Highlights
- Genshin Impact characters like Yoimiya, Yae Miko, Kazuha, and Kuki Shinobu initially faced criticism and backlash but gained popularity due to their unique abilities and strategic value in specific team compositions.
- The introduction of the Dendro element in Genshin Impact retroactively improved the usability and meta status of characters like Yae Miko and Kuki Shinobu, making them more effective and valuable in combat.
- The evolving game meta and the need for healers in challenging content led to a shift in perception for characters like Kokomi, who went from being overlooked and misunderstood to becoming a highly regarded and meta-defining unit in Genshin Impact.
Genshin Impact has had a strange history with its characters. Once unpopular units who were ignored, or flat-out disliked found themselves vindicated as the game progressed, due to the game's ever-changing meta, players figuring out how the character actually works, or finally fulfilling a specific niche. As Genshin Impact is strictly a PvE game, 'meta' is defined by how well a character performs in the Spiral Abyss, a special domain that resets every two weeks.
It should be noted that every character in the game can perform decently in combat with the right build, team, and constellations and very few characters are actually unplayable. Thus, it's no surprise that almost every unit has a fanbase that loves and 'mains' them, no matter their meta status.
5 Yoimiya
What Made Them Popular: A Backlash to the Backlash
- Release Date: August 10, 2021
- Rarity: 5-star
- Element: Pyro
- Weapon Type: Bow
Yoimiya has had a rough start as a unit. Not only was her first banner placed between the much-anticipated Ayaka and Raiden Shogun banners, leading her to have one of the lowest banner sales in Genshin history, but she's also a bow-user who uses Pyro-infused Normal Attacks. The game's auto-attack system for bow and catalyst units is notoriously unreliable, so if Yoimiya isn't close enough to an enemy, she ends up shooting arrows at nothing. Her main source of damage also doesn't have AoE, which means she's not effective against mobs on her own. Adding to that, her ultimate (an AoE attack that hits opponents with the 'Aurous Blaze' mark and gives party members an ATK buff) doesn't apply to herself.
All of this led to Yoimiya being one of the more controversial characters in Genshin Impact, and someone even created a heavily upvoted Reddit thread explaining her issues. However, the backlash caused a backlash of its own, with many players pointing out that she still provides an amazing amount of damage, is relatively free-to-play friendly, simple to use, and her single target attacks are very useful against boss enemies. While it's not enough to make Yoimiya break the game, she's now considered a solid Pyro DPS in her own right. Even Hoyoverse has made efforts to make up for her historically unfortunate banner placements, being the first non-Archon to have a second chapter to her story quest.
4 Yae Miko
What Made Them Popular: Introduction of the Dendro Element and the 'Gilded Dreams' Artifact Set
- Release Date: February 16, 2022
- Rarity: 5-star
- Element: Electro
- Weapon Type: Catalyst
While Yae Miko's design and personality were undoubtedly popular among the fanbase, her kit unfortunately needed a little more time for its potential to be realized. Her damage primarily comes from her off-field turrets, which randomly target enemies. Unfortunately, players weren't exactly starving for off-field Electro units at the time, with Fischl, Beidou, and Raiden Shogun fulfilling that role pretty nicely. She was also a lot clunkier to use than the aforementioned characters, with her turrets needing a lot of time to be placed right.
Fortunately for her and the Electro element in general, the introduction of Dendro made many players dust off the old Electro characters they'd benched, with the 'Quicken' (Dendro + Electro), 'Aggravate' (Dendro -> Electro -> Electro), 'Spread' (Dendro -> Electro -> Dendro), and 'Hyperbloom' (Dendro -> Hydro -> Electro) reactions. Miko's kit is particularly useful in Aggravate team comps as her Elemental Skill consistently applies Electro. Additionally, her passive talent gives a damage bonus to her skill depending on her Elemental Mastery, incentivizing players to farm the 'Gilded Dreams' artifact set for her, as it gives an ATK and EM buff to all party members.
3 Kaedehara Kazuha
What Made Them Popular: Players Actually Trying Them Out
- Release Date: June 29, 2021
- Rarity: 5-star
- Element: Anemo
- Weapon Type: Sword
Kazuha can be considered a sleeper hit in character form. When the Anemo samurai was first announced, many players had already made up their minds to skip him, as his release came just before the hyped Inazuma region, along with the much-awaited Ayaka, who'd been teased since the beginning of the game. Not only that, he had no appearances or mentions prior to version 1.6, so he had almost no hype or build-up prior to his release. When Kazuha finally came out, however, those players would soon eat their words.
As expected from an Anemo unit, Kazuha has incredible crowd-control abilities with his Elemental Skill, party-wide buffs when he applies the 'Swirl' reaction depending on his Elemental Mastery stat, endlessly flexible team comps, and his double jump ability has proven very useful during exploration. He's now considered by many to be the best Anemo character in Genshin Impact, even rivaling the element's Archon Venti.
2 Kuki Shinobu
What Made Them Popular: Introduction of the Dendro Element and Increasing Value for Healers
- Release Date: June 21, 2022
- Rarity: 4-star
- Element: Electro
- Weapon Type: Sword
Many players expected Kuki Shinobu to be underwhelming on release, as is usual for most 4-star characters. Her damage was mediocre at best, the off-field Electro application was fulfilled better by other units, and her healing output was just decent. Still, healers at that point were considered unnecessary if players had a strong shield. However, like Yae Miko, the Dendro element retroactively improved Kuki Shinobu's usability and meta status.
Her Elemental Skill, which creates a pulsating ring of Electro around her, applies the element consistently to enemies, making her perfect for Hyperbloom teams. Unlike other off-field Electro units like Beidou, Raiden Shogun, and Fischl, the Electro ring can hit multiple enemies at once and also heals the active character every 1.5 seconds. Her healing output also increases depending on her Elemental Mastery with her fourth Ascension Passive, which means she can make full use of the 'Flower of Paradise Lost' and 'Gilded Dreams' artifact sets.
1 Sangonomiya Kokomi
What Made Them Popular: Greater Value for Healers and Introduction of the Dendro Element
- Release Date: September 21, 2021
- Rarity: 5-star
- Element: Hydro
- Weapon Type: Catalyst
Kokomi was perhaps the most misunderstood character in the entire game. Her inability to deal with critical hits meant she was strictly a healer, and players were used to building characters to deal massive damage. She was, for a long time, seen as useless, as players who had a strong shielder like Zhongli didn't need a healer and those who did weren't exactly short on options, and Genshin's other healers like Jean, Barbara, Qiqi, or Bennett could still do crit hits.
However, as the game progressed, the need for healers increased, starting with the introduction of new enemies that could ignore shields like Rifthounds. The 'Ocean-Hued Clam' set also buffed Kokomi to an extent (although some would say that's not even her best artifact set). As time passed, players began to re-evaluate the Watatsumi Priestess, noting that her Elemental Skill has a wide range for Hydro application, making her one of the best characters to put in Freeze teams. The introduction of the Dendro element further increased Kokomi's value, as she could procure the 'Bloom' reaction and heal characters damaged by its Dendro cores. With the release of the Fontaine, Furina, and their HP-manipulation mechanics, the need for healers was set at an all-time high. All of this turned Sangonomiya Kokomi's reputation around, turning her from being considered one of the worst 5-star characters to a meta-defining unit.
