Yao Yao is a specifically strong off field healer too, actually!

 

How it feels like being like, one of the only few Lumine mains on this board (Since everyone else here seems to have Aether from what I've seen):

Spoiler

At the same time, I see some people in the fanbase can get a bit aggressive when it comes to the topic, where Aether players always have to mention and always shove into people's faces that "yo, dude, btw Aether is the main character and always will be". I'm sure these people don't mean to be aggressive, but as a Lumine player the word "canon" sounds like I'm playing the wrong game. Lumine is not the real "canon" main character, it's Aether, and people use various media as proof, with some of them making sense (him being featured) and some probably not so much. It makes me low-key ashamed because I obviously chose the wrong character and people always have to shove that "fact" into my face, I have the choice in the game but Lumine "is not canon", what I'm playing seems to be the wrong version of the game or whatever because it's supposed to be Aether's journey and at times I actually regret choosing Lumine (or even spending all of the time, effort and resource into building her optimally even through I'm still very happy to get her as capable as she is now, and I already put in all the effort anyway so I might as well stay with my current account as it is) because of that  .

Not only that, all of the official media, especially the trailers, always show her as the antagonist / the missing ice-cold sibling. She's featured as the evil queen of the abyss and Aether always had to be the Traveler on the way to save her 100% of the time, even though when I'm playing with my account it's the exact opposite. And yet I'm seeing Aether going to the lantern rite festival and sitting besides Xiao with a smile, Aether talking with Eula and listening to her story, Aether dreaming about his missing sibling, Aether having fun in Mondstadt, etc. and this just makes me feel detached from all the media like I'm an outsider. I really enjoy the trailers but again, combined with people saying "Lumine is not canon!" this makes me feel like I'm playing the wrong "non-canon fanfiction" version of the game like I don't belong and I can't really get emotionally involved in the story. Especially because Mihoyo shows some awesome or funny scenes in the trailers that they didn't show in the game so they are Aether-exclusive only, like the dream about the sibling or said Liyue cutscenes.

 

I have Lumine. I just don't use her much. But "in my game" she is clearly the main character and in all the cut scenes...

 

I picked Lumine just cause she reminds me of X95 lol

 

I'm into guys myself, and knowing gatcha games, I knew that there was going to be more lasses than lads, so naturally I picked Aether!

 

I picked Lumine as well. Just like her design more.

Spoiler

Speaking of design, I remember once seeing someone say that Lumine "clearly" had the "villain" (or similarly phrased) character design. I wasn't part of that particular conversation as far as I can recall, but that didn't sit well with me. Lumine's design is more heavily white, which leans more strongly into the pure/good character design cues. While Aether has a lot darker of a color palette, which is definitely the more "villainous" of the two to my eyes.

 

Spoiler

In many Asian cultures, white is a colour heavily associated with death.

 

Spoiler

Did not know that. Though it would certainly gel with Japanese death shrouds/burial clothing, now that I think about it.

 

Spoiler

In some ways, I think having Aether as the Abyss Prince is actually more interesting because of... just how he doesn't look the part at all. As an antagonist, he sounds pretty normal and does look the part of the more heroic big brother that Lumine always looked up to and depended on (at least, in the JP dub I played), and yet here he is doing all of these stuff to planning on causing chaos through Teyvat and attempt to terrorize the very people who did everything they could to help Lumine find her brother, so to have her brother look and feels the same and yet turn his back on her like she's a complete stranger is a more interesting twist, and making me wondering more on what the hell happened to make Aether become like this.

 

3.6 Livestream Codes:

9ARE6VLJT34H
KBRE7D4KA2MM
7S9X6V4JB2M9

 

Trailer:

 

While saving/waiting for a Eula re-run, I spent a few wishes to get one more con for Ganyu. Now Ganyu is re-running for a second time, while still waiting for Eula since before the previous Ganyu run...

 

 

I WAS planning to get a Shenhe but with Nahida/Nilou next banner, that plan went out the window. I'll get one of those 2 and then roll until I get someone on the Baizhu banner. Frankly, I'm more interested in Kaveh than Baizhu himself.

I'm also huge fan of using Yaoyao. She's my go-to to pair with Dehya. I currently have them in a fun team including Raiden and Kazuha. Basically everyone gets killed by just elemental skills.  

 

Yeah, I'll be attempting to get my Nahida C2 for that huge reaction damage boost, but no guarantees since I'm on 50/50 again.

On the topic of Kaveh, I find it somewhat amusing that none of the Sumeru greatsword wielders "properly" handle their weapons. Dori has her Jinni do all the lifting, and Kaveh appears to do something similar with his magic briefcase. Dehya gets the closest, but of all her attack animations, she only swings her claymore twice out of all her bespoke animations (I'm ignoring her Charged Attack, since it's the generic "tall character" sweeping rush, shared with Beidou, Eula, and Diluc). Her third normal has her performing a charging rush to crush her enemy, more akin to a shield bash, and then her fourth (and most powerful) normal is just a right hook. Her E. Skill and Burst are all straight fisticuffs, with the blade nowhere in sight.

 

Same with me  . The character I'm actually most interested in getting in 3.6 is also Kaveh, and maybe I try out my luck with getting Nahida or Nilou. Funnily enough, in the previous Alhaitham & Xiao banner the character I'm most interested in is actually the 4-star Yao Yao (And somehow, I also got Xiao).

I can live without Baizhu, and I decided on skipping Ganyu even though she is like that one META OP Cyro character; Don't like her gameplay at all from what I played from the play trial in her story guest, and it also doesn't help that Ganyu's Story Quest... kinda sucks; The idea of focusing on her inner conflict of being part human and part adeptus seemed like a good idea on paper, but it was executed awfully since it doesn't take much convincing to get her to consider going back to her job as a secretary. For the second half of her story, she basically acts like an IRS agent went on something about tax evasion which is freakin boring, and the part where Ganyu and Traveler went OOC and harasses a Fatui Cryo-Gunner who was just minding his own business eating berries was really the final nail in the coffin.

 

Ganyu is IMHO probably worth it from a "daily commissions alone" standpoint, in that she makes so many of them so trivial. But if you hate her gameplay---then obviously don't pull. No amount of power/meta is worth "someone you simply don't like using". Ayaka is probably the most-similar character, power/role-wise. Ironically, I don't like playing as Ayaka. (so zero need to pull for her!)

I will say, Ganyu practically can be an off-field main DPS, her ult is that good, especially at C4.(which is a heavy investment---but if you already pulled her long ago as main DPS, and want "an alternate role" then C4 Ganyu is pretty godly as a quasi-support off-field DPS)


And yes, Ganyu's story quest is terrible. Luckily, she's got more and better story/background in the events (mainly Lantern Rites)--but they're all limited, so you can easily miss out on "the best of Ganyu".

 

In general, I find most of the 5-star characters Story Guest to be a mixed bag at best. For every good-to-great one where we actually get to know more about the characters' story or expand on the lore (Such as Childe, Zhongli Act I & II, Raiden Act II, Itto, Dehya), there's also an equal amount that was just meh at best, and bad or boring at worst (Such as Nilou, Ayaka, Kazuha, Kokomi, Raiden Act I, Ganyu, Yelan) where we either barely learn anything interesting about the titular character or the lore, or just cringe-worthy to play through.

It also doesn't help that some of the Story Guests that you were mandated to play through to unlock the more interesting or better quests, were also the pretty bad ones (Such as how you had to complete Kokomi's to unlock Itto's Story Quest which is one of the better Story Quests, and the only thing that compels me to complete Kazuha's is so I can unlock the Interlude Act III Archon Quest with the Wanderer)

 

I can understand why Kazuha's quest was a requirement for Interlude Act III but I can't fathom why they require finishing Kokomi's quest to unlock Itto's as there doesn't seem to be any intersection between these 2 whatsoever. And yeah, the 5* quests are a mixed bag although I think the reasons can be mixed depending on the player. For example, I love Ayato's quest story while I know many hated it but I hate that Ayato had just one fight scene that was over way too soon. Not many have that perfect mix of not only having a good story but also a domain where you can really put the trial character to work.

 

Anyone have suggestions for a non-Xingqiu sunfire Jean team? And also non-Ganyu? I want something "different", and so many of my teams are built around Ganyu (for obvious reasons).

My Jean is pretty well built, though Sunfire seems to want an EM Jean, which isn't very possible at the moment (it took forever and a day to get decent EM VV for Sucrose, and I'm not stealing them to give to Jean). Jean has a pretty "traditional" build, ATK/Anemo/Crit. But I did try to stack as much EM as possible in sub-stats. Runs Aquila Favonia (because it's her canon sword).

I've seen Fischl suggested as an option instead of Ganyu, but a very short test made me think "eh". (I'm also trying Layla/Noelle in the other slot---I haven't used Noelle in a while, and I quite like Layla----if I don't NEED Zhongli for interruption resistance, I'd prefer to use someone else----with two healers, I certainly don't need uber-shields-----purely "interrupt resistance")

Maybe Raiden as lead DPS? But if going Raiden+Bennet, might as well just go Hypercarry Raiden and bring along Kujou Sara...

 

Out of curiosity, what's your beef with Xingqiu?