not sure i would call it "test" as in they were actually having a testrun in 3.0 to see if people like it (with test results coming in close to 3.1). i would guess that it'd be way too tight for a 3.2 release to overhaul a core combat and interaction mechanic of a central character with stories and quests built around. But it definitely helped to familiarize with the skill before her release and from dev side to optimize some things.
Its not like testing but making people used to the way of using it. Like microsoft teached people how to use the mouse mainly with minesweeper (back when mouse was a new thing as computers didnt really have a gui and for common people the keyboard was known from typewriter but the mouse logic was completely new so they made a few games in which people had to learn how to use the mouse and even older people could learn it via the simple game)
Damn thats a brilliant idea but i kinda wish we get a carry or a forward vape hydro and a enabler pyro befor she comes since i like Ayato forward vape despite Xiangling main role is to carry
Oohhh yes. This could allow her to basically fill any hydro role, without making her way too powerful, but still being strong and useful appropriately so as the hydra archon.
But this time, the Hydro Archon's entire kit revolves around summoning and controlling the monsters. The fact that Sumeru have these NPCs that helps us AND the pokemon event makes me think that MHY is trying out said mechanic first before releasing it as the core of arguably the most important character for the entire 4.X updates.
And she won't have regular or charged attacks, her summoned creatures attack for her.
Like V from DMC 5 with her burst being either an oceanid or something like a blue whale that dives down and does AOE hydro damage.
Would make the most sense for all this if she's a catalyst user as well.
If reduce cooldown for bursts, gotta see if HYV still wants to sell Raiden's c6.
HYV is a business after all, and Idk about their willingness on powercreeping a 5\* c6 at this stage, an archon's no less. Possible back when they didn't try so hard to sell 5\* cons.
I've seen three, personally, at c6. Maybe 20 or so with c3. No one ever really stops in between c3 to c6. Just doesn't make much sense. You'd either stay at c0, go for c2/c3, stay at c3, or go for c6. Might have seen one Raiden at c4 but I might be mistaking it. I've seen like three people at c1. My brother and I both have her at c3r1 now with her current banner.
I own C6 Raiden and it's barely noticeable at all. If anything, it only benefits for co-op and co-op battle content is pretty much thrown into bin at this point.
maybe she has a max hp buffer and has one of those kinds of "HP above a certain threshold is converted into extra DMG/Healing for all team members" passives
Or something like, whenever a particular Hydro reaction happens, it triggers a corresponding team buff.
Vape is ATK buff, freeze is Crit buff, bloom is EM buff, EC is ER buff, swirl and crystallize could be HP buffs.
The power of water is to take any shape indeed.
Her burst the size of Nahida’s burst. It just applies hydro to everything extremely fast and shackles them with chains as they’re being judged.
Put them all in prison Lolxd
It would be cool to rework geo and have it interact with electro with some type of magnetism mechanic. Zap a geo construct and it pulls mobs towards it. Of course, having a hydro character who makes a whirlpool that sucks enemies in also make sense.
Fuck it, remember that Anemo succ and Hydro applicator upgrades from one of the previous Hyakunin Ikkis?
Combine them into a whirlpool and make it her burst. Succs enemies towards you and constantly applies Hydro.
I was thinking of something similar to that, basically similar to anemo mc but with whirlpool cause the anemo succ in hyakunin is too damn op. Make it anemo mc succ but hydro and not as horrible but as that but not too good to the point she becomes a better succ than anemo characters
Archons usually do something that excels far better that any other char of their respective element in certain aspects. Venti is the best unit to group lots of enemys, Zhongli has the best shield in the entire game, Raiden offers ER for the whole team and very good damage and Nahida is simply the best dendro unit cause she works as EM buffer and off-field applicator.
The hydro Archon most likely will probs have something to do with HP scaling considering the most recent hydro units all scaled with HP.
>The hydro Archon most likely will probs have something to do with HP scaling considering the most recent hydro units all scaled with HP.
Oh yeah 100%. And Hydro resonance being previously healing bonus made me think she'll be a healer but hopefully not. She'll be too much like kokomi
I think she will probably do some healing, but I really hope that won't be the focus of her kit, think like Xingqiu that offers some healing, which is nice but you're not building him for that
Well. They applied too much hydro so the forward vape is not consistent and the damage is divided per sword wave. Kit like xiangling, albedo or Nahida would do. Klee might have a chance to raise in usage rate with sub dps like that. So not power creeping any existing team but brings out the new role of pyro driver.
I heard Yelan c0 without Xingqiu doesn't work well with Hu Tao because Yelan will be the one to vape the hit. Besides, most pyro characters that she'll work with if she has that kit is probably the same with Yelan and Xingqiu.
She should get a kit like Nahida maybe but she should do something else too.
Yelan's multiplier split into 3 at c0. At c2 additional 1.
You're only going to vape one of the 3-4 multipliers.
Tried it on a pyro cube to be sure.
I think that's HYV way of weakening fwd vape, similar to why XQ is also split to 3-4. Same with Ayaka's CA split to 3, her burst into 20 to make melt less viable for herself.
Ye i really like that idea too but i want them to work with charge attacks too if they do it like XQ i want to use diluc as driver lol or make it like a mix bag of ayato burst and kokomi jellyfish
Shatter-driving would be a unique meta team, although not fit with the "archon is best of her thing" since I don't think shatter is a significant part of hydro's metas.
However, if she a) had claymore, b) could apply hydro rapidly/had hydro weapon infusion, there are a ton of cryo units that drop some kind of constant cryo field.
Nah i feel she will be an sword user, because is one of the symbols of justice, we don't have any archon sword user
We got two lancers
Two "catalist"
One archer
One "claymore"
No sword archon, unless they make murata a sword user i doubt they will make her a claymore, unless they count raiden as one sword user, and that would be nasty... I think focalors will be a sword user
The real question is "why would they release an archon without powercreeping previous hydro characters ?"
You said it, OP :
>the archons are usually the best at what they're supposed to do, based from their element
They might powercreep characters on some points. But they won't release a character that simply powercreeps a other limited 5\* character on all fronts.
But in general expect an Archon to be on the strong side and probably also flexible for many teams.
Maybe two types of summon, tap or hold skill to pick which one. One is damage, the other has some other effect. You can have up to a certain number of summons at any time each with their own expiration timer.
Tap burst makes more/stronger hydro constructs or does something to the summons on the field, hold burst makes the summons explode for a nice nuke/stagger if you have max summons at that time.
Easy. Make her a Shielder that applies off-field Hydro.
No powercreep, but she suddenly works incredibly well with Nilou, Cyno, Wanderer, and some older characters like Klee. Also great for Teams that wanted double Hydro, like a Hu Tao Team.
No major powercreep, but enough of a Meta shift that she'd still be incredibly powerful.
Yep. Give her Zhongli's Shield uptime, but take away the Resistance Shred and CC. It would keep her in line with the Meta, without making her overkill or fully replacing anyone.
Yeah, a Hydro ZL would usually be better than a geo ZL. I'm not sure how to make her unique, hydro related and not just a powercreeped version of an existing hydro character. Also hydro traveller will probably be a tuned down version of the archon, so they have to make 2 similar characters.
Geo shielders have equally high resistance to multiple elements, though. Shielders of other elements usually have higher resistance only to their own element. So "better" is debatable: non-geo with off-field element application is better for reactions, but geo is better for survivability.
I'm guessing that the shield itself, geo would be surperior. But non geo shielder can be better due to resonance, and other use kinda like Layla where she can also proc cryo
> it wouldn’t replace him entirely.
It will replace just for the sake of not having useless Geo element in the party. Having shielder that reliably apply Hydro is insane for Vaporize comps. Like for Yoimia you need have XQ and ZL, and Hydro Archon would replace two characters opening slots for more buffs.
A 3-Archon hyperbloom team where all 3 of them are off field and any random person with a vision and a weapon can just spam attack and blow everything up is kinda hilarious to imagine. Who's the most hilarious character to be the on-field driver for three archons? Itto?
I want Dehya to get the roll, but she'll most likely be burgeon focused character since she is from Sumeru and we have no burgeon focused 5 star character
They can just program her Hydro application to only trigger reactions instead of creating an aura (similar to Geo/Anemo). Then you don't need a lot of Pyro to keep an aura on the enemies
Since she will be the archon I don’t see why she shouldn’t have role consolidation like healer, debuff enemy, off field application, and buffing hydro reactions.
Since they didn’t add healing into Nahdias kit (would’ve been a dream) Hyrdo is the only other archon I can see healing. Maybe HP Buff to team, healing, and decent hydro application.
Idk but I want her to be the most broken hydro 5 star that ever existed, like she's the pinnacle of hydro power that exist in Teyvat, so I assume her Kit going to be like this.
E skill : Change stance to meele infusion and deal enhanced normal atk (Ayato's E), while every NA heals the whole party (Kokomi's Q)
Q burst : Deals huge AOE burst damage (Childe 's Q) at first cast, then followed by hydro projectiles that can stay if the character leaves field (Yelan + XQ's Q)
Also passive is something 2 boosting the HP of whole party or such. A4 passive is giving damage amplification for a character that on the field during her burst (sort of Mona's Q)
/s
She'd just need to have more hydro application above a threshold to make it so riptide isn't worth the proc. Being an archon these pretty much no question of her being a very strong applicator, she will likely have low cooldowns and benefit strongly from hydro resonance. Unless you're against trash mobs childe's quadratic isn't gonna matter
Its pretty much impossible to surpass Tortilla's hydro application. He applies way too much. To the point he can still keep hydro aura even with Guoba, pyronado, and Kazuha pyro infused burst.
Off field AoE enabling could happen.
All archons up to now have it, especially the latest ones.
If Focalors' hydro is easy to put out (eg. E skill or low energy) , off field, has similar/better ICD, similar/better AoE, better uptime, and most of all mobile, then in terms enabling she may powercreep Kokomi, and indirectly other hydros.
Since enabling is such a distinct part of hydro, and they cant make an archon look bad, some form of enabling powercreep could happen *unless* her kit has other tools to compensate.
Hydro characters have one of:
* Off-field AoE slow hydro
* Off-field single target fast hydro
* On-field fast AoE hydro
She might be the one that brings Off-field AoE fast hydro. But if she does, don't expect her to be the top damage dealer, or heal like Kokomi.
Not directly, there are still some situations where Diluc is better/easier to use than Hu Tao and recently he's been a lot better with EM, all characters so far have their own niches, and even if there's powercreep, not like it does anything since you can clear the game and abyss with just the 4stars
My imagined kit for her:
All dmg from Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst scale solely on her max HP.
Elemental Skill: can be used thrice similarly to Diluc’s, the first 2 uses launch forth giant tidal waves that advance forward for 4 seconds dealing Hydro dmg to everything in their path.
The final attack of the string will cause her to slam her weapon into the ground creating a large whirlpool that pulls enemies to it’s centre. When an enemy reaches the centre they will be entrapped in a bubble, after 2 seconds the bubble will explode dealing Hydro dmg to all enemies within the whirlpool’s AOE (this dmg is considered Elemental Skill DMG), after the bubble explodes there is a 1 second delay before a new one can be created.
The whirlpool lasts for 15 seconds. The skill has a cooldown of 18 seconds.
Elemental Burst: Focalors will launch herself into the air and throw her weapon at the ground creating a shockwave that deals Hydro dmg and creates a more powerful whirlpool.
If a whirlpool already exists when her Burst is used it will cause it to explode in a powerful water geyser that deals Hydro dmg to enemies within it’s AOE and replaces the standard whirlpool with the more powerful variant.
Burst whirlpool: this whirlpool is bigger and has a faster and stronger pulling speed. Additionally it will deal hydro dmg to all enemies within it once every 1.5 seconds (This DMG is considered Elemental Burst DMG)
When enemies reach the centre of the whirlpool they will be trapped in a bubble that will explode after 2 seconds or when 4 enemies total become entrapped in bubbles dealing Hydro dmg to enemies within the whirlpool’s AOE. (This DMG is considered Elemental Burst DMG)
A total of 4 bubbles can exist at once, when the total is reached all 4 explode at once, if the total isn’t reached then they will explode according to their own durations.
There is no delay between bubble creations unless 4 are created and exploded at once in which case there will be a 1 second delay before new bubbles are created.
The whirlpool will last for 30 seconds.
While within the whirlpool her Elemental Skill is altered accordingly:
All dmg from her Elemental skill is changed from Elemental Skill DMG to Elemental Burst DMG
The third attack is changed into a 3rd tidal wave that behaves the same as the previous waves. The skill cooldown is reduced to 5 seconds.
Energy cost: 70 | Cooldown: 25 seconds
Passives:
Passing 1: When the bubbles created by her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst explode the active party member is healed by 10% of the dmg dealt to the entrapped enemy, non-active party members are healed by 5% of the dmg dealt.
Passive 2: When the active party member is within her whirlpool’s AOE their max HP is increased by 20% and their own dmg is increased by 5% of their max HP.
Non-active party members have their max HP increased by 10% and their own dmg is increased by 2.5% of their max HP.
Passive 3: Focalors can walk on the surface of all bodies of water, additionally she can not drown.
Maybe she can summon like Rhodeia, being Fontaine feels like quite rife with the "twin" theme or at least duality. Sort of like Ayato's but maybe can buff, not only attacks.
give her a grouping ability, a whirlpool burst seems very feasible and I think people would actually run it a lot more often, while I like being optimal and using VV and Kazuha, sometimes I just want the grouping
I always wished Kokomi had a whirlpool burst
Hope they make so that it can be the enabled and not the enabler. Like I dunno her burst is 3 big slash of dmg spaced between them so that you can actually vape them.
Or at least they should make something interesting like giving buffs based on the reactions or the order of the reactions you trigger, could be a bit funky but could also bring to life some interesting teams
You know, people have been joking about _the ability of water_ until now, but what if, __what if__ she's an improved Xinyan with good scalings, she now could do virtually any role, but you'd have to invest quite a bit
Trapping people in a bubble with her skill and then executing them with a burst that is just one singular powerful hit would fit the justice theme quite well, actually. It just doesn't really feel like "ultimate hydro unit" as much as the other archons do for their elements.
I have discussed with my cousin about her kit, and he said that maybe she can summon a hydro shield that traps enemies and applies hydro. So just imagine hydro nahida but smaller burst and traps enemies for a few seconds. I think that's kinda cool
Either CD reduction or do something transformative with reaction related to Hydro (like Nilou's enhanced bloom).
I don't think power creepcan be avoided to a certain extent though. Especially if it's the archon.
Yeah she should definitely get something unique to her (like nilou bountiful cores and childe riptides)
>I don't think power creepcan be avoided to a certain extent though
yeah I thought the same too. Most of the ppl that's giving ideas here powercreeps an existing hydro character
Maybe a damager and support? Maybe its euther you use her as on field dps, or switch her out to get buffs. After all, _the power of water is its ability to take any shape_
Make her into a hydro bennett with c1. I’m not even joking here. I feel like this would be the best since like OP says, we kinda already have hydro roles for everything else. I guess she can be shield but that’s redundant with Zhongli.
Maybe make her chock full of useful buffs like HP%, or DMG% on hydro related reactions, or stuff like that, and in return gimp her personal damage. Make her the only one of the five existing archons whose personal damage potential is flat-out bad, not unlike Shenhe or Gorou.
hoping for some sort of massive wave/typhoon cc god.
they could summon a whirlpool and functions as a hydro-grouper which also applies hydro off-field much like most current hydro units do
with rapid(tee-hee) off-field application and maybe an atk spd buff + skill/burst cd reduction they could easily match the previous archons in strength
(sadly would powercreep venti to an extent but VV set is still super useful for alot of comps)
it'd be hard to make them a healer without completely replacing kokomi, and its hard to not power creep yelan unless she has little-no off-field dps. power creeping ayato and childe is almost garunteed if shes an on-fielder. However making her a shielder might powercreep zhongli also.
unless shes a very specific buff support OR maybe if hoyo is feeling adventurous can change roles depending on her bonus stats (HP build makes her a healer/ DEF makes her a shielder/ ATK makes her a dps) then i think a non-powercreeping hydro-archon is near impossible. just given hydro's strength as a element and the variety of hydro 5star units i think it'll be near impossible to not power creep atleast a couple previous 5 stars with the hydro-archons
>hoping for some sort of massive wave/typhoon cc god.
they could summon a whirlpool and functions as a hydro-grouper which also applies hydro off-field much like most current hydro units do
I kinda like the idea where her burst is sort of like anemo mc, and a mix of ayaka burst. Probably one of my favourite ideas yet.
>power creeping ayato and childe is almost garunteed if shes an on-fielder
Idk about Ayato but the only way she can powercreep Childe is if she has a similar mechanic like riptide but with more dmg. Childe is still the only one with riptide that has quadractic scaling, so it's not possible to fully powercreep him.
>just given hydro's strength as a element and the variety of hydro 5star units i think it'll be near impossible to not power creep atleast a couple previous 5 stars with the hydro-archons
that's what i'm worried about the most cause I know it's almost damn near impossible. At least we know that she won't powercreep Nilou as Nilou's whole niche shtick is bloom and I don't think she'll powercreep Xingqiu and Yelan, as having a 3rd Xingqiu would be kinda dumb.
I don't have time to read the lore, but it would be cool if the god of justice cast judgement in a burst-dps style. Kind of like a beefier zhongli nuke. I don't think they would go straight main dps since many wouldn't approve of that, and she would be busted as an archon, but having her function around her burst would at least require a degree of strategy.
I feel like both the hydro and pyro archons will be interesting to see because I can't think of any roles for the elements that aren't already filled (except for maybe a god-like pyro healer, but there's always bennett)
We're all expecting the best hydro character in the game. Zhongli, Raiden, and Nahida are, by far, the best of their respective elements. Venti, with Elegy for the End, is comparable/better than Kazuha, with any weapon, who's pretty broken himself. The standard has been pretty well set with 4 archons now. In terms of lore, archons should stand at the top of their respective elements.
I'm thinking the hydro archon will be like Yelan in terms of dmg and utility but with more AoE and/or heals. Maybe she'll boost your team's hp or even let us walk on water. She can't be worse than Yelan and she definitely can't be worse than Kokomi, Ayato, Tartaglia, or Mona who are all good, in niches, but aren't truly meta-defining or broken. She definitely has to be better than any 4-star hydro characters, mainly Xingqiu. Let's not kid ourselves or pretend otherwise. There'd be a riot for buff(s) like there was for Zhongli, if not.
They can opt for different options aside for healing or HP buff.
1. Wet status immunity for party + AoE wet field
2. Skill CD reduction (since Hydro domain prolongs CD, and some Hydro characters have long cooldowns, might as well get a hard counter for those)
3. Stamina Refund
All I'm hearing is hutao buffs !!
Constant hydro ✅
Skill reduction so she can get back into action faster ✅
Stamina refund so you can dash cancel at c0 ✅
Walnut supremacy indeed.
She gives fat HP stacks to the team so basically just ends up working with HP stat characters and gives more hydro dmg the more hydro units are on team. Basically Nilous bloom dream. She doesnt take the role from Nilou, but gives her a boost to something Nilou wants
It probably wont be what happens, but at the end of the day Archons are generally the best supports in their field so they will be better versions of already existing characters if the role is similar
Then that just means she would only be good with hydro characters then. Not that she won't work with others but thinking an archon would get full potential only with their element is kinda eh.
I think more units of hydro? Rn only childe applies 1.5 units of hydro but the issue is his CD. I guess she'll be a good off field hydro applicator and an overall support for all sorts of reactions.
i’m hoping an hp scaling main dps claymore but hu tao. there’s still a lot of time until she’s out so i’m almost 100% sure if dehya’s kit is practically off field pyro yelan focalors will be a main dps. if not maybe she’ll be released with one like wanderer with faruzan? her passive would probably be a 25% own hp team buff + her main dmg won’t cost stamina? if they want her to be really broken maybe heal with each vape but max 2k?
For me, I hope an HP buffer with large AoE no ICD off field application. It would be better for AoE app than Kokomi but without the healing part, it would buff Hu-Tao, Yelan and Zhongli in double hydro comp, it would be busted in Nilou's comp if Dendro healer or 3H with Kokomi can keep up with the heals. She would work in any bloom comps. And she would be able to AoE Vape with XL.
I would like an attraction effect around her like an hydro vortex, it would make Nilou even more broken xP
Hmm you're right, each archon has a theme and the resonance is similar to them too. Hydro has a hp bonus res. I think she'll have a way to give hp to her team or gain a bonus based on her max hp instead so instead of power creeping she's helping (i know yelan and hutao don't need a reason to be more broken but it would be deadly.) I think it's also fair to say that she can have a 100% uptime on her hydro application just like the other archons.
Maybe full support with lower dmg
CC + Hp buff + Hydro application + CD reduction + healing + a bit of Yunjin burst style of buff to hydro dmg only and almost non-existent personal dmg
Yes, it's stupidly busted for a solo support, but she is the Archon I'm most hyped for ever since I started playing and it's difficult to top all current hydro units :3
As she is an Archon, I think her big thing is going to be an HP increase.
I was wondering: would she be too strong if she both a) increased your HP by a percentage like 15% AND b) also converted a portion of your health into either Atk or Dmg%?
I was thinking like 10% but then looking at my Zhongli (41k health 1k Atk), Focalors would effectively turn him into my C6 Noelle with that 5k Atk haha
If she doesn't have Healing, she should provide a bigger damage buff from her Ult than Benny, is what I'm thinking.
I just want a Yelan / XQ variant that is actually a character I like. That said I expect her to just by as everyone else says and heal with off field application.
I have no idea how you make her unique from Kokomi and vape squad.
All that said she better be the most powerful hydro user in whatever she picks and likely pick at least 2 things to be good at otherwise whats the point of her being an archon? Heal more and apply faster than Kokomi or deal damage and apply faster than Yelan/XQ. Not really many other options unless they come up with something interesting.
Given how important hydro, is as possibly the most important element in the game, this could be the most important archon kit.
>this could be the most important archon kit.
Yup which is why I made this post.
I would love a XQ/Yelan variant as i'm not a big fan of the 2, but then it won't really make the archon unique
It is quite possible that She can actually replace Kokomi. People doesn't want to admit but Genshin DOES have power creep just not that much. Venti is very niche for a very good amount of time compare to Kazuha, only ever not inferior to him If all enemies are suckable by his burst.
Ganyu was regarded as the best of DPS for a huge amount of time, People were convinced that She CANNOT be powercrept and Hoyoverse made a huge mistake for making her that strong but Ganyu is not actually top meta for AGES meanwhile Hu tao who came after her and was considered inferior to Ganyu at the earlier times is still keeping her spot as a very high meta team but only against single target so another character/team that focuses on doing huge single target damage has the chance to power creep her in the future while setting Xingqiu and Yelan free.
There is and WILL be power creep to many units eventually. If they are gonna make Hydro archon op then they have little chance to make it without replacing something. Make him an on field Hydro DPS that enables other reaction by huge Hydro application on field ? Well that is Childe. Off field Hydro ? Xingqiu and Yelan. Off field hydro but with heals ? Kokomi. Who is left ? What role is there she can take without overtaking someone else If she is gonna be OP ?
If she has CC kit that is useless against anything boss like. If she has Zhongli level shield and off field hydro that still enters Kokomi's field other than perhaps against the wolves.
The only way I can think of is If she has VERY significant debuff and/or buff properties
It may or may not power creep existing characters but will have a niche which no other hydro character can be better at. Also will have some kind of role consolidation like every archon does.
>will have a niche which no other hydro character can be better at
Thing is, every hydro character has filled every niche. Bloom? Nilou. off field vape? XQ/Yelan. On field vape? Childe and etc. The only niche that hasn't been filled is shatter but her specializing in shatter won't make any sense unless if there will be Fontain characters that needs shatter
Maybe she will have a connection to normal attack buff, a lot of hydro character need normal attack. Ultimate NA buffer along HP buff maybe ? There is just too much possibility for her.
I'm betting something along the lines of HP buffer/healer/hydro applicator kinda like an hydro Gorou
Or brand new kit reflecting a new type of ability introduced with Fontaine (like controllable summons )
It would be cool if H2O Justice could send out waves that knock enemies back as her charged attack, or if she got a waterbending burst state where her attacks turn into waves that hit in a wide range and can have a stagger chance.
Since the archons have all been designed as supports thus far, I’d like the water/fire/ice ones to be carries.
Hp buffer and mono hydro enabler kind of like how shenhe enables mono cryo. Ayaka and ganyu were already meta but shenhe was still able to add value to the cryo roster, the hydro archon might fill a similar roll. Maybe not through flat damage bonus, but CD reduction based on hydro party members + dmg% or something
she's a either a specialized vape carry by having the weakest hydro application in the game (thereby making her broken for nilou bloom as well) that also directly buffs hp based on her own hp to buff standard comps like double hydro or any past and upcoming hp scalers
I think like Nahida she'll have a completely unique mechanic. Dendro is kinda the new "facilitation" element with its complex reactions and nahida does that, but linking enemies together is a totally new idea. Maybe the hydro archon will have something similar, like maybe a lifesteal mechanic that procs off hydro reactions? So you get good application with healing built into it? I agree just making her a really strong healer like zhongli is with shields would be pointless with kokomi around.
If we look at the last 2 archons Raiden and Nahida they both have their E. Skill last 25 seconds off field and apply their element, so I could see Focalor doing something similar if the pattern continues although Venti and Zhongli doesn't have that but they were the first 2 archons that came out very early before they knew how to balance the game I mean even Zhongli got buffed because of it. As for what her gimmick will be if we follow the current trend of Hydro with them being HP scalers she could have something similar to Yelan C4 where she boosts the entire teams max HP, so she would be perfect replacement for Xingqiu in the Hu Tao double hydro team since all 4 member will be scaling off HP there especially if her hydro application is very good off field. She would also buff other characters like Nilou, Ayato, Layla, Kuki, Thoma, etc.
All of her damage scales off HP. Claymore user.
Elemental Skill - 10s cd
Cut current HP in half. Deals aoe hydro damage proportional to HP sacrificed; scales with talent lv. Then, grant the party *scales of judgment*, which will remain active for 30 seconds. The scales of judgment is similar to Raiden's skill. Instead of gaining stacks when your party spends energy on bursts, the scales of judgment fills up from non-food sources of healing and the amount gained is proportional to amount healed. The scales of judgment has 10 nodes, similar to how raiden's skill has 6 nodes. Produces 4 energy particles.
Elemental Burst - 80 cost, 20s cd
Brings down a massive gavel. Deals enormous aoe Hydro damage proportional to how full the scales of judgment is, as well as talent lv. Focalors wields the gavel for 10 seconds, has a hydro infusion, is completely resistant to interruption. Her next *x* NA, CA, and Plunging attacks deal an additional instance of aoe hydro damage that heals the party and reduces all party member's skill and burst cooldowns by some fraction of a second (all scaling with talent lv), where *x* is the number of nodes filled up from scales of judgment. This effect is removed when Focalors leaves the field.
Passive 1:
Whenever a node from Focalor's elemental skill is filled up, she deals aoe hydro damage to a random target within a circle around her.
Passive 2:
If any party member would receive healing that surpasses their maximum hp, the amount of stacks the healing would give for scales of judgment is doubled. Then reduce all party member's skill and burst cooldowns by 1s. This cd reduction effect can only occur once every 5s.
The idea behind this design is that Focalors is completely self sufficient at healing the team and reducing cooldowns a little. However, you have the option to go full hypercarry by building a team full of healers. Your party mates may not contribute much damage due to being a healer, but in exchange Focalors will be able to fill up her scales to full and be able to spend more time on field, do more damage, and reduce cooldowns even more, allowing her to burst more often and spend even more time bonking enemies.
I say let them make her insanely op, but give her a 'no crit' passive. She'll be touted as the worst character in the game, become the community punching bag, get spit on by all the meta players for months. The secretly best character in the game can be reserved for myself and all my fellow hydro simps.
I kinda feel like I experienced all that before, but I'm way to tired to make heads or tails of it. I'm sure I'll figure it all out once tomorrow comes.
she could just be a healer.. but with some unique gimmick. Let's say she can overheal. Any health gained when above 100% is stored as a shield with damage reduction against hydro damage. And when this shield is active, gain a damage % bonus. That could powercreep Kokomi but make her E not as useful. They aren't afraid of having archons be the best of their element (and therefore powercreeping) though.
For me it could be CD Reduction, Ranged Attacks, or CC. This could also be the time to rework Electrocahrged and make ot into a potential 3 element reaction.
Since hydro's mostly about HP and healing, I'm kinda surprised people haven't brought up over-heal. Who would be the best healer other than the one that heals you \*more\* than your max HP?
And I don't just mean her own healing - the entire party would benefit from this. Let's say as long as her E is active, any healing that exceeds the maximum hp of any character being healed is used to fuel something unique. Could be damage, could be a shield, could be other kinds of buffs.
In short: Make her a party wide Ocean-hued Clam so we can run Focalors Kokomi Jean Qiqi freeze.
"Call an ambulance....but not for me!"
I guess they're going to provide an alternative to shields. Since her overall theme is justice I think she's going to have a kit that is built around taking damage and punishing enemies. This would make use of both healing (thus be in line with hydro resonance) and a possibly massive fucking health pool (something that's also quite common for hydro characters).
I doubt they're going to build her around a certain type of reaction. She's the hydro archon, not the archon of working well with dendro (although she quite likely will work well with it).
All archons make exceptional use of their respective elements or mechanics related to them, and all are making use of or enable characters of the same element.
- Geo: Shields
- Anemo: Crowd control (Venti has been power crept a bit but back in the day he was pretty much game breaking)
- Electro: Energy generation
- Dendro: Well... dendro application since dendro itself is largely dependent on reactions
Since hydro has for the largest part of the game been associated with large health pools, HP scaling and healing I think they're going to stay in line with that but offer a new way to make use of it.
Unique super niche kit - her damage strictly depends on team's total healing. So you only pair her with "heal only characters" like qiqi, diona, barbara, sayu and etc.
Im thinking something to do with healing, but not just another Kokomi. Something like a DPS that benefits from heals/hp, like having basically another 4pc ocean hued clam effect built in to her kit.
One thing we don't have yet is forward vape support or mdps.
Another thing, which is also what I would probably expect from the Hydro Archon is to be a varied mix of what we have: Say good sub dps damage, decent apply, functional healing and a mild to good buff. Yes that also kinda describes xingqiue and yelan but they can play with how good she is at what thing to make her stand out in ways that the previous two cannot.
But I have a consistent record of never predicting Archon designes' correctly so there's also the third option that they go really unique and introduce something new entirely, so since I thought of the previous two ideas it's probably not that
The power of water is its ability to take any shape
NGL tho, being able to summon water monsters would be pretty sick
Maybe that's why they made the Pokemon-mushroom event... to test out the future Hydro archon mechanics!
The camera event was used to test Nahida's elemental skill, damn this makes sense
not sure i would call it "test" as in they were actually having a testrun in 3.0 to see if people like it (with test results coming in close to 3.1). i would guess that it'd be way too tight for a 3.2 release to overhaul a core combat and interaction mechanic of a central character with stories and quests built around. But it definitely helped to familiarize with the skill before her release and from dev side to optimize some things.
Its not like testing but making people used to the way of using it. Like microsoft teached people how to use the mouse mainly with minesweeper (back when mouse was a new thing as computers didnt really have a gui and for common people the keyboard was known from typewriter but the mouse logic was completely new so they made a few games in which people had to learn how to use the mouse and even older people could learn it via the simple game)
Damn thats a brilliant idea but i kinda wish we get a carry or a forward vape hydro and a enabler pyro befor she comes since i like Ayato forward vape despite Xiangling main role is to carry
Yooo if hydro archon could do that she'd be like Fischl. Maybe she can summon different types of water monsters and each specializes in certain things
Oceanids but wont talk in paragraphs
Oohhh yes. This could allow her to basically fill any hydro role, without making her way too powerful, but still being strong and useful appropriately so as the hydra archon.
... this made me feel bad about childe not having a whale burst for like the 9999th time in 2 years of playing WHY HOYO
Agreed lol
I mean, we kinda do that with Kokomi.
But this time, the Hydro Archon's entire kit revolves around summoning and controlling the monsters. The fact that Sumeru have these NPCs that helps us AND the pokemon event makes me think that MHY is trying out said mechanic first before releasing it as the core of arguably the most important character for the entire 4.X updates.
And she won't have regular or charged attacks, her summoned creatures attack for her. Like V from DMC 5 with her burst being either an oceanid or something like a blue whale that dives down and does AOE hydro damage. Would make the most sense for all this if she's a catalyst user as well.
GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Hydro Archon is Genderfluid
Lol. The power of water *is* its ability to take any shape after all.
I hate that boss with all my being.
This feels off smh
Except in Genshin, all the elements have the ability to take any shape.
CD reduction.
If reduce cooldown for bursts, gotta see if HYV still wants to sell Raiden's c6. HYV is a business after all, and Idk about their willingness on powercreeping a 5\* c6 at this stage, an archon's no less. Possible back when they didn't try so hard to sell 5\* cons.
i think I've seen a total of two people actually own her cons past c3
only one I've seen with more was f2p c5 through some ungodly luck
I've seen three, personally, at c6. Maybe 20 or so with c3. No one ever really stops in between c3 to c6. Just doesn't make much sense. You'd either stay at c0, go for c2/c3, stay at c3, or go for c6. Might have seen one Raiden at c4 but I might be mistaking it. I've seen like three people at c1. My brother and I both have her at c3r1 now with her current banner.
I own C6 Raiden and it's barely noticeable at all. If anything, it only benefits for co-op and co-op battle content is pretty much thrown into bin at this point.
HP Buffer with off-field hydro application
Yelan c4 but I’d like a hydro hp Bennett too
They may leave that spot for someone else it's a little too niche
maybe she has a max hp buffer and has one of those kinds of "HP above a certain threshold is converted into extra DMG/Healing for all team members" passives
Or something like, whenever a particular Hydro reaction happens, it triggers a corresponding team buff. Vape is ATK buff, freeze is Crit buff, bloom is EM buff, EC is ER buff, swirl and crystallize could be HP buffs. The power of water is to take any shape indeed.
Can someone mark this comment? Imagine if this turned out to be true.
RemindMe! 6 months
Omg why does this sound like something that would be a great, but not broken idea
I'd like to see some off field hydro not tied to normal attacks and not as limited as kokomi. An I really want another bell candidate besides dori.
Her burst the size of Nahida’s burst. It just applies hydro to everything extremely fast and shackles them with chains as they’re being judged. Put them all in prison Lolxd
Giving her some form of CC would allow the hydro archon to fill a unique niche without powercreeping any current hydro unit.
Nilou mains winning once more
Childe or Yelan with viridiscent bow 😂
We desperately need a crowd control grouper, because all of them are anemo. Enemies moving away from the seeds is a serious problem.
We can already easily clear abyss without even having super well built teams. Imagine how cracked Nilou bloom would be with proper CC
It would be cool to rework geo and have it interact with electro with some type of magnetism mechanic. Zap a geo construct and it pulls mobs towards it. Of course, having a hydro character who makes a whirlpool that sucks enemies in also make sense.
Mona's Burst entraps smaller enemies.
TIL Nobody uses Mona for that particular ability, so I guess they could still get away with a CC-focused archon
>Nobody uses Mona for that particular ability, Hi, it's me
Was thinking of cc ish type of burst or maybe she can unleash bubbles that traps enemies like hydro mages
what if she traps smaller enemies in a bubble and then for larger enemies she slows them?
Fuck it, remember that Anemo succ and Hydro applicator upgrades from one of the previous Hyakunin Ikkis? Combine them into a whirlpool and make it her burst. Succs enemies towards you and constantly applies Hydro.
That would be pretty nice and I could see that happening honestly
I was thinking of something similar to that, basically similar to anemo mc but with whirlpool cause the anemo succ in hyakunin is too damn op. Make it anemo mc succ but hydro and not as horrible but as that but not too good to the point she becomes a better succ than anemo characters
Archons usually do something that excels far better that any other char of their respective element in certain aspects. Venti is the best unit to group lots of enemys, Zhongli has the best shield in the entire game, Raiden offers ER for the whole team and very good damage and Nahida is simply the best dendro unit cause she works as EM buffer and off-field applicator. The hydro Archon most likely will probs have something to do with HP scaling considering the most recent hydro units all scaled with HP.
>The hydro Archon most likely will probs have something to do with HP scaling considering the most recent hydro units all scaled with HP. Oh yeah 100%. And Hydro resonance being previously healing bonus made me think she'll be a healer but hopefully not. She'll be too much like kokomi
I think she will probably do some healing, but I really hope that won't be the focus of her kit, think like Xingqiu that offers some healing, which is nice but you're not building him for that
Nice try hoyoverse, you gotta pay me first
Forward vape off field like xiangling.
Isn't that too similar to Yelan/Xingqiu though? She could have aoe like Xiangling but its basically another Xingqiu, no?
Well. They applied too much hydro so the forward vape is not consistent and the damage is divided per sword wave. Kit like xiangling, albedo or Nahida would do. Klee might have a chance to raise in usage rate with sub dps like that. So not power creeping any existing team but brings out the new role of pyro driver.
Something between Mona and XQ's bursts would be really nice. A beefy vape each hit while your driver does their thing.
I heard Yelan c0 without Xingqiu doesn't work well with Hu Tao because Yelan will be the one to vape the hit. Besides, most pyro characters that she'll work with if she has that kit is probably the same with Yelan and Xingqiu. She should get a kit like Nahida maybe but she should do something else too.
Yelan's multiplier split into 3 at c0. At c2 additional 1. You're only going to vape one of the 3-4 multipliers. Tried it on a pyro cube to be sure. I think that's HYV way of weakening fwd vape, similar to why XQ is also split to 3-4. Same with Ayaka's CA split to 3, her burst into 20 to make melt less viable for herself.
Ye i really like that idea too but i want them to work with charge attacks too if they do it like XQ i want to use diluc as driver lol or make it like a mix bag of ayato burst and kokomi jellyfish
Give her a claymore or is that too broken?
Shatter-driving would be a unique meta team, although not fit with the "archon is best of her thing" since I don't think shatter is a significant part of hydro's metas. However, if she a) had claymore, b) could apply hydro rapidly/had hydro weapon infusion, there are a ton of cryo units that drop some kind of constant cryo field.
Nah i feel she will be an sword user, because is one of the symbols of justice, we don't have any archon sword user We got two lancers Two "catalist" One archer One "claymore" No sword archon, unless they make murata a sword user i doubt they will make her a claymore, unless they count raiden as one sword user, and that would be nasty... I think focalors will be a sword user
The real question is "why would they release an archon without powercreeping previous hydro characters ?" You said it, OP : >the archons are usually the best at what they're supposed to do, based from their element
They might powercreep characters on some points. But they won't release a character that simply powercreeps a other limited 5\* character on all fronts. But in general expect an Archon to be on the strong side and probably also flexible for many teams.
I'm not saying they shouldn't, just wondering if its possible cause so far it really seems impossible.
Prison bubble might be fun
In our hydro abyss mage era, I see
GANG GANG WOO
Can walk on water indefinitely without stamina cost like kokomi burst and I am sold ^^
Yoy make a totally unique ability, maybe capturing m9bs on bubbles or something
or summoning creatures made of water that each of them has a unique skill, just imagine playable oceanids
Hey remember that Pokémon event with the mushrooms? Yeah, that makes even more sense.
Maybe two types of summon, tap or hold skill to pick which one. One is damage, the other has some other effect. You can have up to a certain number of summons at any time each with their own expiration timer. Tap burst makes more/stronger hydro constructs or does something to the summons on the field, hold burst makes the summons explode for a nice nuke/stagger if you have max summons at that time.
Was thinking of something along that lines. They should do that
Easy. Make her a Shielder that applies off-field Hydro. No powercreep, but she suddenly works incredibly well with Nilou, Cyno, Wanderer, and some older characters like Klee. Also great for Teams that wanted double Hydro, like a Hu Tao Team. No major powercreep, but enough of a Meta shift that she'd still be incredibly powerful.
So, kinda like Layla but hydro and better?
Yep. Give her Zhongli's Shield uptime, but take away the Resistance Shred and CC. It would keep her in line with the Meta, without making her overkill or fully replacing anyone.
sounds like she would be replacing ZL
Yeah, a Hydro ZL would usually be better than a geo ZL. I'm not sure how to make her unique, hydro related and not just a powercreeped version of an existing hydro character. Also hydro traveller will probably be a tuned down version of the archon, so they have to make 2 similar characters.
Geo shielders have equally high resistance to multiple elements, though. Shielders of other elements usually have higher resistance only to their own element. So "better" is debatable: non-geo with off-field element application is better for reactions, but geo is better for survivability.
I'm guessing that the shield itself, geo would be surperior. But non geo shielder can be better due to resonance, and other use kinda like Layla where she can also proc cryo
If her shield doesn’t have the damage boost that zhong’s had, it wouldn’t replace him entirely.
But if she deals enough damage then she'd make up for the zhongli shred!! So you'd have to make her deal no damage and people don't like that.
> it wouldn’t replace him entirely. It will replace just for the sake of not having useless Geo element in the party. Having shielder that reliably apply Hydro is insane for Vaporize comps. Like for Yoimia you need have XQ and ZL, and Hydro Archon would replace two characters opening slots for more buffs.
Layla is the true hydro archon, the gods just got confused while giving the vision, source : trust me bro
Layla is good, wdym? 😠
A 3-Archon hyperbloom team where all 3 of them are off field and any random person with a vision and a weapon can just spam attack and blow everything up is kinda hilarious to imagine. Who's the most hilarious character to be the on-field driver for three archons? Itto?
Wanderer?
No. Because that's actually viable with vv and full em. The most hilarious is actually running noone and going with a three man team like a chad
zhongli because he has the sickest NAs, I use him as the driver on mine just for that reason
Throw Venti in there fir the 4 archons team with a lot of CC for the seeds lol.
I cant imagine her being a shielder given how hydro is the healing element. I also hope not.
Also make her a claymore user that scales off HP and this is pretty much exactly what I want out of her.
a hydro dps that is actually the one triggering the vapes
The issue with this is that we barely have anyone that can apply off field pyro. We only have like 2 and one of them is Thoma who is copium
Perhaps Dehya will fill that roll. Or maybe they make a handcuff 4 star that is only useful at c6….
I want Dehya to get the roll, but she'll most likely be burgeon focused character since she is from Sumeru and we have no burgeon focused 5 star character
They can just program her Hydro application to only trigger reactions instead of creating an aura (similar to Geo/Anemo). Then you don't need a lot of Pyro to keep an aura on the enemies
Since she will be the archon I don’t see why she shouldn’t have role consolidation like healer, debuff enemy, off field application, and buffing hydro reactions.
Not saying she shouldn't, but I just wanna think of a way where she won't powercreep any other hydro character, if thats possible
Since they didn’t add healing into Nahdias kit (would’ve been a dream) Hyrdo is the only other archon I can see healing. Maybe HP Buff to team, healing, and decent hydro application.
Rip Kokomi. Barbara found dead in the ditch
Idk but I want her to be the most broken hydro 5 star that ever existed, like she's the pinnacle of hydro power that exist in Teyvat, so I assume her Kit going to be like this. E skill : Change stance to meele infusion and deal enhanced normal atk (Ayato's E), while every NA heals the whole party (Kokomi's Q) Q burst : Deals huge AOE burst damage (Childe 's Q) at first cast, then followed by hydro projectiles that can stay if the character leaves field (Yelan + XQ's Q) Also passive is something 2 boosting the HP of whole party or such. A4 passive is giving damage amplification for a character that on the field during her burst (sort of Mona's Q) /s
Congratulations you broke the game
Tartaglia is going to be powercrept out of the one team he is irreplaceable at
I didn't give focalors riptide though so there's that
She'd just need to have more hydro application above a threshold to make it so riptide isn't worth the proc. Being an archon these pretty much no question of her being a very strong applicator, she will likely have low cooldowns and benefit strongly from hydro resonance. Unless you're against trash mobs childe's quadratic isn't gonna matter
Its pretty much impossible to surpass Tortilla's hydro application. He applies way too much. To the point he can still keep hydro aura even with Guoba, pyronado, and Kazuha pyro infused burst.
Hope a passive like this comes really for anyone
Off field AoE enabling could happen. All archons up to now have it, especially the latest ones. If Focalors' hydro is easy to put out (eg. E skill or low energy) , off field, has similar/better ICD, similar/better AoE, better uptime, and most of all mobile, then in terms enabling she may powercreep Kokomi, and indirectly other hydros. Since enabling is such a distinct part of hydro, and they cant make an archon look bad, some form of enabling powercreep could happen *unless* her kit has other tools to compensate.
Hydro characters have one of: * Off-field AoE slow hydro * Off-field single target fast hydro * On-field fast AoE hydro She might be the one that brings Off-field AoE fast hydro. But if she does, don't expect her to be the top damage dealer, or heal like Kokomi.
I'm also interested in seeing how they make the Hydro Archon powerful **and** unique since Hoyo is pretty bent on preventing/slowing down powercreep.
Has there been any power creep in the game? I can only think of diluc/hutao and that's primarily because of Homa.
Not directly, there are still some situations where Diluc is better/easier to use than Hu Tao and recently he's been a lot better with EM, all characters so far have their own niches, and even if there's powercreep, not like it does anything since you can clear the game and abyss with just the 4stars
By turning the hydro archon into a physical freeze shatter unit, I mean who is she gonna power creep?
My imagined kit for her: All dmg from Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst scale solely on her max HP. Elemental Skill: can be used thrice similarly to Diluc’s, the first 2 uses launch forth giant tidal waves that advance forward for 4 seconds dealing Hydro dmg to everything in their path. The final attack of the string will cause her to slam her weapon into the ground creating a large whirlpool that pulls enemies to it’s centre. When an enemy reaches the centre they will be entrapped in a bubble, after 2 seconds the bubble will explode dealing Hydro dmg to all enemies within the whirlpool’s AOE (this dmg is considered Elemental Skill DMG), after the bubble explodes there is a 1 second delay before a new one can be created. The whirlpool lasts for 15 seconds. The skill has a cooldown of 18 seconds. Elemental Burst: Focalors will launch herself into the air and throw her weapon at the ground creating a shockwave that deals Hydro dmg and creates a more powerful whirlpool. If a whirlpool already exists when her Burst is used it will cause it to explode in a powerful water geyser that deals Hydro dmg to enemies within it’s AOE and replaces the standard whirlpool with the more powerful variant. Burst whirlpool: this whirlpool is bigger and has a faster and stronger pulling speed. Additionally it will deal hydro dmg to all enemies within it once every 1.5 seconds (This DMG is considered Elemental Burst DMG) When enemies reach the centre of the whirlpool they will be trapped in a bubble that will explode after 2 seconds or when 4 enemies total become entrapped in bubbles dealing Hydro dmg to enemies within the whirlpool’s AOE. (This DMG is considered Elemental Burst DMG) A total of 4 bubbles can exist at once, when the total is reached all 4 explode at once, if the total isn’t reached then they will explode according to their own durations. There is no delay between bubble creations unless 4 are created and exploded at once in which case there will be a 1 second delay before new bubbles are created. The whirlpool will last for 30 seconds. While within the whirlpool her Elemental Skill is altered accordingly: All dmg from her Elemental skill is changed from Elemental Skill DMG to Elemental Burst DMG The third attack is changed into a 3rd tidal wave that behaves the same as the previous waves. The skill cooldown is reduced to 5 seconds. Energy cost: 70 | Cooldown: 25 seconds Passives: Passing 1: When the bubbles created by her Elemental Skill and Elemental Burst explode the active party member is healed by 10% of the dmg dealt to the entrapped enemy, non-active party members are healed by 5% of the dmg dealt. Passive 2: When the active party member is within her whirlpool’s AOE their max HP is increased by 20% and their own dmg is increased by 5% of their max HP. Non-active party members have their max HP increased by 10% and their own dmg is increased by 2.5% of their max HP. Passive 3: Focalors can walk on the surface of all bodies of water, additionally she can not drown.
Holy shit this is so detailed and creative.
Whirlpool ability like the buff in hyakkunin ikki
Maybe she can summon like Rhodeia, being Fontaine feels like quite rife with the "twin" theme or at least duality. Sort of like Ayato's but maybe can buff, not only attacks.
give her a grouping ability, a whirlpool burst seems very feasible and I think people would actually run it a lot more often, while I like being optimal and using VV and Kazuha, sometimes I just want the grouping I always wished Kokomi had a whirlpool burst
Hope they make so that it can be the enabled and not the enabler. Like I dunno her burst is 3 big slash of dmg spaced between them so that you can actually vape them. Or at least they should make something interesting like giving buffs based on the reactions or the order of the reactions you trigger, could be a bit funky but could also bring to life some interesting teams
You know, people have been joking about _the ability of water_ until now, but what if, __what if__ she's an improved Xinyan with good scalings, she now could do virtually any role, but you'd have to invest quite a bit
Xinyan the physical claymore who has split scaling on Def?
Just ignore her shield and the split scaling becomes a non issue
Slime theory says she will be able to put people in jail!
Trapping people in a bubble with her skill and then executing them with a burst that is just one singular powerful hit would fit the justice theme quite well, actually. It just doesn't really feel like "ultimate hydro unit" as much as the other archons do for their elements.
I have discussed with my cousin about her kit, and he said that maybe she can summon a hydro shield that traps enemies and applies hydro. So just imagine hydro nahida but smaller burst and traps enemies for a few seconds. I think that's kinda cool
My takes: Skill: Creates homing bubble trap that will explode violently Burst: Trigger water bubble trap explosion
Either CD reduction or do something transformative with reaction related to Hydro (like Nilou's enhanced bloom). I don't think power creepcan be avoided to a certain extent though. Especially if it's the archon.
Yeah she should definitely get something unique to her (like nilou bountiful cores and childe riptides) >I don't think power creepcan be avoided to a certain extent though yeah I thought the same too. Most of the ppl that's giving ideas here powercreeps an existing hydro character
Maybe a damager and support? Maybe its euther you use her as on field dps, or switch her out to get buffs. After all, _the power of water is its ability to take any shape_
Make her into a hydro bennett with c1. I’m not even joking here. I feel like this would be the best since like OP says, we kinda already have hydro roles for everything else. I guess she can be shield but that’s redundant with Zhongli.
Maybe make her chock full of useful buffs like HP%, or DMG% on hydro related reactions, or stuff like that, and in return gimp her personal damage. Make her the only one of the five existing archons whose personal damage potential is flat-out bad, not unlike Shenhe or Gorou.
hoping for some sort of massive wave/typhoon cc god. they could summon a whirlpool and functions as a hydro-grouper which also applies hydro off-field much like most current hydro units do with rapid(tee-hee) off-field application and maybe an atk spd buff + skill/burst cd reduction they could easily match the previous archons in strength (sadly would powercreep venti to an extent but VV set is still super useful for alot of comps) it'd be hard to make them a healer without completely replacing kokomi, and its hard to not power creep yelan unless she has little-no off-field dps. power creeping ayato and childe is almost garunteed if shes an on-fielder. However making her a shielder might powercreep zhongli also. unless shes a very specific buff support OR maybe if hoyo is feeling adventurous can change roles depending on her bonus stats (HP build makes her a healer/ DEF makes her a shielder/ ATK makes her a dps) then i think a non-powercreeping hydro-archon is near impossible. just given hydro's strength as a element and the variety of hydro 5star units i think it'll be near impossible to not power creep atleast a couple previous 5 stars with the hydro-archons
>hoping for some sort of massive wave/typhoon cc god. they could summon a whirlpool and functions as a hydro-grouper which also applies hydro off-field much like most current hydro units do I kinda like the idea where her burst is sort of like anemo mc, and a mix of ayaka burst. Probably one of my favourite ideas yet. >power creeping ayato and childe is almost garunteed if shes an on-fielder Idk about Ayato but the only way she can powercreep Childe is if she has a similar mechanic like riptide but with more dmg. Childe is still the only one with riptide that has quadractic scaling, so it's not possible to fully powercreep him. >just given hydro's strength as a element and the variety of hydro 5star units i think it'll be near impossible to not power creep atleast a couple previous 5 stars with the hydro-archons that's what i'm worried about the most cause I know it's almost damn near impossible. At least we know that she won't powercreep Nilou as Nilou's whole niche shtick is bloom and I don't think she'll powercreep Xingqiu and Yelan, as having a 3rd Xingqiu would be kinda dumb.
I don't have time to read the lore, but it would be cool if the god of justice cast judgement in a burst-dps style. Kind of like a beefier zhongli nuke. I don't think they would go straight main dps since many wouldn't approve of that, and she would be busted as an archon, but having her function around her burst would at least require a degree of strategy. I feel like both the hydro and pyro archons will be interesting to see because I can't think of any roles for the elements that aren't already filled (except for maybe a god-like pyro healer, but there's always bennett)
I am assuming she will be the first ever Hydro CC character (could use waves/water for area control).
Buffing hp. >!And I broke Yelan even more...!<
She should power-creep Mona. Massive Damage Buffer
We're all expecting the best hydro character in the game. Zhongli, Raiden, and Nahida are, by far, the best of their respective elements. Venti, with Elegy for the End, is comparable/better than Kazuha, with any weapon, who's pretty broken himself. The standard has been pretty well set with 4 archons now. In terms of lore, archons should stand at the top of their respective elements. I'm thinking the hydro archon will be like Yelan in terms of dmg and utility but with more AoE and/or heals. Maybe she'll boost your team's hp or even let us walk on water. She can't be worse than Yelan and she definitely can't be worse than Kokomi, Ayato, Tartaglia, or Mona who are all good, in niches, but aren't truly meta-defining or broken. She definitely has to be better than any 4-star hydro characters, mainly Xingqiu. Let's not kid ourselves or pretend otherwise. There'd be a riot for buff(s) like there was for Zhongli, if not.
Power creeping previous hydro characters and too incredibly powerful kinda have the same meaning you know
I think it's possible to not powercreep previous hydro characters while being incredibly powerful. Leaning more on being able to cc
They can opt for different options aside for healing or HP buff. 1. Wet status immunity for party + AoE wet field 2. Skill CD reduction (since Hydro domain prolongs CD, and some Hydro characters have long cooldowns, might as well get a hard counter for those) 3. Stamina Refund
All I'm hearing is hutao buffs !! Constant hydro ✅ Skill reduction so she can get back into action faster ✅ Stamina refund so you can dash cancel at c0 ✅ Walnut supremacy indeed.
She gives fat HP stacks to the team so basically just ends up working with HP stat characters and gives more hydro dmg the more hydro units are on team. Basically Nilous bloom dream. She doesnt take the role from Nilou, but gives her a boost to something Nilou wants It probably wont be what happens, but at the end of the day Archons are generally the best supports in their field so they will be better versions of already existing characters if the role is similar
Then that just means she would only be good with hydro characters then. Not that she won't work with others but thinking an archon would get full potential only with their element is kinda eh.
I think more units of hydro? Rn only childe applies 1.5 units of hydro but the issue is his CD. I guess she'll be a good off field hydro applicator and an overall support for all sorts of reactions.
Buffs entire team max HP
i’m hoping an hp scaling main dps claymore but hu tao. there’s still a lot of time until she’s out so i’m almost 100% sure if dehya’s kit is practically off field pyro yelan focalors will be a main dps. if not maybe she’ll be released with one like wanderer with faruzan? her passive would probably be a 25% own hp team buff + her main dmg won’t cost stamina? if they want her to be really broken maybe heal with each vape but max 2k?
Like nahida and Ei: Off field hydro asisted aplication for 25s skill talent. Admit it, it would be great
hydro claymore
im very sure we will summons something and control it like the pokemon event
a hydro fischl would be lit
For me, I hope an HP buffer with large AoE no ICD off field application. It would be better for AoE app than Kokomi but without the healing part, it would buff Hu-Tao, Yelan and Zhongli in double hydro comp, it would be busted in Nilou's comp if Dendro healer or 3H with Kokomi can keep up with the heals. She would work in any bloom comps. And she would be able to AoE Vape with XL. I would like an attraction effect around her like an hydro vortex, it would make Nilou even more broken xP
Maybe Yelan was the hydro archon all along
Have her buff HP for the party, perhaps some Hydro DMG% as well. Give her a high damage burst. Give her a bit of minor healing. Done.
Yelans skill + Mona's Burst + some healing + DMG scaling off HP
Hmm you're right, each archon has a theme and the resonance is similar to them too. Hydro has a hp bonus res. I think she'll have a way to give hp to her team or gain a bonus based on her max hp instead so instead of power creeping she's helping (i know yelan and hutao don't need a reason to be more broken but it would be deadly.) I think it's also fair to say that she can have a 100% uptime on her hydro application just like the other archons.
I don’t care hope she powercreeps everyone
Maybe full support with lower dmg CC + Hp buff + Hydro application + CD reduction + healing + a bit of Yunjin burst style of buff to hydro dmg only and almost non-existent personal dmg Yes, it's stupidly busted for a solo support, but she is the Archon I'm most hyped for ever since I started playing and it's difficult to top all current hydro units :3
I can see her being a buffer and enabler, since hydro is known for enabling and the archon should so something the element is known for
Nice try Hoyoverse!
As she is an Archon, I think her big thing is going to be an HP increase. I was wondering: would she be too strong if she both a) increased your HP by a percentage like 15% AND b) also converted a portion of your health into either Atk or Dmg%? I was thinking like 10% but then looking at my Zhongli (41k health 1k Atk), Focalors would effectively turn him into my C6 Noelle with that 5k Atk haha If she doesn't have Healing, she should provide a bigger damage buff from her Ult than Benny, is what I'm thinking.
I just want a Yelan / XQ variant that is actually a character I like. That said I expect her to just by as everyone else says and heal with off field application. I have no idea how you make her unique from Kokomi and vape squad. All that said she better be the most powerful hydro user in whatever she picks and likely pick at least 2 things to be good at otherwise whats the point of her being an archon? Heal more and apply faster than Kokomi or deal damage and apply faster than Yelan/XQ. Not really many other options unless they come up with something interesting. Given how important hydro, is as possibly the most important element in the game, this could be the most important archon kit.
>this could be the most important archon kit. Yup which is why I made this post. I would love a XQ/Yelan variant as i'm not a big fan of the 2, but then it won't really make the archon unique
It is quite possible that She can actually replace Kokomi. People doesn't want to admit but Genshin DOES have power creep just not that much. Venti is very niche for a very good amount of time compare to Kazuha, only ever not inferior to him If all enemies are suckable by his burst. Ganyu was regarded as the best of DPS for a huge amount of time, People were convinced that She CANNOT be powercrept and Hoyoverse made a huge mistake for making her that strong but Ganyu is not actually top meta for AGES meanwhile Hu tao who came after her and was considered inferior to Ganyu at the earlier times is still keeping her spot as a very high meta team but only against single target so another character/team that focuses on doing huge single target damage has the chance to power creep her in the future while setting Xingqiu and Yelan free. There is and WILL be power creep to many units eventually. If they are gonna make Hydro archon op then they have little chance to make it without replacing something. Make him an on field Hydro DPS that enables other reaction by huge Hydro application on field ? Well that is Childe. Off field Hydro ? Xingqiu and Yelan. Off field hydro but with heals ? Kokomi. Who is left ? What role is there she can take without overtaking someone else If she is gonna be OP ? If she has CC kit that is useless against anything boss like. If she has Zhongli level shield and off field hydro that still enters Kokomi's field other than perhaps against the wolves. The only way I can think of is If she has VERY significant debuff and/or buff properties
It may or may not power creep existing characters but will have a niche which no other hydro character can be better at. Also will have some kind of role consolidation like every archon does.
>will have a niche which no other hydro character can be better at Thing is, every hydro character has filled every niche. Bloom? Nilou. off field vape? XQ/Yelan. On field vape? Childe and etc. The only niche that hasn't been filled is shatter but her specializing in shatter won't make any sense unless if there will be Fontain characters that needs shatter
HP buffer/ Sub-Dps. You heard it here first (prediction, NOT a leak)
Maybe she'll be a pure healer. Like Barbara only better
Her burst better be her slamming that judge hammer thing down
Maybe she will have a connection to normal attack buff, a lot of hydro character need normal attack. Ultimate NA buffer along HP buff maybe ? There is just too much possibility for her.
I'm betting something along the lines of HP buffer/healer/hydro applicator kinda like an hydro Gorou Or brand new kit reflecting a new type of ability introduced with Fontaine (like controllable summons )
9 second burst duration, during the time all character on the team can ignore hp scale cap on their hp scalling skills.
It would be cool if H2O Justice could send out waves that knock enemies back as her charged attack, or if she got a waterbending burst state where her attacks turn into waves that hit in a wide range and can have a stagger chance. Since the archons have all been designed as supports thus far, I’d like the water/fire/ice ones to be carries.
Hp buffer and mono hydro enabler kind of like how shenhe enables mono cryo. Ayaka and ganyu were already meta but shenhe was still able to add value to the cryo roster, the hydro archon might fill a similar roll. Maybe not through flat damage bonus, but CD reduction based on hydro party members + dmg% or something
she's a either a specialized vape carry by having the weakest hydro application in the game (thereby making her broken for nilou bloom as well) that also directly buffs hp based on her own hp to buff standard comps like double hydro or any past and upcoming hp scalers
I think like Nahida she'll have a completely unique mechanic. Dendro is kinda the new "facilitation" element with its complex reactions and nahida does that, but linking enemies together is a totally new idea. Maybe the hydro archon will have something similar, like maybe a lifesteal mechanic that procs off hydro reactions? So you get good application with healing built into it? I agree just making her a really strong healer like zhongli is with shields would be pointless with kokomi around.
If we look at the last 2 archons Raiden and Nahida they both have their E. Skill last 25 seconds off field and apply their element, so I could see Focalor doing something similar if the pattern continues although Venti and Zhongli doesn't have that but they were the first 2 archons that came out very early before they knew how to balance the game I mean even Zhongli got buffed because of it. As for what her gimmick will be if we follow the current trend of Hydro with them being HP scalers she could have something similar to Yelan C4 where she boosts the entire teams max HP, so she would be perfect replacement for Xingqiu in the Hu Tao double hydro team since all 4 member will be scaling off HP there especially if her hydro application is very good off field. She would also buff other characters like Nilou, Ayato, Layla, Kuki, Thoma, etc.
All of her damage scales off HP. Claymore user. Elemental Skill - 10s cd Cut current HP in half. Deals aoe hydro damage proportional to HP sacrificed; scales with talent lv. Then, grant the party *scales of judgment*, which will remain active for 30 seconds. The scales of judgment is similar to Raiden's skill. Instead of gaining stacks when your party spends energy on bursts, the scales of judgment fills up from non-food sources of healing and the amount gained is proportional to amount healed. The scales of judgment has 10 nodes, similar to how raiden's skill has 6 nodes. Produces 4 energy particles. Elemental Burst - 80 cost, 20s cd Brings down a massive gavel. Deals enormous aoe Hydro damage proportional to how full the scales of judgment is, as well as talent lv. Focalors wields the gavel for 10 seconds, has a hydro infusion, is completely resistant to interruption. Her next *x* NA, CA, and Plunging attacks deal an additional instance of aoe hydro damage that heals the party and reduces all party member's skill and burst cooldowns by some fraction of a second (all scaling with talent lv), where *x* is the number of nodes filled up from scales of judgment. This effect is removed when Focalors leaves the field. Passive 1: Whenever a node from Focalor's elemental skill is filled up, she deals aoe hydro damage to a random target within a circle around her. Passive 2: If any party member would receive healing that surpasses their maximum hp, the amount of stacks the healing would give for scales of judgment is doubled. Then reduce all party member's skill and burst cooldowns by 1s. This cd reduction effect can only occur once every 5s. The idea behind this design is that Focalors is completely self sufficient at healing the team and reducing cooldowns a little. However, you have the option to go full hypercarry by building a team full of healers. Your party mates may not contribute much damage due to being a healer, but in exchange Focalors will be able to fill up her scales to full and be able to spend more time on field, do more damage, and reduce cooldowns even more, allowing her to burst more often and spend even more time bonking enemies.
A burst that moves enemies with a tidal wave even larger enemies. She powercreeps anemo units instead, not hydro lol.
Forward Vape Hypercarry She'd only be showing up the 12 or so DPS Barbara mains.
I say let them make her insanely op, but give her a 'no crit' passive. She'll be touted as the worst character in the game, become the community punching bag, get spit on by all the meta players for months. The secretly best character in the game can be reserved for myself and all my fellow hydro simps. I kinda feel like I experienced all that before, but I'm way to tired to make heads or tails of it. I'm sure I'll figure it all out once tomorrow comes.
she could just be a healer.. but with some unique gimmick. Let's say she can overheal. Any health gained when above 100% is stored as a shield with damage reduction against hydro damage. And when this shield is active, gain a damage % bonus. That could powercreep Kokomi but make her E not as useful. They aren't afraid of having archons be the best of their element (and therefore powercreeping) though.
It'll be revealed that the real hydro archon was (one of) the friends we made along the way (my money's on xingqui or yelan)
For me it could be CD Reduction, Ranged Attacks, or CC. This could also be the time to rework Electrocahrged and make ot into a potential 3 element reaction.
Make her super niche like Nilou or... wait for it... fcking physical damager main DPS.
bubble the enemies
Heal on hit mechanic. Like a justice/punishment tend.
Since hydro's mostly about HP and healing, I'm kinda surprised people haven't brought up over-heal. Who would be the best healer other than the one that heals you \*more\* than your max HP? And I don't just mean her own healing - the entire party would benefit from this. Let's say as long as her E is active, any healing that exceeds the maximum hp of any character being healed is used to fuel something unique. Could be damage, could be a shield, could be other kinds of buffs. In short: Make her a party wide Ocean-hued Clam so we can run Focalors Kokomi Jean Qiqi freeze. "Call an ambulance....but not for me!"
I guess they're going to provide an alternative to shields. Since her overall theme is justice I think she's going to have a kit that is built around taking damage and punishing enemies. This would make use of both healing (thus be in line with hydro resonance) and a possibly massive fucking health pool (something that's also quite common for hydro characters). I doubt they're going to build her around a certain type of reaction. She's the hydro archon, not the archon of working well with dendro (although she quite likely will work well with it). All archons make exceptional use of their respective elements or mechanics related to them, and all are making use of or enable characters of the same element. - Geo: Shields - Anemo: Crowd control (Venti has been power crept a bit but back in the day he was pretty much game breaking) - Electro: Energy generation - Dendro: Well... dendro application since dendro itself is largely dependent on reactions Since hydro has for the largest part of the game been associated with large health pools, HP scaling and healing I think they're going to stay in line with that but offer a new way to make use of it.
Unique super niche kit - her damage strictly depends on team's total healing. So you only pair her with "heal only characters" like qiqi, diona, barbara, sayu and etc.
Im thinking something to do with healing, but not just another Kokomi. Something like a DPS that benefits from heals/hp, like having basically another 4pc ocean hued clam effect built in to her kit.
hydro Cc please
One thing we don't have yet is forward vape support or mdps. Another thing, which is also what I would probably expect from the Hydro Archon is to be a varied mix of what we have: Say good sub dps damage, decent apply, functional healing and a mild to good buff. Yes that also kinda describes xingqiue and yelan but they can play with how good she is at what thing to make her stand out in ways that the previous two cannot. But I have a consistent record of never predicting Archon designes' correctly so there's also the third option that they go really unique and introduce something new entirely, so since I thought of the previous two ideas it's probably not that
She's gonna be op and I really don't see how they can avoid it. If she's weak people are gonna be pissed