"Here, let me test my blade on you!"
"The world... rejected me."
The Pyro Traveler's first battle ended with her being slain by a single slash.
"Stupid me, I forgot to equip the Pyro Traveler with artifacts." Mu Yang's face showed some embarrassment.
He had been so focused on testing the Pyro Traveler's mechanics that he forgot to bring artifacts, resulting in her being chopped down by Masanori in one strike.
" Masanori's damage is way too high; aren't they going to nerf it at all?" Mu Yang complained.
Every time he pulled a new character, he would come to Masanori to practice, only to inevitably have the new character chopped down by Masanori.
It had gotten to the point where he now wanted Masanori to enter a banner, so he could pull him from the gacha.
After swapping in artifacts, Mu Yang tested the Pyro Traveler's mechanics again and felt they weren't very good.
"The numbers are still tuned too low." Mu Yang said somewhat regretfully.
Although the Pyro Traveler's Elemental Skill launches an ATK buff, and there's also the Super-Nightsoul mechanic.
But the ATK only goes up to 300, and Super-Nightsoul can only be used by Natlan characters.
When pairing with characters from previous nations, the synergy isn't particularly good.
However, the Pyro Traveler can use the Brave Heart set. Once Mu Yang farms out the Brave Heart set later, the Pyro Traveler's support strength will go up.
"Next, let's test the strength of Natlan characters." Mu Yang opened the team interface and added a new empty team slot, then placed the newly pulled Natlan characters into it.
======
[These characters are only level 1; what's the point of testing now?]
[You haven't even farmed artifacts yet.]
======
Mu Yang's three Natlan characters were all just pulled, currently at level 1, with no Natlan artifacts to equip.
After seeing this, fans flooded the chat with complaints, feeling that Mu Yang had gone dumb from playing the game.
"You guys really don't know how to adapt at all." Mu Yang said with a laugh.
"Kinich without a Nightsoul set can substitute with the Crimson Witch set."
"Kachina without the Brave Heart set can just make do with the Archaic Petra set."
Mu Yang had farmed plenty for himself, so he could immediately pull out comparable artifacts for the new characters.
However, since the characters were still level 1, their combat talents weren't unlocked yet, which would also affect the character evaluation.
======
[Just go into the character trials, duh?]
[The Pyro Traveler has no trial, so you practiced on Masanori, but Kachina and the others can directly use max-level characters in their trials.]
[Trials even let you use signature weapons.]
======
"That's true."
Reminded by the fans, Mu Yang entered the trial interface. Among the new trials for the three characters, he chose to use Kachina.
In the revamped version, or rather the live server version, Kachina has an additional function to convert Fire Crystals into "Molten Crystals." The explosion damage of "Molten Crystals" depends on Kachina's DEF.
Kachina's trial teammates include Yanfei.
Mu Yang glanced at the lineup and knew how the team's rotation should go.
First, Yanfei applies Pyro to the enemies with Normal Attacks, then calls Kachina to unleash Soaring Drill Sprite to trigger Crystallize reactions.
At this point, Kachina is equipped with the Brave Heart set, which will increase Pyro DMG and Geo DMG for two members of the team after triggering the reaction.
In addition, Soaring Drill Sprite will continuously absorb "Molten Crystals" converted from Fire Crystals, dealing massive damage to surrounding enemies.
"Huh, Yanfei's artifacts in the trial are the Archaic Petra set?"
Seeing that Yanfei in the trial was equipped with Archaic Petra instead of the Emblem of Severed Fate set, Mu Yang was a bit puzzled but quickly realized.
"I guess miHoYo definitely wants to tell us that absorbing 'Molten Crystals' is equivalent to absorbing Fire Crystals, which is why they paired it this way."
Otherwise, with miHoYo's habits, they'd just slap on the Noblesse Oblige set and call it a day.
"Absorbing 'Molten Crystals' also provides a shield? Nice."
After trying it out, Mu Yang discovered that Kachina actually had another surprise: absorbing "Molten Crystals" also provides a shield.
"This way, Kachina can not only apply Geo off-field and provide buffs with the Brave Heart set, but also supplement damage via 'Molten Crystals' and provide shields for teammates." Mu Yang analyzed calmly.
It has damage, support utility, and even preserves survivability—way stronger than the previous leaks suggested.
"But there are still downsides; 'Molten Crystals' only trigger when Fire Crystals are produced. Adding other elements might cause unwanted reactions, so it can probably only supplement damage in teams where Fire or Geo characters are the main DPS."
For example, characters like the Servant or Navia would really need Kachina.
"Next is Mualani."
The trial stage for Natlan characters is different from other nations; you have to fight enemies while exploring the map.
Mu Yang operated Mualani, running through the map while fighting enemies.
"Missed."
"Missed again."
"Watch my Burst... missed it!"
The enemies in the character trial can also dodge.
Plus, Mualani's attack animations are a bit long, and the hitbox isn't as forgiving as imagined; surprisingly, several attacks in a row missed.
However, after successfully landing a Vaporize reaction once, it directly dealt tens of thousands in damage.
======
[Tough to use even in the trial.]
[Mualani's not cutting it.]
======
Seeing Mu Yang's operations, fans flooded the chat complaining about Mualani's feel.
Seeing this, Mu Yang said: "Mualani is tough to use, but her damage is still pretty good."
Mualani's Constellations are all damage increases.
If pulled to C6, she might not even be weaker than a C0 triple-geared five-star.
Damage this high, so what if the feel is a bit off? That's balance.
If attacks miss enemies, that's not Mualani's problem; it's that Mu Yang doesn't know how to play her yet.
After trying a few more times, Mu Yang finally got the hang of Mualani and started frequently landing blue big numbers.
======
[Is Mualani's damage this broken?]
[Pretty normal; in skilled hands, Genshin's four-stars deal real damage.]
[Especially Gaming and Sethos; their damage is absolutely sufficient, just with high hand requirement zones.]
[Kuki Shinobu can hit 40k per Grass Seed explosion without even using her hands. Compared to Kuki, a lot of four-stars aren't even that broken.]
======
"I suggest—just a suggestion—that players in dire need of a main DPS pull this banner." Mu Yang said. "Even if you only get the four-star, that strength is absolutely enough. Not saying it'll clear Abyss Floor 12, but big world bosses will definitely be easier."
"Strongly recommend pulling Mualani."
======
[The streamer took over 200 pulls to get Mualani, and now he's dragging other players down with him.]
[We saw through your little scheme ages ago.]
======
"Don't think of people that way; I'm genuinely recommending Mualani to everyone."
After trying out Mualani, Mu Yang proceeded to the trial for the last Natlan character, which was Kinich's trial.
Even though she's changed from Dendro to Pyro, Kinich's offensive style remains spinning around.
Kinich's trial teammates include Xingqiu, who after using his Burst to apply Hydro to the enemies, has Kinich's Elemental Skill ready.
One shot... 200,000!