the ONLY element without a Claymore user? And on top of that, Candace was only announced just recently, and if it weren't for her, Hydro would be missing a polearm user too. No shade to the Nilou fans out there, but I was really hoping Hydro would finally be able to cover the entire weapon spectrum, but apparently Hoyo ain't about that life. Anyway, I digress.

If they ever introduce multi-element playable characters, I could totally imagine Beidou as a Hydro character, what with her role as a badass sea captain and errything. Come on game, is "water people=magic mage people" really the peak of your weapon design?

You know what's NOT fun? BUILDING Hydro characters. If you own any character in the above list, then you'll have to farm a specific Hydro-related boss to gain level-up materials in order to, well, level up your character (dropping mad knowledge bombs all up in here, I know). If you're a proud Kokomi owner, you've most likely gone toe-to-toe with the Hydro Hypostasis . Much like Kokomi, the Hydro Cube is elegant, graceful. Most of its attacks involve chucking H2O at your team until everyone in the squad gets splashed to death, and it's in a perpetual state of wetness. Much like our beloved Koko-girl.

Between burning, frostbite, and homing lightning strikes (among hundreds of other unpleasant demises), I'll take death by dolphin elemental any day of the week.

But we're not here to talk about Mista (or Missus, I don't judge) Water Rubix Qube. Hell, the entire blog post up until this point has been but a mere distraction for the OG Water Menace. If you own any Hydro character that ain't Kokomi, you'll quickly notice that they's got one thing in common: every single goddamn one of them require a certain trinket (or forty-six) from a local Liyue living legend. Yes, even the magic Mondstadt liquid-lobbers. Whether it be a psychotic warlord who we're buddy-buddy with even after he tried to total an entire dockside city or a religion-loving, second fiddle-playing popstar living it up in the City of Freedom, playable water-benders pull an Uno reverse card on the concept of religious worship and demand you to hunt down a (possibly) innocent water deity, "pacify" it, and (presumably) Mortal Kombat-rip their still-beating heart(s) out of their chests so they can... consume it, I guess?

Fatality.

Oh, and did I mention you'll be euthanizing the local H2O elemental no less than sixteen (twenty-three if you've pissed off Lady Luck) times before you can fully ascend a SINGLE Hydro character? Yeah, be ready for rowdy Rhodeia to lambaste you for foolishly trespassing upon the waters of Qingce, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently The Oceanid used to be voiceless once upon an update, and considering how many times I've heard Rhodes lecture me about the evils of trespassing upon the waters of Qingce, I know quite a few people who wish she'd just can it and take her punishment quietly like, gee, I dunno, every single other blasted world boss in the game?

Why's the Oceanid the only one with a voice? I, for one, would love to hear a dry, smack-talking Maguu Kenki deliver stilted, robotic witticisms while he kicks my ass with the help of his stand, as unlikely as it is to happen in the near future. Oh well, a man can dream.

And if you thought your problems stopped there, I'd like to point out that the Oceanid most CERTAINLY can walk the walk to back up her talk. Rhodeia ain't too happy that your Hydro characters' health and combat wellness has a direct correlation with a vital organ responsible for maintaining her OWN health and combat wellness, and this creature will fight tooth and nail (correction: her MINIONS will fight tooth and nail. Kill them, and she just kinda dissolves into nothing due to crippling loneliness, presumably) to make sure she can... keep watch over a bunch of lakes in her immediate vicinity, I suppose? God, I really need to brush up on Oceanid lore.

So we've established Hydro's tendency to be one of the weaker elements defense-wise; it can be frozen with a eensy-weensy sprinkle of Cryo, and easily eroded with a steady supply of Electro (which is funny because "eroded" is a word you'd used to describe water chipping away at rocks, which is a Geo reaction. Get it? Erosion? Geo? God, I'm hilarious...). Hell, even Pyro can join in on the fun with a constant x1.5 damage multiplier. Now do the math: the Oceanid is a creature made of pure elemental energy, so what element is she comprised of? That's right, baby. Constant Hydro-related reactions for dayz. Unleash your excitement and relief while you still can, because that's all the good news I have for you regarding this boss; as befitting of a Hydro enemy, almost all of its attacks are HELL to avoid. The boars relentlessly charge and stunlock you, the frogs and finch leave a parting gift in the form of a water bomb as their one last middle finger to your existence, and do NOT get me started on the falcons. Flying enemies that, while fragile as all hell, are also annoying as hell due to their inability to be hit by most melee attacks. You know, that's enough ragging on Rhodeia for one day. I'm sure more infuriating enemies are just beyond the horizon, and I wanna save some vitriol for them too. But for now, thanks for listening, and see ya.

Who Is Genshin and How Did It Impact You: The Chalk (DEF) Prince

In addition to meticulously researching character build guides to feed my OCD (not to mention validating my less-than-optimal team-building decisions because my self-esteem is high like that), I occasionally take peeks at the statistics of Spiral Abyss team compositions. Looking at weapons, I typically see four/five-star weapons perfectly suited to complement their respective characters: Hu Taos have their Staves of Homa, Sucroses use their Sacrificial Fragments...es (plurals are hard, okay?), Kazuhas carry around Iron Stings. So far, so expected. And then I got to Albedo, and here's what I saw.

If you too wish to feel validated/heavily criticized about your team's performance in the Spiral Abyss, feel free to let peer pressure get the better of you here.

If you haven't figured out the anomaly in Albedo's weapon selection yet, allow me to spell it out in big fat red letters for you: that weapon over there with the 92% pick rate (90% as of me writing this blog post) is a THREE-STAR SWORD known as the Harbinger of Dawn. That's right baby, the five-star Chalky Boi cares not for your fancy Mistsplitter Reforgeds and Aquila Favonias, because as far as he's concerned, his weapon is essentially a catalyst (which is funny because it's not a book) that he will almost never brandish in actual combat.

But why IS a three-star sword among one of Albedo's best weapons? Well. Noelle mains, here's your time to shine: remind me again why your claymore-wielding maid-knight most likely has a Whiteblind equipped? One word, ladies and mentlegen: Defense (typically shortened to "DEF"). Under normal circumstances, Defense is a highly reviled stat due to endgame content requiring you to quickly nuke enemies above staying alive (it also doesn't help that most damage-over-time effects deal percentage damage instead of a flat number, making DEF largely relevant against some game mechanics. Looking at you, Sheer Cold). That's not even getting into the fact that enemies have almost no problem eviscerating your health bar regardless of your DEF, and it just so happens that Artifacts love giving you HP and DEF bonuses, especially flat numbers. You know, just in case you weren't already well-aware enough of this game's gacha nature. Needless to say, DEF Artifacts are gonna be pretty damn plentiful in this game because you're meant to grind an obscene amount of time so the game can "gently persuade" you to spend real money to refill your Resin. Because of course.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so goddamn true. Also, can we just eradicate flat Stats on Artifacts from existence already?

Enter the anomalies: characters that don't require stacking nothing but Crit on their gear in order to do well. I know. Crazy idea, isn't it? Examples would include Barbara, Zhongli and Diona (whose abilities scale off of HP) or on the DEF side of things, Noelle and Albedo. Seeing how much those crummy Artifact Domains love nothing more than to give us a big fat Artifact with a defensive stat bonus, farming for these hipsters' gear tends to be less of a headache; if you get "unlucky" and get an offensive set of substats on your trinkets, all the better for your other characters. My Ningguang would benefit greatly from the offensively-statted Artifacts I get from my Noelle runs, and if I happen to get a "garbage" DEF piece, my Noelle's wishes will have already been answered.

Seriously, if Albedo and Combat Maid didn't exist, name a single character who'd actually benefit from this absolute travesty of an Artifact.

I should probably preface this with a disclaimer that I do not personally have an Albedo. Hell, Albedo mains are rarer than freaking Weapon Billets considering how often I run into those guys in co-op. It's such a shame too, because from what I've heard online about Albedo players, they're apparently super chill people. I suppose when you main a character whose banner was treated like the Genshin equivalent of Trotsky's removal from that one Stalin picture, you've gotta be a pretty humble dude. I suppose this also translates into the Albedo gameplay experience; this guy is basically the literal embodiment of "one man's trash is another man's treasure", to an even larger extent than motherfucking NOELLE, which is really saying something. Noelle has the excuse of having one of her best weapons being the four-star Whiteblind, while ultra-gigachad Geo Blossom flower-boi-chan here has a THREE-STAR WEAPON as the preferred stat stick for a good 90%+ of his users. Exactly how many five-star characters in the game can say the same about their kits?

I suppose Zhongli could be considered a fellow contender for this elusive title (some people have found success slapping a Black Tassel on him. Sure, the weapon's passive is super situational, but the HP bonus alone is reason enough to put the weapon on him), but even he'd benefit more from a five-star pokey stick like the Vortex Vanquisher or the Staff of Homa. Four-star options would include the Crescent Pike or an Energy Recharge weapon like the Favonius Lance or Prototype Starglitter. But back to my original point: see what I mean with Albedo being the perfect representative for figuratively turning "mold into gold"? Three-star weapons are typically used as fodder for better weapons, mind you. FODDER. And here Albedo is, making optimal use of the supposedly trashy sword better than most other characters can use five-star equipment.

I originally set out to have this post's central topic be about Albedo's underrated kit and his abilities' amusing interactions, but writing it has given rise to another matter I've been waiting for an opportunity to discuss: the fact that I love how certain characters can bring relevance to even the most obscure equipment in the game. Albedo-gushing aside, let's go back to that point I made about the Black Tassel finding a friend in our meteor-chucking amigo Zhongli. Lemme hit y'all with a little something to chew on: before Big Dong Zhong pulled up and took Teyvat by storm, you could probably count the amount of people who unironically used Black Tassels on a single hand. It simply wasn't practical to equip a Slime Hater spear (with an HP bonus as its attached perk, no less) on your typical spear-wielder, but what if you learnt that a certain polearm-user could make his devilishly durable boulder barrier even MORE devilishly durable with the microscopic investment (well, microscopic compared to the ridiculous leveling costs of higher-tiered weapons at least) of a single three-star weapon?

With all this being said, let's take a moment to appreciate all those characters that deviated from the norm to give our "useless" equipment an actual practical use besides fodder for our better gear. Zhongli (and to a lesser extent, Barbara, much to the chagrin of most players) gave HP Artifacts and Weapons a character to call home (wish I could say the same for Diona, but for some wack reason the only HP-statted Bow is a woefully underpowered 3-star with an equally underwhelming passive bonus compared to her preferred Sacrificial Bow), a recent patch helped Anemo Support characters turn Elemental Mastery from a dump stat into a force of nature, and of course, who can forget the entire reason why I even went on this tirade to begin with: DEF-scalers, namely Noelle and Albedo (as for you, Xinyan, we'll need to have a talk later. I ain't exactly in a great mood to open the can of worms that is the forgotten Fontaine fighter right now). Every single one of these characters take unconventional, oft-disregarded stats and converts them into powerful buffs, and that is an admirable trait for a character in this game to have.

I recall commenting on a Kokomi video something along the lines of "thank Dog Kokomi has a negative Crit Rate, because it's nice to build a character who you don't have to obsess about Crit over." And wouldn't you know it, one of the replies I got in that thread was some self-obsessed smartass going "AcKcTuaLly, it's been proven that her best build focuses on Crit", and when ordered to present their evidence, they slapped an entire Excel spreadsheet's worth of numerical data in a subsequent reply, because they were either expecting anyone to actually go through two pages' worth of damage numbers and go "damn, this mofo a genius, they's opened me eyes to the awesomeness that is Crit Kokomi! Now lemme boot up the game and tirelessly farm Artifacts for months until I inevitably get 100% Crit on my Hydro waifu and finally get to play her the CORRECT way!"... or they were just trying to look smart by slapping a bunch of numbers to make it seem like they knew what the hell they were blabbing on about without doing any actual research. Judging from the tone of the comment, I'm heavily inclined towards the latter. Also, aren't characters like Kokomi so appealing because I can have a more relaxing experience slapping those 5* "useless main stat" Artifacts I had lying around in my inventory on a character who actually benefits from that shit? Even in an alternate reality where this genius was somehow right, why don't you go build a normal DPS with your Artifact luck? I'm pretty certain there're tens of other characters out there who'd be a better fit for those ungodly Crit stats than Hydro Catalyst Lady numero tres over here.

Who Is Genshin and How Did It Impact You: The Traveler Rigmarole (Mostly the Geo Traveler)

Now, what video is this gonna be about, what topic should I put here? Hmmm… meta relevance? Nah... Character fashion sense? Not too experienced in that. Gameplay fun… -ness? Fuck it, let’s go with that. 

Sauce: http://genshintool.com/genshin-impact-best-build-for-traveler/

First on the list is Traveler. Well, this one’s pretty easy. At least in theory. Three elements, all in one character. Our introduction to Anemo, and truly showcased what a chaotic force of nature that element was. Granted, it was super simple and kinda got old quick (which I suppose is a given considering that IS your very first character), but all things considered, it coulda been worse. I hope to build an Anemo Traveler one day, the same way I wish to get an enjoyable, fulfilling day job someday. It’ll happen eventually, but it’s probably gonna be a few fucking years until that day comes to pass. I really hope that was in jest, because if it turns out that psychology becomes a bitch and really implants that belief into your brain, well… I kinda wanna use the Traveler at some point, okay? Just… Christ, man. Why must self-hatred carry so much negative connotations even if you’re using it jokingly?

Anyway, we still haven’t really rated ya boy/girl equally. But if we were to place ‘em on a scale… Well, Anemo’s probably a solid C. I’ll give ‘em a solid place above D tier because while that playstyle is very rudimentary, I’ve still had some fun-ass experiences corralling bitches into a tight spot and making crowd control effects even easier to proc. And mind you, this is a FREE character with a succ ability (if anyone reads this they’re probably gonna endlessly shit on me, but I thought I’d say it nonetheless). One of Gust Surge’s upgrades also gives you a taste of 4-piece Viridiscent Venerer power, because God knows how goddamn fucking long it’ll take you to farm a decent set of those bloody things.

"In this world, nothing is certain except death and shitty Artifacts,” -Benjamin Franklin

Geo Traveler. Solid A. Or even S, if I may be so bold. Why? Because Geo Traveler just feels mighty. The Geo element in general is known for being a very reliable element because it does. Not. Discriminate. All is equal under the wrath of the rock. Even fucking Geo, for crying out loud. Can a Frost attack whittle through a Cryo shield? I wish. Can a fireball melt a Pyro shield? Fuck no. Geo, though? Hoooooo baby, have I got news for you. Apparently in this universe, rock beats rock. Geo abilities CAN indeed chip away at Geo shields. When you think about it, if Liyue decided to unleash Geo Abyss Mages upon us in another alternate universe where MiHoYo gave us better daily login rewards, there’d be three counters to that shit. Some might call this “too easy”, but for me? Geo shields are probably my favorite shield type to deal with. Not so much due to how easy they are to deal with, but more because there’re so many goddamn solutions to the problem.

One day, maybe Dendro will actually be implemented into the game. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself every night.

For even more depth, this even applies to ore mining. Sure, you COULD use a claymore to smack dose stubborn mineral outcrops into submission, but das some small smooth brain shit. If you’s got grass near the orez, a Pyro and Electro unit on the squad can work together to set fire to the grass and proc mad Overload reactions and chip away at the ore at a decent speed. Or you could just go with what I said before and use the stones to destroy the stones. Which is to say, just bring a Geo Catalyst. The ONLY Geo Catalyst in da game. Ya know who I’m talking aboot. Jesus Christ, it’s Ningguang, okay? I guess other Geo characters work too, just pop their Elemental Skill and it should make quick work of those ores. Unless you’re Albedo, I mean. Hell, wasn’t Zhongli the master of mining due to his ability to shatter mining outcrops just by holding E? Anyway, so this gives three solutions to dealing with Geo shields: either you Overload it, fight fire with fire (in this case, you bang a few rocks against each other), or bop it with a huge-ass sword. All these options are viable when faced with a wall of stone. At least when you’re playing this game.

"You guys have multiple weaknesses?" -Pyro/Electro/Cryo Fatui Skirmishers to their Geo-using comrades, probably

Now this is a butt-ton of side-tracking for a topic that’s ultimately supposed to be singing the praises of Geo Traveler, but that’s just what makes ‘em so goddamn awesome: Geo is a swiss army knife. It cares not what shield you’ve got packin’. Hell, it PUNISHES shields thanks to Crystallize Reactions; when you fight an Abyss Mage with Ningguang Rock Lady-san, you might not be dealing as much damage as you would when fighting against it with its preferred counter-element, but you’re still degrading it a respectable amount WHILE receiving these mad dope Crystallize shields. Granted, if you're fighting a Cryo or Hydro Mage you're still not immune to being stasis'd in a freaking bubble or frozen because you touched a single atom of ice while wet (because shields in this game are about as good at negating crowd control in this game as a pacifistic riot cop), but protection is protection.

Which brings us back to our boy/girl Geo Trav. This motherfucker ain't an exception to the Geo formula. First, let's talk skills. Big Dong Zhong's got his pillars and pixeloid meteor. Ningguang's got a bling curtain and throws away more precious gems than the average whale during a Ganyu banner. Albedo has an elevator. And a forcefield that Geo damages any foe foolish enough to take damage within its vicinity, I guess, but that shiz ain't nowhere near as memeable as the elevator. Still really solid, though. Albedo's pretty cool, the more I think about it. Also last but not least, Noelle, who's got the defense of a diamond-coated panzer.

A preview of one of the many absurdly effective tactics Geo mains have at their disposal.

So what's the Traveler got, you may ask? Rocks, mi amigo. Primarily in two forms: meteorites and craters. If Zhongli and Albedo's Geo constructs fit in the "deals periodical Geo damage" category, Ningguang’s and Traveler's constructs fit in the "enemy projectiles don't exist, they can't hurt you" group. Except in Geo Trav's case, it ain't just projectiles. Do you have trouble protecting a Ley Line Monolith? Do you need a platform to plunge attack off of? What about a ticking time bomb that shatters in a shower of Geo damage upon destruction? Geo Traveler' Elemental Skill's got it all. Hell, if you can master the skill's arc, you can even snipe faraway enemies with it.

Now let's get into the Elemental Burst. Fun fact, Geo Trav's Burst animation looks different depending on whether you pick Aether or Lumine as the MC: Aether punches the ground, while Lumine kicks it. In either case, this causes a Geo-dealing shockwave to ripple across the ground, dealing multiple instances of rock damage to any hapless victims caught in the shockwave (the description also says that it knocks foes back, but considering the nature of most Genshin enemies these days it certainly doesn't feel like it). This shockwave also creates a crater of sorts, leaving these wack rock-looking things at the edge of the Burst that- you know what, I give up trying to explain this verbally. Allow the visual aid to describe the look of the "crater" to you.

God, I need to work on verbally describing shit better.

So anyway, this ability comes with a few perks on top of the quick volley of Geo damage: as I've mentioned before, it knocks back enemies (although you'd probably only ever see this on weak-ass combatants). The jagged rock wall thingies created by the Burst also count as "Geo Constructs" (probably only relevant information to Zhongli mains, frankly), which can body-block enemies and nope quite a few enemy attacks. Geo Trav's first Constellation (which is insultingly easy to get if you're remotely competent with story progression, which I assume a vast majority of y'all are) also gives a neat Crit Boost and interruption resistance increase to teammates.

So to sum up Geo Trav's combat capabilities, we've got a ridiculously versatile Elemental Skill that summons a swiss-army meteor and a reliable Burst that rocks your enemies' world(s?), both literally and metaphorically. With enough upgrades, these abilities refresh within seconds of being casted, deal a crazy amount of non-discriminative damage and can last for a ludicrous amount of time. Hell, this ain't even getting into the myriad uses of the swiss-army meteor I mentioned earlier, which I find is the most entertaining part of playing Geo Traveler. So with all this in mind, what role does our good friend fill in the roster?

In a pinch, Geo Trav can also be used as a Support unit you can just swap between from time to time to deal a good chunk of Geo damage before swapping to your main damage dealer. And remember, Geo deals reliable damage against everything, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a situation where Geo Trav would be completely useless (which would be against Geo Slimes, but even then, Geo counters Geo shields). Sure, they're no Zhongli when it comes to power and defense capability, but the viability is definitely there. And it's FREE. Carried over across THREE ELEMENTS that all share the same level and equipment (not Talents, though, because for some reason the Traveler could be a master fencer in one element and swing their sword like a wet noodle when wielding another element). You ask me, that's a pretty good investment.

When it's all said and done, let me leave you, dear reader, with this final quote: consider building Geo Traveler. They're pretty good.