The Story of Ayaka's fall from Top Tier DPS in Genshin Impact 

I believe that most important factor of Ayaka's downfall was not dendro or Fontaine. Ayaka still has her niche in freeze, and Wriothesley is pretty equal with her, he is considered stronger by some, and weaker by some. The biggest factor in Ayaka's downfall was content switching to more bulky enemies that can't be frozen. Ayaka is still definitely an S tier unit and isn't really that much worse when compared to her peers aside from Neuvillette, which is a pretty mote point since every dps is inferior to Neuvillette. She never really got worse, it's just that content isn't compatible with her anymore. All that it would really take to bring her back to relevance would be more Spiral Abyss chambers with freezable enemies. She's in a Venti situation where she is still broken, it's just that the situations in which she is broken aren't as common as they used to be.

there's no downfall.. mihoyo just randomly changes the enemies in the abyss..

I still remember when Ganyu was top tier DPS

Basically mihoyo focused on freeze reaction more than any other cryo reactions to the point that even the cryo resonance is designed for characters that makes use of freeze only. But now that freeze falls off, an entire group of characters that benefitted from freeze are also falls off as well.

ayaka was my first 5 star so she'll have a special place in my heart no matter what!

Its not like she been powercrept by others much. The abyss these days just doesn't fit her playstyle, and not fit for cryo too. For example, I already lost count on how many times copelia and copellius show up at the last floor or how many times the enemies are resistant to freeze comp, like inquisitor baptyst. Ayaka's not weak but she's not meta already

The icewind suite single handedly slapped her out of the top of the meta

she is still top tier when you can freeze

Freeze should be buffed to frostbite... frostbite will freeze enemies and those that cannot be frozen will be slowed and receive increased cryo damage.

I mean, I wouldn’t despair yet because her element, Cryo, has yet to actually show up with Snezhnaya. And I doubt Hoyo won’t make any buffs for that element. Can’t wait for the Pyro one!

Freeze got power crept, just like venti ultimate. Tbh rendering the enemies into immobile damage absorbing sponges was never a good game design, Freeze should have been for a second or 2, not like in genshin anyway, game is not balanced and sloppy

A character that buffs freeze reaction will save her. She's good. it's just freeze, can't freaze bosses.

I know it's a bit unrelated, but that AI art in the intro and outro is really bugging me- Like, Ayaka was one of the most popular characters in the game, there is so, so so much amazing fanart of her, with so much diversity. Like, using AI is just redundant, even putting the ethicacy issues aside. That aside, it was an informative video and I liked it quite a bit, good to see some deeper dives into the genshin meta history. Just.. yeah, as much of a nitpick it may be, it does kinda bring it down

It's not Ayaka herself, it's the enemies. I still use her in Abyss, but what's the point of using Freeze if you can't even group the enemies? Anymore, they're making enemies too heavy.

When I first started in Genshin, I knew I wanted Ayaka. So, I got her, and then Sumeru came out a few patches after that, which was my first time reaching floor 11-3 to 12-1. I tried hard to make her work. I mean, afterall, everyone's veteran advice for newer players was, and still is, focus on your first two teams. However, one of my teams wasn't in the condition it needed to be, and the Sumeru abyss did not like Ayaka at all unless she was in optimal condition. Eventually I would get Alhaitham, and the rest would be history as I finally could 36* the abyss, but not with my first ever limited 5*. All of that said, downgrading her into a driver role is where I felt some peace with her and could 36* the abyss with her. I know people say hyperbloom can work without a dedicated DPS or even a 4th member, but I haven't been able to produce that myself. I put her in a hyperbloom+freeze team since the funny "fridge" mechanic still works, even on bosses, and adding a character like Furina over Xingqiu also lets you buff Ayaka's damage too. This is unironically my favorite way to play her in the abyss. It's rather stress-free. There's also a hypercarry version I like to toy around with, but Coppelia/Coppelius makes that difficult to get a clear run. Basically replacing the hydro for Bennett, cryo-infuse Kazuha's burst, Layla for protection and tenacity, and unga bunga. Ayaka might have a place in Imaginarium Theator though. I also have a feeling Natlan won't present an Ayaka buff, but Snezhnaya might. I mean, it's the land of cryo.

Her downfall is constantly appearing Coppelius in abyss

everybody gangsta till they add -70 cryo res enemies in natlan

There is hope in the next two regions which are Pyro, probably bringing some sick melt teams, and Cryo. What she really needs is a unit or mechanic that works with elemental bursts. Anything that even slightly scales bursts can bring her back into the limelight since her burst occupies the highest percentage of her damage potential of any character.

I just realised how i havent been using ayaka at all in the abyss for a long time now

Ayala feels so Nostalgic, I remember when I got her during the long Ayala banner. I wish bosses could have a freeze effect that could still trigger the blizzard effect.

There literally have only been two consecutive versions in which freeze truly didn’t work - 4.5 and 4.6. Everything past that was very much doable for freeze on one of the sides. And even despite all that, Ayaka premium is still one of the most used teams even in content that specifically targeted freeze. People are quick to jump to conclusions and shout all is lost.

I didn't even want her but I had nothing else to do when her forever banner happened so I pulled, got her, and ended up really liking her. She carried me through the abyss for the longest so I'm annoyed to see what they've done to her now...😔

I mean ,true i may not use freeze ayaka much, but her melt comp still shreds tanky bosses as long as they don't require specific element or dive underground and fly.

Enemies that can’t be freezed should have a different effect like a slow or similar to a burning reaction

great video for less than 100 subs! keep up the good work and im sure you'll be at 1k in no time!

I'm an Ayaka fan but I've been benching her for a bit, I don't even know if I want to pull for Shenhe anymore. She's the last piece I'm missing for Ayaka's premium team, but I fear I won't even be able to use it in the next abysses :(

the fall of freeze and groupable enemies basically cause enemies on abyss are not suitable

Great video! I’m sad ayaka has been so powercrept as I got her and shenhe right after dendro came out and I’ve slowly noticed her decline in performance in abyss. I hope freeze receives some buffs as it is such a fun reaction!

would i recommend pulling for her? in the past yes 100% but now she's too expensive and other recent characters powercreeps her dmg at low investment. look if you have ayaka since then, shes still very playable and fun (i have her). but the meta rn, hoyo didnt want for everything to rely on bursts and decided to make characters that rely on skill or reactions. now imagine the same dmg on ayaka but in skill form. if characters are like that now, why would you pull for ayaka? and to answer your question, she can still clear abyss.. just takes a lot of brain power which is very frustrating at times unlike fontaine characters just random shi go

Dw. The last region is literally land of snow. So probably all the cryo characters will get a new good support.

Cant freeze bosses. Most enemies are quite mobile. Not good at multiple waves since she’s very burst reliant unless you have high er + battery.

Well guess whos back after Natlan Release? Cryo and Hydro

Why is ayaka not compatible with furina? Is it because Furina's hydro application isn't consistent enough?

I started playing genshin around 3.X versions and got Ayaka and Mika in my first 10 pulls in the game. Since she was an Inazuman character, her ascension items were region locked. Ironically Mika brought more value to my account for being a healer and his exploration passive since all my characters were from mondstadt.

here's to hoping that, with the release of snezhnaya, freeze teams make a comeback. it's my favorite reaction, and cryo is my favorite element, but abyss has a habit of checking all my best characters and go-to teams so I don't get to bring them to the end game like I always dreamed of :( if they do make a comeback then I think all the ayaka fans will be very happy lol (Kaeya was my first main, followed soon after by Wrio, my first ever 5*. I genuinely like Qiqi, Chongyun is one of my go-to characters especially w/ Kaeya, and Layla is my go-to shielder (sorry Thoma). I seriously cannot overstate how much I love cryo and how much of a complete pain in the neck enemies with cryo shields are for me to get over LMAO)

I still use her, Ayaka, Koko, Kazuha, Furina is really a really good team. Note: is a C4 Ayaka, C2 Furina, all with their best weapons.

been using her in the abyss for a year and months, her premium team still shreds enemies. except for that copellia and copellious.

I remember pulling her she was so strong but now i just use her as a sub dps for hu tao

Ayaka is my second highest invested character I even got her signature As long I can clear abyss I'll not complain

As someone who did like or want ayaka I'm glad things are playing out the way they did i would have been forced to play like everyone else which sucks the joy out of the end game and would force us into a backwards mindset of (is it good for ayaka team or skip) that would leave much of the other characters being unused i believe the game is in a much healthier state that what it was in 2.0 and she deserves a buff that puts her up to standers with current dps

Furina is still great with ayaka. And sure it is harder to clear abyss with ayaka especially now since both sides include a cryo shield. But its still possible to beat coppelius if you use furina with ayaka. Thanks to that i was able to clear the top side of abyss with an ayaya team

this was a really good vid tho i subbed

Skill issue, still use her (as a main dps, mind you) to this day and get 36 stars. What's ur point lil bro

I agree with the analysis generally. Ayaka is still great when she's great (when enemies can be frozen), but situationally, that's not often in the Abyss. Freeze is just not in a great place right now in the Abyss compared to vape, hyper bloom, and health drain teams, heck... even plunge teams, all do more damage now with high Abyss floors. We have way more ways to do damage these days in Genshin and Ayaka freeze just isn't the most damage-dealing team, especially at lower investment. Ayaka really needs teammates like Kazuha, Mona, Kokomi, Roasari, Shenhe, etc. to really shine. She is like Venti - he's still busted OP when the enemies can be sucked up into his vortex - try him in the overworld and you realize he's the game's easy mode. But the Abyss is more or less designed (at high floors) to be "un-Venti-able", so you can't just walk in, use his burst and laugh. Hoyo wants you to pull for new characters, so they shift the META around newer characters, and Ayaka has been in the game since day 1 (although not playable until 1.6) and was designed for year 1 and year 2 content IMO. But Year 3 and 4 content IMO is just not meant to be done with Ayaka. The prevalence of element checks - lots of cryo shields now - in the Abyss are sort of the end of Ayaka's prevalence because she has no answer for them... maybe in Natlan she'll be good again.

I have her c2 , I didn’t get her signature, and I don’t regret having her , I don’t really play her often anymore, because of Wrio but I’m not forgetting her either

man i havent used her since 8-9 months or more i forgot she is in my acc...SHE HELPED ME ALOT BACK THEN BUT NOW META HAS CHANGED AND CRYO IS BARELY GOOD NOW!

Even Aether leave Ayaka for Yoimiya...😢

Ayaka still pretty strong but her charge attack gameplay is just not what i want to do every time i play her

when it comes to freeze teams Ayaka is still the best DPS for pure and heavy cryo damage imo Characters like Wriothesly are considered good not because they’re more powerful but because they don’t require a team as premium as Ayaka freeze (tbf just being good in melt teams makes you easier to play and f2p friendlier than ayaka and it’s never even close) Even by todays standards she still does crazy dmg But we never get to see that anymore coz hyv stopped focusing on making things Ayaka friendly I knew it was Joever when I couldn’t even comfortably run her in abyss anymore (basically since 3.8/4.0, I started in 3.0 and she was my best dps so uh that was devastating)

So, if I don't care about the last level of the abyss, she's fine, right?

It depends ...... She dominated an entire patch cycle , similar to ganyu / hu tao in the 1.0 patches..not to forget venti. Thats still amazing value. This game just doesnt have variety in its endgame. If there was a rogue like mode or some other modes which buffed certain reactions its a different story.

Ayaka is still really strong in the right content. She suffers from the Venti problem. Both sides of the current abyss have heavily cryo resistant enemies. Thats including the Fatui operatives. Once the operatives and the Cappelia/Coppellous rotate out of the abyss she'll be good again.

I changed her artifacts to emblem today and since I have her C4 (she's C6 tho) she's a great sub dps and support for arlecchino

do one on itto?

ayaka is balanced around freeze so when freeze gets fucked she gets fucked and this has been happening since 2.4 which is when ganyu fell off ayaka could hold on abit longer through sheer numbers and being less venti reliant but we haven't really had a good abyss for freeze since nilou's release abyss nilou teams imo completely took over the freeze niche nilou shines in the same situations as freeze but with more damage lower investment needs higher floors(lower ceilings)and also works in more situations since there are fewer dendro immune/resistant enemies ,she doesn't need enemies to be freezable she can actually handle boss content (without 5* weapons or cons all you need is c2 collie+clam on your healer since she help you frontload a ton of blooms) and mobile enemies don't hinder her rn hoyo seems to like the abyss setup of 2bosses+one AoE or 2AoE+1boss and since they also love the dancing robots and their 70%cryo res all AoE teams are forced to have some kind of ST coverage and vice versa while ayaka can cover both so that's not the problem the issue is hoyo's holy trinity of enemies coppelius+coppelia/baptist/time wasters (wenut/robot wenut) that they bring out every abyss and ayaka cant counter them bc massive cryo resist/cant break the cryo shield/she burst animation is as long as their dpsable window and since you don't know where they're gonna pop up precasting isn't an option ayaka dosent work bc hoyo dosent want her to work she is still strong we just need an abyss without a million cryo resists and shell be great (for that abyss) but thats also the issue with her its too easy to make her not work people like to talk about how nilou is niche since she can only use hydro and dendro but she can perform well in almost any scenario while someone like venti can be slotted almost anywhere but is situation niche that you have to wait for hoyo to stop shitting on him from him to work and ayake gets to be situation and team niche so thats fun for her

it's the abyss, just that. There is no downfall, just HOY pushing dendro, hydro and not-freezable mobs. Please.

She is still good but spiral abyss enemies become harder to freeze, like some enemies they will be unfreeazble and freeze become useless option here. Dendro and electro is best reaction to have for now. If mihoyo return freeze action to all enemies she will be the top character for sure.

Me who is using ayaka as a burst subdps in my fast nuke teams as a melt enabler for xiangling against bosses.

Ayaka was always and still is my favourite unit, i have her built wirh huge time investment, giving her just a little under 300% CDMG and (with the freeze set bonus) 100% Crit rate. Triple crowned, signature weapon (R1, C0). With all that being said, Ayaka performs way worse than for example Alhaitham because of 1) Reactions and 2) that enemies in the abyss. For example the current one features those 2 unbelievably tanky, freeze resistant and mobile fencer women released with fortaine. As long as these enemies reign the abyss, there's no place for ayaka. Give us say pyro cubes, hydro enemies and a bit less mobile enemies that can be frozen again and she'll rise to the top again

I saw that coming 2 years back when I picked other units over her even though I had Mistsplitter and my all friends suggested to pull for her 😎

It’s been long time since I used her in the abbys

I’m going to be honest I forgot about Ayaka

Meanwhile People are soloing the abyss with single character teams Games most difficult content: 12 Characters strength: 200

She is one of the biggest losers of Dendros introduction. Cryo wasn't great when she was introduced, but Dendro and its Reactions being so much better made her just so much more inedaquate in comparison. Why use a Cryo character, when you can just use a Dendro-team that is so much more effective for less investment?

the real problem with Ayaka is the amount of investment she needs to take off the ground at all. Without mistsplitter, Kazuha, Kokomi/Furina and Shenhe she is just underwhelming.

She could literally heal the enmies and I wouldn't care tbh thats how much I love her and never will stop using her

people always saying Dendro has nerfed Cryo. Ganyu burnmelt enjoyer wouldn't say the same bruh

I’ve double-crowned her, but since Sumeru, she just got benched.

Just wait 1 year and 4 months.... the cryo buff will come together with Bronya.

Yeah no. Nothing changed with Ayaka, and lack of dendro teams is a nothingburger. The only thing that changed is that abyss is full of enemies that can't be frozen. That's literally it.

meanwhile Hu Tao still remains relevant to this day despite being older than Ayaka

let's wait until we got to ice region... Shenhe ice buffs also going top tier

Its not ayaka, its cryo reaction freez. Its either way to overturned or bad if you can't freeze. And you cant melt with her And also because her burst is doo doo and never hits

how are you not at 100 subs yet 😭

ayaka lost her relevancy once a strong front load dps that doesn't rely on burst to deal dmg is introduced with the same if not better aoe in this case neuvillette and her situation worsen once they introduced arlecchino, she's also prominent at only one cryo comp which is freeze that's currently bad in abyss unlike wriothesley who's versatile with both freeze and melt the same with ganyu, the only time people would prefer ayaka over neuvillette is when the enemies is immune to hydro that's if they don't have arlecchino

She is still strong Use Melt team instead of freeze

Wriothesley owns this fraud. Doesn't need a sig or niche 5 star support to do well.

Imma be real when it comes to melt for cryo there's literally no options Nahida applies pyro yippee but kazuha us better as he applies and buffs For ganyu her best melt team is STILL Kazuha,bennet,xiangling These are literally 1.0-1.5 characters We have no new pyro applier except xiangling Look at pyro Furina,yelan Yelan is a copy paste xinqui So why can't we have another copy past xiangling? Same thing for bennet We haven't had a CC unit in ages if we get a pyro cc unit Cryo might actually come back

im dying at 1:31 anyon putting itto at ss is delusional also ayaka isnt bad, its simoply that, the content is so anti cyro its crazy look at all the bosses u cant freeze or w cryo resistance

They probably just waiting for schzenaya cyro archon

They did her dirty

Mihoyo didnt nerf ayaka but nerf freeze.

Cryo is the new Geo only because Hoyo has no idea how to balance Freeze. Allow it to freeze every enemy and it becomes the most OP element, put limits on it like what they did and the element fall apart, and since Ayaka is the defacto freeze character.......

Hmm Don't Get this video wrong Ayaka is still a great Character What matters is the type of enemies ur fighting against if u can freeze Them Then it's good But if u can't its just pain and Most importantly Expand Ur Horizons to more strategies and Ideas Not only focusing on one Type of dmg But all types of dmg.

Ayaka need mistsplitter desperately However after losing twince on weapon banner for mistsplitter im done.

Furina works great with ayaka Especially if u dont have shenhe You should try ayaka kazu furina and charlotte... My ayaka never did as much dmg before in any other team as she can do in this team Other than that pretty good video 👍

6:40 I think this is over the top, if we're talking speedruns w constellations? yeah lyney is the best but at c0? childe and hutao speedruns are faster, oh yeah arlecchino ones too

Is kinda sad i use like playing ayaka but now not really even keqing agro team is even better than ayaka old frezz team😢

no disrespect but this video is wrong the reason ayaka isn't used entirely because freeze has been good in past 4 cycle of abyss in abyss where u can freeze ayaka is good her dmg definitely hasn't fallen off and essentially in the spot that nilou is in where she great when aybss allows her to be also theory crafting was around during 2.0 and she wasn't considered mediocre on release as of 4.0 wrio isn't even that good either mostly due to the icewind suite being in every aybss since the start of 4.0 a boss with 70% cyro res

Furina not working well with ayaka is arguably the biggest BS I've ever heard. Furina does work with her if you don't have shenhe and run charlotte instead.

I don't really agree with your conclusion. The only real problem with ayaka is that they keep putting together floor 12s where freeze is not the optimal choice. Her damage is fine if freeze works. And you cant really blame it on relying too much on freeze either because a lot of characters heavily rely on the reaction their kits are made for and would be terrible if that reaction just didnt work. All ayaka needs is for hoyo to decide its time for change of pace and makes floor 12 where freeze is the best option and ayaka will be great. Maybe they make a suppot that enables freeze somehow. Maybe they make enemies that are super mobile or somehing so the only way to reliably do damage to them is to freeze them. They clearly want all reactions to have a place as we clearly see from the characters that have been coming out like chevruse for overload, theres even a burning set now so i guess thats coming..? So i wouldn't write off ayaka as a powercrept nostalgia character.

Maybe the land of cryo will buff elemet

Ayaka will be strong when mihoyo decide to give us a option to lock her stupid dodge mechanic and better target lock for burst

C6 Sucrose in B tier.... I knew internet tier lists were a joke but this one isn't even funny.

Im sad about Ayaka, I didnt get her losing two 50/50 to Mon and and finally got her on her last rerun, I had her weapon long before I had her. I really do not like her playstyle. I think Shenhe will have more staying power than Ayaka. Freeze is not that good.

0:10 Well in 5.0 they will buff Hydro & Cryo So maybe.

Cryo in general is pretty weak. Luckily it still has a nation to come so its guranteed to make a comeback

Wrio definitely didn’t overthrow ayaka. He averages 10k less dps than ayaka. He’s just more flexible but his rev melt and freeze teams are honestly scuffed. Also wrio is pretty locked into ST.

There still hope on pyro region for cyro melt teams, if we get better off field pyro because let be honest XL aka panda 🐼 girl and thoma suck azz for off fielding pyro; plus no 5* pyro off fielder unless You consider deyha good enough for you. Too much pyro 5☆ dps not gonna lie most of them all in vape teams

To me she’s not weak, but she is very boring to play