By design, Genshin Impact makes its money from the gacha mechanic. Here, it's known as Wishing, and it's one of the biggest draws of the game. Rare five-star characters in Genshin Impact are where the hype is at, and it's all players tend to talk about in terms of news. But because it can take a heavy chunk of change to pull a five-star character, players expect them to be top-tier in terms of damage and overall gameplay ability.
This can be seen with some Genshin Impact five-stars that released with the game, such as Diluc or Jean. Diluc is easily the strongest Pyro character on the roster, in terms of raw damage, and Jean is one of the most efficient healers because her healing scales with her basic attacks. But unfortunately, not all five-stars are this powerful, and following all the hype around the first five-star Geo character, Zhongli turned out to be a major disappointment.
The Zhongli Controversy
While Zhongli, prior to his buffs by MiHoYo, was still a substantial five-star character, that only exists at Constellation 6. The problem was the process of getting him to be a useful teammate was pricey. At Constellation 0, Zhongli was ineffective and didn't deal very much damage. What was shown in gameplay showcases, showing off the excessive damage dealt from his Elemental Burst, was Zhongli at Constellation 6.
There's a mercy pull at 90 pulls in Genshin Impact's gacha, but only at 180 does the game guarantee the give-start on the rate-up banner. This costs the player over $350 to guarantee Zhongli being pulled from his banner. To get to Constellation 6, the player may need to make their way through another 12 mercy pulls later. Even for what the community calls "whales," or the players who put down insane amounts of cash, that's a heavy price to pay. It bothered fans that the first Zhongli pulled wasn't a worthy party member, but this felt like a plain Genshin Impact gacha trap to pressure players into spending more money.
However, MiHoYo has garnered a reputation for hearing fan complaints. Following the mass frustration, the developer delivered two buffs to Zhongli to appease players and make him worth the money. Especially with Ganyu, MiHoYo looks to have learned from the controversy with Zhongli.
Ganyu's Potential
Though the gacha genre, by definition, gives the precedent that players should expect to put down money if they want the most powerful characters in the game, MiHoYo set a new standard by releasing Ganyu: Constellation 0 five-stars are still five-stars. While the four-star Ningguang's shield puts Zhongli's to shame, Ganyu has proven to be the most powerful Cryo character, but she's also one of the easiest five-stars to use.
What makes Ganyu so easy to use is how versatile she can be. While many players are donning her as their main DPS, she also an excellent support. While this is normal to see for bow users, Ganyu's versatility and true potential both lie within her ultimate attack, something fans were expecting to highlight Zhongli as well but he didn't end up following through.
Ganyu's Elemental Burst requires little aiming but also has a very short cooldown of 15 seconds. It also lasts 15 seconds, meaning it's possible to have no downtime without her ultimate running, with the right build. If equipping her with the Blizzard Strayer Artifact set, she's a prolific main DPS but paired with the right teammates, Elemental Reaction can easily wipe out mobs. In short terms, there's almost no wrong way to play Ganyu for her to be effective, and this is still Ganyu at C0. Her potential exists whether or not she has Constellations. Rather, Ganyu's C6 kit operates more as a supplement to her abilities, rather than being quintessential.
Genshin Impact is available now on mobile devices, PC, and PS4, and is currently in development for PS5 and Switch.