What Happened To Ayaka? | Genshin Impact

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Ayaka was one of the most beloved characters in Genshin Impact during the early days. But with how much the game has changed in recent years, specifically not in favor of Cryo, has she lost her time in the spotlight or is she still a fan favorite? Today we'll find out in What Happened To Ayaka.
Genshin impact What Happened To? Playlist: • Genshin Impact (What H...
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#GenshinImpact #Ayaka #Genshin

[@VarsII]

~SPONSOR~ Buy goods directly from Japan using Zenmarket! shorturl.at/ntT14 Be sure to use the code: VARS to get 750 Zenpoints (converts to 750 Yen) off shipping!

[@L17_8]

God sent his son Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. This was the ultimate expression of God's love for us. Then God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Please repent and turn to Jesus before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus longs to be with you.

[@Colin-xv3bc]

who's layla again? cute character, but i never remember who she is because she never appears in the story(or at least no quests that i've done yet

[@jonniejinji254]

@@Colin-xv3bc she's basically just a tired college student. I think she only appeared twice, in the fungi Pokémon event, and in the academia tournament event.

[@tuukkai1841]

​@@jonniejinji254 yeah, plus her hangout

[@devam8192]

Hoyo saw freeze reaction and were like "nah, too broken. Let's make this reaction irrelevant by adding unfreezable enemies."

[@pokefan05]

And a stupid amount of them too

[@huyphamle159]

If bosses can't freeze then why not shredding their defense?

[@horyzon3143]

They give cryo only 2 viable reactions and proceed to completely gut one of them...

[@huyphamle159]

@@horyzon3143 guess I'll pretend like superconduct never existed on this life, ain't that right Hoyo?

[@luisvallejos4786]

@@huyphamle159phys only 😭

[@JuicyPants]

To save you 15 minutes: Coppelia and Coppelius happened

[@Sinfol]

thanks

[@jonathan0225]

That's only a piece of it. Abyss floor enemy comps that screw freeze teams, hydro/cryo resistant enemies among other things. But even shorter, abyss is (and always has been) driven by recent banner runs.

[@L17_8]

God sent his son Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. This was the ultimate expression of God's love for us. Then God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Please repent and turn to Jesus before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus longs to be with you.

[@Bocchisguitar]

my least favourite couple

[@saba-rr8dw]

@@L17_8 mate, pushing religion on topics that aren't related to them ain't nice, y'know.

[@willgraves211]

Fontaine abyss try not to contain cryo resistant or freeze resistant enemies (impossible)

[@AnomandarisRyuu]

True story. I have her premier team and so if she is needed she is more than ready

[@steffy23456]

The most annoying thing ever. I built my Ganyu for freeze and all is well, until I get to floor 12

[@dongdoodler]

It feels near impossible to run her on freeze. Even her premier team feels like trash nowadays.

[@matthewsarson6934]

Yeah its the perfect example of how the devs control the meta by what they put in abyss. That freaking Icewind Suite boss/s thats in almost every abyss is pulling so much weight in keeping cryo teams bad right now.

[@junyaiwase]

Is that not most abysses?

[@crimsonECH1DNA]

Everything changed when Coppellia attacked.

[@usubenidango]

This is why I love Coppellia

[@RichieTugay]

Yeah also the tanky unfreezable fatui operatives 💀

[@kyratusx]

I'm sorry in Abyss 70% Cryo resistance isn't enough 🤣

[@agentlai3627]

Only the traveller, master of all 7 elements can stop them.

[@bestisbest6581]

Coppellia?

[@ronnieketchum1241]

Ah yes. The Dancing Duo. Literally on the abyss for 11 WHOLE CYCLES NOW.

[@milosaga5450]

They've been around for too long now, I enjoyed fighting them 😭

[@Kyle81290]

Genshin players: We want harder content!! *gets harder content* Also Genshin players: It's too hard!! Remove it!!

[@periwinkle6676]

@@Kyle81290 If it's difficulty achieved by consistently making certain units nonviable then it isn't good difficulty.

[@airishushi]

​@@Kyle81290Nobody is complaining they're hard, just how many times they're in the abyss cycles lol

[@markh9303]

yeah. pyro crab, electro seahorse, gravity boss and tulpa were only in once, yet icewind suite has been in 5/7 abyss 12's since 4.0, so bored of them at this point.

[@itsmeliska1186]

Ayaka was my first favourite character. She is the reason I own Kazuha, Kokomi, Shenhe and Furina. I'm really disappointed that a lot of the times the abyss doesn't suit her, but whenever I can use her I will. Her snowstorm is just too satisfying to forgo ^^

[@jacoblopingco116]

Same. At first, I only had ayaka and kazuha, but just because of her, I got kokomi and shen he.

[@chatnoire89]

Me too, I even got her cons and signature weapon.

[@drthirdworld3190]

Try Ayaka + Zhongli + Navia + another cryo or hydro for a fun team that can overcome freeze resistant enemies.

[@vchlopie9357]

Yess me 2

[@vchlopie9357]

@@jacoblopingco116☝️☝️

[@TheDarkZoren]

Freeze reaction needs to provide bonus damage against enemies who cant be frozen so it's not a useless reaction in most of the abyss.

[@shaderunner7.0]

Tbh my issue is Frozen not staying on bosses etc for more than 0 seconds, just have them be CC immune or something, not remove the effect entirely

[@flahaerty9873]

​@@shaderunner7.0 that's why some rich/dedicated players use mono cryo ayaka team vs bosses like with shenhe plus rosaria/ganyu plus some anemo unit. You don't gain 20% cr from set, but at least you don't lose it entirely. Or there's an option like hunter set with furina. I'm afraid they gonna scam ppl who plays with raw dmg chars like freeze/anemo/geo/phys dps. The game tells us that reactions are useful in combat. But we're figuring out that there's harder and easier ways to boost damage. Unfortunately, players can find out it too late

[@enricotabungar2010]

It's crazy to me how summer of 2022 she was the best DPS in the whole game (topping Hu Tao vape) having a 2000%+ scaling ult and a skill that generates tons of cryo particles to now being one of the most unideal DPS's with freeze being out of the meta. It's just genuinely crazy to me..

[@MushySand672]

Shit happens

[@inhuahua1]

Hoyo need to print more money so they nerf ayaka by adding cryo resist. For now. Later on snezh ayaka probably best dps again

[@Cozy-Cooking]

really?

[@polychromaa]

@@inhuahua1that’s cope

[@flamezforthegamez1056]

And there was one fault to it- freeze dependency. Without freeze, her straight path burst can be avoided as enemies escape out of it, plus she depends on the blizzard artifact set. Freeze is a reaction that doesn't boost elemental or character damage, just makes it easier for them to unleash their attacks. Ayaka's carried by her scalings on an ability that can be pretty easily avoided. The kind of solution needed for that is homing on her burst or another Venti-like character with enduring CC but strong enough like Kazuha's. There is also far too many cryo resistant enemies and unfreezable enemies. At least freeze is a great stopping force for monolith defense.

[@kawaiimika7974]

Nothing. We got more DPS characters that are not locked behind freezable enemies. Her playstyle is still fun but because the Abbys is never perfect for her and we've been getting a lot of new characters to play with people just forgot about her.

[@A_Lo_Pex]

Accurate 5 second answer to a 15 minute video

[@mango-float]

​@@A_Lo_Pex that still counts as something if you ask me

[@emicastudios8500]

And her popularity hasn't diminished eather! Sure in terms of gameplay she's not widely used as much, but she's still a popular and often talked about character in the fandom regardless, it's really just a case of her usage rate dropping and that's about it.

[@L17_8]

God sent his son Jesus to die for our sins on the cross. This was the ultimate expression of God's love for us. Then God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day. Please repent and turn to Jesus before it is too late. The end times written about in the Bible are already happening in the world. Jesus longs to be with you.

[@kawaiimika7974]

​@@A_Lo_Pex Exactly XD

[@AfterAFashionASMR]

She will make a comeback. Hoyo just wants freeze and cryo related stuff to feel fresh again once we hit schneznya. They are obviously purposely benching cryo rn but the land of the eternal freeze is coming - soon to be just a year away. Hoyo is thinking ahead imo too. I’m excited to see where they take us.

[@hellohooman8962]

I smell cope

[@PenguinsAreColdish]

more likely they'll make melt actually playable than buff freeze.

[@usmanya5110]

​@@PenguinsAreColdish or physical.

[@kafkafkafk]

A lot of the people saying Coppelius/Coppelia happened are severely undermining the changes of what made Ayaka fall off. Don't forget there are TWO sides of the Abyss. They added the Hydro Tulpa on one side yet Neuvillette's usage rate was still high as usual. There are definitely multiple factors that contributed to Ayaka's downfall, not just the Icewind Suite.

[@silvershoelaces3976]

As a Kaeya main who has been unable to 36* with him for some time now, I think saying that Icewind Suite has contributed is valid. Not because that enemy can’t be frozen but because that enemy keeps getting out on the side of abyss that HAS the enemies that can be frozen. Players who are not strong enough to 3* all three chambers will certainly be able to benefit from freeze on the chambers that allow it, but players who want to play straight through will have their entire run stopped by one boss if they’re on a freeze team.

[@Grass_rock-kb7gi]

Neuvillette situation is different He allows another dps in the team I use Navia to trigger crystalline and to counter hydro immune enemies

[@TMacandKobe4real]

​@@Grass_rock-kb7giyup yup! Me too lol 😂

[@abdullahramazankosaraslan3748]

Tulpas: yes immune to freeze and constantly dealing unreactionable melee explosion attacks and another tulpa with range aoe damage dealer. They both have 2 stances and each stance has 2 phases. I mean they got more skills than any regular playable.

[@little_blackwinged_crow181]

I honesty think what hurts Ayaka most right now is how little relevance she has in melt teams. I'm a Wriothesly main and I'm currently playing him in burn melt and he's absolutely killing it. I hope she can come back, because even if she's far from my favorite character its sad to see her fall off

[@buttermanaws4693]

I think it's mostly the fact that 2.0 was the era where the devs tried to stop certain characters from working and one of those things the games tried to stop was freeze, and while they stopped trying to stop shields and burst spam they kinda killed freeze by process of most enemies now either being immune, having a way to cleanse or being immune in a second "phase"

[@lucidevlin]

yeah they kinda ruined a whole element when they introduced those changes, i lowkey wish they would go back ;(

[@Tiepo01]

I will say this: Freeze is really darn good with the new artifact domain. The shield lawachurls are a nightmare cause they dash away from you and have that annoying shield. Freeze bypasses that :D

[@samn365]

If you run backward slightly as soon as they spawn they will both charge right at you, keeping them grouped.

[@elinamanansi5508]

bruh just use zhongli or claymore character

[@partobakhtiary7954]

Arlecchino is busted for the domain tho

[@NorthWolf97]

They're Mitachurls, not Lawachurls.

[@Tiepo01]

I dont have zhongli. And also Ganyu, Neuvillette, Furina and Diona finishes the fight in 23-28 seconds.

[@pokefan05]

As someone who has taken Ayaka into every abyss that I can manage, Hoyo has NOT made it easy for Freeze teams. A couple times I literally just had to use other teams because they made it outright impossible for a freeze team to function in either chamber (Unless you happened to C6R5 every character in the party, which I haven't) They've literally made enemies that are ALWAYS applied with Hydro, immune to freeze. Additionally almost every new enemy or boss since late version 4 has been A. very element specific, and B. either having a very high reistance to cryo if not just outright immune to it.

[@dongarippo7279]

They couldn't try to boost other characters or something so we can at some point put bennett and xianling and xq on the shelf. Nope, those three will run and dominate the game until we die.

[@shaderunner7.0]

I actually swapped Ayaka from Blizzard to Hunter set specifically because you can't freeze enemies that don't already die when Ayaka sneezes at them. Then again I have Furina in her team now, so that works out. The current F12 however is so unfavourable for her that I didn't have her there half the time for the first time since 2.0 I really wish bosses could be afflicted with Frozen even if it doesn't freeze them in place instead of having 0s Frozen duration..

[@dabugger_9]

Maybe they should implement HSR's effect hit rate mechanic on freeze. (High freeze res bosses will be frozen less often but it will still be possible to freeze them)

[@mohammedbaig9569]

Or it shouldn't freeze them in place, but the reaction should still go through so you can proc 4 pc Blizzard Strayer

[@multitaskman4227]

​​​@@mohammedbaig9569 it'd be lovely if Bosses had a "Freeze Trauma" gauge. With enough Freeze Reactions (Units) triggered, the boss will eventually become Frozen for as long as 10-15s. After they thaw, their Trauma gauge won't register Freeze Units for the next 10s. Afterwards the gauge can be filled again. This is how Freeze(Ice)/Paralysis(Lightning) works in Honkai Impact 3rd.

[@mohammedbaig9569]

@multitaskman4227 oh that's sick, kind of like a stagger bar. I would also be down for smth like that too

[@mango-float]

It's interesting how in HSR, they're buffing older, weaker units instead. Like from Erudition units with pure fiction to more specific issues like Jing Yuan getting an artifact set and harmony unit that works with him.

[@aliwi3476]

​@@mango-float4* 💀

[@mohammedbaig9569]

They did the same thing with Venti by spamming the abyss with ungroupable and/or solo enemies. And people argue that he's still worth pulling over Kazuha. Maybe he trivializes the overworld but literally who doesn't? Kazoo just does everything he can but better. Shame they did the same thing with Nilou and Kuki hyperbloom teams by always having at least 1 small mob immune to dendro, or the stupid arkhe shield system

[@plipkup7265]

I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually nerf neuvillete that way too, making the abyss full of hydro immune enemies

[@Mepphy99]

Venti Ult still has some benefit and he charges very fast at least

[@frraiden]

you can always just use furina in the nilou team to deal with the shield

[@alejandroalfaro3800]

If you want to deal with the Arkhe shields with Nilou bloom, give her the Narzissenkreuz sword. Unless you have her with Key, you don't lose much by freely switching her weapons.

[@mohammedbaig9569]

@alejandroalfaro3800 I feel like an idiot...i totally forgot that sword exists lol. Good point since Barbara is my driver there not Nilou. Thanks for the tip

[@percula1869]

I have a real soft spot for Ayaka. When I first started playing I had really horrible luck in not winning a single decent dps. For like 3 or 4 months Anemo Traveler was my party’s main dps, that’s how bad it was. Then, I somehow managed to win both Ayaka and Mistsplitter, and let me tell you, it was like I was playing a different game all the sudden. I didn’t even realize how frustrated I had become with the combat aspect of the game, and now instead I was actually having fun. She basically carried me through most of the over world. I really hope the Shirasagi Himegimi can make a comeback in the future. Thanks for the great video!

[@tadano-kunn]

She's one of my first fully built units. She just doesn't fit well with the recent Abyss cycles. Ayaka is still one of the best front loaded DPS in the game. Who knows. She might get a redemption arc in the future.

[@jadecoolness101]

Snezhnaya will bring cryo back.

[@Vekcrazah]

​@@jadecoolness101And might kill Ayaka anyway, by powercreeping and redefining what Cryo can do. Just as Arle redefined pyro hypercarrying and Neuv redefined hydro based frontloaded dps

[@jadecoolness101]

@@Vekcrazah oh I don't doubt they'll powercreep Ayaka.

[@andrewjamez9741]

@@jadecoolness101they def will, money

[@minusx3403]

@@Vekcrazah i think its fine if a 6.x character powercreep a 2.0 character as long they wont make her completly obsolete.

[@DaNiceGuy]

3:13 “It would be no exaggeration to say that she was genshin’s favorite child” Knave/Arlecchino: “I’m about to ruin this man’s whole career”

[@p.k.d9694]

She will always be my best character in genshin forever..can't forgot those days when she carried me from difficult situations and also she was my first 5 star from limited banner

[@pika4869]

I remember pulling ayaka during her eternal banner. But I have not really used her since

[@sinosikell]

Me too. And that's even considering Ayaka was the character that made me play want to play Genshin. But now, I go for Ayato Hyperbloom instead.

[@sirnotawholelot7650]

Nothing happened to Ayaka, but things happened to Freeze.

[@milosaga5450]

Which is her strongest suit which affected her standing in the meta

[@MuhaamadAreeb]

What happened to ayaka is so sad. Form freezing enemies, then perfectly grouping them with kazuha, on you way down you get the shatter effect on screen to get that umph. Then unleashing a burst that absolutely evaporates the enemies Imo, it was the best way to experience kazuha And now it's just painful

[@oatsandtoast]

Wriothesely > Ayaka. Wrio has better cons, more flexibility, good damage and doesn't feel situational. Freeze has been bad for so long, vape melt, reverse and burn melt have not. Not many people own Wrio and he's still played more than Ayaka nowadays.

[@KinG-xs1uu]

I farmed her artifact for more than year 321/42 as f2p and now i rarely use her, my whole account was built around her

[@semconteudo391]

The biggest problem with ayaka is her element. Because cryo have like negatives reactions . •No dendro reactions •Melt dont have a high variety of characters that work with • Super conduct is a joke reaction • we don’t talk about crystallize

[@dohickey7184]

My guess is melt was put in the backseat by Hoyo because they want to give it more attention in Natlan or Snezhnaya so they don't exhaust every niche for cryo before we reach an elements dedicated region. Just look at Fontaine, every Hydro related reaction already has multiple S-tier teams, so most of the fonatinian units aren't specifically designed around hydro reactions but HP drain instead. Neuvillette in particular pretty much doesn't give a damn about reactions at all and is pure front loaded damage.

[@iblamenomad]

the thing for reverse melt is that, we only have xiangling, thoma, and dehya as offield applicator, xiangling being the god of polearm she is, thoma is better as a pure shielder and his pyro application is only viable in burgeon team, while dehya was well, dehya.

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

Cryo not reacting with dendro allows for the "fridge" mechanic, where, if you keep a cryo and dendro aura on an enemy, and apply hydro. It will only consume half the gauge of Hydro for bloom, generating a core, and freezing the enemy at the same time. Also, It procs Nahida's E, so you get the dendro back as well with her. I think the "reaction" would be used a lot as a niche if they made Dendro chars that were as reliable in applying dendro as Nahida, with some mechanic that benefits Cryo chars. Also, I'm really upset by the fact htat they instead of fixing cryztallize and geo constructs, they made two geo characters that NEED the reactions, as a conditional for buffs, but don't USE the reaction's mechanisms. Crystallize is all about creating shields that, TBH, are quite weak. To benefit from that, they could either create a character that buffs crystallize shields so much, they become viable forms of having shields without a dedicated shielder, releasing another slot for your team, or some mechanism that gave buffs using shield breaks as a conditional, therefore buffing weaker shields such as Baizhu's or Crystallize ones and not those of dedicated shielders such as Layla or Zhongli.

[@SuperKevinho1]

​@@dohickey7184fortunately exists Burnmelt. Permanent Pyro application with just Thoma

[@shaderunner7.0]

Ayaka Melting is a joke since she has a lot of attacks with relatively small multipliers, melting a small number is not gonna make it a nuke without very specific circumstances. Even if you do manage to have Pyro on enemy 100% of the time with something like Burning, her BurnMelt is just not good specifically because of her low multipliers. Having standard ICD on normals and Burst is kinda bad for Melt, her CA has .5s ICD, and Skill/Burst final hit have no ICD, but using her Burst on anything you can freeze just doesn't sit right with me.

[@anagramhound]

No surprise cuz abyss has been really shit for cryo lately, especially for freeze team.

[@Tai-Lung]

She was my first five star and she carried me through so many abyss cycles and i never thought she was a waste of investment

[@XieRH1988]

The problem with freeze and anemo crowd control is that allowing those things can trivialise the endgame, as proven by the Morgana team comp because a frozen enemy is a total non-threat (cant move, cant attack) so the only solution is to make those things non-viable and accept the casualties in the process such as Ayaka falling off the meta. Other reactions like quicken and vaporise are mostly all about reaction damage. The enemies can still move and do their mechanics.

[@hqhuy931]

Ayaka is my first 5 star and I got her on the eternal banner, around covid and she was personally my go-to choice for about 2 years of on and off playing. Then comes Nahida, who could utilize a 4 star team (xinqiu, yaoyao, kuki) and dish out more damage than c0 ayaka, and just a year later, Neuvillette, who renders all hypercarries irrelevant and makes incredible use of Zhongli and all the units I would never use. Honestly, they should make enemies freezable because why would people play cryo if not for freeze?

[@kwayke9]

Got nerfed by the abundance of bosses ever since Sumeru, just like a lot of aoe characters (notably Nilou, Venti and freeze Ganyu)

[@TheActualDogempire]

Don't forget about Wriothesley in terms of vertical investment. His CA hits twice and with a good enough team you can do crazy damage like 1.2 million off a single charged attack, he's pretty amazing for speedrunning abyss in that regard Plus since Wriothesley is actually meant for melt and not freeze, that gives Ayaka some serious competition since while his damage is less spikey, it's WAY more consistent and not burst reliant (Albeit Ayaka becomes more consistent at c6) Whales seem to agree that Wriothesley is great to spend a lot of money C6R5ing because of the double melted CA's frontloading all his damage

[@siamsami2387]

The reason that encouraged me to play tgis game was Ayaka when I first saw her Beta test back in the beginning stage of the game. She & keqing were my personal favourites and they felt very unique with their playstyle (so cool tbh). Though I didnt manage to get any keqing yet but I got myself Ayaka on her first banner!

[@kristianmartinez2182]

The only time I play genshin at all is when the abyss resets. And I always go back to my queen Ayaka. She is the character that got me 36 stars for the first time and she will always have a special place in my heart.

[@yanislahlou9498]

I have to say I absolutely adore your videos you are one of my favourite content creators for real keep it up my dude

[@GruviaWhiteMage]

Ayaka was the reason i got into Genshin, my sister showed me her trailer and convinced me to download it to play with her. It took me forever to bum rush to Inazuma in order to level her up and she was my go-to character until i got Hu Tao on her rerun. To this day shes still my favorite character (although Furina is a VERY close second). Really hope we get some new stuff that makes Cryo more useful,

[@Randomguyno69]

We have to wait and see till Sneznaya

[@TebbleTV]

Ayaka was my first 5-star when I started playing Genshin so she holds a special place in my heart. That said though, she has fallen in usefulness like you said with the introduction of enemies who resist or are immune to Cryo and freezing so others have replaced her as my go-to DPS. Even with Shenhe, Kazuha, and Kokomi, Ayaka's team can't do as much damage as Nilou's super bloom team or of course Navia with her gunbrella easily hitting for 100K+. Compared with Nilou and Navia who only need lots of stats to work, Ayaka needs the Blizzard set to get all that free crit rate otherwise she can't do a lot of damage if she doesn't crit.

[@matthewsarson6934]

I pulled Shenhe/Calamity Queller/Mistsplitter for my Ayaka team at the end of Sumeru and i've still yet to use the team in a single Fontaine abyss. Feels like they are deliberately trying to design abyss to make freeze bad. Nilou is in the same camp the problems just not quite as bad, we need to have a more AOE focused abyss next time instead of more boss rush.

[@ahmedbleibel8764]

Current abyss is good for nilou

[@matthewsarson6934]

@@ahmedbleibel8764 Not really first side has Coppelius and Nilou teams struggle against cryo sheilds, you can only remove it easily if you have Furina. Second side has Iniquitous Baptist who also has an annoying cryo sheild.

[@PenguinsAreColdish]

yeah shenhe has been perma benched since i got her last year. i dont regret it since she's probably the character i like most in the game, but it'd be nice if she wasnt useless

[@HazZzel-]

I started playing in 2022 during the forever rerun. She was ny first wanted character- and finally, on Navia banner, I got her. Shes a gem, so fun to play

[@unknownkw]

It is much more comfortable to play Ayaka with Furina and Charlotte nowadays, because it off-load a lot of damage to hydro and come with both arkhe attacks by default (that is great against Coppelia and Coppelius). And you can still use Kazuha or Venti locking up enemies to take full Ayaka burst even when they can't be frozen in place.

[@weregretohio7728]

Boss: Hey guys, I got a good idea. Electro is considered bad, so let's introduce a new element that is stupidly imbalanced so as to make the neglected relevant again. Oh, what's that? Cryo sucks now? Eh, they got Freeze and Shatter, it'll be fine. Damn the waifu cannons! Employee: But boss... Shenhe hasn't gotten a rerun in over a year. Boss: Eh we don't need to rerun Shenhe. Ever. Geo, on the other hand, is my finest work and we should totally focus more on the most isolated aspect of the game. Employee: What about physical? Boss: Physics? Cat physics?

[@Sk3tch3_]

Wow I'm early. Good video Vars!!

[@theampeel]

As someone that will get Ayaka on the Inazuma chronicle banner, I was waiting for this

[@sakura_branches]

another issue is that have 90% of your team dmg tied to one elemental burst means that if you drain like 85% of the opponents hp bar with one or two rotations, it can be really annoying to finish that final 15%. like there isn't enough hp left to justify bursting, so youre just kinda stuck spamming charged attacks with her. and if there's another wave on the other side of an abyss chamber, you dont wanna put down kokomi's jellyfish cuz you might not have it back in time. just little qol stuff like that makes other dps units more favorable, which is a shame cuz i love ayaka and she was my first limited 5 star and main

[@joaomiranda2252]

her damage isn't 90% tied to her elemental burst? more like 60-70%.

[@thomasbell3647]

It makes me wonder if Hoyo needs to redesign freeze. From a player experience perspective, freeze is the most frustrating reaction in the game, with enemies able to chain stun you with limited or no ability to escape before your character dies. From a player use perspective, though, freeze is one of my favorite reactions because I love how cozy it feels. It feels amazing to cheese huge enemies with the insane disabling power of freeze, rendering the scariest enemies trivial. The catch is that Hoyo cannot balance how powerful of a disabling tool freeze is without rendering it irrelevant. I almost wonder if it should be designed as the normal cryo aura, which has a 15% animation speed slow as long as the debuff persists, and double or triple the animation slow as part of the freeze reaction while making it work on all enemies in the game, including bosses. It still remains the comfort reaction that allows for you to more easily control enemies but it's not so imbalanced that it has to be turned off to preserve any sort of challenge in the game from Hoyo's perspective.

[@faworitkamond]

I joined genshin exactly at the elongated Ayaka banner and got her in only 15 pulls. She carried me through early game and I really loved her. Nowadays, I don't use her anymore because I eventually got tired of her attacks and constant monologs while im afk, but she's still awesome and holds a special place in my genshin experience. Edit: Also....who TF put Inquitous Baptist in the abyss?! Like it feels that the teams nowadays cant be focused on one hypercarry element.

[@RainyGhost190]

Xiao also had a promo animation before one of his reruns

[@miajohansson172]

If anyone’s wondering why she is barely used in the abyss, it those two fontain dancing robots problem

[@Jenohart]

Ayaka was the reason I was interested in Genshin (big Vergil fan, I saw the leaks before 1.0 released). I think my Ayaka has seen more use because I was always skeptical of shoehorning her into freeze-reliant teams, so I've always had her with my best CV 2pc artifacts instead of 4pc strayer.

[@shaderunner7.0]

Try 4pc Hunter on her if you have Furina :^)

[@dashfire109gaming5]

For awhile up into the last patch. My spiral abyss teams were my Hu Tao team whose members fluctuated for the first half. And my Ayaka team (Ayaka, Kokomi, Shenhe and Kazuha). I started using My Itto team more because while she may deal more damage consistently, she also dies more often against non freeze enemies

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

I wish they do with the supposed new endgame content in 4.7 the same they do with some combat events, where each trial is focused on a certain reaction or team, so Freeze teams,can be made useful, not having to rely on what banner is on.

[@melrain2906]

I looooove to listen to more of your reviews 🎉

[@TechTalk0069]

As an Ayaka and Hu Tao main it feels bad that freeze is out of meta

[@thewackykid]

basically they did a venti on ayaka... by having enemies that counter the best part of their kits...

[@fashlimakarim6757]

Moment of Recall being your background music makes me happy

[@Chihaya_Anon]

Unlike Ganyu who sometimes misses her Charge Atks, or Ayaka who sometimes doesn't get all the enemies inside her Burst...Wriothesley can do raw high dmg accurately without missing, so he doesn't need to freeze his targets to hit. He only needs to do fast multiple hit dmg to combo with 100% cryo uptime coz he's a catalyast user, compared to Ayaka & Ganyu. Plus his AoE burst is so damn accurate & strong like Ayaka's but more faster to recharge...He can also solo the abyss floors without any teammate like Neuvillette & Arlecchino coz he can heal himself....so I think Wriothesley is the powercrept for Cryo just like all his fellow Fontainians Navia, Lyney, Chiori, & even Clorinde. So he is the strongest Cryo Unit right now.

[@Constalle0412]

Yeah. I do agree on your points. He's very consistent, flexible and has low cooldown on his E state (6seconds at c0). I think many people dont own him thats why they don't how good he is.

[@kurokenstein]

@@Constalle0412 the only problem for me is he's male, I don't and (maybe) never pulled for male on-field dps, except in the future there's character who can transform to something

[@nicwolf1370]

100%. I have C1 and he has the smoothest rotation of any character except maybe Yanfei, easy to get artifacts, varied weapon selection. He's just EASY. And his cons are cracked.

[@kyero8724]

@@Constalle0412 Wriosley's range is tiny and his burst can easily miss everything lol what are you talking about.

[@Constalle0412]

@@kyero8724 for a exclusively single target DPS with a small coverage of AoE is fine for him, as long as you outmaneuvre the AI of your opponents is fine. As for burst, nah, it does have linear AoE , but I prefer not to use this especially before c2 unless you have to dodge some enemy attacks to time frame it.

[@TheMalcomrj]

OMG THE SONG IN THE BACKGROUND MOMENT OF RECALL FROM FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS, i used to play that game a lot, for 6 years

[@Ava_Chann]

I will never not be an Ayaka main if i ever return to Genshin. Ayaka or nothing. Best girl.

[@danza_estetico]

Ayaka for life fr

[@flahaerty9873]

When you have ganyu you have an option to play her as melt/freeze/subdps. When you have wrio you can play him as melt/freeze. When you have ayaka then you must have credit card or you're doomed. Now I think I don't regret having c0 ganyu cuz I rebuilded her so much times and she feels ok with emblem. I'm afraid if I had Ayaka I couldn't make another option for her except for pulling her weapon, shenhe, kokomi or furina. My friend got her while 3.6 and she struggles playing her since fontaine

[@usmanya5110]

don't forget mono cryo

[@usmanya5110]

i think you forget to mention one of Ayaka's main pieces, and that's Kazuha i'm wondering that he's not mentioned because he's such a great unit and probably has teams that make better use.

[@flahaerty9873]

@@usmanya5110 I didn't forget. I didn't mention him cuz anemo is significant for freeze anyway. Also lots of players have already him, me too. So I didn't even mean that Kazuha still needs to be got But she can be played without kazuha btw. Furina and Jean provide higher dmg bonus + anemo set. Another question is will it be convenient without his E

[@Ayasegaki]

I stopped playing at the near end of version 3, just came back recently and after I pulled arlecchino I never put ayaka anymore in my main team. The powercreep is so huge.

[@cruelson9072]

And once again vars has bo idea of the newer compound teams(oven, curry etc) Saying a character dropped is like saying grass wont grow in england lol

[@willhart2188]

Ayaka's movement is keeping her in my party. It saves a lot of time on exploration.

[@ninoomic9528]

Similar thing happened to Venti. They added enemies immune to crowd control and so his Q became more or less useless against them.

[@eldritch3465]

THE GOROU X ITTO

[@ganyumaindayone1112]

since fontaine release we get copelia copelius or the cryo/anemo fatui which mean we always have 1 or even 2 side of the abyss being cryo resistant though i ditched my ayaka at sumeru release :p

[@22yohanne]

Those cryo/anemo fatui operatives are so annoying as hell

[@neoinfinity5204]

She’s my first limited character which I regreted pulling mostly cause it was too early to build her team, being inazuma character and me as casual meant i couldn’t level her for at least 3 months and i already got Yelan to pair with Yanfei so Ayaka was the fastest to get benched, nevertheless she’s still fun and i literally maxed her friendship yesterday however unless cryo problems got fixed she’s hardly recommended even for older players.

[@Sagasaurus]

Nice video! It's kind of sad hearing about a game all about elemental reactions removing the impacts of one of those reactions.

[@thatbeanfabio]

Tldr: nothing happened. Abyss just isn't in her favor

[@xenoemblem7]

Nothing much happens to Ayaka. What happens is that Hoyoverse introduces many enemies who are either Freeze resist or Cryo resist.

[@quicksilverdante4647]

Maybe instead of “what happened to” series why not make “why everyone stopped playing” to characters that were once meta in the past but fell off in the future.

[@checkj21]

Ahh, my first proper main DPS…I had been using Jean because she was the first five-star I pulled and Aquila Favonia was my first and only five-star weapon at the time, so I assumed that was the way to go. I saved up and got Ayaka (and Shenhe) about a year ago, and it was a revelation, it really Impacted my Genshin’. I love her character and aesthetic, her playstyle, she’s the only character I’ve triple-crowned, I even still use her in Spiral Abyss when I can. Hopefully Freeze makes a comeback, though I’m not holding my breath 🙂

[@karthikmhashilkar5212]

Still To This Date i still remeber it was a last late night and banner was going to end next day and i was finding every single primo just because how elegant and gorgeous she was. When i finally got her when 1st time her banner came it was a total disbelief a total shock that after all the grind she was in the team she is my first main Dps My First and only Triple Crown and The first Lvl90 character and still to this date even after getting arlechinno and eula cloud retainer but still she rules in my team she will and always be my favourite and most dangerous charater in the team💯❤️ She Is A Pure Elegance Just Gorgeous and A Cryo Princess❄️

[@vincentty3279]

@Vars, at 1:36, what is the shop in Japan you visited that had the Honkai Star rail merchandise, pins, etc. Planning to visit this week and would like to visit that shop in your video.

[@GlowstickX157]

I was never happy with Ayaka’s burst tbh, it looked cool and did a ton of damage and all but it was so hard to hit bosses plus they couldn’t be frozen and enemies that could be frozen were oftenly small weak ones, of course there were a minority of enemies that could be frozen and had a ton of hp but it was just a minority so using her burst would feel like a waste and annoying to get back up cause of the high energy cost. Despite everything though, I still liked playing her. TLDR: Her burst is annoying

[@e1m0k44]

Got her right as she came out I was a big fan of devil may cry so femvirgil was a must and the beginning of inazuma where it rained constantly in most areas made her op in the early part of the story.

[@acegardianarocrat]

I started playing in 1.6 and and due to beginners luck got C1 Kazu and C1 Ayaka and ever since then, they've been my first DPS duo I used to take everywhere. I have so many memories with Ayaka, even pulled Shenhe with Calamity Queller for her. And despite being f2p, went for Mistsplitter THRICE (yes I lost all 3 times, still running Amenoma on her lol) Even though I have stronger teams now, I'll never forget the emotions (both happy and sad) she gave me and still use her wherever possible

[@drpulcinella1870]

Simple. Her burst is between 70 and 90 perfect of her damage and her burst is far from practical now. And even if she becomes practical again she still will never be on top again

[@vijaykarthickmani]

Still she is my top favorite, Ayaka and Raiden carried me for long time..

[@sanlimul127]

She still great. Its just that hoyo added enemies that has bad synergy for her and her kit. I mean she's my favorite character together shenhe and she can still clear the abyss, but it would be too much work so i tend to use other teams to clear it with ease to get that primo and mora.

[@JohnSmith-vw1qe]

Been playing her since release, she was my 2nd favorite character back then, quickly rose up to #1. The last abyss cycle was the only one where i haven't used her at all, before i would just put her in the other team where there weren't cryo immune characters. Anyway, my Ayaka is a mini beast, with 45/289 and c6.

[@Eflaene]

I stopped playing for a while before and after she came out, so I completely missed out on her release and initial hype and the infinite banner. She's one of the few characters I have no attachment to, and I don't think I'll ever try to get her (not a fan of freeze). It's always been fun to see people so attached to her as a complete outsider, not that I think there's anything wrong with that.

[@theorize999]

I finally picked up mistsplitter last run so my ayaka is happy and won’t be benched anytime soon, I have razz man to I want to try a comp using them both

[@Cinnamowo]

That one Abyss 11 happened which recommended me to go Cryo with its buff and then that unfreezable %₽@_₽& showed up, one shotting my Ayaka each time

[@bradyseigfried2395]

I'm really hoping we see them allow the 'freeze' condition to exist on enemies even if they are not CC'd. Just to allow for passives and such to occur even if the enemy is a boss or something unable to be CC'd.

[@lordofsloths9985]

I think it's more likely rizzly to get better over time with better and more consistent off-field pyro applications

[@nicwolf1370]

As people add cons and weapon refines to their Rizzlys yeah, absolutely

[@lewsee5562]

And he's more flexible on his teams. You can play freeze, Melt, and even hyperfridge. So even with freeze immune mobs he can still shred (as long as it's not cryo immune or high resist). His C1R1 also makes him a good candidate for solo Abyss on the same vein as Neuvillette.

[@StillQiqiless]

@@lewsee5562R1 does make it more comfortable but a C1 Rizzly is pretty capable

[@Ealdor-Bana]

She is my only voluntary C6 5*. Im glad i did the abyss floor 12 as now I don’t feel the need to pull any characters unless i really like them and have some spare cash to play with. Outside the abyss the game is really easy so I wouldn’t worry to anyone who hasn’t got a perfect character. News flash on characters. The talent level & weapons are always more important than the characters C level.

[@imjusthere-9800]

The thing with Ayaka being unable to use Melt was kinda removed with dendro's burning reaction. So long as you have Bennett Xiangling and Nahida or anyone else that applies loads of dendro

[@Bullminator]

If a chamber has a enemy with cyro shield --- use xiangling in Ayaka team, while other teamates are cyro and hydro (layla and kokomi for example) She can reverse melt just fine.

[@yannischupin7787]

About wriothesly, it is not clear that she is stronger than him. Especially given how bad she is in reverse melt compared to him...

[@Steven_Hockins]

Maybe he talked about her C2R2 Ayaka?

[@hanyuchuang]

There's still the Ice nation to arrive... the same can't be said for Geo, the Geo nation and the Geo archon never existed.

[@pookiebearhabibi]

nothing pisses me off more than Fontaine abysses.. I CAN'T USE HER AT ALL IN ANY OF THEM😭

[@ankitjadhav6775]

Crazy that she is my best built C1 character with shenhe and shes benched now, Arle and Alhaitham are Used now

[@aikuwu]

I just got back into genshin, clicked on this video and it hit me like a truck. I swear your voice sounds very, very familiar. Did you used to be a MapleStory KZbinr? I swear I remember that voice - besides that; you make great Genshin videos! Just had to comment because of shock LOL.

[@wannjuuuuuuuu]

been an Ayaka mains since her 2.0 banner up till this date (C2R1 currently), she's been carrying me through 2.0-4.X abyss and well, patch after patch they released unfreezable, bosses, cryo shield etc, hopefully my princess will have a comeback since Natlan coming out with more freezable and melt enemies :)

[@hitomichan7]

I missed ayakas banner twice because when i first played genshin i didnt know about the wishing thing so i didnt pull and the second time i didnt have a device to play genshin on since my laptop stopped being able to run it after fontaine was released so i had to buy a tablet which only arrived after ayakas banner finished I really want to get her that i hope her next banner will be back within this year

[@halomaxus]

It's simple after the film event she got knocked out by Navia and is be held captive in the basement of poisson because Aether belongs to her now

[@ArjunMungekar]

It's the spiral abyss for fontaine patch