Good news: As the players expected, the Xilonen demonstrated in the preview has more mechanics than what the leakers revealed, which means the players predicted miHoYo's actions.
Bad news: The added mechanics are so abstract that the players' brains crashed; this kind of design... couldn't be predicted at all.
[No, they already designed Magma Crystals once with Kachina; how come there are more?]
[Xilonen having Magma Crystal mechanics is actually pretty normal, right? After all, Kachina is a 4-star character; giving a 4-star a specialized altered reaction would be too luxurious.]
[I can understand Xilonen being able to trigger Magma Crystals, but generating several crystals at once is too abstract.]
[If they wanted to increase damage through Magma Crystal explosions, they could just directly add Magma Crystal damage mechanics to Xilonen; why generate so many Magma Crystals at once?]
[Probably to fit Navia. Generating that many crystals in one second, and auto-absorbing them; Navia's bullets fill up instantly.]
[Navia is a Fontaine character; Xilonen is a Natlan support—specially making a mechanic to support Navia? Don't joke!]
[Joke what? I think you're the joke. Besides Navia, which other character uses that many crystals?]
[Unless you ignore the facts, Xilonen's this function is definitely for Navia.]
[Leon, what do you think?]
After arguing endlessly in Leon's livestream chat, the fans asked for the streamer's opinion.
"I think..." Leon thought for a moment, then said, "From what we see now, this function is indeed to support Navia."
"When the pool schedule comes out later, maybe Xilonen and Navia will even be in the same phase."
"But don't get too happy too soon; how could miHoYo make a function for a new character specifically to support an old one?"
"So, this is actually miHoYo's trap!"
"Navia just got lucky and drank some soup; when the later Pyro Archon or Mavuika comes out, these new and old Pyro Archons will take the soup and the meat together!"
In Leon's view, Xilonen's mechanic of generating multiple Magma Crystals at once is obviously prepared for later characters.
And that character must be heavyweight, making the universal buffer Xilonen need to specially add this somewhat redundant mechanic.
So far, the characters that fit this description are none other than two: either the former Pyro Archon Mavuika or the current Pyro Archon Rios.
Whichever it is, it's worth Xilonen having this function just for them.
"miHoYo is also anxious; the forced team comp idea is jumping right in your face." Leon's voice carried a hint of pleasure, "If you don't pull Xilonen, then after pulling the Pyro Archon and Mavuika, you'll still feel uncomfortable using them; this is forcing whales."
"And it also disgusted a wave of Navia fans, making them think their DPS can walk sideways in the Natlan version too, but they didn't expect it to be a dead-end meal."
"When the later Pyro Archon and Mavuika come out, Xilonen will definitely be snatched away, and Navia will still have to use the old team."
Leon said.
[Classic dead-end meal]
[So how exactly do the later characters need to be designed to require quickly generating four crystals?]
"Isn't that simple?" Leon said eloquently, "Just like Neuvillette's talent; after triggering a Hydro-related reaction, you can stack layers."
"But Neuvillette can only stack one layer per element reaction; the later character might stack multiple layers per element reaction."
This way, things become simple.
With Xilonen, you can stack five layers of talent in one second.
Without Xilonen, it might take several seconds to stack the talent, or even fail to stack fully.
"I didn't expect Genshin to play the forced team comp trick too." Leon said, "Everyone, if you want to pull the Pyro Archon or Mavuika, I strongly suggest pulling Xilonen."
"I dare to guarantee that with Xilonen, the feel of one of these two characters will be much better."
Leon said confidently.
[Rare to see Shu Shu so sure; looks like we really need to pull.]
[Are you sure you want to believe Leon's game knowledge?]
[???]
[If you don't believe Leon, why watch him?]
[Of course to watch him rage at miHoYo; otherwise why come to this livestream?]
[Don't rush to pull Xilonen; wait for Ah Xian's video.]
[Pull what Leon recommends; absolutely don't pull what Ah Xian doesn't recommend.]
[Then what if Leon recommends pulling and Ah Xian recommends not?]
[Then have them fight it out.]
Xilonen actually also has the hold Elemental Skill mechanic, dealing high Geo damage based on the Magma Crystals obtained.
But after Leon and his livestream fans discussed it, they couldn't make sense of it and just treated it as a mid-rotation damage supplement mechanic.
However, other Genshin streamers had different views on this.
"This Xilonen might be here to save the Geo element."
When seeing that Xilonen can generate multiple Magma Crystals in a short time, Ah Xian's first reaction was that it can quickly fill Navia's bullets.
The second reaction was the same as Leon's, thinking this talent is definitely prepared for later heavyweight characters.
But then, after seeing Xilonen's hold Elemental Skill firing the cannon, he had a new idea.
That is, the Genshin development team placed a lot of hopes on Xilonen.
Not only possessing buffing power no less than Kazuha's, but also paving the way in advance for later heavyweight characters.
Moreover, it might even bring old Geo characters and old Pyro characters into play.
The later preview livestream, when introducing the talent, also confirmed Ah Xian's idea.
"Depending on the number of Geo characters in the team, Xilonen will have the following different effects."
"When there is only Xilonen as the Geo character in the team, Xilonen's Nightsoul max increases by 60, gaining 20% Healing Bonus."
"When there are two Geo characters, based on Xilonen's DEF, increase the Elemental Skill and Burst damage of Geo characters in the team."
"When there are three Geo characters, based on Xilonen's DEF, the on-field character's Normal Attack, Charged Attack, Plunging Attack damage; after triggering a certain number of times, remove this effect."
Hearing the content introduced in the preview livestream, Ah Xian became more convinced that when the Genshin official designed Xilonen, they had the idea of saving the Geo element.
"Three Geo is basically teams with Itto, Diona, Ningguang; increasing Normal and Charged damage via DEF is just right."
"Two Geo is obviously supporting Navia, Albedo, even Kachina and Zhongli are included."
"If one Geo joins, although it's unclear what the Nightsoul increase is for, it's obviously to support the later Natlan battleship."
"It can support other element characters, and considering Geo's relative weakness, so added more numbers, even considering the number of Geo characters."
"This design... is really good."