This… this isn't right, is it?
To make his videos, Fan Shu had reviewed leaker information many times; he was extremely familiar with the two Natlan DPS characters releasing in the next version.
Mualani, a five-star Hydro Catalyst character.
Kinich, a five-star Dendro Claymore character.
Among them, Mualani had high damage output but lacked proper teammates. Her gameplay feel was somewhat awkward, and she overlapped with the Hydro Archon's role.
Since Mualani couldn't compete with the Hydro Archon, she wasn't a recommended pull.
But—
The Special Program livestream actually stated that Mualani was a four-star character!
Fan Shu was stunned.
So were the viewers watching the stream.
[What's going on?]
[Wasn't Mualani a five-star?]
[The leakers were wrong again?]
[That can't be right. I saw the leaked gameplay footage—Mualani clearly has an Elemental Burst animation. How could she be a four-star?]
[Barbara: Pfft. Who says a four-star can't have an Elemental Burst animation?]
[Barbara is Mondstadt's idol. Is your Mualani a Natlan idol?]
[It's not impossible.]
"Holy crap."
After staring at the character demo for a long time, Fan Shu finally came back to his senses.
It's over.
It's completely over.
If Mualani is a four-star, then the video he prepared in advance was half wasted.
If Mualani were a five-star, Fan Shu could still nitpick everything—damage output, gameplay feel, team synergy.
But now that she's a four-star, how could he criticize her? She's a four-star character. What do you expect, for her to rival an Archon?
"This is bad, this is bad… If Mualani is a four-star, then she's top-tier."
As a theorycraft-focused content creator, Fan Shu immediately understood the significance of this change.
Mualani is a Hydro character who can trigger Elemental Reactions with every element. Combined with the Natlan artifact set, she can support virtually any DPS.
Moreover, as a Catalyst user, she can equip Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers to increase the main DPS's ATK.
Finally, her mechanics remain the same as when she was a five-star—her Normal Attacks scale with Max HP.
She's exactly the kind of relay DPS Yoimiya has always needed.
She can deal respectable damage while providing buffs.
Elemental DMG Bonus, ATK buffs, and supplementary damage—while five-star Mualani could also do this, the investment cost was too high.
A four-star Mualani is perfect: a powerful support-DPS hybrid who boosts team damage at very low cost.
[Fan Shu, how's Mualani? Is she worth pulling?]
"Pull. Pull like crazy!"
Fan Shu shared his thoughts while secretly feeling relieved.
"Good thing I didn't upload early, or HoYoverse would've slapped me in the face again."
At the same time, he felt a pang of regret.
"If Mualani is a four-star, at least half my video needs to be redone."
"And I even have to praise HoYoverse for designing her well."
"That doesn't fit my channel's style at all!"
While Fan Shu lamented his lost half-video, the bullet comments were actively discussing Mualani's role.
[If Mualani is a four-star, that's amazing.]
[She can act as a budget Yelan, covering downtime and adding some extra damage.]
[With the artifact set, she can also function as a budget Furina—that's a 40% DMG Bonus!]
[She can even work in Wriothesley's team. Apply Cryo first with Wriothesley, switch to Mualani, use her Elemental Skill for a hit, and that's a 40% Cryo DMG Bonus.]
[But Chuychu can also use the artifact set, right? The effects don't stack, so what's the point of Mualani having it too?]
[You can't split Chuychu in half. She can go to the Neuvillette–Furina team, and Mualani can go to Lyney or Wriothesley teams.]
[Why bring up Lyney? Isn't he supposed to run Mono-Pyro?]
[With a 40% DMG Bonus, Mono-Pyro doesn't matter. If Mualani's damage is good enough, she can just rotate with Lyney.]
In Genshin Impact's current environment, four-star characters are actually quite strong.
Four-stars like Gaming and Sethos can outperform many five-stars in the hands of skilled players.
Even though Mualani has been adjusted to four-star rarity, based on her mechanics, she remains damage-focused. Her output certainly won't be low—likely comparable to Gaming.
"This is troublesome…"
"In that case, the next video can only focus heavily on Kinich."
Fan Shu knew what his audience preferred. Although Mualani's current performance was very good for a four-star, he couldn't praise her too much; spending half a minute introducing her was already generous.
He would instead focus on crafting clever rhymes to roast Kinich's questionable mechanics.
Just then, the Special Program began introducing Kinich:
"Next, we would like to introduce Kinich from the Scions of the Canopy, a five-star Pyro character…"
"Good. Kinich is still a five-star."
Seeing that Kinich's rarity remained unchanged, Fan Shu let out a small sigh of relief.
If Kinich had also been changed to four-star, then the remaining half of his video would be useless.
Or rather, there would be no roast video to make at all.
"Wait…"
Fan Shu frowned at the green-clad youth accompanied by a yellow pixel dragon.
"A Pyro character?!"
Kinich… weren't you Dendro?
How did you become Pyro?!
[Wait, how did Kinich become Pyro?]
[Didn't all the leaked videos show him as Dendro?]
[Look! In the demo, his Elemental attacks are green—it's clearly Dendro!]
[No, look carefully. His attacks have a clear Burning effect.]
Fan Shu leaned closer to the screen. Although Kinich's attacks were green, they clearly carried a burning combustion effect.
He really was Pyro.
[Kinich, why is your fire green?]
[Heavenly Flame?]
[Holy crap, it's Heavenly Flame!]
[Black hair, young man, Claymore user, with an old companion following him—it's definitely Xiao Huohuo!]
While the chat joked around, Fan Shu felt completely numb.
It was one thing for Mualani to become a four-star.
But Kinich actually changed to Pyro.
Now the video he prepared was completely useless. All the damage spreadsheets he made were wasted.
"LEA—KERS!!!"
In the previous version's Special Program, Fan Shu had heard that HoYoverse's security had improved significantly. Even if leakers datamined files, there would be missing data.
Now it wasn't just missing data.
It was outright incorrect.
And twice in a row.
[Fan Shu, now that Kinich is Pyro, is he still strong?]
A meta-focused viewer asked.
Strong?
Of course he's strong.
That's the noble Pyro element.
Don't you understand?
Pyro is top-tier. Claymore is top-tier.
And a Pyro Claymore user is the pinnacle of top-tier.