The Sad State of the Cryo Element in Genshin Impact

[@VarsII]

Small Rant: YOU CAN NOT JUST GIVE US TWO OF THE HOTTEST SKINS IN THE GAME FOR TWO OF THE BEST WAIFUS IN THE GAME AND THEN NEVER LET PEOPLE BE ABLE TO BUY THE CHARACTERS THE SKINS ARE MEANT FOR 😭 #FreeShenhe

[@Josh-qt5zi]

Nah Hoyo be like this is the new 5 star hydro

[@kwayke9]

The worse thing is that they KNOW cryo's terrible currently, hence the Shenhe situation 🤡

[@Thewindyfan]

FR LIKE I NEED MY BUSTY SHENHE

[@matthewsarson6934]

Yeah its just weird at this point. Even Shenhe's first rerun set a record for longest time without a banner.

[@joeltoomer3332]

@@Thewindyfansame I need her c1

[@TerraTheWise]

You know it’s bad when you can’t even freeze the boss literally made out of water but every other hydro based reaction works on it.

[@Starberry7]

Which is so weird that you can’t freeze it. It’s body is literally made out of water.

[@cocoapuff_x]

like even making it frozen for one second would make such a difference

[@Shokukun]

When cryo is applied on your character it slows them down. No wonder cryo characters haven’t had a rerun in so long

[@Josh-qt5zi]

I never was attached to Ice as an element I was usually attached fire,water,Air,Electric and for so reason plants

[@someoneinasia]

nice one

[@foto-nio2913]

Ah, but when frozen drops in...💀

[@ldland2721]

​​@@Josh-qt5zi ah just the meta elements i see

[@Josh-qt5zi]

@ldland2721 earth I wasn't in to because it usually tough bulky guys so there for it boring

[@vj6078]

Cryo characters not getting a rerun in over a year is honestly 60% of its downfall 😭😭

[@lancekot5523]

Sadly but no

[@gloomy6379]

@lancekot5523 They are characters who are clearly loved, and our cryo characters. People waited for Eula for so long that they just saved for her. Wriothesley is a strong and loved character, but he was overshadowed by the strongest in-game DPS and Hydro Archon. And dont get me started on Ayaka mains and their love for her

[@DrWall28]

@@lancekot5523 abyss tailor enemies to make banner characters better, so no cryo banners makes them worse overall.

[@MuhaamadAreeb]

No it's not, the characters themselves are not relevant enough

[@matthewsarson6934]

I feel like the main thing now is how trash Blizzard Strayer is compared to OC and MH. Especially with Boss's not being able to get frozen. Sure Wriothesley is isn't locked to it, but his damage numbers are just kinda meh.

[@semconteudo391]

Cryo be like: • melt: sorry we don’t have decent pyro or cryo off fielders • Freeze : sorry the enemy is Immune •Super conduct : 💀 • Shatter : 💀💀💀 •Crystallize and swirl: No difference in comparison with electro, pyro and Hydro . • Dendro : I will ignore your existence.

[@mactartaglia]

xiangling watching you from her throne after seeing "we don't have decent pyro off fielders": Gouba,get them

[@Shane_A_M]

@@mactartagliaI know this is a hot take, but Xiangling doesn’t apply Pyro fast enough. If you just go all out with a Ganyu/Shenhe core for example, between the bursts and the charged attacks, Xiangling doesn’t keep up enough to allow the Cryo girlies to Melt, Xiangling is the one melting herself, which is good for her, but it doesn’t make the Cryo girlies look good here. Xiangling is selfish, this is truly Xiangling Impact.

[@mactartaglia]

​@@Shane_A_Mthey actually can,shenhe doesn't need to melt anyway and for ganyun you can use xiangling alone or with nahida for em buff and burning

[@camfunme]

@@Shane_A_M What crazy rotation are you using? Bennett Xiangling, can keep up with Ganyu Shenhe, unless you're putting up Ganyu's ult field or something, or you're not standing next to the enemy and only hitting with every second Xiangling blade spiral? (P.S. Moving in the opposite direction of Pyronado's spin will increase the number of hits.)

[@Shane_A_M]

@@camfunme Exactly, putting up Ganyu’s ult field should be something she is allowed to do on these teams, but she can’t.

[@8ig0r86]

You know Hoyo hates Cryo when the only freezable boss in the game was never put in Abyss

[@Laserstormelpies]

(who's the only freezable boss? :o)

[@ahamkara8080]

@@Laserstormelpies The Chenyu Vale boss

[@SuperHaoken]

​@@ahamkara8080true 😅

[@Alastor-x]

Freeze as a reaction was one of the biggest mistakes in early Genshin. It trivializes mechanics and content, and was destined to be soft nerfed from the beginning. The same can be said for Venti's burst, which is another poorly designed mechanic. Newer enemies are either heavier or placed far apart.

[@Safineya]

​@@ahamkara8080 The who? Ni idea who that is.

[@bjornnilsson2941]

I guess Mihoyo were so traumatized by the Morgana team they threw both Venti and the cryo element in the trash and never want to bring them back 💔

[@Reubenture]

What's the morgana teM

[@chiefplayground7822]

​@@ReubentureGanyu,Mona,venti and diona

[@Safineya]

​@@chiefplayground7822 Diona wasn't even mandatory. Why need sustain if freeze lol.

[@thatoneweebguy6379]

​@@Safineyabattery

[@Danny_B13]

@@Safineya SHe was the battery, later replaced by Rosaria when she got released

[@GTsvetkovski]

Hoyo really gave cryo the cold shoulder. The element has been frozen in the same spot ever since 2.6 with Shenhe. The lack of support has had a chilling effect for all characters really.

[@enviousdragon9109]

Nice puns

[@Safineya]

Those puns gave me the shivers....Though they are pretty cool.

[@griffedesuie3844]

Shenhe is 2.4..

[@LiterallyJustAnActualPotato]

Best comment

[@GTsvetkovski]

@@griffedesuie3844 I forgor 💀

[@TheAAJYu]

The only thing these days that Cryo is top tier in is not having reruns for their characters. First Eula, now Shenhe and even Wriothesley and Charlotte… 😢

[@dreamsandhopes6802]

You forgot ganyu...

[@1gniel]

And Ayaka

[@rydertru82]

And Childe even tho he hydro he's the only reason why I came back 😭🤧

[@TheSylveonSurfer]

It's a good thing that I despise all but four Cryo units (Ganyu, Chongyun, Freminet, and Rosaria). Their lack of presence means nothing to me. Eula and Ayaka, specifically, are two of my least favorite characters in the game. That's right, I'm a hater. 💯 lmao

[@flying-ship]

​@@1gnielAyaka at least had a longest banner in Genshin history 😂

[@InmateOmighty]

Can’t wait for Citlali to be Cryo Faruzan with terrible efficiency unless you get her C6 bait 🥰🥰🥰

[@MrSquishy0]

That's why i hope she's a 5 star

[@atinymeow6814]

Thing is we have a cryo Faruzan, but even then cryo is in a bad situation

[@jakseros1486]

that's already shenhe

[@kwayke9]

@@MrSquishy0 she has to be. She's the only playable character in her tribe, so make her a 4 star and you run into problems regarding tribe quests

[@silverX3870]

She's a 5 Star

[@Zedrinbot]

Seeing how Zenless handled their ice element with anomaly buildup really makes me think that could've been an alternate way for cryo to work on bosses. While basic enemies could be frozen im mediately, if something is has CC resistance, they instead need multiple applications of cryo for a brief freeze, and the freeze is shorter based on how tenacious the unit is. Would've been better than the all-or-nothing approach we got.

[@juice6521]

This is the problem with gatcha. You can't just change mechanics because it's false advertising.

[@jetkirby3981]

They did make a brief freeze on some of the Local Legends in Genshin, I think this approach is fine personally

[@RandomPerson-cf3gt]

​@@juice6521they already buffed transformative reactions already, how is buffing another false advertising?

[@Zedrinbot]

@@juice6521 They can't change character stats, however they have had a history of adjusting and changing mechanics outside of the characters themselves. Geo for instance got buffed fairly early on, and everything was changed by the addition of dendro. They wouldn't even need to do a sweeping overhaul, mind you, a bare minimum would be to just introduce new enemies (particularly bosses) that have intermittent resistance to freeze, where it builds up on them over time, rather than the binary of "can / can't be frozen." Or, a new character or artifact set that benefits from applying freeze (whether or not it can actually CC to the target; bosses can still have the 'frozen' effect without any of its CC applying).

[@zente3003]

Capitano and Citlali have some work to do

[@johnal8319]

my ideal cryo buffs considering most of the points raised in the vid: - enemies affected by cryo attack and move slower, - cryo applies a frostbite debuff. frostbite shaves chunks of hp after x stacks (like how limbs stop working off due to hypothermia/ brittle stuff crumbles in the cold). frozen enemies get frostbite stacks faster. - and finally, exploding dendro cores cause shatter

[@sty_x.]

except for the last one i agree. i play a team with wrio,kokomi,nahida and kazuha it's a very comfy where enemies get frozen and kokomi's jelly fish causes freeze as well as activate bloom cores making dendro cores cause shatter would make this team very bad. moreover i don't think there is any team that would want dendro and cryo teammates trying to cause shatter

[@sleet9289]

isn't the first one already a thing though? pretty sure that's what the cryo debuff does, though i don't think it works on bosses and the like.

[@therranolleo468]

"exploding dendro cores cause shatter" that one Fridge Kaveh main in the corner: "WOOHOO!"

[@ankylosaurus9000]

Cryo already slows enemies down, it is just not good enough of a debuff to matter much

[@revanknightjedi172]

Does Pyro reset frostbite?

[@danielferrieri7434]

If Cryo Characters are meant to be cold, why are almost all of them so goddamn hot?!

[@portiasnowdon9443]

Honestly. Wriothesley, Shenhe, Kaeya and Capitano? YES PLZ

[@incrusio801]

Alt+F4 thyself

[@Safineya]

​@@incrusio801 "Refund the oxygen you waste each day" is better imo. 😂

[@hurawra9086]

i think what killed freeze is that its more easier to shred hydro shield using dendro than freezing it.

[@clarapomegranate7179]

High key we need a Chevreuse for superconduct one for one. Imagine giving a massive buff to attack, cryo damage, electro damage, and physical damage.

[@-libertyprimev1-902]

That's what we were expecting with Citlali, Purple Outfit+Cryo... Though with some Leak Details I won't spoil that seems a bit less likely.

[@fizito_]

xilonen's release being the geo rebirth and making cryo now the worst element is crazy

[@KelumKey]

She is not buff Geo actually

[@-libertyprimev1-902]

​@@KelumKeyin fact she buffs Cryo's Crit Dmg with C2, and of course Res Shread.

[@lecaptaine7945]

@@KelumKey she is, but not for everyone. She won't be much of a buff for Itto, but she will be for Navia, even tho she doesn't need a buff

[@MrSquishy0]

Shatter should have increased sheild break efficiency regardless of element... a man can dream

[@sheepnamedpig9655]

Still convinced they're gonna bring back superconduct and physical damage when we get snezhnaya

[@noobbll]

Even capitano might be physical dps with possibly him being cyro and bloodstained set if he released in natlan

[@VeliaOwO]

I really hope it :(

[@tonyinfinite5174]

people said that with Pyro and Natlan look what happened, we got a dinosaur gimmick with Mavuika being the only Pyro unit in the whole damn nation and Pyro of course is still ass

[@foto-nio2913]

We can only pray but it would most likely not happening

[@Siecyl]

​@@tonyinfinite5174 "Pyro is still ass"? There's plenty good Pyro carries, we're missing enablers or off-fielders for other reactions tho. And also we did get what many people were saying, characters and teams who use burning as a reaction to work (Kinich and Emilie) they didn't buff the reaction itself, but it's getting some use now. There is a chance that they revisit some of the forgotten/worse Cryo archetypes close to Shneznaya

[@mehedi8331]

They are saving cryo meta for sneznaya 😇😇

[@CelestialTraveler01]

Yes

[@sleet9289]

yeah, they probably already have a plan of what to do but are just putting it off till then.

[@karsonkammerzell6955]

It tracks. The only thing more consistent than seeing these 'worst element' videos is a complete change of opinion when a new region gets dropped, lol.

[@someoneinasia]

of course, the fact that we still doesn't have cryo xingqiu/yelan 4 years into the game.

[@weregretohio7728]

No doubt. They will have some character mechanic like how Navia circumvents Geo, bigger numbers, things like that, and we'll pretend again that things are fixed.

[@Ripperonis]

It's such a fall from grace, even Geo is better than Cryo right now and that shit is just Yellow Physical.

[@jevousdse32]

I mean tbh navia is the one who revived geo but before that it was just ..... yeah

[@InmateOmighty]

@@jevousdse32 I wouldn’t say Navia “revived Geo”, she just saved herself from the horrors of being a Geo character

[@ThornsDroighorn]

@@jevousdse32 Xilonen is rlly gonna change the general view of geo. Especially for future geo characters.

[@sunnypa7101]

Geo is still the worst element. Only 3 characters are carrying it(xilonen, zhongli and navia).

[@ShadowNavi82]

I wouldnt say Geo is good, it's more the good characters in Geo don't care about their geo

[@Joseko_T]

As someone who invested a lot of my primogems to get C6 R1 Ayaka, it really sucks to have her element left forgotten, hopefully Snezhnaya will bring some change to this.

[@a0.457]

;-; i feel you. got her C6R2, and no Shenhe, Furina is better with other chars. her synergies... sigh, wonder what tsaritsa will add to cryo. imagine CD reduction.

[@therranolleo468]

honestly if you have C6 R1 any limited DPS it doesn't matter if your element gets shafted that bad, you still have enough raw firepower to clear Abyss easily even with using a hodgepodge of semi-descent support

[@Toqrainbow]

@@therranolleo468 ​ when their teams haven't evolved or improved in a century it still sucks

[@mohammedbaig9569]

Fall off so bad it needs to be studied lmao. They basically gave freeze the same treatment as venti, they couldn't weaken their CC, so they just started making enemies immune to that CC altogether

[@yuvaleliav3709]

it makes sense that 1 pyro archon would open the door for pyro application for cryo teams and 2 cryo is the next nation so it will get its time to shine in the next region

[@flockinify]

Just make it slow down but not stop boss enemies.

[@BotanVal]

You're actually sort of missing the boat on what made freeze a top meta team back in day (and why its so bad now). The freeze effect itself wasn't what made these teams broken, it was that freeze enabled 4p Blizzard Strayer which at the time was by far the strongest single character artifact buff in the game. Back then where many top dps units had high ER requirements, balancing crit stats was one of the biggest challenges for practically everyone, and so the fact that Ayaka and Ganyu both got a free 55% crit rate bonus gave them a huge leg up on everyone else. Freeze teams were balanced around this to make up for the fact that the reaction itself gave no inherent damage amplifiers. The biggest issue for freeze teams now is that blizzard strayer got powercrept by marechausee/obsidian Codex. While the crit bonus for all 3 of these is around the same, marechaussee/codex let you run characters with actual amplifying reactions, vs freeze that doesn't inherently provide any damage bonuses. With spiral abyss being a dps check against the clock, even if bosses were freezable, you'd be better off running actual damage amplifying reactions to get the faster clear. Freeze has the additional drawback of being terrible in multi-wave since its a setup reaction. With the direction the game has gone, I have a hard time thinking of any way they can make freeze viable from a damage perspective again.

[@k.chajel1770]

Save Cryo......Capitano!!!!

[@DoomSlingerGAME]

Freeze should give a temporary def reduction to enemies, shatter should scale with atk

[@giangh1010]

I like the way HSR handed freeze. It delays enemy action, and in certain modes you can stack layers of ‘freeze’ to cause dissociation, which does additional damage. It helps the reaction from being less binary and inert by giving it additional layers and damage. Whether this could be applied practically into an open world combat system like Genshin. We will have to wait and see what they do with Snezhnaya.

[@NeuviletteBR]

It always impresses me how a game made arround the elemental reactions in combat can be so bad at executing elemental reactions during combat. First, they clearly made the game thinking that the physical “element” would be a thing, seeing how super conduct and shatter work, and then gave up on that. So we have 2 useless reactions, electrocharged and shatter. Then they make freeze, THE ONLY REACTION in the whole game that can be negated simply because said enemy cant be frozen, there is no enemy that can’t be vaporized or burgeoned, for example. So we are at 3 useless reactions. Them they make crystalize, a reaction that can only be buffed by elementap mastery, but NO GEO CHARACTER can make use of EM, so 4 useless reactions. Then they inteoduce dendro, and burning, but wait, burning already existed, and did good damage, but for some reason when it was out turn to play with burning hoyo nerfed its damage to oblivion. So in a game that revolves around elemental reactions for its combat we have 5 reactions that are useless, how did they tank it so bad?

[@meikkuikamuzu5869]

Newer geo charachers use crystallize in their kits And burn is good lol it is good pyro app and kinich and emilie

[@OC_]

Xilonen has made me realize that while elements have their issues, they mostly suffer from a lack of characters and/or artifacts. Part of the reason hydro is so good is because they keep releasing new hydro characters. And Anemo without the VV set would just be a crowd control element. Genshin could release a new cryo set that reduces the enemy's defense after freeze is triggered. Or a character like Nilou, but for the Shatter reaction.

[@hmmmmm6907]

Ok, here is a way to solve the freeze not being effective against bosses. They can make a character or a artefact set that boosts atk or dmg bonus after triggering freeze bast on if the target is frozeen or not after the attack. For exampel if a character in the party triggers freeze and the attack dosn's freeze the enemy boost the dmg bonus of the equept character by 7% for 10s can stack up to 4 times. If it dose freeze the enemy boost the characters atk by 9% for 10s can stack up to 4 times.

[@dustinabigan2776]

The only way I see Cryo regaining relevance in the meta would be if either a new broken Cryo unit comes out (maybe with the Tsaritsa) or Superconduct gains a use case, although by extension that means needing to revive Physical Damage as well. I just don't see Freeze regaining its dominance unless Hoyoverse goes out of its way to release chunks of units that can be frozen. At this point I only use Rosaria and Layla after all this time is because using both gives you +30% Crit Rate to hypercarries (Rosaria's burst and Cryo Resonance).

[@gothemcloud]

You forgot to mention the Artifact power creep. Blizard Strayer giving 20-40% crit rate was huge compared to most of the artifact sets available at 1.0.

[@gilroyscopa]

The easiest fix is non-freezable enemies being slowed in their animations instead.

[@jakeryan2805]

Hoyo made a huge mistake by not allowing dendro to react with cryo, anemo, or geo. It was their chance to fix lack of reaction potency with those elements, and yet they only gave love to hydro, and electro with dendro. And one of cryos two reactions is super conduct which has physical res reduction, yet only two characters take any kind of advantage with physical damage. And entire reaction basically useless for 99% of the characters.

[@CreamyNality]

Scarcity so Tsarista can 'fix' it later.

[@RaffoPhantom]

One huge missed opportunity to make cryo relevant again was to not give it a reaction with dendro. Before dendros release I had the idea of dendro and cryo reacting into permafrost which created a big field underneath the reacting enemy that slows them and reduced cryo resistance/increases cryo damage by characters within the field. But there is absolutely NOTHING. Almost everything else reacts with each other (except anemo and geo obviously). This is huge copium but what if we get a retroactively added dendro cryo reaction next near after we beat the Tsaritsa in the story, she snaps out of whatever delusion she is in and feels love again, slowly thawing her territory, letting plants grow again, thus thematically allowing for a reaction between the two elements. As I said, it is huge copium but it genuinely bugs me that those two elements do not interact whatsoever.

[@Made-In-Heaven]

Pass me some of that

[@therranolleo468]

A way I think they can change Cryo is changing superconduct into a transformative reaction, they've already landed every electro-adjescent reactions into transformative ones so why does superconduct need to be left out as the "physical booster" Make it so that it slows down enemy movement (instead of completely stopping it) and let it proc electro Dots on the enemy or something, something along the line of Shock anomaly from ZZZ, then you can make a character who's niche is like Kafka, instead of waiting a bit for all DOT to procs, you can use their skill/burst to immediately detonate all instances of DoT on that enemy while also refreshing the duration, This will also play into fun teams like ShockOverMelt with Cryo Electro and Pyro teams (mostly Xiangling). This will work in tandem with how a lot of electro and cryo characters have off-field application and consistent uptime, they're basically wasting a good combination of elements here because the payoff of playing the two is nonexistent outside of Eula. Physical is dead at this point, and serving an entire reaction for it has no purpose other than just pleasing the minor crowds who mains Eula or even...dare I say...Freminet

[@ChristianKessler4185]

the solution is simple, change simply Freeze into an Alternative Reaction that triggers in case the enemy is immune to freeze, call it for example "Frostbite" and give this a unique new effect so that playing cryo n hydro agaisnt bosses isn't just totally useless, but has for bosses an helpful new reaction, which is special for boss fights and could under certain situations be triggered also for normal battles eventually, if you use for example a character in team with a passive, that changes Freeze to Frostbite, while the character is in party. Et voila, Cryo Characters would become instantly alot more useful again. Frostbite: Enemies affected by Frostbite receive 50% more Critical DMG and are 15% easier to hit critically. and instantly Cryo would provide with Hydro a nice DPS helpful reaction for everybody.

[@TheEulaFan]

The only thing physical need rn is the electro sub dps who ACTUALLY DEALS PHYSICAL DMG OFF-FIELD WITH RARE ELECTRO APPLICATION. Because, like in Eula's best team (Eula, Raiden, Furina, Mika) only she gets benefit from 40% physical Def. Shred. No one else.

[@Axterix13]

Disagree. Physical's problem isn't the amount of damage it can put out, in theory. It's the elemental application. The ability to rip through shields. Between Superconduct effectively meaning phys characters are either electro or cryo, and the poor elemental application rates a good chunk of the characters have, you're screwed when you run into shields. And so many enemies have shields. No other damage type gets suboptimal enemy line-ups, because there's always something that hoses physical. And yet those fools gave us a "phys support" that has some of the absolute worst elemental application of any character in the game. Really, superconduct needs to be changed to something universal like a defense debuff, with the same damage as Overload, to free physical from some of its shackles. Of course, we do need more physical characters as well, as Eula's kit has issues and there's no fixing that. That said, I don't think there's a point to trying to fix physical. Genshin releases characters pretty slowly, and 8 damage types is probably two too many. As is, physical is basically geo, but worse, and geo, as an element, isn't great either.

[@calico3202]

Maining both a geo (itto) and cryo (wriothesley) team in the abyss all i can do is shrug when people try to find out which is worse. They still get me through the abyss and i find them both more comfortable to use there even though i have a well-built alhaitham team 🤷‍♀️ The only thing you learn is to pull for cryo chars on their debut banner because you won't be seeing them for years after :'D

[@MuhaamadAreeb]

It's the characters, not the element. They could release a character tomorrow that allows pyro characters to consistently melt and boom. Literally the best use of xingqiu yelan gone. Instantly so many characters best teammate and instantly meta breaking

[@Made-In-Heaven]

My guess is that tsarita will be the one, archons generally are future proof so having a cryo character who applied a lot of field + maybe some buffing

[@lisk0207]

only 1:40 and xianling already mentioned

[@darkroast9907]

Mihoyo: Give Xiangling a Cryo delusion.

[@jm-]

I think, like how Geo crystallise scales off EM, the freeze time (and if it even works) should also scale off EM That way, we don't need to always have enemies just immune to the core design of Cryo.

[@OsaZen992]

At this point I think that the cryo element as a whole can only be helped by releasing characters specifically designed for cryo's reactions. Like a pyro character with really fast pyro application that buffs the team when you do melt reactions. A hydro support that has long lasting consistent application and buffs characters when you freeze enemies. And a character that buffs physical damage and characters when you cause a super conduct reaction. All of these could give cryo characters a chance to shine in todays meta, when everything else just gets better and better. And of course they could just release a character that can actually use the current supports for melt without having some sort of problem like Ganyu really wanting interuption resist and not being able to use burst, or Wriothesley not always getting his empowered charged attack if he has a healer, but needing a healer to get his skill buff. It also doesn't help that at this point cryo has had the 3 longest times between banners (Counting chronicled wish, andtrying to account for time additional time added by delayed patches, but I could be wrong) from Ganyu, Eula, and Shenhe tying with longest time without a banner from Eula with her absence from 5.1. And if none of them are in 5.2 either, then Ganyu will be tied with Eula for 2nd longest without a rerun. Cryo also has the 3 characters that took the longest between release and first rerun with Ganyu, Wriothesley, and Shenhe. And as of writing this Shenhe has been out for just over 1000 days, and she still hasn't had a second rerun, while every single version 3 character has had 2 reruns including Baizhu who released almost 500 days after Shenhe.

[@wevibin375]

Cryo resonance update. Add text that says - enemies immune to freeze, take %15 more damage and lose 5% movement speed, from cryo attacks while infused with hydro. That's all it would take

[@punstartracer]

I think a simple way to fix Cryo is to add a unit that adds a "hype" mechanic to Genshin (Similar to ZZZ's Assault anomaly, or Eula's sword dance) basically making basic damage scale into one large attack after a while. Cryo's high on-field permanence would mean that the "hype" is always rolling, and after a while you will nuke no matter what, it could also work for Mono teams in general, but knowing Mihoyo a mechanic like this would have a very tight nit timer, only making Cryo's high attack rate units fulfill 😔😔

[@lathamtk]

I think they're hard at work designing gimmicky mechanics for Snezhnaya and Snezhnayan characters that will somehow act as a crutch for all of Cryo. Kinda like the penuma/ousia (which was gimmicky, but not impactful) and nightsoul blessing in Natlan (which is both gimmicky as all hell, and sadly impactful). Every archon so far has been the best support of its given element, so I assume Bron- i mean the Cryo Archon will be no different. Snezhnaya will be their "go big or go home" make or break ultimate cryo support arc.

[@Reihjart]

All they need to do is implement "Brittle" applied after 3 applications of freeze/electo. and it makes enemies take more cryo damage and phys damage. Very simple, but it will work.

[@nfrance999]

I just think it’s funny because, it’s not even a hard problem to solve. Enemy can’t be frozen? They take increased crit damage. Idk what % or what # is balanced, but it’s really THAT easy to make cryo usable. The biggest reason people don’t use cryo, is it just doesn’t do anything 95% of the time. All the reactions suck ass except for melt, and well we are 4 years in and still praying for an off field pyro that properly enables melt. Using cryo at this point is you may as well run any mono element, and most of the other elements have better mono teams. Hydro has some of the strongest units in game, pyro has Bennet, electro even has Sara if you wanted to go that far, geo is usually mono anyway, Dendro as an element is basically made for reactions so plying it mono sort of defeats the core purpose of what it’s all about. Anemo has mono teams even because of Faruzan. Cryo? It’s the only mono team where it’s dedicated support is a 5* (Bennet, Faruzan, Sara, Gorou, all 4*, hydro is overflowing with strong units so they don’t need it, and as I said Dendro doesn’t really exist for the mono play style) Point is, cryo just needs to be able to do SOMETHING, since it’s outpaced legit everywhere. Give freeze a secondary reaction of “Brittle” if it’s an unfreezable unit and they take more damage or something. It’s not a complex problem to solve but Hoyo either ignores it, or treats it like it is.

[@Pardo_Giftshop]

weird thing about Cyro is mostly a support element reaction ,..Superconduct,Frozen,Shatter...and 1 dps reaction which is Melt..hoping after Chitali and Caps arrive they can make Cyro have a spot again

[@sleet9289]

Honestly, cryo didn't really fall of in my opinion, there were times when cryo characters were popular like Ayaka and Ganyu but the actually element has never really been meta. if you look at the reactions it has, there's melt which is pretty good but has always been overshadowed by vaporize, than there's freeze which is pretty much a comfort reaction, like using Zhongli's shield and it not working on bosses will always drag it down, and of course superconduct, which need not be explained. so cryo is really just a meh element, it's never really been bad in my opinion but it's never been good either. I reckon they'll do the same thing in Snezhnaya that they're doing with Natlan, making a bunch of characters that work well with cryo, like a pyro Mualani that could make use of all the cryo supports or a hydro character that only works well in freeze teams, stuff like that, i think cryo will become a lot more popular when Snezhnaya comes out.

[@a0.457]

Morgana? sad thing I got ganyu after Morgana fell from its glorious days.

[@Ulquiorra_Cifer]

just imagine, the tsaritsa have superfreeze which freezes even bosses and shreds resistances

[@allentayoto7387]

The only thing I know is, Supercharge needs to be revamped. Like, the only actual reaction that helps Cryo deal more damage is melt. Pretty much all other elements aside from the universal Anemo and Geo can boost their damage through various reactions. If they don't do anything to fix Cryo by the time Sneznahya drops, it'd be a freaking disaster. Like, imagine if the Tsaritsa drops and she turns out to be way worse than Dehya HAHAHA

[@endyjgb1527]

i feel like if they slightly change freeze for enemies who cant be frozen then it could make the element better again, if an opponent becomes "frozen" even if they aren't actually frozen then they animations could be slowed down by like 60% or something, it would still be weaker then actually freeze but would allow cryo to utilize freeze on targets who cant be fully frozen

[@synchrosaint4830]

I believe they are waiting for Szechnaya to finally focus on Cryo and Physical. We'll get the broken supports for them then. They already fixed Electro and Geo is now playable outside of Zhongli. Let's be patient guys.

[@lucasrodriguez550]

Cope

[@mikkelsalling1422]

No its not cool to have the best element Fall of this hard

[@matthewsarson6934]

Its just really sad honestly. I pulled Shenhe on her last rerun along with Mistsplitter for my Ayaka. Since then i have used them in abyss 0 times, not even freaking one abyss was really good for her. Often she ends up being a legit throw pick given the amount of cryo sheilds. At this point i just can't imagine why they keep doing it. To top it off MH and OC flat out powercreep Blizzard Strayer the one really good thing Cryo used to have.

[@phantasy675]

One thing you forgot to mention that may have been worth bringing up is what they could potentially do with Snezhnaya, especially since it is the nation of Cryo. I know it’s a long way away and Citlali will be coming sooner, but maybe even a little speculation about what they could do with that nation. I think many of these were good points and I agree with all of them. Cryo is my favorite element aesthetic wise but im disappointed about how little attention it’s got. Great video as always tho

[@rire6226]

I saw some leaks about a cryo polearm support user that has white hair and red ropes. We must not feel sad as I think that next character will be saving cryo!

[@Vel5697]

nah cuz when i played the game this was legit either the best or second best, this randomly pops up in my recommended and all of a sudden its worse than geo lmao

[@NodokenStar-k917]

13:09 These are the words I’ve dreaded hearing ever since the day Cryo is slowly falling out of relevance. I may be coping but I pray to the Tsaritsa can make the element good again when we get to Schneznhya.

[@Botar48]

Tsarista is going to save us when we arrive at Shneznaya. This was revealed to me in a dream.

[@something8886]

They can do the Kinich/Neuv approach! Where a melt reaction buffs the characters damage by insane ammounts

[@lunaredelvour2972]

I'm a cryo main. most of my roster are cryo characters. I love the characters and will live and die on this icy hill and am holding out for snezhnaya to give cryo the boost it needs. coping hard with burn-melt wrio/yaoyao/kirara/dehya right now lmao I wonder if hoyo could introduce some kind of 'frostbite' elemental reaction or effect to help. like, if you're exposed to too much cryo in a short period, you rapidly begin to lose hp, kind of like you're freezing to death even though you're not 'frozen.' this opens up the potential for mono cryo teams and also opens the door to freeze teams still having a leg to stand on even if the target(s) is/are unfreezeable (idk about you but I tend to start shivering quicker if I'm wet compared to when I'm dry - and hoyo obviously knows this, because if a character is wet in dragonspine, they accumulate sheer cold even faster iirc!!)

[@bubblesparks]

Tbf some of the enemies already have this cryo dmg overtime ur talking abt The fatui cryo guy with big guns creates a frost field that has similar effect to burning The maguu kenki cryo also creates cryo field. Iirc several other 'cryo' bosses have this gimmick as well. I think its a matter of time until a playable char also have this skill

[@lunaredelvour2972]

@@bubblesparks That's true! You're right, there's already a framework for something like this and I clean forgot about that (I hadn't had my morning coffee when I wrote that lol). I still wonder if there would be a way for it to be a sort of 'frozen alt' - if an an enemy that can't be frozen gets applied with hydro and cryo, they deal with 'frostbite' instead where they're taking damage over time. that way, it's not a useless reaction at least on enemies immune to being frozen enemies not immune freeze as normal. enemies that are take cryo damage over time

[@digitalgloop12]

Hoyo always overcotrects. They made dendro traveler too good (by traveler standards), so they made Hydro Traveler a joke. They made their 1st ever standard addition too good so they gimped Dehya. Cryo was doing too well for too long so now Hoyo has decided to punish the whole element.

[@abhiveerbirdi9377]

I really think they'll go the superconduct route with citlali. Maybe proccing superconduct will create explosions, maybe citlali will periodically deal large amounts of physical damage while being off field. I just hope they don't introduce a shatter meta

[@talusslope]

Good video, I feel like you forgot to mention we are going to the cyro area next and getting the cryo archon so I think there is still hope.

[@spadestergaming7016]

Think if they added a debuff like frostbitten to enemies that cant be frozen that increases crit damage they received would help balance it out a bit

[@darakin5172]

An idea i had for freeze was a slow like effect on freeze immune enemies, for simplicity, lets call it chill- If a freeze immune enemy is hit with the frozen effect, inflict chill instead. Chilled enemies have their movements slowed by 50% and deal 10% less damage. This means enemies attack more slowly, and should you get hit, deal less damage. This means less time dodging, an easier time dodging, and more dps. It won't be minecreaft peaceful mode, but it does still reduce risks

[@Superflaming85]

What really gets to me is that even aside from Freeze, both Superconduct and Melt have been getting screwed over in 4.0. (And a little bit of 5.0!) Superconduct/Physical got an incredibly good character kit in concept (and support) in 4.0 and 4.2; Furina's big DMG% buffs and MH mean that phys/cryo hybrid units can actually work thanks to being able to run attack% goblets and a better set for them than the cryo/phys ones, and the kit we got wants Shatter alongside Superconduct, which works well with her! The only problem? The character with said kit is Freminet, a 4* on-field DPS, which means he was dead on arrival because he just does not have the numbers. In terms of Melt, it's been struggling for a while due to the same reasons why Xiangling is good; She's the only Pyro unit who provides enough application on her own for Melt to work. And if you're making a Xiangling team, you can just go for a Xiangling-centric team instead of a Melt team and get better results. This was fixed quite a bit by Dendro and burning, which applied enough Pyro on its own (and didn't react with Cryo), and all was fairly OK...until the end of 4.X, when they introduced Emilie, and 5.0 with Kinich. Now we have the Xiangling issue all over again; Sure, you can run Melt, but you could also pivot to pure Burning and you'll probably do better!

[@alshee7239]

Cryo is dead in all 3 hoyo games 💀

[@Laserstormelpies]

Pela trying her best to carry the weight of an element distrubuted over multiple different universes. And I mean Ellen Lycaon soukaku is supposed to be one of the best zzz teams, right?

[@fr3941]

Ice is pretty good in Hi3

[@eureka5635]

ZZZ might change that. Especially with Miyabi and her being a void hunter, which seems to be the ZZZ equivalent of an Archon or Emanator

[@shakirmorgan4840]

I feel like a Cryo rework would also fix a lot, imagine this: When a freeze reaction hits a target and does not result in freeze, a "glacial" reaction occurs wherein enemies affected receive damage over time, similar to Emily's inclusion giving burning reactions more potential. In order to make it less OP, maybe they could give it similar drawbacks to burning giving dot to allies. With Dendro having spread, quicken, hyperbloom, burgeon, burning etc. I feel like all the other elements which are lacking in presence should be given additional reactions, this would not only increase the possibilities for future characters, but would ensure an issue like this sees long term care. Another interaction I'd love to see is between Pyro and Geo wherein a molten reaction occurs, increasing the ATK and DEF scaling of both elements simultaneously.

[@therealgah777]

Yeah, I started to come to this realization as well. I'm at the point where I don't want to pull or build any more Cryo characters because I have so many, and they all feel so underwhelming that I'm having a hard time slotting them into any teams.

[@anbr7064]

People who think Sneznaya will save old cryo units... It wont happen... they will make new weapons and artifacts and straight out say it works with Sneznaya characters only and that will be it... and I could finally throw my C6 Ayaka next to Qiqi... Also over 500 days of no Shenhe rerun... and they have Audacity to give her skin...

[@Brownyan]

12:02 "They could just release a Cryo screen nuke, they never bothered to try!" *Aloy*

[@shadeblackwolf1508]

I think Wriothesley and Eula could use a Shatter buffer to make them viable. It'll also help the cryo-geo-hydro triplet setup and in the case of the two mentioned before, they'd want an electro for phys shred. Add in a healer that actually supports the style and you've got shatter as a viable goal. Reverse Melt isn't too far from being competative either. Maybe a pyro application healer themed on the phoenix would do it. Ice being left out of the dendro party really hurt the element. It would have been a chance for an amazing new reaction. Long story short, there are several paths to viability for Cryo, that play well into what the game wants to be, and many of them need one character to patch up a niche to make them work, even without freeze, but, freeze really should be properly viable.

[@cayz4474]

Honestly pretty happy about this since I don't really have any cryo built and the two I do are for phys and shield and only 5* is Qiqi. Go Cryo! Keep dying!

[@empressfrozentoes5285]

off topic but i appreciate hearing octopath traveler music in the background of your videos (the frostlands is very fitting)

[@ChirpyMisha]

I haven't watched the video yet, but I think we need a nilou-style cryo character that transforms the freeze reaction into a different and stronger reaction. Maybe like a deep freeze reaction? There's so much possible without changing the normal freeze mechanics. They could even make a character that demands a mono cryo team with some kind of special effect

[@Lennis01]

It seems to me there is a simple fix for this issue, so simple that I wonder why Hoyo hasn't implemented it: Have a freeze reaction apply a debuff to the target, whether it can be frozen or not. Since a superconduct reaction gives a cryo AOE and a 40% reduction to physical defense, have the new freeze reaction do away with the AOE and have it debuff ALL defense by 15%, as well as slow movement/attack speed by 15%. Call this reaction "Frostbite". It helps maintain the spirit of the element by making it harder for the enemy to hurt you while at the same time making it easier to hurt them. (The 15% figure can be adjusted in the interest of game balance - I'm just using it as an example.) This one adjustment to the freeze reaction can restore the cryo element's relevance to the meta. Imagine what an Ayaka freeze team can do with an extra 15% damage and less maneuverable enemies. This debuff can stack with characters' existing debuffs, making certain combinations even more dangerous; think Eula, Ayaka, Yelan, and Lisa. This extra debuff can also elevate the relevance of Physical in the meta.

[@Darkkefka]

I blame Ayaka. Remember when they were going through something and the next patch was delayed for like two months? Her banner was up for a very long time, and everybody pulled her as a result of it. To count mer this and to provoke people to pull new units they made sure that Cryo was ineffective in the endgame contact for a very long time.

[@mikkelsalling1422]

Hard core. Cryo fan here ss one who main ayaka eula plus Reading some comments the solution is pretty simple. For one keep ctilan to phys buffer like just leave mika like the fail he was n give Them faruzan just Lil more spicy for freeze buffer who makes it so enemy Can be frozen for just like ten sek with thier burst plus shenhe buffing is enoug second change cryo res to 40 procent res of all things plus give the fifthteen crit rate free boom the element is good sgsin

[@yatsi8979]

An idea they could try is make a support that: When a character trigger a frozen reaction increase dmg, if the enemy does not become frozen increase dmg by an amount (A shirt ton amount). But maybe Citlai may be the element saving grace who knows.

[@severren1095]

even now I still use Eula Rosaria + Raiden shogun and zhongli to clear abyss did so for years Superconduct + Eula physical res shred, Rosaria res shred, zhongli shield res shred BOOM

[@davidsczepanik72]

I try to use my freeze team at every chance I can! They pretty much carried me in Sumeru and Fontaine. Layla, Kokomi, Kazuha, & Ganyu. Freeze baby-girl team brings life and joy!

[@express-o1041]

It’s so funny because I honestly haven’t even played my Ayaka freeze team in months just in the open world. I genuinely hope Shenhe reruns and we get a new cryo unit

[@UnclePunchalot]

-Freeze reaction is good, the current problem is enemy roster in Abyss, which usually change. Alternative "1/2 freeze" reaction for freeze-immune enemies would be great like -30% slow animation effect (normal cryo decrease animation speed by 15%) + some form of EM scaling to increase its duration or potency. -Melt has enormous potential, eventually devs will release fast off field cryo applicator or second Xiangling. -Superconduct is good on paper, but i think phys shred% or duration of debuff (or both) should scale depending on EM. + we need more physical characters. -Shatter, is very very bad. I think it should deal as much dmg as Dendro Core reactions like Burgeon or give some form of additional effect like the hit that trigger shatter effect always crits. -Swirl is good -Crystalize is piece of dogs#hi@. There is almost no reason to make shields if enemy is already frozen.

[@samb1532]

The only thing that would save the element would be a reaction rework of some type. For instance, if Cryo + Hydro slowed enemies and could apply universally. Or perhaps that effect could apply while not reacting with other elements, allowing you to utilize other reactions while benefitting from Cryo's cc.

[@Tpulse8544]

Cryo not being able to directly be involved in dendro wont stop me from using culinary teams that use the fridge mechanic lol (hyperfridge, curry, etc). Ive been enjoying playing my ayaka in hyperfridge teams in recent abysses. Being able to freeze the freezable enemies while maintaining good core production to hyperbloom on the bosses is very nice.

[@gascar101]

I still use freeze teams in abyss. However, hydro is now the main damage driver with ganyu being the support bot with cinder city artifact.

[@jakemakuch3995]

They really need to make a cyro or freeze status that applies to freeze immune enemies, that way you can maintain the buff from blizzard strayer. As it currently stands if you apply hydro to a boss with cyro on them, you just straight up lose the cyro aura, so instead of going from 35%->55% crit rate boost you go from 35%->0% boost. This to me is the most horrific part, you can't use the set or team that you built against freeze immune enemies

[@Chariotuber]

as someone who's been clearing abyss with ganyu and ayaka for 2 years straight, it's definitely rough right now :') all the coppelius abysses made me lose my mind (at least ganyu manages it in the end)

[@fwakyuuu6111]

Hope snezhnaya will fix this

[@tbib6dw2]

Displaying her mastery over both ice and polearms, The Tsaritsa sends a Cryonado whirling around her. The Cryonado will move with your character for the ability's duration, dealing Cryo DMG to all opponents in its path.

[@wellingtonandrade947]

I legit cried watching the video (don't judge me, i'm soft) cause since the begining, Cryo was my favorite element, i pulled for every character and also tried their weapons, the Morgana Team was my dream team and now i can't use them almost anywhere Some days ago i was playing in multiplayer with some friends and using my Ganyu + Shenhe and they were like "omg that girl is so powerful, i want her" and while in the past i was the first to say "go for it, she's amazing!" what i just said was "i really don't recommend, unless you love her like me, you will find little to no usage for her" and that's sad My last hope is when Snehznaya arrive, they bring back Cryo to the glory it's deserve :(

[@norsegodoflove]

something interesting I think they could do is incorporate a mechanic like dissociation in hsr that can freeze any enemy that has a cryo res below a certain threshold, including bosses. maybe the tsaritsa could do that, just a thought

[@GentleIceZ]

The two worst parts about this are 1) you could have seen this problem a mile away because speed is always the god stat and giving enemies 0 speed was always going to become a problem, 2) the solution is really easy to think up but I have no idea if the devs would or even could do it. Basically, you give freeze a secondary form that only effects enemies that are currently immune to it, let's say def shred for example. But like I said I dunno if that would be a ton of work behind the scenes or not

[@tsuki7064]

what if they made a freeze specific hydro unit, which if your team consists of only hydro and cryo, your freezes can freeze "unfreezable" enemies, and maybe a slight damage buff as cherry on top. thatd make cryo come back