We Need To Address The Power Five Once And For All | Genshin Impact

[@catteo2832]

The weirdest thing about the Power 5 to me is that they all feel like they'd be High school classmates too

[@kingdoom5022]

Bennett fischl: the awkward couple Xianling : the social energetic one Sucrose : the smart introvert Xingqiu : the nerd

[@therranolleo468]

they're 100% Persona-cast coded, if the Traveler was a transfer student moving in from another city, these 5 would've been his pals in whatever misadventures they're doing

[@mentirosa8709]

@@kingdoom5022I’m so glad to hear that other people see Bennett and Fischl as bf and gf too!

[@kingdoom5022]

​@@mentirosa8709 Fischl have a line where she says she have 4 friends , oz , traveller , paimon and Bennett , ironically Bennett birthday comes once each 4 years since he is in 29/2 , its like destiny

[@catteo2832]

@@therranolleo468 OMG I totally see it

[@SeNki3301]

“Vars, this is the third time you’ve shown the Power of Five in class.”

[@bushy9780]

"yes, well I want to make sure you know this for the final exams"

[@Glast04]

LMAOOO

[@eccentricunknown4255]

🤣🤣

[@sirthomasevangelion1258]

Bro is running out of content 😢

[@InmateOmighty]

The entire Genshin subreddit community is literally BEGGING for Mavuika to powercreep Xiangling but that won’t be happening. Even if Mavuika is another off-field Pyro, it’ll just be a Xingqiu-Yelan moment. They’ll be amazing together Update: Ermmm guys… we have a situation…

[@AuraLegend-up8tp]

Yeah...

[@kingdoom5022]

There's no more xingqiu and yelan moment , xingqiu is long gone , now its furina yelan comp

[@NoobletTheUnskilled]

Also, you literally have two off-field Pyro, which means you can add them to different teams in the abyss and not have any drawbacks.

[@Agedude]

Yep! Or it will just free up Xiangling to be used as a DPS again instead of a support. I'm actually looking forward to Mavuika replacing Xiangling as a support so people will stop bitching and I can continue running her as the main DPS in a national team.

[@WongUeHang]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@kingdoom5022 Xingqiu Yelan or just Xingqiu alone still has a place though despite being off most "ceiling" teams, mostly for: 1. When you need a shit ton of hydro e.g. Kuki Hyperbloom, Hu Tao and Xiangling on the same team. 2. You want more comfort especially resistance to interruption while not sacrificing as much dps as going Zhongli. Most obvious example being Xingqiu still being the most popular Hydro teammate for Alhaitham despite Furina + Proto Amber Nahida out-damaging significantly. Same applies for Arlecchino teams.

[@Aguoba3788]

Displaying her mastery over both fire and claymores, Mavuika sends a Sacred Flame whirling around her. The Sacred Flame will move with your character for the ability's duration, dealing Pyro DMG to all opponents in its path.

[@bloody4558]

@@Aguoba3788 that will be terrible. We don't need another pyronado we need AOE ranged pyro support since Xiangling is so freaking restrictive to melee

[@CrystalClouds225]

@@bloody4558 it’s a joke. The comment is parodying Xiangling’s intro thing and replacing her name and weapon w mavuika’s

[@chrissy.v]

Like nilous ring but Pyro?

[@Aguoba3788]

@@chrissy.v dude, its a copypasta. I’m just coping around💀 These Mavuika glazers are wild af

[@Chiron-16m]

​@@chrissy.vnot like that but like furina I hope it turns out to be or even like nahida

[@johnpellegrinoconnors3843]

Anyone who complains about the Power Five needs to take a step back and realize that, the alternative is having characters be churned out and replaced, and I don't know about you but with no 4-star selector in sight that sounds horrendous

[@snowpegasi]

I mean we're a few months out from a 4 star selector, lantern rite

[@saahil0855]

@@snowpegasi Only liyue characters bro...!!

[@o_sagui6583]

that is basically HSR meta in a nutshell, a thing that simply doesn't work for genshin's casual audience

[@furinasimp101]

Welcome to gacha. Powercreep Xiangling already.

[@amandaslough125]

​@@o_sagui6583most gatcha just do power creep. Genshin is in the longevity spot because everything is overall viable.

[@Darksage5555]

Its not that i think you are wrong, its the purpose of the initial units. They exist to be all purpose units. Elemental reaction providers: fischyl, xiangling, xingqiu, kaeya. They exist to provide an element. Buffers: bennet, sucrose. they exist to amplify dmg. Healer: Barbra (enough said) main DPS: Noelle, ninguang. These 2 scale respectively off of def and atk. they exist in the geo state because geo is a somewhat universal dmg type (at the start of the game) and then we have infusion. bennet (C6), chongyun. These roles covers all the bases of the game allowing anyone who has all these characters to cover all possible roles in the game. As new units come out they have to specialize, there is no need for them to be repeats/ Yunjin speeds up atk and buffs, goro buffs def, kuki kinda does it all, yao yao would have been a 1.0 character if Dendro exist, she is basically (power 5) chevruse is the best overloaded buffer and makes it viable. Faruzan is the best possible buffer for anemo hyper carry. candace is an infusion character. I could go on but I think you get my point. We don't need knew characters to be power 5 level, we need nothing. Its about what we want, we should stop using the same teams we have been using for years, I've been building all characters and laughing when I do 100k hits with xinyan, or doing hyper carry chongyun. Genshin is a game, not a competitive game, it is made to have fun, I do coop specifically to take a main dps Lynette into it and see peoples confusion when she hits hard. Almost anything can be very strong, but we need more specificity, not less. we don't need a character to consolidate bennet and xiangling, we need a character that buffs dmg to units affected by the effects of shatter. As crazy as this might look at first glance I think this is the way forward. MORE niche characters.

[@VeliaOwO]

Yeah, exactly!! To me it looks like Vars wants Genshin to have a lot of powercreep just like Starrail, which I wouldn’t be happy about at all. I’m perfectly fine with most of the 4 stars being just okay and not extremely overpowered. And even then there are still many amazing 4 stars coming out every once in a while! I love niche characters like Freminet who focuses on shatter or Chevreuse who is mainly used in overload teams and I wish we would get more in the future! 5 stars will usually be better than 4 stars in general, but if 4 stars fit into a specific niche they don’t have to be op to keep up and be useful :D

[@amersolihin]

Agree, noticed all of them are early characters

[@mr.protagonist5639]

I'd agree if they were actually characters you were guaranteed to get early but anyone who doesn't have those units will just have a bunch of niche characters that are less likely to be useful to them.

[@sohomchatterjee]

Basically you're Mr. Zajef

[@Darksage5555]

@sohomchatterjee ive never watched one of his videos so I have no idea.

[@Agedude]

The fact that they haven't been powercrept out of the meta is SO player-friendly and healthy for the game. These units are the foundation of so many accounts and it would be ridiculous to try to replace them. Hoyo has the right approach for releasing more situational units that can stand up in their own unique ways. I do think every new 4-star should have a similar level of strength as Chevreuse or Faruzan. I built Kachina because I love her but holy moly she doesn't do anything. More good 4-stars yes, better than power 5 no.

[@kingdoom5022]

@@Agedude Kachina can use the broken natlan support set , that alone makes almost better than chiori lol

[@primalaspie]

​@@kingdoom5022math-wise, she is better than a c0 chiori in this particular team

[@KingJH0510]

Idk what you want your kachina to do but she is a very serviceable character I dumped some geo artifacts on her and she does quite decent damage Obviously you would want to use her as a support with the cinders city set, if you dont have xilonen If you do, then its kind of like a kazuha and sucrose situation

[@mikofanboy9711]

If you dont use Nalan dps Kachina actually a much better support than Xilonen agaist the Natlan boss that want you to stay in nightsoul mode to break their shield (Xilonen unless you build dps only able to hit 2 times in her nightsoul mode) Also the Natlan robot boss that spawn 2 wall, only Xilonen and Kachina can easily deal with it She allow Chiori to has 2 doll in double Geo team Good Fav holder for Battery teammate Saying “she doesn’t do anything” seem to be more of your problem than her problem

[@ingridfigueroa7917]

The only issue is Xiangling being the only pyro off fielder. She sucks when you try to use her for her pyro app because of her insane energy requirements and being glued to bennett. Other than that the rest are fine.

[@maodii8102]

i dont really agree here. theres no denying the 'power five', but the only edge they have over the new ones is being so universal. new 4 stars are more specific and niche. but i think thats a GOOD thing and what they designed them as on purpose. yeah there are a few rotten apples like kaveh, but the others are just as good just more specific.

[@Josh-qt5zi]

Honkai star rail 3/4 are sup dps or supported with the sole expectation of Misha who is an 4 star dps aka the Arlan theorem the generic typ of bad,ZZZ only had one new A rank since released in Seth who is an good niche unit in Jane Doe team

[@Ben-v6z3s]

@@Josh-qt5ziwhat does that have to do with Genshin??

[@shutup1037]

Nothing​@@Ben-v6z3s

[@kieranmoon6559]

⁠@@Ben-v6z3sThey’re both hoyoverse games. There’s your connection

[@julieta6138]

I'm not going to lie, I genuinely don't understand why people don't like Kaveh, he's my main DPS on my nilou team and he does a great job...

[@highwaytoheaven99]

I said it once, and I'll say it again: make 4 stars that "enable" certain units or playstyles that would otherwise be unusable. Chevreuse was a step in the right direction. Thanks to her, overload went to an unusable reaction to meta. Now do another Chevreuse, but for freeze, or shatter, or electrocharged, or superconduct, or crystalize. If they just make another Bennett or Xiangling, but stronger, thats just powercreep, and I don't want powercreep to eat Genshin away like its eating HSR.

[@Doctor_Apocalypse]

Well... This is a leak so if you don't want spoilers don't read Ororun will be a serviceable 4 stars character. His niche will be taser teams and electro charge and he does more damage than fischl in aoe scenarios And as a natlan character he can use the cinders city set so he will be good. But there is a catch cuz he has the foundations but no proper team to actually make use of him

[@amandaslough125]

​@@Doctor_ApocalypseI want him so badly. Imma come in here with Yae and Childe because I refuse to believe this "unusable" rhetoric.

[@LizardKingRequiem]

Powercreep is not eating hsr, nice try

[@jjthan8772]

@@LizardKingRequiem ...? Do the notes of Acheron, Firefly, Feixiao, and Adventurine come to mind? Straight up the strongest units in the game with rampant powercreep. For supports let's go Ruan Mei, Robin, and Sparkle. These 7 units are inarguably the strongest in the game: tier 0. All past characters are nothing compared to those above

[@bloody4558]

​@@jjthan8772That would've been true if they were needed. But in reality you can still clear the hardest content in the game with extreme ease using Dan IL and other hypercarry/ dual DPS setups

[@totalvoid6234]

The major issue keeping 4 stars down is the effort of grinding them up. It’d be fine to play around and see what Candace can do if it didn’t take all your resin and hours of grinding to do so. Since 4 stars take as much resource to play as 5 stars a 4 star that is wildly underpowered isn’t worth the effort of using even before you have to start worrying about a creeping difficulty level.

[@KaguyaEne]

An issue that is made worse the later one starts playing. Daily resin constraints making targeting a single character to upgrade over the course of a few days, if not a week, the most optimal path to power. Fragile Resin from Adventurer Rank level up being the main way of kick starting bulk ascension mat and artifact farm, with the caveat of already having those mats to power up your characters to reasonably farm in your increased world level. World level in general making testing new characters with minimal investment in the overworld impossible. For a game who's main draw is its character and playstyle variety it is exceedingly difficult to access it in a reasonable time or manner. Most players, newer ones especially, are reliant on someone else to tell them if it is worth it to build out a character instead of being able to use the character themselves. I don't really count test runs since they're giving you 4 fully built characters in a stage that can just die to pressing burst and skills a few times. 4* using the exact same number of materials for talents, leveling, and ascension as a 5* is such a wild concept that they should've cut the item requirement down by half for 4* a while ago and I don't really see what is stopping them from doing so at this point. I'll just cope, seethe, and mald in my 2 month old account while Raiden, Nahida, and Xilonen feast on the Resin budget and Xingqiu, Bennett, Xiangling, and Shinobu can starve.

[@SageRuffin]

Basically, if the game didn't have gacha, this wouldn't be an issue. I leveled a bunch of stuff in Warframe yesterday. It was nice. I can't do the same in Genshin as even with refreshes, eventually the game will tell me "Okay, stop. You're done." The fact that Talent mats can only be gotten on certain days definitely doesn't help.

[@ZanathKariashi]

Yeah, 4* characters have reduced requirements like 4* weapons do. Less needed XP, less needed resources, less needed mora.

[@Efgand0894]

I ended benching xinqiu because his artifacts rolled so bad I ended using them on yelan 😂. 4 stars are so hard to balance crit and dmg

[@ZECRA602]

I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of Xiangling. I try to play Diluc. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Yoimiya. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Hu Tao. My Xiangling deals more damage. I want to play Klee. Her best team has Xiangling. I want to play Raiden, Childe. They both want Xiangling. She grabs me by the throat. I fish for her. I cook for her. I give her The Catch. She isn't satisfied. I pull Engulfing Lightning. "I don't need this much ER," She tells me. "Give me more field time." She grabs Bennett and forces him to throw himself off enemies. "You just need to funnel me more. I can deal more damage with Homa." I can't pull for Homa, I don't have enough primogems. She grabs my credit card. It declines. "Guess this is the end." She grabs Gouba. She says, "Gouba, get them." There is no hint of sadness in her eyes. Nothing but pure, no icd pyro application. What a cruel world.

[@Beastards]

Shut up im getting sick of it

[@Curiosity-Kitten]

1:00 I was looking for this comment!

[@deathwingthedestroyer3632]

All they need to do is lower the internal cool-down of her burst and make it slower.

[@OmenLamb]

"I want powercreep" - Vars

[@AnkleBiter3854]

Why do i feel like the moment hoyo decides to power creep, vars is going to say something bad about it?

[@OmenLamb]

@@AnkleBiter3854 He has Star Rail videos talking about Power Creep but for some odd reason wants Genshin to follow in it's footsteps by Powercreeping Beginner Characters everyone can excess. Something that would legitimately make the Beginner & F2P experience worse for everybody.

[@VeliaOwO]

That’s exactly what I thought when watching this video, wtf. If he wants powercreep he can just go to Starrail.

[@mr.protagonist5639]

​​@@OmenLambnew player here. Not true whatsoever, the power 5 makes it so every single 4 star I get just suck in comparison to what I see them doing. A lot of genshin players seem to not actually know what it's like to start this game in 2024. It's nearly impossible to get 4 characters you want unless their on a banner and even then as a f2p you can still get screwed, when you add the fact that most 4 stars are underpowered it doesn't help. In other gacha starting players can just pick up what's new and powerful even if it's a 4 star, in genshin you better hope for a 5 star or a power 5 that you can use.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

Vars “I want a more diverse roster and don’t want every character having their numbers cropped because of these guys” 🤓☝🏻”He said he want powercreep”

[@FlyingNinjaish]

I think this whole video is really only about Bennett. XL presists only due to the absolute void that is off-field pyro, as most teams would drop her for a less needy unit in a heartbeat. XQ has really fallen off with both Furina and Yelan being direct competition for the off-field pyro role, Sucrose is usually worse than Kazuha in practical circumstances and now Xylophone is in sort of the same role. Fishl is good, but I'm not sure she's really much more flexible than modern good 4*s like Cheveruse.

[@Obaid-Shahid]

id say fischl to, all electro main dps units are pretty much just fischl drivers

[@flybreak7808]

It is not that xq has fallen of now you can just use him on both sides of abyss as in furina yelan in one team and xq on the other side Fischl drives every dendro aggravate team, every overload team, every electro charged team, if you dont know that which unit is good in your last slot just slap fischl in there she works anywehre

[@andyvincenti]

Sucrose is so good that she's nowhere to found in abyss statistics lmao. 2024 is ending so just move on people, Shinobu is better then Flopcrose

[@Pepegaphone--]

​@@flybreak7808xq has fallen off, in all cases where DH exists, the other half is almost always neuvillette anyway, rendering him useless unless there is no yelan/furina to complete DH. You really don't see hyperbloom that much in the current meta. Not when units just rely again to their own prowess rather than hyperbloom. Fischl I somewhat agree, but some cases where fischl is not needed exists. For example, a team of furina nahida clorinde has the same dps performance whether you put zhongli or fischl in the 4th slot. Or for tighnari spread where yae performs better for bosses.

[@flybreak7808]

@@Pepegaphone-- That is if u have neuvillette. I personally dont have him, i didnt rly like the gameplay also dont have mualani she felt clunky to me, never had any problem with abyss since like 1.5/6 sth like that. Xq always finds a spot in my teams.

[@Takiplaysgenshin]

Flexible ✔️ Easy to build ✔️ Can be a damage dealer✔️ Good element ✔️ Good and usable constellation ✔️ Minimum requirement for a good 4 star.(C1 Bennet is all you need to beat the game💀)

[@lucifermorningstar8387]

And C6 Bennett is an A tier DPS if built for it

[@Mel_iodas]

​@@lucifermorningstar8387there was a time when people said c6 bennet was ass💀

[@gunman8452]

C6 Bennett makes Xiangling better how is he trash ​@@Mel_iodas

[@Mel_iodas]

@@gunman8452 it was during the 1.0 doomposting era where people said c6 bennet was trash. I didn't listen tho. The moment I got his c6, I activated it coz why not.

[@SageRuffin]

@@gunman8452 Once upon a time, your account was considered broken beyond repair if you activated Bennett's C6. People were literally begging HoYo to release a feature that allowed you to toggle constellations because people thought a C6 Bennett would brick their account.

[@Exacerberus]

You're underselling Sucrose when Mualani, Arlecchino, Vape teams in general make great use of her and she is a great driver for Electro-charged, which is getting buffed in 5.2.

[@ryzhik9608]

I would rather game over than play Sucrose in a Mualani team, I'm sorry

[@bushy9780]

@@ryzhik9608 I would rather game over than play a Mualani team, I'm sorry

[@ryzhik9608]

@@bushy9780 yeah. fair, but Sucrose makes it even worse

[@andyvincenti]

Flopcrose in 2024, c'mon. She's over, Shinobu is the real last slot in Power 5

[@Exacerberus]

Reminder to the clueless that both Mualani and Sucrose are currently 2 of the 4 slots in the fastest speedrun team available atm.

[@cindyharrington8842]

Haven’t you addressed this enough??

[@ashT307]

He's out of content. The day these 5 get powercreep, he'll be the first one to complain about that too

[@zente3003]

2:56 now that is some baloney, Hanya ,Yukong and Asta are dead in the dust, Xueyi doesn't have super break in her kit, any other 4 star dps is dead on arrival, none of the starters have even a drop of relevance, the DoT are only used since DoT was kinda forgotten about, which leaves Pela, Gallagher, Tingyun, the new March and Moze, of which only two are old units, I am certain in time even the others will be replaced by some broken 5 star, besides probably Gallagher, but them again Super break is super broken so.

[@Shenic2494]

i feel like lingsha has outright replaced gallagher in super break teams tho it is only a minor increase it‘s a increase none the less, Pela is more or less replaced by Jiaoqi in Acheron teams and while still has relevance, she could be replaced by any future support who has stronger def shred with more uptime, Moze and the new march are typically worse than 5 star options (mainly topaz) and Tingyun now has so much competition in the harmony roster that she might fall off soon, i love all of these 4 stars (march being my first ever 4star i brought to max talent level and got a 5 star weapon for her specifically)but hsr is clearly not taking care of them, all of this only proves even more that Vars using Hsr as a example of good 4 star management is even more wrong than originally thought, yes they’re nice and really strong but still will probably be replaced as it already started happening with 3 or 4 out of the 5 depending on how you view Tingyun with her competition in the harmony roster, the only one i realistically see sticking for a longer time is Pela

[@zente3003]

@Shenic2494 I didn't know it was that bad jeez

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

5 star better than 4 stars, wha how could that be. 4 stars being specific supports, wha, i hate this! I want my 4 stars so strong that all future characters have their numbers halved because the 4 star supports are too strong. 💀

[@TheJH1015]

your opinion of quite a number of 4 stars is pretty warped imo. Candace has grown a lot in usage because with Mualani we have a forward Vape carry that Candace buffs through her NA elemental dmg bonus AND double Hydro, but her slow application means she won't steal any Vapes FROM Mualani in contrast to Furina. The fact you instantly get her roughly 30% dmg buff instead of Yelan's ramping bonus is also quite a nice bonus for slower attackers. Then on the other side we have Arlecchino for which Candace is one of the better options for AoE content considering Furina is not that great of a match with Arlecchino, because she can only be healed through her burst. Candace's issue was not necessarily her kit in itself, but the lack of team members that could make use of her, which is slowly but surely getting resolved now. Other than those, Thoma is now often used with Kinich because he doesn't have the application issues Xiangling has with Kinich's movement. Gaming's damage output is pretty damn good even at C0, and becomes better than Diluc at C6. Kirara and Yaoyao are BOTH budget options for Baizhu. Yaoyao has the healing part and Kirara has the shielding part (and her shields are pretty decent tbh), as well as the fact you can use her as a burst DPS because of her ludicrous scalings. Of course, Kaveh is actually useless, Freminet is a victim of the Physical Curse and Xinyan of the Split Scaling curse, but most newer 4 stars DO have at least one or multiple usecases somewhere where they're either preferable or roughly equal to a Power 5 or a 5 star unit. Other than that I fully agree with you. We still need dedicated Hydro, Electro and Anemo shielders (no, Candace and Beidou do NOT count), and if they know what they're doing, they can give those kits to 4 stars and stack application and SOME kinds of buffs on top of them too.

[@srijonibardhan8083]

I mean, it's not always optimal, but Kaveh is fun in Nilou bloom teams as the driver because he heals himself from the blooms, and his C6 is quite decent with a fair amount of dendro infusion. I only did it for laughs at first because I just generally wanted to play with him, but he ended up being quite fun in that specific team of course. In fact, I prefer him over Kokomi because I use Baizhu, and Kokomi has slow animations, and the last spot is Nahida obviously. You can cope with Kaveh somewhat just because dendro is op and he makes blooms do bigger dmg and heals himself.

[@mikofanboy9711]

@@TheJH1015 not to mention Candace now is the best holder of the old Geo buffer set thank to Xilonen That’s 35% on top of 30% DMG just by burst and picking up shard

[@Doctor_Apocalypse]

Also Charlotte. She is so good in furina teams for those who don't have Jean

[@nekonoir1313]

What you've said are true but those characters you mentioned are only usable at a specific team, I guess what Vars mean is that Hoyo should make another power 5 type of character that is good overall. Candance, Thoma, Yaoyao and all the other 4 stars are all usable but not top picks compared to the Power5 most of the time because they all have their own niches and caveat compared to the Power 5 and that's the problem because if Hoyo still releases these kinds of characters they'll all be benched and replaced eventually, unlike the Power 5 which keeps on fueling up as new 5 star release. That's my take. edit: I agree with you, Hoyo can give the opportunity to the 4 stars to the things we're lacking as of now, like a Hydro/Anemo shielder

[@Glast04]

@@mikofanboy9711 You should just Archaic on Xiangling instead since she needs the er more than Candace will. You can run higher er on Archaic due to it being a 5 star artifact set, which is more beneficial for a solo pyro Xiangling. You often will instead just put instructors on candace.

[@sovietiguanakirillpindado5750]

While I mostly agree with everything said in the video, i feel like you're forgetting to mention one crucial part about the power 5: Some parts of their kits just....suck? Like, let's look at xiangling: one of her passives is near useless(the spicy pepper one) and her C2(the one that makes her NA explode) is actually meaningless In 90% of situations. The other 5 have this kind of stuff as well: fischl A2(I think? The one where oz does coordinated attacks when SHE attacks, not the onfielder) and one of bennets eidolons that prevents him from exploding with skill are also pretty meaningless due to the way they're played.. These characters have a lot of absolutely wasted utility in their kits...and somehow they're still some of the best characters in the game!??. Some 5 stars don't have that privilege, even with fully optimizied kits that don't have any "useless" ascension passives.

[@nakanzak]

Nah u didn't cook, just because they are strong doesn't mean its bad, mihoyo just need to make sure every unit has an "optimal team" such they did to candance recently. Only concern is units like xinyan and kaveh need something done to

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

🤦‍♂️ You absolute idiot, They’re bad because they’re too strong, to the point that new units have their numbers cropped because “oh you’ll be using it with Bennett right so it doesn’t matter if we halves their numbers”

[@Mahmoud2009-v4p]

Ok but maybe chill

[@Gwen1661]

The last thing I want is for this game to end up on the same powercreep tendencies as Star Rail. I dropped Star Rail for that reason. It's really not that difficult to just NOT use these 5 characters. Nobody is forcing you to use them just because they're strong.

[@Evitzeoshowerthoughts]

except xiangling for basically any team that wants pyro application except mualani in a purely single target scene and her team doesn't consist of anyone that can ruin burning, or kinich

[@wansper9297]

With the coming transformative reaction buff I think we'll see an uptick in sucrose stock, with sucrose taser now with ororon probably being the new best 4 star only team

[@Glast04]

Bro it's time to put the "power 5" thing to rest. The only two of those characters that retain very high relevance in the meta currently are Bennett and Xiangling. Xiangling because she's really the only good off field pyro we have, and Bennett because..he's Bennett. Xingqiu, Fischl, and Sucrose, have all fallen off. Xingqiu has direct competition in Yelan and Furina, who are often used together and leaving no room for Xq. And Neuvillette and Mualani are the best dpses that cover your hydro needs without wanting anything to do with Xingqiu. Fischl's only optimal team at this point is aggravate and maybe Chevreuse teams. If you aren't playing aggravate, and you have good teams already complete, you'll find that you are usually not even using Fischl. Her flexibility is pretty much useless since she is just directly worse than the optimal option in most teams outside aggravate and Chevreuse teams. Sucrose hasn't been relevant for a long time, as she has direct competition with Kazuha, and indirect competition with Furina, and now Xilonen. She is very good in reaction based teams, but hardly anyone actually uses Sucrose over the other options since she is a drag to play. Xingqiu, Fischl, and Sucrose are all very good characters that I would rate very highly. However, their value depends significantly on what your account has and is lacking. If your teams are already complete with their optimal slots, then you'll find these characters much less relevant than someone who is missing Neuvillette, Furina, Yelan, Kazuha, etc. It's important to update our perception of characters as our accounts and the game progress. TLDR: The power five is inaccurate and doesn't properly represent the state of 4 stars for endgame players specifically.

[@zente3003]

FINALLY, someone that says that these 5 are simply 5 stars smiggled as 4 stars

[@meikkuikamuzu5869]

Nah I feel fischl is still just as good it’s just electro teams aren’t needed too mucg

[@fiorno111]

"...for endgame players specifically," So the "power 5" still applies to everyone else? I can start a new account right now and they will, and for the foreseeable future, continue to be incredibly valuable characters to have. The fact you can purchase Bennett [May/Nov], Xingqiu [Mar/Sep], Fischl & Xiangling [Jan/Jul], gives players a level of agency that isn't possible with the gacha system in general, despite the rather steep price of almost 7 pulls and the 7 month wait for another copy. You are guaranteed the opportunity, given the right, for a C1 Bennett, C4 Xiangling, and C6 Xingqiu/Fischl, who are all meta or top units bare minimum for what they do. Sucrose is certainly the most powercrept of the five, but there is quite literally ZERO competition to what she provides for a player in one character when you exclude the premium and not readily available 5-stars; (grouping, shred with VV, team EM buff, ATK buff with TTDS, driving capabilities + no talent investment needed.) The part about her gameplay being a factor on her usage rate is biased and not a very compelling argument without a source. However, tbf I also don't really like playing Sucrose. Their "power" is more so in their absolute reliability. You cannot go wrong with a team that has any combination of these five decently built. While a player waits for a top unit to rerun, these 5 are going to get all the play time. The "power 5" is very much real.

[@andyvincenti]

XQ and Fischl are still relevant I think, they still have high % in abyss statistics for 4-star units (and these statistics are inflated with whales so more points for them). Sucrose is really a flop, people like to say she's strong but no one really uses her anymore unless you're a beginner

[@alishamlooh146]

Calling them Power 5 is such a huge gaslight ngl

[@wansper9297]

Candace is like genuinly good now, with yes nilou still but more importantly Arlechinno and Mualani. Also dori onfield with furina is not bad

[@heyzilla2479]

Vars I really love your videos but frankly I've never agreed with you on this take. I'm pretty sure you're the only genshin CC I know who even uses the term 'power five'. Out of these characters, it's really only bennett and xiangling who still maintain meta dominance, with fischl and xingqui trailing behind. Sucrose has only a couple of actually useful advantages when compared to the several other anemo supports we have, and her dominant niche in electro charged lost market share a long time ago. Xingqui's relevance has been diminishing ever since Furina was introduced after Yelan, and fischl is still only somewhat outweighing supports like kuki and yae in very specific roles. The only reason we still depend on xiangling is because we don't have a five star off field pyro support with meaningful damage and utility, and even if we never get a replacement for bennett he's been balanced out by a healthy growth in hp or EM scaling teams.

[@frosty8079]

I personally believe that fichl can stay up there. She's pretty universal (I personally think she kinda matches xiangling). Xingqiu is a weird case, sucrose is really good so she can be a contender to stay in the top of 4 stars. For 4 stars I think should be added, I actually don't think any would be added. At this point in the game the "power 5" is just there. They are called that because they are the original strong 4 stars.

[@lowberrymix]

that's quite literally the only reason they're that popular. It's their off-field application. Xingqui's the best hydro applier (not hard with only 2 other character), fischl is the best electro applier - kuki aside - and xiangling was for the longest time the only off-field pyro. If we had literally any other off-field options, their impact would lessen but they're the only option if you don't have a yelan, yae or dehya. Yes, there's Thoma and he found his own footing by now but there was a lot of critique when he came out. Aside of him, most other 4*s are either niche or dps oriented which is fine. You need some characters you can build as dps when you start out but they all got their thing that you can utilize. Layla got a great shield, rivaling even Zhongli, Rosaria's cryo app and crit buff is great, Chongyun and Heizou are great dps. Some got even more interesting mechanics than some 5*s. I love f.e. the idea behind freminent. We got some duds which lean more clunky, especially without cons like Sara or Kaveh but that's completely fine and no need to put the "power five" on a pedestal. And if he doesn't count the cinder artifact for kachina, then sucrose should be judged without vv too.

[@Glast04]

Very well said, I have the exact same thoughts. The "power five" is a silly goofy term since the only 2 of those characters that actually have very high relevance in the current end game are Xiangling and Bennett. Xingqiu, Fischl, and Sucrose, either have too many alternatives or are just not optimal in the majority of scenarios.

[@ChefMonke07]

How the fuck did you miss the entire point of the video? The issue isn't that these 5 dominate the META, it's that these 5 prevent other 4 stars from being actually useful. A gacha game needs to balance between their high rarity characters and their lower rarity ones. Genshin DOES NOT have that balance precisely because of the Power 5.

[@andyvincenti]

Exactly. At the best, it's a Power 4, since Flopcrose statistics in abyss are lame

[@rocketptheracoon9226]

vars making the 17th power five video:

[@kaz-gaz]

I'm sick of Xiangling I try to play Diluc. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Yoimiya. My Xiangling deals more damage. I try to play Hu Tao. My Xiangling deals more damage. I want to play Klee. Her best team has Xiangling. I want to play Raiden, Childe. They both want Xiangling. She grabs me by the throat. I fish for her. I cook for her. I give her The Catch. She isn't satisfied. I pull Engulfing Lightning. "I don't need this much ER" She tells me. "Give me more field time." She grabs Bennett and forces him to throw himself off enemies. "You just need to funnel me more. I can deal more damage with Homa." I can't pull for Homa, I don't have enough primogems.. Wait a minute, I've given her Homa, what else does she wan- She grabs my credit card. It declines. "Guess this is the end." She grabs Guoba. She says "Guoba, get them." There is no hint of sadness in his eyes. Nothing but pure, no icd pyro application. What a cruel world.

[@kaz-gaz]

I'm sick of Fischl I try to play Yae. My Fischl deals more damage. I try to play Ororon. My Fischl deals more damage. I try to play Raiden. My Fischl deals more damage. I want to play Clorinde. Her best team has Fischl. I want to play Tighnari, Cyno. They both want Fishl. She grabs me by the throat. I farm for her. I work a 9/5 for her. I give her Stringless. She isn't satisfied. I pull Amos. "I don't need this much ATK" She tells me. "Give me more crit." She grabs Bennett and forces him to throw himself off enemies. "You just need to funnel me more. I can deal more damage with Polar Star." I can't pull for Polar Star, I don't have enough primogems.. Wait a minute, I've given her Polar Star, what else does she wan- She grabs my credit card. It declines. "Guess this is the end." She grabs Oz. She says "Oz, reveal thyself!" There is no hint of sadness in his eyes. What a cruel world.

[@cutelolpopvids530]

My 3 and a half years with Xinyan have been so fun

[@levi3248]

Saying Cinder city shouldn’t be considered for Kachina means VV shouldn’t be considered for Sucrose either, in which case she’s not good either

[@danielmonteiro9029]

Outside of their Artefact set, Sucrose, Kazuha and Xilonen are still doing a lot. Kachina is useless without it.

[@jason3114]

Sucrose still has em buff, good swirl damage and cc without vv. Kachina only has (subpar) damage.

[@ryzhik9608]

@@jason3114 EM buff that doesn't even last long enough, Swirl damage that is negligible an garbage CC. Yeah, sure. It's still better than Kachina, but there's a reason why Sucrose is not used at all, only praised by those who themselves forgot how she even plays

[@nion0072]

Only people he represents are whales. Imagine getting con of the 4 stars . U can get featured 5 star but not the 4 star. And then building them 💀💀. People r really forgetting the low investment meta of dendro has lead to a point where most older 5 star are borderline usless, because of high hp of boss . Imagine the same happening these 4 star .

[@Nightbot_007-l]

Yeah the reason I can play for less than half an hour a day is Bennett , xingqiu etc . My dps ganyu is B tier now . IfI have I to get and build new 4 star it will be hard to say the least and adding more top 4 Star will make it even worse

[@ZanathKariashi]

the reaction buff should help with that little, since most reactions are getting buffed to be roughly equal to bloom or hyperbloom/burgeon scaling. Shatter is technically going to be even stronger than hyperbloom, but since everything is immune to freeze now and that isn't being changed, the buff is useless since you can't shatter anything you didn't already kill by applying the freeze to it.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

I spent 200 total and still i see a problem when Hoyo design characters and go “oh yeah suc meh dik I crop their numbers by half because you will use Bennett right”

[@CuriusGorg]

I agree to a certain extent. No they shouldn't release 4-stars that powercreep the power 5, that's just stupid, but having 5-star versions of those characters makes sense to me. Yelan is an amazing unit but she is essentially another xingqiu. Kazuha is an amazing unit regardless of being a 5-star Sucrose. That doesn't make them bad, it just makes them replaceable. Releasing more 4-stars with different kits that are EQUAL IN STRENGTH to the power 5 is the way to go for genshin. For example, I love having team diversity, and I'm sick of mono-pyro being the same kazuha, xiangling, bennett pairing, because Lyney is my favorite character, and I want to experiment with more teams for him. But to create a 4-star unit that's the same as a member of the power 5, but better, is the dumbest kind of powercreep imo. Let the characters keep their roles, but make characters with new roles that function just as well. A four-star unit that does more damage than xiangling but only in mono-pyro --for example, - would be a great addition to lyney teams for more team diversity, but that doesn't devalue xiangling, it just makes her replaceable. Having more units with equal strength is a good thing, but they should fulfill different roles. If we have a cryo xingqiu, then melt teams could become more relevent. They don't even need to be equal, they could atleast be like beidou and fischl. Fishl's the best, but beidou can be just as good, if only she wasn't restricted. The fact is, there isn't a pyro sub-dps that comes CLOSE to xiangling, if they add a beidou to xiangling's fischl, then there would be more team flexibility. An electro barbara (with better application) would be great for furina + nahida hyperbloom. Fuck it, even a GEO BENNETT would be incredible. Imagine a geo character that gives the team a portion of their defense. Itto's damage would SKYROCKET! There's so many creative ideas for 4-stars that would make team building more interesting than the simple "let's just slap a xingqiu in here" mindset everyone seems to have. I don't want the power 5 to be REPLACED, I just want more playstyles. I'm sick of vaporize and hyperbloom.

[@lorraineviruet8973]

He’s not my main but lately I’ve been playing around with a Lyney, bennet, Furina, xilonen (c2) team. It’s been a lot of fun and sometimes xilonens interruption resist helps out and it’s just like wow I made use of Xilonen’s c1! Lol!

[@zente3003]

10:13 oh for the love of... Imaginarium made possible for weaker characters such as those 4 stars to have a place to be used.

[@lumi3951]

I guess my controversial opinion as a player of 3+ years is that I still don't understand why Fischl is so hyped, everytime I try to slot her into a team it just feels really... underwhelming? I believe she gets a lot better at C6, but I don't have that. Other electro units like Raiden, Miko or Shinobu (depending on the team obv) always feel better to play for me.

[@sdani.]

she's an insane off field electro applier, does a lot of damage and is a good battery

[@lumi3951]

@@sdani. i know that's what she does on paper, but when i actually play her it doesn't feel impactful. maybe because oz only targets one enemy at a time

[@Evitzeoshowerthoughts]

@@lumi3951 I mean your examples are just different from fischl teams except yae. So you just don't like the teams fischl were used in?

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

OMG IM SO MAD I CAN BEAT THE ABYSS WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY WAAAHHH!!

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

Its great that they are the way they are. I already spent enough for my first team.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

Vars “Game is unbalanced because these characters are op, to the point that all future characters have their numbers cropped” Your remaining brain cells “HE WANT POWERCREEP HE WANTS MY MONEY CANT BEAT ABYSS ON AUTO RAHRARH”

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

@@StarsShatteredBeyond Congrats, you made 0 sense.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

@@WakeUpUniverse66 Says the dude who thinks a balance game = pay to win

[@WakeUpUniverse66]

@@StarsShatteredBeyond You got ratioed so hard bro...stfu lol

[@colibri2024]

I think yaoyao also deserves a mention.

[@lyselline]

Vars really had enough of Xiangling

[@J.Jolteon]

A Xiangling skin would already fix a lot for me. Plus a good off field Pyro application kit for the Traveler. I think it would be nice to play the MC more often.

[@thatisdepressing]

i have some good news about a xiangling skin

[@J.Jolteon]

@ I know, and I actually like it! 🥳 The Guoba beanie is so cute?! Hu Tao's as well btw. It makes me really happy, cause I experienced it before that I liked the "fresh feeling" with other skins. Feels a little bit new, but the character is already built. And I'm not a hater, but Mavuika is not for me. I'm going to skip 5.3, so it's even a bigger win to like Xiangling... :D And I hope the pyro traveler will be usable, I'd actually love to play the MC.

[@shawnjames5481]

The power 5 is so player friendly from f2p to whales. I don't think they should be powercrept but instead they should be the standard. The newer 4* characters should be able to perform at the same level as the power 5 whether it's a niche or a general support.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

🤦‍♂️watch the video again, do you not understand the concept of “these characters are so strong that all future characters have their numbers cropped”

[@Superflaming85]

Genshin is the only Gacha game that I know of where people actively dread the release of 4 star characters. Like, I know of plenty games with 4 star rosters of varying quality, but most of those either go back and buff old chars, or give characters alts so they may have another chance to shine. Heck, even HSR has done the alt thing, and so far it's been very well received. But in Genshin, if a character is a 4 star, you're SOL. You better hope that they're either a niche support for a character you like, or else there's no chance of them feeling good to use. Wishing that someone's most anticipated upcoming character is a 4 star is worse than wishing they'd lose the 50/50. Because if a 4 star isn't good, the chances of them ever becoming good are incredibly slim, and you will never be able to put that character into your team and feel good about using them. Like, at least the mediocre 5 star chars can and do get specialized support.

[@SageRuffin]

I've been waiting for Iansan since the story teaser way back in 2020. I've heard rumors that she's going to be a 4-star. And I'm VERY worried about that. A 4-star I really like is Candace. Easily top 5 for me. I tried to use her on-field and she just didn't feel good to play, and she doesn't fit in any of the teams I like to use (and no, I don't have nor plan to get Arlecchino nor Mualani). So she's just... there. I want to use her, but she just doesn't fit anywhere! Iansan is my breaking point. If she ends up in a similar situation, that's the end of my time with Genshin.

[@RareAngelz]

​@@SageRuffin I really think the rumors of Iansan being a 4* is unfounded since every character from the travail trailer has been a 5*. I wouldn't be surprised if she was a standard though since they said they wanted to add more standards, and Iansan is quite unpopular amongst all regions from what I've seen.

[@garreonlefay6703]

​​@@RareAngelz If Iansan ends up as a Standard then there is 50/50 chance for her to be either nice, not crazy, or bad. The last character added to the Standard pool was Dehya, I was still playing back then, and we all remember the fact that, despite looking great, she was, and still is, ass. People were expecting someone better than Diluc, not someone worse than him

[@ZeroTheOtter]

I do love how the recently released Ororon can actually compete with Fischl, I feel like I can finally give her a break on my electro teams.

[@gabriel23230]

Personally, i have no problem with the newer 4stars being "weaker" in numbers. It's just absurd to me when you have someone like KAVEH, DORI or even SETHOS with such high equipment demands, mostly, an absurd ammount of ER to basically FUNCTION (what does any of these 3 do without energy?). Cuz they never gonna beat or even be better than 5 stars (nor should they). But they could deliver, at least, ease of use/buid.

[@lucklei4665]

Yes! because Xiangling and Bennett requires 0 ER to function

[@catteo2832]

@@gabriel23230 Errr considering the energy black hole that Xiangling is... Bennett needs a lot of ER too, but he kind of only wants that stat so he's easier to build. Xingqiu is only saved by Sacrificial. Otherwise he's also an ER black hole with long cooldowns Sucrose isn't too bad, but also does need to build some ER, which gets a bit annoying when juggling EM mainstats. Really Fischl is the only one of them that has no ER problems

[@jameschong9300]

Uhh I use Sethos he doesn’t need that much er unless ur using him as solo electro. Xiangling on the other hand, her damage falls off a cliff hard without Bennett unless ur using her as a favonius support for Mualani or kinich. Oh and I forgot xiangling energy needs are atrocious without Bennett

[@ThomasAndy-qu8dp]

i remember trying to make Ningguang works... Lol i needed SO MUCH ressources just to have something decent and guess what i did when i couldnt clear ? just added the power 5 characters in it. great balancing.

[@lunaredelvour2972]

dori being a black hole of energy always sends me. she's supposed to give energy while she heals with her burst iirc but you need a battery to use what I thought was meant to be a battery and it takes so long to get her burst back that the other electro character there to battery her has already gotten it back once or even twice. it's so goofy

[@uchosewiselee6776]

Dori can be arguably pretty decent but requires a pretty high investment and definitely not usable at c0. She can be a decent support by providing heal and energy while being a decent aggravate and hyper bloom enabler. She just needs 180%+ or so energy recharge and longer main field driving, which are the main issues. Otherwise the remaining stats are usually just elemental mastery. C6 has potential to drive with Furina as support.

[@apurvbose]

"Why are people having fun and not gambling?" Title of the video The author begs the billion dollar company to take his money as he's a degenerate gambler

[@notinspect]

i cant take it anymore. im sick of fischl. i try to play beidou. my fischl deals more damage. i try to play shinobu. my fischl deals more damage. i try to play raiden. my fischl deals more damage. i try to play miko. my fischl deals more damage. i want to play clorinde. her best team has fischl. i want to play alhaitham, neuvillete. they both want fischl. she grabs me by the throat. i craft for her. i farm for her. i give her stringless. she isn't satisfied. i pull skyward harp. "i don't need that much base attack" she tells me. "give me more em" she grabs nahida and forces her to throw herself off enemies. "you just need to funnel me a bit more. i can deal more damage with aqua." you will pull for aqua. i cant pull for aqua, i dont have enough primogems... wait a minute, i've given her aqua, what else does she wan- she grabs my credit card. it declines. "guess this is the end" she grabs oz. she says "oz, reveal thyself". there is no sadness in his eyes. nothing but pure no icd a4 passive. what a cruel world.

[@ashy969]

1:00 Aren't we all 😅

[@galaxycrystal2503]

This game really the opposite Powercreep, the fact that people want it actually is so funny. We still don't have 5 star Pyro Sword (which the iconic Fire Sword Knight theme), And I'm actually tired of Xiangling.

[@vino.vvveeee]

idk y'all but vars has been getting really really really annoying with his attitude and takes as the years go by lmaooo

[@Mahmoud2009-v4p]

Then don't watch him

[@SeravySensei]

Also the biggest problem with the 4 stars is the wish system. -It's harder to get the good 4 stars and their necessary constellations than even 5 stars due to extremely slow reruns, lack of a guarantee system and them sharing banners with 5 stars you might potentially not want. -The 4 stars are actively discouraging people, myself included, from pulling on banners. I don't pull unless the banner has at least two out of three 4 stars I at least somewhat care to play, and that happens less and less frequently as more 4 bad stars are added and the good 4 stars eventually max out their constellations. Character banners nowadays tend to feel like a weapon banner that has a donut, the Bell, Eye of Perception and The Flute on it. Not just some but 80% of them. And that's a problem.

[@71775926]

Its sad that players are so brainwashed by developers and publishers using treadmill and vertical progression as a cheap and lazy means of delivering content and monetizing games that players actively beg for powercreep now. Y'all are pathetic. Hoyo should be lauded for their bravery and consumer friendliness to keep 1.0 characters still at the top of the meta when every other gacha game just powercreeps at the first resort.

[@amandaslough125]

It's just the pantheon of characters that meta followers believe in. I love playing the game because I _dont_ only use the meta characters.

[@zeckrincuff3159]

Players just want more strong options. You're comparing one extreme to another. No one is "brainwashed." They've just seen the other extreme. There's nothing brave about releasing more characters but still leaving the same options. It's not surprising that people beg for powercreep now. It almost looks like a good thing when we can't even get balanced options or options in the first place lol

[@DeathTheManiac]

On the other hand those that have played this game for longer than a year are like "Oh, a new character? I'm just going to slot in Bennet, Xiangling, XQ or Fischl and they'll do everything better than most 4-star and 5-stars from the past 3 years" It's because they are so powerful and universal that using any other character is literally just handicapping yourself. In Genshin's case the game actually does need powercreeping at this point. Why use any other Electro, Pyro or Hydro character when those four characters are just so far above everyone else? Why even release new 4-stars or 5-stars when they will just be weaker versions that those four?

[@TheJH1015]

@@DeathTheManiac and if you want a lot of fast Pyro application Xiangling is LITERALLY your ONLY choice. it's fine to have 4 stars in very specific niches but if you don't even have a 5 star as a second option for a certain niche... yeah that's bad.

[@StarsShatteredBeyond]

@@TheJH1015🤦‍♂️precisely Because Xianing is so op they are too scared to release another one, it’s a XingQiu Yelan situation. If xiangling was mid or niche you would have 10 different versions of her all with different best in slot teammates.

[@flatwoodsdaemon]

Honestly, at this point, I don't even want better four stars, I just want 4 stars who do the same shit as the Power Five but LOOK DIFFERENT. Bennett always sticks out like a sore thumb in my teams bc of his design and I'm sick of it!!

[@buttermanaws4693]

I do belive out of all the power 5 Bennett and Xiangling are the only two to have truly shaped genshin in a image around them Bennett is the reason i believe we have so many hp and em scaling characters because he just have so much atk that HE was the support for everyone and he was a good support Meanwhile Xiangling's pyro application is so good it doesn't exactly matter that her personal damage is not as overwhelming as before as she applies so much pyro by herself that i do believe its the reason why we only have 2 other off filed pyro units and they are so much slower as any more or someone just better would break many teams The other three are amazing but they have some equals or are second best

[@blank-42]

Although Benny and Xiangling are the best of them I don’t think that you’re doing the others justice. Sucrose has pretty good em buffing elemental dmg in her c6 and access to vv Fischl is the best electro applier that still does a lot of dmg (not like Kuki doesn’t do a lot but her main thing is a hyperbloom trigger) Xingqiu has the best hydro application in the game a decent anount of defensive utility/qol that is a lot less talked about even though it’s pretty nice. And he has a lot of nice dmg and is a decent battery too.

[@ronnieketchum1241]

Constellation system is already the perfect remedy for this. C6 4 stars should Undoubtedly be stronger and more versatile than c0 5 stars.

[@alexsjarif]

Sucrose imo is just so underrated. In vape teams she is jsut so much better thzn kazuha but she is clunky to play.

[@substitutedoll5224]

you're not wrong per se, but ease of use is so important in a casual game like this. Why would I try to get a perfect rotation with lyney and hope for max damage on a boss when I can just as easily steamroll with neuvillette despite the latter's lower DPS in single target scenarios?

[@mathpi2211]

I feel like Hoyo is using a better approach to the power five than what you're proposing: releasing units and teams that don't need them or that they don't synergise that well with. That makes them less universal. Bennett does not synergise with HP and DEF scalers, and HP scaling is more common these days. Same for characters who move around too much, like Clorinde and Kinich (he still needs to run him for the attack buff, but a future character will probably fix that). Xiangling has insane energy issues when she can't rely on Bennett, so she suffers from Bennett's issues as well. On top of that, Natlan characters don't seem to care that much about super fast pyro application. This creates an opening for a Xiangling upgrade or sidegrade for modern teams, while still letting us Xiangling enjoyers have fun in the old teams and giving us the option to cope in modern teams. Fischl is an interesting case because she's such a great second electro character to have on a team. She is one of those characters whose relevance you can only tackle with upgrades over her in (almost) all of her niches. Think of an electro-charge version of Fischl for example. People get to choose between running Fischl, running the new character for the upgrade, or running them together. As long as running them together isn't a no-brainer for some reason, this approach works. there is the option of role consolidation as well, like Kuki Shinobu's ability to heal on top of applying electro. Some off-field electro buffers could be fine alternatives to Fischl and they would help the on-fielder to shine instead of Oz. Fischl would still be universal, but she'd typically be a downgrade Xingqiu did get the double power creep treatment with Yelan and Furina, and he's still relevant. I think Hoyo will need to keep doing what they did with Candace and give hydro 4 stars a more creative kit. I'm thinking of a hydro shielder with some single target and slow AoE hydro application, slightly slower than Kokomi even. Or a hydro buffer with faster AoE hydro application with some weird drawback. Sucrose is fine as she is, honestly. Any issue one could have with her is more of an issue with Kazuha

[@tennynya]

But what if you have never built your "power 5" units? The only ones I have decently built don't include Bennett or Xiangling. I never built those two at all. So why do all people insist they have to be built?

[@grant6864]

let’s look at Fontaine and Natlan DPS’ Lyney- his whole kit is based on mono pyro, a.k.a. Bennett Xiangling Neuvillette- though you usually don’t play him with Xiangling, Vaporise teams are never bad Wriothesley- his best team is Melt, a.k.a. Bennett Xiangling Navia- Bennett Xiangling is her second best team Arlecchino- definitely needs Bennett, Xiangling is in one of her better teams Clorinde- her best team is Chevruse with Xiangling Mualani- NEEDS Xiangling like water Kinich- Xiangling Bennett is his best team

[@agiant5715]

Even for the ver 2 meta shougn and childe national needed xlinging and bennett. Im just saying that now for threatre for example, i put the same importance in choosing when those 2 get used in a chamber as my top other dpses that can solo carry one like althaium or arlecchino

[@tennynya]

@@grant6864 But like. Do you necessarily need Bennett and Xiangling? I have Thoma. I have Tankfei. I have other supports for these characters. I would put Thoma with my Kinich any day rather than Xiangling or Bennett. And I have my own teams to play, not all people have to go with "meta teams".

[@lum_berry111]

@@tennynya you don’t *need* to do anything for your teams in these games, but if you want decent efficiency and effectiveness, your results will be worse without them. no other character really does what they do, so not having them built is just kind of a handicap. trust me, i didn’t want to build them either, but they make things so much easier and let me clear harder content, so i feel like it was worth it in the end. but like i said, you don’t *have* to build anyone you don’t want to. this game is easy enough that you can get all the significant rewards without clearing the most difficult content.

[@tennynya]

@lum_berry111 so, how to build them? I don't know since I had other characters I could use all the time. So I don't know what I'm supposed to give Benny and Chef girl. I don't know what stats to focus on either. Im not saying this as if I want to build them, but there isn't really guides on what you should build them on. And it's not like people teach others about rotations and what skill or burst or attack to use in what order. Because others think it's so obvious.

[@swaggydragon]

with how this fandom moves I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t tried to power creep them to avoid angry fans,I could imagine the outrage (especially from whales) that a four star is creeping up on or could overpower a five star easily. ofc there are many 4 star units that could be dps and overpower but you’d need insane stats to do so. only reason the power 5 gets a pass bc they’ve been here basically since the beginning. and the last thing hyv would wanna do is piss off the main group of people who fund their game, we saw how they acted with neuvillettes small nerf

[@GNRI530]

Bro you've been yapping about the power 5 for so long that it's like your second personality.. bro let it rest 💀💀

[@AMWmyu00]

the greatest sin was -5starring Sigewinne

[@Sideqazxsw]

0:27 Sucrose got voted off the island 😆

[@Micah2terrific]

Genshin doesn’t have power creep, it has investment creep. To get rid of these five, you have to make characters that are cheaper to invest in and do more damage

[@thelobotomobile]

I desperately want another Bennett or Xiangling (more so Bennett). We already have Xingqiu, Yelan, and Furina who do different things but play similar roles. But we have yet to even have another Bennett. And I think another Xiangling would be nice. There are other off field pyro characters but they aren’t consistent like Xiangling. Thoma and Dehya are not satisfactory replacements for her. I’ve played Chevy in place of Bennett in an Arlecchino overload team but it’s not the same level of power. I know Hoyo is afraid of making another Bennett/Xiangling (after all, they’ve done their best to nerf Bennett in 3.x with consecrated beasts and 4.x with HP scaling units) but it’s been 4 years. Here’s to hoping Mauvika will be that.

[@sownheard]

Don't let him cook, Whale 🐋 wants nerfs on good 4 tier characters. Instead of just buffing worse 4 star's

[@soraexe5640]

Good old days where everyone ranked bennet as Amber tier and Diluc was a godsend character. The only character that everyone love to use was fischl and she still on S tier till now

[@RahRizzle123]

All the 4* in genshin can be utilized not just these five. I get it they havent been powercrept but im ok with that. Watching 5* (character wise or play wise) i like die off cause they got powercrept was depressing like : i like venti as a character but because of Kazuhas power being better and getting new lore he took over. Same for Ganyu i like her design wise and as a character but she got powercrept by other bows and cryos and at this point cryo is so ass why use her. Im happy to see these 4* thrive for four years. While 5* struggle to keep up these 4* are playing their part in keeping up with new characters. As Xingqius #1 fan im so so so happy they have yet to put him down after four years, even if its just as a hydro support idc im happy hes stuck in SS+ meta. Outside of meta tho majority of 4* are crazy good. Kirara has a dendro shield, Sayus burst can do good heal and do decent anemo dmg, yanfei has so much range thats kinda crazy for when she dropped 1.5 in an era where our catalyst where kinda blah AND at c4 she has a really good sheild and can do quick swap burgeon. What im saying is yes these five 4* have held their spots in meta for four year and yes its impressive, but that judt means they where made perfectly. If a character losses all there uses in a year or less then what was the point in wasting code in them? Let these five live on for meta, casuals, and newbies.

[@grimsdol4665]

it's definitely true. im worried ororon Won't be better then fischl and end up being useless purely because of how ridiculous strong she is

[@GhostyBoi119ts]

Well not actually is sum teams he’s better but surprise surprise they work best together😭

[@lucifermorningstar8387]

@@GhostyBoi119tsyeah lol Fischl will stay crazy good for any electro team and the goat for Aggravate

[@MrcreeperDXD777]

🤫

[@Indian_gae_boii]

what does he do? i couldnt tell from my dreams, is he like chevruse and he just gives buffs to the team when electro charge occours? that might not even be too bad, or is he like emilyy and buffs himelf when electro charge occurs? that might be kinda bad

[@paulyvii]

Ororon is just another forgettable 4* Electro DPS like Sethos sadly. At least he's memorable due to his part in the Natlan AQ

[@RaynmanPlays]

It took this video for me to realize that, more than two months after her initial release, KQM _still_ does not have a guide for Kachina.

[@barasmin7759]

Ororon was dead the minute they decided to make him a non 2020 OG 4 star, RIP to his amazing character design

[@kingdoom5022]

Lol what ? He pretty much better than fischl in evrey team he's in except aggravate just cause the natlan support set is broken

[@lucifermorningstar8387]

@@kingdoom502240% dmg bonus for hydro and electro is nothing compared to Fischl’s insane damage, electro application, and particle generation. Besides Fischl will be used with Ororon in electrocharged teams

[@MrcreeperDXD777]

💀💀💀💀 well i have news for you, buddy.

[@kwaakwoo]

YALL I think it was a joke 😭

[@Toby-oh3ym]

I've heard that he's basically the chev of electro charged (hydro+electro) so hopefully he will be okay.

[@RebL3333]

“Views are down this month, let’s make another Power 5 video” -Vars, maybe

[@RareAngelz]

I'd rather see power 5 level 4* for the elements not in the power 5. A really strong 4* for cryo, geo, and dendro.

[@sidnei89104]

The lack of new content is hitting hard lol

[@sirthomasevangelion1258]

We need to address Vars making videos

[@BardianAngel]

So you're saying if i started playing again after 4 years i could still build a competent team. Neat!

[@trusfrated7831]

11:31 I've been begging since forever for them to release a cryo xingqiu!!! istg we're almost in snezhnaya and still don't have a 4* cryo subdps to pair with the tsarista bro, just take the damn dahlia out of the basement and give us the second fuckass subdps in short shorts we've been waiting for

[@gab7743]

This is 100% better than powercreeping with every new 5* character Yeah i'm looking at you HSR team

[@mokapill]

idk i have never used the power five [simply bc i dont like them from a design perspective] - but my favorite characters are mostly 4*, being gaming, yaoyao, diona, kuki, and kirara! they all prove to be very useful and fun to play for me. i do hope that more future 4* can match the strength of characters like gaming and kuki, while also introducing something new to the game! ^_^

[@polarroars68]

Genshin needs a 4 star that just stays on field when they’re swapped out so they can be both a dps and a sub dps while not taking much field time its the only way to make a 4 star dps viable at this point

[@gadoliumnitrogen7149]

this video should have just only focused on bennet and xiangling not having enough alternatives or something like that. Fischl, xingqiu and sucrose are balanced in what they do and they have the most alternatives but bennet and xiangling don't really

[@fudgeugaming7341]

If you made this before Fontaine I'd agree with you now we're heading into version 5 and honestly only a couple of these characters are still strong and used regularly. Now almost everyone of these has a 5* option. Furina booted Bennett on 1/2 of his teams why no circle impact Sucrose really was only good on EM teams I.E. old dendro or when you needed a bit more for reaction damage but doesn't see big play numbers any more. My last point my account which is a year and 1/2 old these aren't easy characters to get took me a year to get Sucrose most newer players would be better just getting Furina, Yelan or Kazuha then aiming for these 4* and the needed con's. So if you have them you've got great supports but they aren't as crazy as they once were it's probably the power 2 now being Bennett and Xiangling Bennett being a dual heal/buff character and Hoyo refusing to give us a true off field option to compete with Xiangling

[@kitkami]

I really want a Fischl. Once I get her I will have all 5 of these. Even have Kuki.

[@joaomiranda2252]

i love and always will love power 5. begging for them to be powercreeped like some people do with xiangling is just stupid imo. it just hurts the game even more.

[@mk_gamíng0609]

Something has to be done tho, because they are dooming all other 4 stars

[@catteo2832]

@@mk_gamíng0609 Well easy, let other 4* reach their level lol

[@Zakading]

Considering they can and likely will forever be able to clear all content in the game with no problems, I don't see a big problem with some 5* units being straight upgrades.

[@julioramirez8179]

You say "hurt the game" as if the game has something that requieres more than the bare minimum to kill anything, the idea of powercreeping them with new units is to have alternatives that dont feel miserably inferior to play

[@joaomiranda2252]

@@mk_gamíng0609 how so? most new 4 stars suck, and the ones who don't, are widely used and talked about like chevreuse.

[@stefn2889]

The problem is not even that the 4 stars are not STRONG like the power five but their kit is literally unplayable. They could have made four stars with similar kits like another PYRO OFF FIELD APPLIER but have them not make as much damage as Xiangling for example and that would still be good.

[@Deadfish100]

Vars titling this "Once And For All" as if he won't be making another video on the power five in 2026.

[@thesciencemobile]

Considering how difficult it can be to get C6 for 4*s now, C6 4*s should be comparable to C0 5*s.

[@azuarc]

I find it really weird how highly Vars is talking about Kuki considering that SHE IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE, other than being a good hyperbloom trigger. She is no more a competitor for the power five than Faruzan or Chevreuse.

[@yatanogarasu]

They should create a 4-star DPS that is of the Power Five level... oh wait! Gaming!

[@dmitri_1i]

I would place kuki over sucrose

[@ImportantBeef]

I am getting tired of having to use Xiangling for EVERY vape team...

[@yamechitiyo8410]

Just give me the rest of them, I literally only have xianling😭

[@elstrangeenemy887]

It's literally impossible unless you've been playing for less than a year

[@RareAngelz]

I've played consistently for about 2 years and I have only 1 - 2 cons on all of them except c6 Fischl (which I purposely targeted). It is very possible. My best suggestion is to sacrifice the star glitter for them if you really want them.

[@yamechitiyo8410]

@@elstrangeenemy887 they is no guarantee to get them besides star glitter

[@SigeaIdris]

Hot take: they should make rhe Traveller at least as powerful as these 5. Dendor is ok, but just get the other elements close to the utility of the Quintet

[@Ottobon]

As a 1.0 player, I'm thankful they are still broken, it gives continuity to the game, it rewards us original supporters. Can't really agree with your take but i do think the Pyros specifically need a alternative. Fischl will have Ororon soon and in some way Kuki is a Electro alternative with her own niche, Xingqiu is mostly competing against Yelan but in many cases Furina actually does it unlike comparing Raiden to Fischl (Raiden is still good in her own way, just not same), Sucrose and Kazuha Its literally just the pyros that are a problem. You massively overcooked this take. Also Fischl is a sweetheat and i love her and if you say one bad thing about her i'll lose it (plus she has the most alternatives/is most balanced) Anyways if i was EVER going to argue for overpowered 4 stars, for more reason then one, it makes sense that its the INITIAL Characters released in the game, arguing otherwise is just asking for powercreep, asking to mess over older players. Meanwhile you are underselling many of the newer ones, Kuki, Chevreuse, Hatsuni Miku, Yao Yao, Gaming etc. Say it again, its only the Pyros which are any sort of problem.

[@quadowwadow1456]

Why do people hear, "make more characters like the Power 5" and get "don't make more, that's powercreep!!!" or whatever? What's wrong with having more characters like others? We have Xingqui and Yelan for example. I don't use Xingqui or quite frankly care to learn more about his utility compared to Yelan but, they're clearly similar enough and good enough to be used interchangeably so, why not more? Especially for Bennett. His insane ability to provide 1000+ ATK and heal, all in one character, is hard to compensate for.

[@jakoby256]

I'm not sure if Sucrose belongs here. She can be replaced by almost any generic anemo unit you can imagine simply because VV set exists.

[@vj6078]

i think an em buff as well as her grouping would put her above many anemo supports, including 5 stars

[@genshinbarb111]

Absolutely not she is well above most anemo supports besides maybe kazuha.

[@crome2021]

Her EM buff is what makes her valuable. She’s a side-grade to Kazuha that lacks his grouping and raw damage buff.

[@fran99080]

when will people stop underestimating how strong em buffs are?

[@agzane268]

​@@crome2021 she also buffs elemental damage at c6

[@lol-ot7ng]

to all the xiangling doomposters in the comments: unless hoyo gives the pyro archon 0 ICD (no way in hell they're letting that happen), i fear xiangling will not be getting powercrept

[@usmanya5110]

Maybe mavuika would give xiangling a new partner with bennett level buffing and extra particle generation

[@Evitzeoshowerthoughts]

to be fair, not many teams need 0 icd pyro, just fast is good enough. Especially because burning can help in many cases. On the top of my head the only want that needs 0 icd for support is neuvilette vape. Otherwise 0 icd only benefits xiangling herself for more vaporise.

[@lol-ot7ng]

@Evitzeoshowerthoughts thats exactly why xl is so broken, because of the reactions she can do and because she does so much damage all from off field

[@danielferrieri7434]

Power Five in a Nutshell Bennett: Overpowered Xiangling: Way Too Powerful Xingqiu: 4 Star Yelan Fischl: Birb Chuunibyou Sucrose: Albedo’s Sidekick

[@jonathanrobinson198]

I don’t know about everyone else but I only really started using Fischl, Xiangling, Bennett more in the past year cause of new characters/teams that make them feel like the perfect puzzle piece instead of “the best option” Without Clorinde overload, I still probably wouldn’t use Fischl; and it’s only recently with Natlan that characters actually need a steady application of pyro.

[@SuperHaoken]

May Pyro Traveler and Maviuka free us from Bennett and Xiangling

[@Shadowenclave47]

And hopefully they will free us from circle impact as well.

[@SuperHaoken]

@@Shadowenclave47 Amen

[@galerinha]

This is as always old players assuming everyone has these 5 c6. Bennet start shining at C1 Xiangling at c4 Xingqiu at C6 And getting them is difficult than getting a 5* C0.

[@krazy167]

Nah they'd win

[@EtherealRune]

Yeah, not gonna happen due to how Genshin's battle-system works. If you increase the power of a 4* character now you're basically stepping on the border to it having the strength of a 5* and powercreeping so hard that the new 4* is most likely just becoming another one of the Power 5 or replacing one of them, thus benching a developed character. That is not a solution to the problem, only enhancing it in the long run. With elemental-reactions being the primary source of dealing big damage you can't really make a new 4* more usable if you already created 4* heroes that are basically at 100% effeciency without massively powercreeping pre-existing ones; hell, you might even overstep the boundaries and make some 5* completely useless as a result. With the focus being centered around elemental application and less on personal character strength you will be hard pressed to find a proper way to spend the power budget in a balanced way across new 4*. Imo they should absolutely revisit the elemental-reaction system, remove some of it's power so that characters become less dependant on it. And godamnit, please, rework Geo. Rework everything actually. Also, the notion of "4* are bad" certainly isn't true for all Gacha. Only the greedy ones.

[@Brianuuuu]

No way, Chevy C6 can definitely give some members of the power five a run for their money