So apparently there’s some people who may
think I have something against Xinyan because I never mentioned her in these videos, but
that’s definitely not true. These two teams will always have a special
place in my heart for being my one and only abyss clear. But that said, I do understand the frustration
with Xinyan fans kinda getting the cold shoulder from miHoYo. So like in my previous “why character”
analyses, I’m going to explain some theories on why she isn’t as popular, but also why
she deserves some more appreciation. I was extremely certain that Hangout Event
Series 2 would at least include Beidou, Diona, and Xinyan, but miHoYo said nah. We love Noelle. While this is great for Noelle fans, this
pretty much solidifies Xinyan’s spot as the most neglected character in Genshin Impact. When 1.5 comes, she and Beidou will be the
only characters to have no appearance in the Archon Questline, no appearance in any events,
no story quests, and no hangout events, despite them both coming out a long time ago. Beidou at least has her ship and crew in the
game, so even if you don’t own her you know about her character. Xinyan on the other hand, essentially has
no presence in the game, so if you don’t have her, you might not even know that she
exists. This creates an unfortunate self fulfilling
prophecy of sorts where low exposure means you have a low base interest in the character,
and then you’re not inclined to learn more about them. That means you won’t explore everything
the character has to offer and won’t become invested in them. The opposite can be seen in this infographic
by SensorTower which shows mobile spending for 5 of the game’s featured character banners. Zhongli, Ganyu, and Xiao have a clear increase
in money when compared to Albedo and Hu Tao, which I think makes sense because these 3
characters were shown in the game’s story long before their banners were available. By seeing them early, we get to see each character’s
appeal and form an attachment to them. Then, we become more inclined to learn about
them and gain a greater appreciation for their qualities. I’m sure a big part of the reason why so
many people like Rosaria is because she was well featured in the Dragonspine quest, the
Windblume quest, and the “We Will Be Reunited” quest. It’s true that in the “Stand By Me”
event Xinyan was obtainable for free, which could have given her exposure, but you had
to choose her out of the available 6 characters. So, if you picked her there, chances are that
you already liked her. The Lantern Rite Festival would have been
a perfect opportunity to showcase her too, but it ended up being all Xiao. I really hope that miHoYo adds more Hangout
Events in 1.6 so that Xinyan can finally get some much needed spotlight. There are a few aspects of Xinyan’s gameplay
design that I could see being turn offs for some people. I’m sure that some wrote her off because
she shares the same weapon and element as Diluc, who is an overall exceptional character,
even though they play quite differently. Apart from that, one of Xinyan’s core gameplay
elements is her shield, which has the unfortunate mechanic of being more useful based on the
number of enemies hit. While her 1st ascension passive does reduce
the amount that you need to hit, it still stands that part of this ability’s functionality
is out of the player’s control. Specifically when fighting a boss, where there
will only ever be one enemy present. Consistency is very important in making the
player feel like when things go wrong, it’s because of their own fault and nothing else. Even though this is a relatively minor example,
having things just completely be out of your control can be frustrating. In the same way that being paralyzed and unable
to move in Pokémon is annoying because it’s completely random. One of the big upsides of the shield however,
is that it gives the player the pyro status, cleansing debuffs in areas like domains and
the spiral abyss. Pyro works especially well as a cleanser because
you can’t freeze, superconduct, or electrocharge yourself. But the thing is, if you take enough damage
and your shield breaks, then you lose access to that cleanse. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue since
you can just play around the ability’s long 18 second cooldown, but unfortunately there
is another four star pyro character who can cleanse, heal, and give damage buffs with
the only restriction being that you have to stand within a giant circle. In my Amber video, I mentioned characters
having effective ranges, and while I’m not afraid to admit that I ended up being completely
wrong about Amber’s burst having no range, I think this concept still does contribute
to how a character feels to play. Xinyan’s burst ends up pushing enemies away,
which seems counterintuitive when you want the enemies to be bunched up so you can get
a higher level shield on your elemental skill. While this is a minor inconvenience, it is
an inconvenience nonetheless. These things, while small individually, can
definitely contribute to someone not being interested in Xinyan’s mechanics and overall
playstyle. I for one, do not care about damage at all
to be honest, but I think it’s fair to say that there is a portion of the community which
bases their liking of characters on how well they perform with an average amount of investment. Outside of pure support, Xinyan is very clearly
meant to be a physical damage dealer based on her talents and constellations. Physical damage is already outclassed by pure
elemental damage because of how strong elemental reactions are, but it stays competitive thanks
to things like physical damage % weapons and goblets, but most importantly the superconduct
reaction. This reduces enemy physical resistance by
a whopping 40% upon combining cryo and electro, which is why Razor is such a good physical
dps and why Eula will be as well. That’s why it’s unfortunate that Xinyan
is pyro, since that means you’d need to dedicate two other slots for cryo and electro. When you also factor in things like viridescent
venerer anemo supports and healers, some players may find running Xinyan optimally to simply
require too much. So up to now I’ve discussed why I think
some players aren’t interested in using Xinyan, but there are definitely some good
reasons why you might want to try her out. First off, her shield strength scales off
of her defense, meaning that you can finally make good use of those defense artifacts that
once caused you pain and suffering. Furthermore, the Whiteblind is a free to play
option for a claymore that has a secondary stat of defence percent, which also has a
passive that grants stacks of defence, up to an additional 24%. I understand that getting billets for blacksmith
weapons can be quite tragic, but the option is available. If you get a good build with lots of defense,
a strong shield is a great asset to the team. In most cases, shielding is better than pure
healing since it blocks interruption when being hit. The level 3 shield also pulses with pyro,
making it good for setting up reactions and melting cryo shields. Also as mentioned before, its ability to cleanse
debuffs can be extremely useful. With some constellations, Xinyan definitely
has a lot of damage potential. Her C1 gives 12% attack speed for 5 seconds
after landing a critical hit with a 5 second cooldown, so you can have this bonus always
be active if you are consistently landing crits. C2 makes her burst always crit, which synergizes
well with C1, but more importantly it makes a level 3 shield on the spot. This makes it a little bit easier to manage
that long cooldown. C4 makes Xinyan’s elemental skill decrease
physical resistance by 15% for 12 seconds, and C6 makes her charged attacks scale with
defence. These will definitely increase her damage
output by a lot, especially if you have a strong defensive build. Lastly, let’s talk about why Xinyan is a
cool character outside of gameplay. This section is pretty much what you would
probably be able to learn about her if you were able to interact with her in the game. In terms of her visual design, she definitely
gets across the rocker aesthetic with her fierce, spikey outfit and bright red accents. She even has a drum on her back that makes
noises when you move around. If you look closely, you can see that her
guitar has a pretty homemade feel to it with the square body and large tuning pegs, and
that makes a lot of sense considering she did make it herself. Personality wise, Xinyan is very hardworking. She was a pioneer of rock n’ roll in Liyue
and is now pretty famous, but she did not see success right away. Before, when people were unfamiliar with rock,
they disliked it because they didn’t understand it. But instead of running away to another place
where rock was more accepted, she decided to stand her ground and introduce a new era
of music to Liyue Harbor. This persistence isn’t only present in her
music though, as she once was bad at skills like cooking and doing chores. But eventually she improved through her own
dedication. As a performer, she also cares a lot about
her fans and their perception of her. Like many other characters, Xinyan is quite
inspirational. These were some highlights of her lore, but
if you want to get a summary of the whole thing, consider checking out my Liyue lores
video. As I said before, I think this whole situation
can be remedied by just giving Xinyan a Hangout Event or even a key role within an event. The same goes for Beidou too. Moving forward, I don’t really see this
“negligence” being an issue for new characters. New 5-stars have consistently been getting
their story quests on release since obviously miHoYo wants to advertise them and make that
money. The amount of new four stars being released
has slowed down, allowing them to have more time to develop ways to introduce them. So while Xinyan’s situation is very unfortunate
to say the least, at least we can be somewhat confident that no more characters will suffer
a similar fate in the future. But anyways, some of you may have other reasons
for liking or disliking Xinyan, so let me know what you think about her and her treatment
in the comments below. That’s all I’ve got for today's video,
and always, thank you for watching.
