Diluc used to be heralded as one of, if not
the strongest character in Genshin Impact in terms of DPS output. Since that long gone time, we’ve seen many
new characters be released and we have a better general understanding of the game’s mechanics,
meaning many others have risen above him in general popularity. Despite this, for a variety of reasons, I
feel that Diluc holds a special, unique place in the game as a DPS carry that won’t be
taken away from him anytime soon. It’s been a while but I’m finally back
with another entry into my gameplay design analysis series where I investigate underused
or underrated Genshin characters to get a better understanding of why they have that
reputation. Genshin has been receiving updates for a bit
over a year now, and that is more than enough time to pick up on a few trends regarding
the direction and design philosophies surrounding combat gameplay. Specifically, the introduction of more mechanics
that are generally more complex in nature. It is most noticeable when you place text
descriptions side by side, comparing stuff from earlier on in the game’s lifespan to
now. You can easily tell that this applies to things
like character kits and weapon passives, but also the effects on the new artifact sets
in 2.3 seem to be following suit. Now that’s not to say that simplicity is
gone forever, but it does seem like it will become increasingly less common. I mean it makes sense that if you want players
to spend money on this thing, you try to make it new and shiny. However, typically in games, developers continuously
trying to innovate on mechanics eventually leads to older alternatives being weaker simply
by doing less. Most of you are probably familiar with this
concept as it is more commonly referred to: powercreep. I feel that Genshin hasn’t actually fallen
victim to powercreep, at least not yet, for a single reason. Characters focus on niches. Sure, there have been and will be many more
cases of characters having very specific uses and thus they are unpopular due to not fitting
on many teams. However, it does push the design philosophy
that players should be encouraged to discover specific synergies between characters. And in the long run, this will result in less
of “you need these exact characters to succeed” and more of “if you want to focus on using
this specific character that you really like, they work well with these others.” And because in general, the simpler characters
still excel at what they specifically try to accomplish, their existence is not invalidated. Think about the characters who generally need
the most on-field time to be effective at producing damage. When you look at the standard banner 5-stars
like Diluc and Keqing, and other 5-stars who we knew were developed earlier during the
betas like Xiao and Ayaka, the game plan with them pretty much boils down to basic attack
enemies, use elemental skill to charge burst, burst, basic attack some more. They are relatively simpler and straightforward
to play when compared to the more recent main DPS carries, who require a bit more in terms
of strategy and execution. With Hu Tao you want to try and manage staying
at lower health to maximize your damage, which entails not dying (obviously) but without
just mindlessly healing to full. Eula’s burst has the potential for a ton
of damage in a single instance, but requires you to build up stacks over its brief duration. And soon, we will have Arataki Itto, who seems
to revolve around rapidly building up stacks with his whole kit and spending them on charged
attacks. But at the end of the day, how much does this
complexity actually contribute? Well, not really that much. Unlike supports who have the capability to
do a wide variety of things to help the team, DPS carries only have one simple job. Using different DPS characters is more about
the means than the ends, especially because content in this game is not so difficult to
the point where you need the most meta team compositions. What matters more is personal preference. I, for example, enjoy characters that have
lots of opportunities for optimization, but at the same time I acknowledge that others
may prefer their gameplay to be more clear cut and straightforward. And when it comes to this idea, I feel like
Diluc exemplifies it more than any other character in the game. Like most characters, his normal attacks have
no special properties on their own. His elemental skill can be used up to 3 times,
and since elemental skills always animation cancel normal attacks, that does mean you
can do a sequence like this. I wouldn’t consider this to be a complex
mechanic though, because it really is just an alternating 2 button sequence that doesn’t
have strict timing and will automatically target enemies while advancing forward. So aside from that, his elemental skill is
literally just an attack. Diluc’s elemental burst does damage in a
large area of effect while knocking enemies back, and then grants him Pyro infusion on
his normal attacks. Basically he does damage, and then gains the
ability to do enhanced damage. His ascension passives follow suit by just
giving him bonus numbers on his other talents, and one of them might as well not even be
there because charged attacks are just not worth using on him. Unlike other characters, Diluc has no way
of repositioning himself while doing damage, doesn’t build up over time, isn’t self-sufficient
with healing or resistance to interruption, and pretty much doesn’t provide anything
to the team other than damage. Well just by that previous sentence you would
think that he straight up sucks, but he is capable of things that other characters are
not in his own simple ways. First off, out of all the characters that
can grant themselves elemental infusions or conversions that allow them to do elemental
damage on their normal attacks, many of them can’t switch out without losing those effects
and putting the associated ability on cooldown. Hu Tao, Raiden Shogun, Childe, Xiao, and Yoimiya
are all examples of this. Meanwhile, those like Keqing, Noelle, and
Diluc, are able to have it carry over despite switching. It matters the most for Diluc though because
it makes him the only Pyro character that can do this, and pyro also happens to have
some of the best reactions in the game. The practical application for this is that
you don’t have to maintain perfect rotations on your team’s abilities. For example, if you’re using any pyro DPS
you probably want to have Xingqiu’s burst activated. But if you use your infusion ability first
for whatever reason your options are to either cut down all of your damage by not being able
to vaporize, or switch out and suffer a lengthy cooldown. Aside from that, the freedom to group enemies
together or give yourself a shield whenever you want is quite nice. The other nice thing about Diluc is that his
kit isn’t conditional at all. What I mean by that is, he works at full capacity
in pretty much any scenario he is placed in, and there’s essentially never any reason
to not use his full kit. Specifically when it comes to abilities that
affect your health, have long cooldowns, or have high energy costs, sometimes you run
into scenarios where you don’t know if it's worth using then or saving for later. Diluc never faces this dilemma because his
elemental skill is short cooldown and generates lots of energy for his low cost, low cooldown
elemental burst. Using it never feels like a waste because
you get it back right away. Both of these things mentioned contribute
to Diluc’s gameplay feeling uniquely free flowing yet continuous. And of course I can’t forget to mention
the fact that he is a standard banner 5 star, meaning unlike limited characters that are
at the mercy of not getting reruns for long periods of time, you can technically pull
Diluc whenever. Of course there are other things that make
Diluc strong that aren’t unique to him though. Aside from maybe the lack of crit substat
claymores, his inherent properties are perfectly suited for his role as a DPS carry. First off he is pyro, which gives him access
to the multiplicative amplifying reactions of melt and vaporize, the crimson witch artifact
set, the universally strong elemental resonance Fervent Flames, and a variety of pyro supports
to activate it as well as generate energy for him. Diluc’s elemental skill also has a property
shared by some other Pyro DPSs’ abilities, which is a bypass to the standard internal
cooldown. Whereas most moves in the game cannot reapply
their element within 2.5 seconds or 3 separate hits, each hit of Searing Onslaught always
applies pyro. Of course this means more reactions, and thus
more damage. Also, Diluc’s wide claymore swings give
him easy AoE and can stagger enemies more than any other weapon type. For the stuff I just mentioned, there are
and will continue to be new characters that have the same capabilities, but as long as
Diluc continues to have those other strengths unique to him, he will stay relevant. Sure those things may seem pretty minor in
the grand scheme of things, but at the end of the day Genshin is a game all about tailoring
your gameplay to your own preferences. For the same reasons that you might hate a
character’s gameplay, others might love it. The fact that those reasons exist, plus all
the other factors that go into someone liking a character overall, makes it so that characters
won’t get so easily replaced by one another. And for that reason, I don’t think Diluc
will be “powercrept” anytime soon. That would entail someone doing exactly what
he does better than him, and in the way that he does it. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this somewhat
unique perspective on character gameplay design and balancing, and as always, thanks for watching.
