After guessing that the mechanics shown by the gacha characters in the individual competition were likely the same mechanics they would have when officially released in the event banner, the players began to look forward to the upcoming individual competition even more.
If they were simply crushed by banner characters, the players would definitely not feel good about it.
But when they thought that they would also be able to use Natlan characters to easily defeat enemies in the future, their mood improved instantly.
At worst, they could treat this as a trial experience for new character mechanics.
It was just that this time, the players were the ones playing the role of the monsters.
That being said, getting completely crushed by a Natlan banner character still made it hard to stay calm.
"No, I just switched to Clorinde!"
Xiao Mu looked a little awkward at this moment.
Before the Holy Night of the Return of Fire individual competition, he had adjusted his team once, switching from the Azhdaha brainless spin team to a Clorinde Overloaded team.
Then the Natlan banner character he ran into could actually fly.
The female character named Chasca was riding a gun while flying in the air.
The moment the match started, Chasca flew into the sky on her gun and began attacking Xiao Mu's character from long range.
Fortunately, Xiao Mu often helped viewers clear the Spiral Abyss and frequently dealt with poorly built accounts. He was not the kind of player who, even with strong characters, did not know how to dodge.
The instant the targeting mark locked onto Clorinde, Xiao Mu, even though he had already activated her Elemental Skill, decisively pressed the right mouse button to sprint and evade.
In the next moment, the spot where Clorinde had been standing was struck by several projectiles of different colors. Cyan representing Anemo, red representing Pyro, blue representing Hydro, and ice blue representing Cryo.
Chasca alone can trigger so many elements?
This is even more outrageous than regular enemies!
Isn't it normal for enemies to use multiple elements? Azhdaha can do it too.
But Azhdaha can only use one element at a time. Chasca just triggered at least four elements at once!
The god of Elemental Reactions!
If they design characters like this, HoYoverse must have lost their minds.
The barrage comments filled the screen.
Xiao Mu, however, was struggling.
He brought Clorinde, a character who relies on teammates to trigger Electro-related reactions in order to deal high damage.
But Chasca was flying in the air, and Thoma, who was responsible for applying Pyro, could not hit her at all.
Then Chasca, hovering midair, lightly touched the brim of her hat. Immediately, several bullets of different elements shot toward him.
Xiao Mu tried to control his character to dodge, but those bullets curved midair. Even after he dodged, they curved back and still hit him.
Vaporize, Swirl, Melt. A chain of Elemental Reactions instantly reduced Clorinde's HP to zero.
"I should've replaced Thoma with Chuychu," Xiao Mu said with regret.
Although Clorinde converts healing received from teammates into Bond of Life during combat,
Chuychu was currently the only character capable of applying Pyro from long range.
If he had used Chuychu just now, combined with Fischl's Oz, he could have triggered Overloaded, boosting Clorinde's damage and possibly even securing a counter kill against Chasca.
Even without Thoma, Clorinde would have lacked interruption resistance.
But Chasca deleted her in a single volley, so whether she had interruption resistance did not matter at all.
Xiao Mu, you just got completely crushed by Chasca. What do you think of her strength?
"You…"
Xiao Mu was about to complain about the blunt comment.
But after seeing the other party's ID, he realized it was a long time viewer who frequently gifted Captains, so he immediately forced a smile.
"This kind of thing is hard to judge," Xiao Mu thought for a moment before saying, "First of all, it's impossible for Chasca to deal multiple types of Elemental damage entirely on her own. HoYoverse would not design such an overpowered character."
Isn't Azhdaha overpowered?
"Azhdaha is strong, but that was partly a product of the environment at the time," Xiao Mu said.
Back then, off field characters were too powerful. Their damage could even exceed that of on field main DPS characters, and they did not need to stay on the field to take hits, giving them a natural advantage.
Since off field characters did not absorb damage directly, they did not need defensive investment. In theory, their multipliers should have been lower than on field carries.
However, when characters like Yelan were designed, this issue was not fully accounted for. At high constellations, some off field units could even outperform on field main DPS characters.
Not to mention, a team has four slots. Only one character is on field at a time, while the other three can deal damage from off field.
If you pulled a strong off field DPS, you could practically send a random unit on field and still output massive damage.
This led players to prioritize pulling off field DPS characters over on field ones.
Yet most of the five star characters HoYoverse released were on field main DPS.
To maintain sales for this role, HoYoverse had to significantly raise the ceiling of on field DPS characters and ensure they clearly surpassed off field units.
Lyney, released before Azhdaha, had respectable damage, but his damage dealing mechanics were not outstanding.
When Azhdaha was introduced, he had both raw damage and smooth mechanics. He could even spin in place, finally surpassing Yelan and other off field characters.
It used to be said that if you could not fit into Empress Yelan's team, it was your problem. After Azhdaha's release, it became other people's problem if they could not fit into Azhdaha's team.
Of course, the real situation was more complicated. There were also factors such as the Sumeru version attempting to suppress power creep. But fundamentally, it stemmed from the imbalance between on field and off field characters, while HoYoverse continued to release more on field units.
"Although Azhdaha is strong, there probably will not be another character that outrageous," Xiao Mu said. "From Kinich's damage mechanics, you can see that future on field characters will have sufficient output, possibly even exceeding Azhdaha, but they will come with stricter conditions."
"If Kinich cannot trigger Burning, his damage drops significantly. I think Chasca should follow the same pattern."
"From what we just saw, Chasca is likely an on field main DPS as well, and there is a noticeable interval between each instance of damage."
From Xiao Mu's perspective, Chasca seemed to require a few seconds of aiming before firing. As long as the opponent dodged quickly enough, they could avoid being hit.
"This is probably the designer's restriction on Chasca. A long aiming time, attacks that can be dodged, and from her damage pattern, there does not seem to be much room for skill based optimization."
That was Xiao Mu's analysis based purely on personal experience.
What he did not know was that Chasca's attacks behaved differently when fighting players compared to fighting regular enemies.
When Chasca fought regular enemies, her bullets hit instantly with no travel time, making them impossible to dodge.
Caelus considered that if players could not dodge Chasca's attacks in PvP, their characters might all be eliminated before they even understood the mechanics. So he deliberately adjusted her projectiles in player matches to allow them to be dodged.
Drawing the conclusion that Chasca had major damage flaws based on this current situation would inevitably prove to be a misjudgment in the future.
...
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