The character Zhongli in Genshin Impact is getting another buff, even though the hero was recently described by the developers as “just underrated”. The community is rather divided over the changes.
This was the state of Zhongli: When the banner for the 5-star character Zhongli finally became available in Genshin Impact, some players were disappointed to find that he did not live up to his rank.
On reddit and social media, there was feedback to the developer miHoYo that Zhongli is too weak and cannot keep up with other support characters. This is frustrating, especially since he is a 5-star character and therefore very rare and expensive.
miHoYo responded that Zhongli is a good support character. The community just underestimates him. Therefore, no changes to the character are planned for now, except for bug fixes.
Since the statement, a buff for Zhongli has already been planned, which included HP scaling, but apparently it was still not enough. Now, another buff is being added that should make Zhongli much more useful.
This is the buff: The new buff revolves around the talent “Dominus Lapidis”, which is supposed to receive an additional effect.
The statement from miHoYo says the following:
Effect when holding the talent “Dominus Lapidis”
Causes nearby Geo objects to explode and inflicts the following effects:
• As long as the maximum number of Liyue hills is not reached, a Liyue hill will be created.
• Creates a jade block that absorbs damage based on Zhongli’s max HP and 150% from elemental and physical damage.
• If a character is protected by the jade shield, the WDS of the opponents within a certain radius is reduced against all elements and physical damage by 20%, not stackable.
• Inflicts Geo area damage.
• Consumes the Geo power from up to two of these targets when they have the Geo attribute present. This effect does not cause damage.
Starting from update 1.3, Zhongli is expected to also temporarily reduce the opponents’ resistance, thus increasing the damage dealt. Whether this will happen depends on the results of the beta tests.
Note: The German translation of the effect on the official page seems to be incorrect. It mentions an increase in resistance to elemental and physical damage for all characters.
In English and other languages, however, it speaks of a decrease in the resistance of opponents. We assume that the English version is correct and that this is how it will come into the game later.
The buff is expected to go live with update 1.3, which miHoYo claims will happen in February.
Good buff, but still weaker than other supports?
What the positive voices say: Many Genshin Impact players seem to be divided over the buffs. On reddit, they are mostly welcomed and even celebrated in some cases. The top comment in the thread about the buffs says:
That’s a pretty big deal. It’s like having a mini-VV set with a 12-second cooldown, and you don’t have to equip 4 pieces for it […]
by Diamondangel82 on reddit
With “VV” referring to the popular artifact set “Viridescent Venerer”, which is especially suitable for Anemo characters like Venti or Sucrose. Under certain conditions, it can reduce the elemental resistance of opponents by up to 40%, allowing for massive damage.
Thus, Zhongli receives a “mini-version” of this effect with -20%, for which there is no need to farm a set. Later, in combination with elemental resonance, he could further reduce resistance, according to the comments.
The less optimistic comments in the thread say that the changes sound good on paper at least. However, tests would need to be conducted first to truly determine how good Zhongli is after the buff.
What the negative voices say: On the other hand, some players criticize that these buffs are not enough. There are still fundamental problems with Zhongli’s gameplay, especially concerning the jade block that he summons for the resonance.
The HP of the pillar is too low, making it collapse too quickly and the radius of the resonance is way too small. Especially when compared to Albedo’s radius.
The pillar will always be a scourge for any player who wants to use Zhongli. It ruins elemental reactions, it can be climbed unlike Albedo’s, it deals poor damage, and now it appears directly in front of you and forces you to run right or left so you don’t accidentally climb it! […]
Timmie’s Dad in the official Genshin Impact forums
Zhongli is also still being compared to other characters who are better than him, with the same or even fewer stars. Examples include characters like Venti, Albedo, Sucrose, or Diona.
And what do you think about the buffs? Is Zhongli now a good 5-star character? Is he OP or still too weak? Let us know in the comments.
The beta tests for update 1.3 have reportedly already begun today. So it is entirely possible that we might find out before the actual update how strong Zhongli really is now.
After all, it has already been leaked which new characters could come to Genshin Impact with update 1.3.
